In this hectic world we live in, many times work and appointments must come before the fun and joys in our lives, including that of getting to play videogames whenever we want. Gone are the days when we could fire up a game of our choice and spend hours toiling away – now we seem to game in stolen moments here and there. With that in mind, perhaps it is no wonder that casual games have become such a popular gaming choice (especially with women who make up the vast majority of casual game players), as casual games allow us to either jump in and get those quick fixes of gaming bliss or either play them for as long as we want when we do have the time. In honor of the casual game, we'll be bringing you a new Casual Game of the Week every Monday to help you find that fix you might be needing in your life, and this week we have: Big Money

Money – it's the answer to so many problems, and yet at the same time it causes just as many as it helps solve. We work our butts to the bone, doing things we don't want to do, and it's all so that we can get some slips of paper to pad our pockets. Given that money is so hard to come by and difficult to obtain, perhaps that's why Big Money ultimately proves so difficult and frustrating.

Big Money plays like the Collapse series, where you've got a series of colored coins constantly rising to the ceiling of the level, and it's game over if one should pass over it. As for your goal, you've got to click on like-minded colored coins in at least groups of three to remove them from the board, dropping the coins on top of the match down so they aren't as close to the top as they once were. As you make matches you'll gradually make a moneybag meter rise, and once full a moneybag will drop in the level; to obtain the moneybag and bring yourself closer to beating the level, you've got to make a match using the piece directly under the moneybag.

Basically, that paragraph right above is the full game, as there isn't anything like powerups to help you out or new obstacles to get in your way (unless you count speed, which is already difficult as it is). As you complete a level and move further along, the game will keep speeding up so those pieces creep to the top at an ever so slightly faster pace. However, a problem with the game's speed is that it is already pretty speedy to begin with, as I've failed to even finish the first level on more than one occasion, if only because the coin pieces are added to the field too rapidly or the computer doesn't do an adequate enough job placing new coins in a position to net you a match relatively easy. You're supposed to get frazzled and a bit nervous later on in casual games as things start picking up the pace, but starting right from the beginning is a bit of a cheat and doesn't even give much beginner's satisfaction.

Outside of the Action Mode the game does have two other modes to keep you busy, but don't go expecting anything to be simpler or less fast. In Strategy Mode, there is no time limit constantly pushing pieces up, and the only thing that will move pieces is the act of you making matches. As you click pieces, the game slowly moves new coins into the playing field as if time was passing normally in the Action Mode, so the ultimate goal is to position coins to not disappear in short three match patterns, but making matches so longer, higher number matches are possible, or else all those quick one-time matches will lead to your downfall quickly. As for the Puzzle Mode, you're supposed to make matches so that ultimately every single colored coin and moneybag is gone from the screen; the mode can be hard, as it is difficult to not leave any stragglers behind.

On the technical side of things, Big Money didn't exactly waste money bringing the game to life. The graphics are simple with their round colored coins, but that's about it. One nice graphical detail is the 3D-esque vault in the background, but that isn't a great compliment at all. The sound work also suffers, because besides not having any background music whatsoever to speak of, the constant noise of matching coins repeats rapidly and grows old quick.

Given the difficulty of trying to make enough money to sustain your lifestyle, maybe it's only fitting that a game about trying to make money is so difficult and trying. If you had to work all day for a boss you couldn't stand, obviously you're going to wonder if money is really worth it. After playing Big Money, you might just start wondering the same thing.

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