With November now underway, many new free games are springing up on Facebook. These titles represent a growing trend in gaming: social media and mobile tie-ins rivaling traditional console experiences and bringing in some serious business. For Facebook users with some time to kill between posting status updates, here are the top five Facebook games currently trending on the social media site.
1. Jurassic Park Builder - Based on the classic movie franchise, the game lets players build and populate their own version of Jurassic Park, complete with T-Rexs and other carnivores. Code Red mode adds a nice twist: players must prevent their guests from becoming dino dinner. Watching characters getting mauled by rampaging dinosaurs is worth the download. The game is also available on Android and iOS devices.
2. Kitchen Scramble - This game takes the restaurant manager genre and adds many colorful levels. Players must balance creating dishes for different customers while keeping a handle on the different components of cooking. This begins easily enough, but over time players will find themselves struggling to balance all the different dishes being made all at once. The game also has some upgrades that players can unlock to help them manage the chaos in the kitchen. The game is exclusive to Facebook.
3. Matching With Friends - The latest game created by Zynga, the developers behind Words With Friends, Matching With Friends gives players to compete against each other by matching three same-colored titles to score points. Sounds simple in practice, but add multipliers and the human element and the game quickly becomes an intense strategy game. Also available on Android and iOS.
4. Monster Legends - This monster brawler tasks players to find, collect, and care for a team of monsters and use them to battle other squads of monsters. While this may sound like Pokemon, it's a fun game in its own right and offers a fun way to battle with friends via Facebook for bragging rights. The game is not available on mobile platforms currently.
5. The Smurfs & Co: Spellbound - This game charges players with rebuilding the Smurf village after it is destroyed by a magical storm. This is as intense as it sounds. As players rebuild the town they will encounter their favorite Smurf characters. The game is exclusive to Facebook.