Playing with friends, Gamevil releases AirPenguin for LINE

All the kids in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, even Spain, are down with LINE.

The mobile messaging service went big in Japan after the phone networks stopped working following the 2011 tsunami.

But now it's going global; already with an audience of over 120 million users. It's also being used to provide a social network for games.

So much like early Facebook, developers are releasing casual games for LINE that rely on simple mechanics and sharing, gifting and leaderboards to keep people playing.

Korean outfit Gamevil is a particular fan.

It's just released AirPenguin Friends for the service, which is its third game for LINE.

Available on iOS and Android via Google Play and the App Store, AirPenguin Friends is a sequel to the popular one-touch (or tilt) penguin bouncing game that was released in 2011, and developed by Korean studio Enterfly.

Other games worth checking out on LINE include Com2uS' Homerun Battle Burst (my fave), and Wind Runner, which is a fast side-scrolling platformer.