Welcome to the latest edition of The Neopian News Brief, your one-stop summary of everything that's happened in Neopia during the previous week. There was quite a lot going on during the past few days, so let's get right to it!
Our lead story this week is the arrival of an exciting new game, Cheeseroller. Before getting into the game, you'll have to acquire your cheese of choice by matching wits with a shrewd shopkeeper. He's a tough one, but rest assured that patience is the key to prevailing. Once you've gotten your hands on a decent wheel of cheese, it's time to head for the hills and prove your cheeserolling skills. Utilise a swift combination of moves to roll your cheese down the mountain, but be sure to keep an eye out for obstacles such as rocks, potholes, and branches. Those who can make it down the mountain in time will get to take home their cheese for a tasty treat (though you might want to wash off some of the grass and mud before eating it!).
Speaking of bizarre things you can do with food, those wacky Alien Aishas are at it again; they've come up with another batch of bizarre goodies that are sure to tantalize the taste buds of any pet brave enough to give them a shot. Along with such delicious delicacies as jellyfish sundae and chocolate duck rump, you can also get a scrumptious stick of butter (mmm, now that's what I call butterlicious!)
Once you've had a moment to catch your breath from playing Cheeseroller, you might want to give your brain a workout by trying Shapeshifter, a new game by a clever Ixi named Sinsi. Do you have what it takes to sort through her baffling collection of brainteasers and advance to the next round? A word of advice: after the first few puzzles, only a fool would attempt to keep solving them in their head; at that point, you'd be better off working out the different combinations on paper before typing them in. Good luck!
Another story making big news comes straight from the Petpet Puddle. That's right, you can now paint your pet rock a number of wonderful new colours. Oh sure, anybody can have a Puppyblew or Kadoatie, but it truly takes someone special to open their arms and take in one of these cute little guys. Think of it; when was the last time one of THESE
needed to be fed, walked or taken to the vet?
On the merchandise front, you can expect the arrival of Cloud Aishas on Saturday, July the 27th. As with the Disco Aishas, each store will receive approximately ten plushies and twenty five collector cards. Given the popularity of previous releases, you can be sure that these won't last very long, so you might want to swing by Limited Too bright and early on Saturday and pick yours up!
Frustrated by Cheeseroller? Dumbfounded by Shapeshifter? (heh, join the club...) Well, have we got a game for you! Friday afternoon marked the release of... *dum dum dum* Potato Counter! Finally, a game that makes Kiko Match look like quantum physics! Just count up the spuds, type in the total, and... instant Neopoints!!! It doesn't get much easier than that...
It looks like the Grundo Chef had better stock up on gaga grub, because baby Grundos have arrived! On Thursday, baby Grundos made their Neopian debut, and you've got to admit, they ARE pretty darn cute! How could anyone look at that face and not think that a baby PB is a steal at 200,000 NPs?!?
As if all that weren't enough, this week also included the celebration of Kiko Day! Along with the requisite supply of books, baked goodies, Battledome weapons, and free training, Kiko Day also saw the debut of three new Kiko styles (island, cloud and robot) as well as the release of some "mysterious" Kiko plushies from the Toy Shop.
Now it's time to take a look at today's headlines from the world of finance. After last week's impressive ninety-five point surge, the economy took a terrible spill during the past few days. Last Friday, the Neodaq was poised to climb past the 1100 point mark; however, as trading began this Friday, the index had fallen all the way down to 940, dashing any hopes of a sustained Bull economy.
The biggest loser this week was Lupe Consolidated, whose shares fell a whopping forty-eight points, tumbling from 104 all the way down to 56 NPs a share. Despite this colossal collapse, LUPE remains tied for the honour of being the 2nd most valuable stock on the Big Board. They're currently tied with Jacko and Sons Painting, which has held steady since back-to-back twenty point gains two weeks ago.
The honour of most valuable stock on the board goes to, of course, BOOM! Boom Boxes, which lead the way for a second straight week with a twenty-two point gain. By rounding out the week at an incredible 219 NPs a share, BOOM is currently four times more valuable than any other stock on the board... simply amazing!
With their closest competitors falling by the wayside, BOOM now stands alone as the dominant force in the market. Meanwhile, another four companies dropped below the 15 NP mark, bringing the number of companies in limbo to a disturbing thirty out of forty six (one company, Unis Beauty Salon, managed to resume trading). Will the disparity between our economy's winners and losers continue to grow, or will the odds finally catch up with BOOM? Only time will tell....
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