I couldn't make this stuff up. I've been complaining for a while now about a particularly unfortunate kind of advergame... the sort that takes popular casual games and replaces play elements with branded objects. There was a time when everyone was asking for a branded version of Bejeweled -- M&Ms, movie stars, whatever.

Apparently that time continues. Blockdot, the Dallas-based studio that has made a science of rebranding forgettable games for profit, has just released Ms. Match, a Kotex-sponsored version of Bejeweled on their game portal Kewlbox. They bill it as "a fun, new puzzle game for the tomboy, vixen, or genius in all of us." In Ms. Match, the player doesn't match feminine hygiene products (thankfully?), but rather abstract icons that represent potential love interests: volleyballs, paint palettes, lips.

The fallacy at work here lies in believing that a branded version of a proven puzzle game design has any value to the branding sponsor. No matter how many plays Kewlbox logs, what value does it really carry for Kotex? Is it inconceivable to think of a game about feminine hygiene products? Maybe, but at least such a game would legitimately function as advertising, and a kind of advertising suited to the videogame medium.

You can play the game online, but Kewlbox makes you register, so I recommend you download the desktop copy (PC, Mac), which doesn't require registration. By the way, how do we all feel about double-clicking that Kotex red dot logo to play the game ...?