American Express(R) and Fishlabs Launch 'CASH IQ'

LONDON, November 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Ultimate Brain Workout for iPhone(TM) and iPod Touch(TM) Users

American Express and Fishlabs today announce the launch of 'Cash IQ', a new, free iPhone and iPod touch game featuring four addictive cash-focused brainteasers.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/prne/americanexpress/46308/

Cash IQ's series of challenging brain workouts has been designed to stretch and flex mathematical and memory based skills. 'Beat the Bank', 'Check your Balance', 'Shopping List' and 'Flip & Pin' complete the addictive portfolio.

Beat the Bank

Coins of various denominations drop from the top of the screen into a piggybank. Some of the coins drop out of the bottom of the piggybank; the player is challenged to correctly state the balance remaining inside at the end of each sequence. Once a sequence has finished, a calculator-type interface appears, allowing the player to enter the amount they believe is remaining. Numbers can be entered using the iPhone's touch screen and a timer counts down, giving the player a limited period to enter their total, the added pressure only increases the challenge.

Check Your Balance

Gamers are tasked to place shopping bags on a seesaw, ensuring that when it finally rests it is evenly balanced. Each bag represents a different item, such as groceries or clothing, reflecting popular categories of spend for Platinum Cashback Cardmembers. The player can drag and drop the bags on and off the seesaw using the touch screen or the mouse.

Shopping List

A classic memory game, Shopping List features a conveyor belt that moves a selection of items across the screen in sequence. Again, the items reflect popular areas of spend for Cardmembers such as petrol, grocery, travel and sporting goods. Once the final item has scrolled across the screen, a grid appears and players must tap to select each of the items from the grid in the order that they were scanned. If the player gets an item wrong a klaxon will sound and the correct object will flash, then the player must continue to try and guess the remaining order or objects.

Flip & Pin

In this puzzle game players must flip different shaped tiles around a 12 x 12 grid, and cover the highlighted areas completely. Within each level the player will be given sufficient shaped tiles to correctly complete the puzzle - with a limited number of pins available to hold tiles in place. Tiles must lay flat, none must touch and none must overlap. As difficulty builds the areas and shapes become larger and more complex, often with more than one area appearing on screen at any one time. Each tile movement is counted. At the end of the level bonuses are given for the least number of movements.

Gameplay modes and high scores:

Players can play the mini-games individually or in sequence via three modes of play. 'Classic' mode randomly selects three of the mini-games for the player to play through. 'Brain strain' tests the player by giving them one minute to complete each of the mini-games in an attempt to gain the highest score. 'Training' lets the player select and play any of the mini games individually.

After each game in Classic and Brain strain modes, the player's score is displayed and totalled up, 5% is then added to their score. The 5% represents the market-leading introductory cashback offer available in the first three months on the Platinum Cashback Credit Card 1.

With the iPhone version of Cash IQ, players can challenge their friends to beat their high scores using Facebook Connect. Selecting a game mode takes the player to an information screen, displaying their friends' rankings. From here the player can choose to play solo or challenge one of their friends, simply by tapping on their avatar.

    Features:

    - Free iPhone game download
    - iPhone and Facebook integration - challenge friends iPhone and
    compete with them for Facebook high scores
    - Four mini-games and three gameplay modes

The launch of Cash IQ forms an integral part of American Express' current Platinum Cashback Credit Card marketing campaign.

Richard Harris, American Express' Head of Membership, comments: "This is our first venture into the world of digital games in the UK. We're excited to be working with award-winning Fishlabs to create this unique and compelling series of games that bring to life the benefits of the American Express Platinum Cashback Credit Card in an engaging way. The Facebook Connect functionality of the game will make Cash IQ a very popular and sociable game to play with friends."

Michael Schade, CEO & Co-Founder, Fishlabs, comments: "With Cash IQ American Express reaches out to millions of potential customers by building on the huge popularity of games on the iPhone . Games are an ideal way to create brand awareness and communicate the benefits of the Platinum Cashback Credit Card. The broad appeal of the classic but addictive gameplay guarantees the maximum impact within the target group."

Visit amex.co.uk/cashiq to watch the trailer, and download the free iPhone game. Cash IQ is available now for free download on the App Store.

About American Express

American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and credit cards, Travellers Cheques, travel and insurance products.

About FISHLABS

FISHLABS is specialized in 3D mobile games development of rich racing and action titles on iPhone, iPad, Nokia, Android smartphones and J2ME (Java). FISHLABS is also known for extremely successful ad games on the iPhone, having dominated the App Store download charts in almost every country for weeks. To date, FISHLABS' iPhone games generated more than 30 million downloads.

Notes to Editors:

1) Market-leading according to Moneysupermarket.com as of 01.11.10. 5% cashback is available up to GBP100 in the first three months and on a tiered basis up to 1.25% after that.

    For more information:
    To download Cash IQ visit amex.co.uk/cashiq
    Follow us on Twitter @AmexOffers_UK
    Join us on Facebook.com/AmericanExpressUK

SOURCE American Express