PetVille Midnight Crypt items give a wink, nod to The Shining, Poltergeist

While I wile away the hours, cleaning up my pet's leftover tacos, I find myself hoping (praying even) that PetVille will release a suite of Mad Men related items. It looks like I'll have to wait a little longer to get my hands on a Pet Draper or dress my pet in one Joan-inspired hip hugging dress with gold pendant -- this week's release, a collection called Midnight Crypt, takes on more gothic overtones.

Some of the highlights from this new spooky collection include the limited edition Shimmering Twins (25 PetCash), inspired by those super creepy twin girls in 'The Shining,' a Poltergeist Programmed TV (18 PetCash), a nod to the movie Poltergeist and the Three Wolves Painting (9 PetCash), an homage to the Three Wolf Moon internet meme. I'm seriously considering shelling out for all three of these items.

Of course, there are quite a few more items in the Midnight Crypt collection -- a few outfits, furniture, other decor -- though only a few can be purchased with coins, like the carpet and wallpaper in the pic to the left and -- probably the best coin item -- an antique vampire hunting kit.
petville midnight crypt

petville midnight crypt

petville midnight crypt

PetVille nears 1 million players in four days

PetVille, the new Facebook game from Zynga, quietly launched on December 3. The pet simulation game lets you custom create a pet, their home and then set out to earn as many coins as possible by performing different tasks, such as cleaning your pet and visiting neighbors.

petville zynga reaches 1 million players in four days

Over the weekend, we noticed that Zynga turned on the publicity machine, running ads for the game on Facebook and in its other games, and the number of players climbed from a modest 22K to nearly one million in the past few days, according to AppData.

appdata

The question remains, will this game take over Pet Society's position as top pet game on Facebook? The rival Facebook game has been holding steady at around 21 million players for the past month, so PetVille still has a ways to go before it's in barking distance.