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None of my in-laws are gamers, so most of the time anything I'm telling them I reviewing sounds silly to them. My father-in-law, a retired serviceman who looks like Charlie Chaplin, chuckles bemusedly and half disbelievingly when I tell him I'm writing about human/pigeon romance, magical pony princess P.I.s, and amateur butterfingers open-heart surgery. Half the time I think they believe I'm making it up, so what am I supposed to do now that I've played I Am Bread, the latest bizarro indie game from Surgeon Simulator 2013 team Bossa Studios? Currently available in Early Access, it's the physics-driven tale of, yes, a slice of bread who desperately wants to become toast. You can move, sort of, via gripping with each corner in varying combinations, and using those corners as anchors when you flop around. If you're not using a controller, [1], [2], [3], and [4] each correspond to a different corner of the bread slice (is this really a real thing I'm describing?), while [Q], [W], [E], and [R] can toggle each corner's grip on and off (I guess it is), which will let you stick to things for as long as your grip meter, at the top of the screen, holds out. Don't worry, it regenerates when you're not using it. You click and drag with the mouse to move the bread around, but this only really works when one portion of it is anchored, otherwise all you can do is scoot around in itty-bitty increments face down. Your goal in each stage is to get yourself toasted, but be warned... if your edibility drops to zero, which decreases when you're touching the floor or any other dirty surface, you fail. Nobody wants to eat dirty toast, after all. And then? Once you're actually toasting? Why, then you have to stop toasting before you're burnt! Not hard enough for you? Well, sometimes you won't have access to a toaster... so you'll need to improvise.

Something cute this way comes, and since it's an escape game loaded with puppies, bunnies, angler fish and snakes (what? they're cute too!), you know it's got to be Detarame Factory, who's serving up sequel satisfaction with Mikke Escape 2. As in Mikke Escape, if you want out, because hanging out with cuddly critters and watching TV sounds sooooo awful, you need to find and click on ten circles hidden throughout the room. Just use the arrows at the edge of the screen to move around, and click to interact, with your handy changing cursor cutting out pixel hunting. Items you're carrying can be double-clicked to view up close, so don't forget to check them out if you're stuck! One colour-based puzzle might give you trouble if you have difficulty with colours, but on the whole, Mikke Escape 2 is both cute and clever. Not too hard, nor too easy, it's juuuuust right no matter what time of year it is.

Play Mikke Escape 2

Welcome to the jungle, we've got City Siege games! The Podge serves up another heaping helping of stages for City Siege 3 with City Siege 3: Jungle Siege FUBAR Pack. As before, you're leading your squad of soldiers into zones full of danger and destructible objects to rescue civilians and take out any baddies. Use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move and jump, with the mouse to aim and shoot. The stars you find can upgrade your heroes' health, while the cash is spent on buying more units to take with you. From spies to bombers, tanks to helicopters, it's all about figuring out who's best suited for the job. Get things done as cleanly as possible... and by cleanly we mean blowing up buildings, dropping enemies into lava, blasting through trees... whatever it takes! Or if you like, play it sneaky and try to get through without alerting anyone or, y'know, making something explode. With big levels packed full of destructibles and enemy soldiers, Jungle Siege FUBAR Pack is more of the familiar action City Siege fans crave.

Play City Siege 3: Jungle Siege FUBAR Pack

It's beginning to look a lot like Neutral... one of the most popular escape game creators is back with a trio of seasonal titles, Chick Mini Games, beginning with Tower of Chicks, a simple puzzle game that requires you to swap cuddly birds between nests until they're stacked in proper order, and first followed up by Chick Room Escape and then Chick Room Escape Xmas ver. Make sure you play them in order... their stories are tied together! All you need to do to play is click. When playing either escape game, your cursor will change to show you're hovering over something you can interact with. If you want to use an item, click it in your inventory to highlight it, then click where you want to apply it. As the title implies, these games are short, but with Neutral's signature style and deft touch with puzzles, they definitely fall into the "short and sweet" end of things. What better way to celebrate the season than with a trio of cute and clever games?

Thanks to Martha for sending these in!

Play Tower of Chicks

Play Chick Room Escape

Play Chick Room Escape Xmas ver.

Ah, the holidays. It's just not Christmas if there isn't a jealous, grunting old man creeping outside your window, brandishing a disturbing knobby... branch... while you and your beloved share a tender moment. That beloved holiday tradition is the start of Elephant Games's entry into the Christmas Stories hidden-object adventure series,
Christmas Stories: Hans Christian Andersen's Tin Soldier. Charles and Nina have been turned into toys thanks to a curse and malfunctioning magic from their jealous voyeur, the Baron, and your friend Albert, who's also been transformed, has called you in to help. You'd think a fully grown human would be able to handle a bunch of toys, but the Baron has the surly box trolls on his side, and you have... uh... well, in his current form, Albert can crack you all the nuts you want, so bonus for snackies, I guess. Together with Albert, and Charles once you find him, you'll need to stop the Baron, who has an entire army of trolls on his side, and find Nina. To do so, you'll need to solve puzzles, enlist the aid of Albert and Charles to get past certain obstacles, hunt through hidden-object sequences, and of course, deal with the magical forces and other sneaky tricks of the Baron, who always seems to be one step ahead of you, despite not actually having feet anymore. With vibrant visuals, genuinely funny animation, and some unexpected heart, this Christmas casual should be on anyone's short list if you're looking for holiday cheer.

Consider the space marine. Grizzled, stoic, encased in enough metal to make a Buick. These sci-fi cowboys are invading every facet of pop culture, from the triple-A titles like Halo and Gears of War to films, books and everything in between. Well, the Raze games by Sky9 Games have brought the running and gunning action into the browser gaming universe, and Raze 3 offers more of the arena-based sci-fi shooting action you'd expect from the series. Use the [arrow] or [WASD] keys to move, the [F] or [Enter] key to use your rocket-repelling laser sword, and the mous] to aim and shoot your way through each of the fifteen levels in the main campaign. Or just settle into a quick match and start blasting away. Space marining is a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

In Choko-Chai's point-and-click puzzle game Christmas of the Mazy Forest, our three favourite felines are feeling a little festive, so when they get an invitation from the witch of the forest to attend her Christmas party, they're more than a little excited. All they have to do, of course, is find their way there... shouldn't be too hard, even if the forest is a maze, right? To play, just click to interact and move around. Your cursor will change when you can do so, and if you want to examine an item you're carrying more closely, click the item to give it a red border, then click on "About Item", which can let you interact with whatever it is further. Perhaps most importantly, however, you'll want to remember the cats are actually here to help! If you're stuck, try clicking on the happy cat in the bottom left corner... if the cats appear onscreen, one of them should be clicked to help you do something. With math codes, locks, and all manner of trickery in their way, escaping the maze might seem like something they'd need a Christmas miracle for... so good thing you're here to help!

Play Christmas of the Mazy Forest

Note: Elliot Quest contains narrative scenes involving suicide. Player discretion is advised.

You can't die. Well, I mean, you can. But it never lasts. You always just wake up again at the last one of those glowing stones you passed. It's amazing and it's terrifying. You're just a simple man with a power your don't understand, whose love has disappeared and who needs to find answers. It is your quest, Elliot: an Elliot Quest. Elliot Quest is an enjoyable indie retro platform adventure by Ansimuz Games inspired a bit by Metroidvanias in the La Mulana style, and a bit more by that oddball of its series, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

[Disclosure: Bubble Dreams was recently bought by the owner of this site.]

Bubble Dreams, free for iOS and Android, is the sort of colourful, no-frills, classic-styled match-3 puzzle game you reach for when you need something light to fill your free time. Chances are you're familiar with the concept... shoot coloured bubbles to make matches of three or more, which will clear matching, adjacent bubbles away, and try to clear the screen before it fills up. To play, all you do is tap, and the top-most bubble Chompy, our flinging alligator, is holding will fly towards the place you indicated. If it's a wall, the bubble will ricochet off, but if it touches another bubble, at any angle, they'll stick together. Chompy holds two bubbles at any time, and while the bubble on the bottom is the one you'll fire after the one on top, if you tap him, the bubbles will swap places. Complete one island's requirements to unlock the next, or, if you prefer, you can optionally pay via an in-app purchase to unlock an island immediately. As you play, you'll also unlock power-ups that can help bust through tricky situations, and while you can choose to buy more of them if you wish, they're completely optional.

Since Chompy fires where you tap without hesitation, aiming is fairly precise, though you need to be able to plan and predict where the bubble will go on your own, which can be really difficult when it comes to off-the-wall bouncing. The downside is that where similar games often take colours you have cleared from the screen out of rotation for you to shoot, making the format distinctly more puzzle-like, Bubble Dreams does not, so levels can wind up taking longer than they should. At the same time, swapping between whatever two bubbles Chompy is carrying helps this, so careful planning and aiming goes a long way. Bubble Dreams doesn't really do anything new, but it takes a familiar game and puts it in your pocket in a simple-to-pick up, vibrant style. If you want something deep or with more complex mechanics, Bubble Dreams might be a little too simple, but with a whopping free 250 levels to play, relatively sparse use of ads, and completely optional social integration and in-app purchases, it's a simply solid match-3 title with classic gameplay.

Bubble Dreams (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone)


Android:
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Long ago, the mighty pirate Jack Treepwood discovered a magical compass. It had the power of pointing in the direction of the most wondrous hidden treasures imaginable. Soon, "Lucky Jack" became the richest pirate in the world, now apparently content to remain retired and mysteriously out of contact on Taoki island. Stachmou, a slightly less mighty, but still impressively-facial-haired pirate, figures that if the compass is just going to waste, then maybe "Lucky Jack" won't mind if he borrowed it for a bit. Of course, the first order of business is getting to Taoki, and we'll worry about step 2 when we get there. Stachmou and the Golden Compass is a humorous point-and-click adventure developed by Didier Guagliano. Or should that be point-and-click adventARR? It shouldn't? Oh. Alright then.

Sometimes in life with your significant other there's a need to go on a relaxing getaway with them. And these adorable dots chose to do just that. They travel through the deepest ocean, scale a highest mountain, cross the fiery landscape, and generally go to places that really wouldn't seem relaxing to most of us. But if the way to travel around was to connect dots of matching colors, well the simple answer would be, "When do we leave?" Two Dots, by Two Dots Inc, is a free mobile puzzle game about connecting; connecting the dots, connecting our two heroes closer together, and connecting you to one of the most charming, addictive games for iOS and Android we've seen in a long while. If the thrilling challenge of the levels isn't enough to win you over then the whimsical artwork and the snazzy music will. And fear not, this matching game of color is also friendly to the colorblind.

Have you tried other translucent fruit-spread based works like Jelly Escape or Jelly Blocks, and still feel, as of yet, insufficiently prepared for this jelly? Well, Jelly Lam, a simple idea physics puzzle game by Alexander Balabanovich could be just the solution! It the game, you play as a cute lil' jelly named Jelly, and you'll be stretching, swinging, slicing, and coloring him across a trio of themed worlds, grabbing keys and stars and hoping against hope that you'll make it to the exit in one piece.

For some, this time of year is filled with festivities. A lot of those festivities are meant to be merry and happy, filled with fun, good times, letting loose. It's the letting loose part to watch out for: it goes with the fun, and it might also go with the intake of liquids that might or might not be part of the fun. I think you know what I mean. Each one of us has heard those cautionary tales of what "too much fun" can result in. In the best of situations, the worst is a blushing chuckle and a "I can't believe I was so dumb." But dumb can have consequences. Heck, they even made a song about that sort of thing. Not only a song, but also a mobile game. Um, anyhow, I'm just gonna come right out and admit it: I kinda sorta love you guys. This is spoken straight from the heart. So be careful out there, okay? I want to see you here each week solving escape games with us, remarking about those pixel hunts or whimsy-topped scenarios and just generally being your lovable selves. As you digest that little thought, let's visit three new ways to play smart—Flash512's adorable rabbit house, No1Game's green guy's hiking excursion, and Yomino Kagura's rather large time piece...

[Please note that Game of Thrones is an episodic series. Purchasing the game grants you access to all episodes as they become available. Currently only the first episode has been released.]

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass... no, no. Wait. Sorry. Wrong epic. To say murder maestro George RR Martin's series of gritty fantasy books, A Song of Ice and Fire, have captivated their audience is a bit of an understatement. After all, while the success of the HBO show can't be denied, the books have been around for almost twenty years and aren't done yet. So who better to bring fans a taste of the intrigue, politics, dragons and murder than TellTale Games, and with the first installment of their episodic adventure series Game of Thrones - A TellTale Game Series now unleashed, it . Here, the story centers on the Forresters, a family who has been loyal to House Stark (central characters of the original books and show) for literally thousands of years, which means with the current war for the Iron Throne going on between all the would-be kings, the Forresters are obligated to rally. As the game opens on the eve of a, um, most joyous wedding, initially casting you in the shoes of squire and former pig farmer Gared Tuttle, who's about to see all his hard work for Gregor Forrester, Lord of Ironrath, pay off. At the same time, young Ethan Forrester suddenly finds himself the head of his House, struggling to measure up to the expectations of others who think he's too bookish and weak. In King's Landing, Ethan's sister Mira works as handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell, putting her in a unique position to help her family, but also in great danger when suspicion falls on anyone whose relatives raised the banner for Rob Stark. As the story moves through each character, they become more and more ensnared in the political manipulations and webs of deceit, because everyone has their own agenda, and you can never really be sure who you can trust.

When Uncle Vladimir's nephew accidentally flies his brand new remote-controlled airplane into the creepiest house on the block, Vladimir decides to get it back in Carmel Games' point-and-click more-quirky-than-creepy Yurius's House of Spooks. Too bad "Crazy Yurius" lives up to his name, and he's locked Vladimir in the basement to be used in an experiment! Of course, once Vladimir gets out (which is... surprisingly easy!) he's still not giving up on getting that toy airplane back. To play, just click around to interact, and your cursor will change whenever you pass over something that can be manipulated. Short and definitely silly, Yurius's House of Spooks proves that crazy men build crazy houses... and attract crazier houseguests!

Play Yurius's House of Spooks