I Love Lucy lives again ... on Facebook, thanks to Retro World

Even if you weren't born in the '50s, you better know who Lucille Ball is. She, along with Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawle all but set the standard for sitcoms decades to come. Now, Langhorne, Penn.-based social game maker Entertainment Games hopes the comedy quartet will set standards on Facebook through its first social game, Retro World.

Beginning this March, Retro World's players will be able to play out Lucy's most sidesplitting scenes in an episodic format. The first of which will pay homage to the classic "Job Switching" episode that has Lucy and Ethel switch roles with Ricky and Fred. Players will get the chance to control both Lucy and Ricky as they try to excel in their temporary new roles, Reuters reports.

"The experience is uniquely designed to feel like you're playing in an actual 'I Love Lucy' episode," Entertainment Games president Gene Mauro told Reuters. "In some scenes, players will control Lucy as she struggles comically to stay employed alongside Ethel in the chocolate factory; in other scenes, players become Ricky as he coaches Fred and labors to learn the ropes of basic housekeeping."

Before this announcement, the myriad of licensed characters and retro actors that Entertainment Games had procured appeared merely as cameos. Now, the developer seems to have been granted far more control of the brands, like I Love Lucy, by CBS Consumer Products Inc. to create even more nostalgic experiences.

Retro World currently only welcomes 20,000 monthly players, though this release of I Love Lucy-themed game content will mark the game's initial overall marketing push, and thus we imagine more players. New I Love Lucy-themed episodes will hit Retro World every few months, with the first rewarding players with a Lucille Ball avatar. Now, how much longer until we see nifty Mork and Mindy content?

[Image Credit: Entertainment Games]

Are you excited to try out the I Love Lucy episodes in Retro World? Do you think the game has a chance to gain traction? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.