In FazeCat's everything-but-the-kitchen sink strategic defense game, Paladog, Critterland has been invaded by zombies, witches, skeletons, and just about every evil little thing you can imagine, including television sets! It's up to you to fight them off, but are you dog enough to take them on? Move Paladog back and forth with the [WASD] and [arrow] keys, use your number keys to choose and build different units, and [J], [K], and [L] to use special attacks. Units cost food and special attacks cost mana, both of which are generated automatically, while money for upgrades comes from killing bad guys.

While you've probably seen most of the gameplay concepts before, the game does feature a ton of content, from nine different units to a whopping 120 levels, including special mini-games. Also, the artwork is great and the enemies so cute you almost don't want to bash their brains in with your mace...almost. It's such a hybrid, juggling so many elements that it takes on a little more than it can chew. Though many of the elements it tries on aren't as fleshed out as they could be, Paladog's sense of style and ambition helps keep it fresh in a way that other defense games might wind up as one-note. You'll find that the upgrades can be pretty expensive, but this is one puppy that spoils you for choice with tons of weapons and magic rings to liven things up. Paladog isn't quite perfect, but is a big, cuddly, newspaper-fetching machine, that brings back the Sunday paper... and slobbers all over the funnies. And you love it anyway.

Play Paladog

iTunes App Store (iOS):
Get Paladog (iPhone, iPod Touch)
Get Paladog Free (iPhone, iPod Touch)

Google Play Android Games:
Get Paladog (Android)
Get Paladog Free (Android)

Hey, did you know that mini-golf games are, like, a thing? Yeah, me neither. But if there is one title that will warm you to this slice of gaming life, it's Putt More Base, a relaxing new addition to the genre by Jayc Santos.

Simply click the golf ball, then hold and glide your cursor up and down to adjust the force of your swing. There are direction arrows to let you know where your ball is headed and lots of creative bumpers and boosters that you can place most anywhere on the screen to achieve the perfect score. But you'll have to avoid some traps, of course, like sand and water, but also...mines! If you get into trouble, the reset button is never far away. The game will even remember where you placed your bumpers and leave them there for you to keep or change.

Putt More Base is much more streamlined and casual than its predecessor, making it a mellow rather than frustrating experience. It has its share of challenges, too, but isn't a hard game. If that sounds like your kind of thing, then, by all means, take a swing.

Play Putt More Base

Ever since Pac-Man first escaped off the right side of the screen to magically appear on the left, players have had a certain thing for games that skew traditional notions of spatiality. The Village Blacksmith offers another wonderful take on this kind of teleportation in Recursion, a cool little retro puzzle platformer. Having crash landed on an alien planet, you must make it to the flag in a series of single-screen levels. However, you had better be ready to start thinking with portals, as falling from bottom will drop you from the top, heading to the left will transport you to the right, and so forth. Throw in the enemies, the collectible stars, the flag activators, the bubbles and balloons to bounce off of, and some good old fashioned gravity manipulation, and you're in for some crazy fun.

Recursion's mechanics have the clever feel of a stripped down Continuity, and, for the most part, it never feels too simple or too overwhelming. New aspects of gameplay are introduced a little haphazardly, but they feel natural fits, and the game has a good challenge curve right up to the end. The overlay on the pixelated graphics does cause a strange sense of flatness, and yes, expect a little over-precision in the jumps you'll need to make. Still, Recursion is a fun time waster that, despite its name, never gets repetitive.

Play Recursion

Chikarou. Chikarou. Chikarou. Heh, the name of Chikarou 5 is fun to pronounce. Chikarou chikarou. Chika-chika-chika-rou-rou-rou. Rou-chika-chika-rou. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to tell you about the game, aren't I?

What Chikarou 5 is is a bite-sized escape puzzler from Dghgbakufu (a name that's a bit less fun to say), whom you may remember for Chikarou 3. The game drops you in the middle of a cross-shaped five-room dungeon and dares you to solve its puzzles and escape to the surface. Chikarou. (Chikarou is apparently Japanese for dungeon, by the way.)

Bakufu shies away from the complicated clichés like using screwdrivers to pry open panels and finding power cords to plug in computers. All the keys and doors are symbol-coded, and there's no pixel-hunting, either; what little challenge this developer's games contain—chikarou chikarou chikarou—lies in deciphering the simple yet clever little clues to open the safes, which is fine for someone wanting a quick and easy escape but not so much for a challenge-seeker.

Are you ready to escape from the dungeon? Go ahead; I'll stay here and keep saying "chikarou"...

Play Chikarou 5

In the mood for some good, old-fashioned, retro arcade fun without the need of a roll of quarters? Brandon Williamson's Forget-Me-Not, which was originally a popular mobile game, is now ported over to your browser! It takes the classic concept of Pac-Man, and adds a shooter to it.

Your little hero needs to find the exit on each increasingly difficult level, and in order to do that, you use the [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to navigate yourself towards the key, which will drag behind you when you get it. Collect all of the flowers, while enemies spawn randomly around each maze. If you can get enough shots into an enemy and kill them, then they will convert themselves into a cluster of food that you can chomp up for extra points. Additionally, you should be aware that your own bullets can hurt you, so be careful when using the lateral and vertical tunnels that take you from one side of the screen to the opposite, and try not to shoot yourself in the back. You've only got a finite amount of lives on hand, after which point you'll have to start all over, so caution is advised.

Strategically, you will want to attempt to collect as many flowers as possible in an unbroken string, in order to maximize your score. You can also "grind" against the wall in order to charge you up, increase the speed of your firing rate, and speed up your hero. Use the appropriate [arrow] key which is opposite one of the walls you are cruising down. In other words, if the wall is on your right, hold down the [left] arrow key. When you start to flash silver, you are fully charged, and you can then run right through your enemies and crush them. Be careful not to over charge yourself when your icon flashes red, because your hero will explode! There's also a huge ghost which will randomly appear on the screen. Avoid it, because it can instantly kill you, and put you in a tiny pixellated grave.

If you've ever thought to yourself that a game like Pac-Man could be conceptually improved with bullets, then this is your lucky day! Quickly addictive, and perfectly frustrating, Forget-Me-Not is old-school fun at its finest.

Play Forget-Me-Not

iTunes App Store (iOS):
Get Forget-Me-Not (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)

Hey, wizard man, that's a pretty fancy wand you got going on there. So, it makes dummies, eh? Well, let's see what you can do with it, Fancy Wizard, in this eighteen-level puzzle platform game by Aizat Haibulin.

Show your stuff by magicking up dummies to do your bidding and use [WASD] or [arrow] keys to move them around. Stepping on buttons and lowering gates is just one of their useful purposes. A few clobber-happy golems and cantankerous warlocks pop up on occasion, so it won't be too easy, yet reaching the exit door is never a strenuous feat. Fans of the genre will enjoy elements similar to The Company of Myself and Pursuit of Hat, even if Fancy Wizard never quite conjures up the same innovative intricacy. That's hardly a drawback during your mellower spells, when a mild challenge and a charming design will suit your fancy just fine.

Play Fancy Wizard

Just one more turn. Just one more level. Just one more card battle. Just thirty more random encounters. We've all been there. We've all found that game that scratches our particular itch so we can't put it down, even when we have other things we really should be doing. Here are a few games we've found hard to walk away from over the years... I mean, except for me. I don't do game addiction. *elitist, condescending nerd snort* And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go wade through the tall grass another thirty or a hundred times until I get a shiny Meowth.

• Robot Unicorn Attack - We probably don't need to tell you that Adult Swim can be a little weird, but check out this glorious jump-and-run arcade game and you'll see they're more than a little wonderful. Combining a ridiculous premise with fast, snappy gameplay and the musical stylings of Erasure, it's as silly as it is sensational. You control a unicorn, that is a robot, racing across a fantasy landscape, and tap keys to jump and dash through obstacles for as long as you can. If you keep it up long enough, you get magical robot dolphins for accompaniment. It's since spawned several successful themed spin-offs, but you know what they say; you never forget your first.
• Phit - Phit! I do so love it when a game is as fun to say as it is to play, and Jeff Wofford's massive tangram/sliding block puzzle is definitely fun. All you have to do is find a way to slip and fit all the Tetris-style blocks at the top of the screen into the yellow space at the bottom... preferably in as few moves as possible. It sounds easy, and its fast moving, vibrant presentation is exactly the sort of devilish formula that draws in cocky can-do'ers and keeps them up late into the night. Phit is a perfect example of a simple concept taken and polished to a beautiful shine. And given a catchy name. Phit. Phit. Phitphitphitphit...
• BowMaster Prelude - LostVectors knows that deep inside each and every one of us is a glorious Legolas yearning to break free, and few games plugged into that urge as neatly as this action-packed defense game. You are an archer, tasked with defending a castle, and as you shoot down incoming enemies you gain gold and experience you can use to purchase upgrades to make your life a little easier. By packing in a variety of troops, enemies, and even arrow types to use, BowMaster gives you great incentive to keep playing, and while mastering the aiming will definitely take a little practice, by the time you've done so you'll be hard pressed to put the game down. So go ahead. Indulge your inner Orlando Bloom. The kingdom needs you.
• Kavalmaja - No discussion on addictive gaming is complete without mentioning the best secret Pokemon of them all; Tonypa. Kavalmaja is a tile-based exploration adventure that offers up puzzling maze gameplay but not a whole lot of hand-holding. You're simply dropped into an odd minimalist little world, and it's up to you to explore and figure out the rules. Figuring out why you died or how to get around an obstacle without much feedback may sound frustrating for some, but for others it represents another puzzle to crack, and it's definitely worth spending some time trying to suss out the mechanics on your own. If you die, you have to start all over, but for some players the curious mystery of this unassuming little game is going to be worth coming back to again and again to try to conquer.
• Craziest - Finally, a bonus... an animation about a lady who really knows something about game addiction. Specifically, Scrabble. Liz Dubelman delivers a bizarre narrative about a young woman obsessed with letters and numbers, and the lengths she goes to uncover their true meaning. By turns funny and freaky, it's a superbly well-told little tale with a hypnotic delivery and beat-poet style of narration to it that makes it worth watching. Just a little something to keep in mind the next time you get a little too excited about that triple-word-score.

While we welcome any comments about this weekly feature here, we do ask that if you need any help with the individual games, please post your questions on that game's review page. Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there and rediscover some awesome!

As you pass by, the village elder's words of encouragement still ringing in your ears, a citizen calls after you, warning against the lower road. Who knows what malefic danger lurks there? Or anywhere else for that matter? With your majestic blue hair and green jerkin, you present quite a picture to your enemies (or so you might hope), but this is Swordigo, you are the hero, and nobody can kill the hero in his own game. Er... right?

Putting all worries aside, continue on your way in Touch Foo's nostalgia-inducing RPG platform adventure using the supremely handy and very well functioning on screen controls. As your left thumb adroitly negotiates left and right movements, employ your right to hack, slash, jump and cast spells. As you rise in level and acquire a wealth of soul shards—earned in battle or from cutting down grass (sound familiar?)—your character customization opportunities also increase. Health is monitored via red red hearts on top of the screen while a blue mana bar traces your magical abilities. If all this seems like homage to popular platformers of days gone by, it probably is!

Analysis: The road starts out mellow, yet soon dexterity and practiced maneuvers are called for. This multi-quest journey is long, more than ten hours to reach every corner of the complex map and richly varied landscapes, including a number of platforming puzzles. The deadly fail from a missed move is inevitable from time to time, but teleporting portals/checkpoints lessen the sting. Your efforts to trudge on are repaid with the delight of boss battles, treasure chests, weapon and armor upgrades, and spelunking through intricate caverns.

Responsive controls aid well-timed jump maneuvers through serpentine cave passages and spell-triggered switches give another way to burn off magic energy, something you'll want to conserve for boss battles. Sword combat with tougher baddies and bosses is less reliable. Combos are not an option and mobility is limited during melee fights. If you're looking for an easier battle, devote time to grinding and leveling up your magic ranks to best use all four spells.

Touch Foo, creators of the equally charming Soosiz, knows how to please with elements that matter most in a mobile game. Some games are all gorgeous retina displays but awkward controls. Swordigo's on screen button controls work very well, on the other hand. You may have occasion to slip up once or twice at first but soon the intuitive interface transports you back to an earlier time, happily playing Zelda on your Game Boy. Swordigo has beautiful environments to behold as well, especially when seen through the warm tide of nostalgia and the immense enjoyment of hack and slash platforming. It's the quintessential epic adventure. Can you, the hero, succeed in this quest? There's only one way to find out!

iTunes App Store (iOS):
Get Swordigo (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on an iPhone 4S. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.

A Long Way Home is an arcade physics puzzle game from Jonathan Mulcahy. Stranded 100 light years from Earth, you play an astronaut whose only companion is a wrist-mounted computer who offers bits of advice. Using a sharp eye and impeccable timing, trot around asteroids and planets and jump from their surface across the screen, the goal being to collect dark matter so you can open successive worm holes that get you closer to home. Along the way, you'll encounter exploding asteroids, comets, teleporting dark matter, and more. Not exactly a leisurely walk in space.

Although the description sounds like an action movie, A Long Way Home is more of a calm, thoughtful puzzle experience than a fast-riding explosion fest. That's not to say there's no excitement, but your navigating will be based on careful observation and obtained skill, not button tapping or mobile device shaking. Using a variety of control mechanisms (we prefer on-screen buttons), simply move around each spinning asteroid and jump when you line up with a piece of dark matter. Make sure you land on solid ground, though, as one false move and you'll be adrift for the rest of your life!

Later levels introduce new objects to contend with, but the basic premise remains the same. You'll dare countless long jumps, narrow misses, and lucky breaks, all while mastering the art of asteroid jumping. A Long Way Home is a very beautiful game, sticking to minimalist roots and providing a simple but incredibly enjoyable gameplay experience. It manages to evoke actual emotion, which can't be said for most action/physics games, though it's never sappy or emotional itself. In short, this is a fantastic casual mobile game that is slow enough and challenging enough to be entertaining while tugging at a few heart strings along the way. Grab it, kick back, soak in the soundtrack, and have a good time!

iOS App Store:
Get A Long Way Home Mini (iPhone, iPod Touch)
Get A Long Way Home (iPad)

Google Play Android Games:
Get A Long Way Home (Android)

Nook Apps:
Get A Long Way Home (NOOK Color/NOOK Tablet)

Amazon Appstore for Android:
Get A Long Way Home (Kindle Fire/Android)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on a NOOK Tablet. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.

Oh no! The king of the realm needs you to save the princess from the evil clutches of the Dark Knight! Go figure, right? Wind-up Knight is a mobile run and jump adventure very similar to Canabalt HD except you get a fancy sword and armor to fight enemies while dodging traps to make your way to the princess. Convenient items in adventuring, yes, but it won't save you when the Dark Knight starts getting really serious about stopping you. A knight's mettle will never be more tested and neither shall your timing skills as pits, enemies, and environmental dangers stand in your way.

All your little toy knight's actions like shielding, jumping, rolling, etc. are activated by using the virtual buttons on your device's touch screen. Run through grabbing coins and finding hidden cards to get secret items and notes (a.k.a. money) to spend on new levels and items. The knight runs along the level automatically but needs to keep grabbing wind-up tools to continue chugging along, so the timing of your actions is important. The journey only gets harder as you complete more of the 52 levels, but fear not, for your reflexes and timing will be well trained to handle anything. Plus, you will repeat levels a lot because it is very easy to fail. Trust me.

Wind-up Knight improves upon the genre standard with more complex obstacles and added combat mechanics other similar games generally lack. The challenge level is also quite high, as you must collect almost all of the notes to unlock new levels. It's tempting to give into the in-app purchasing system just so you can see more of what the game has to offer. If you're serious about perfecting a great arcade game, or you just want a challenging distraction for the long bus ride, don't hesitate to grab Wind-up Knight so you, too, can show that Dark Knight who is boss. Just don't get burned, stabbed, bitten, drowned, impaled, scratched, or crushed in the process!

iTunes App Store (iOS):
Get Wind-up Knight (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)

Google Play Android Games:
Get Wind-up Knight (Android)

Amazon Appstore:
Get Wind-up Knight (Kindle Fire)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on a iPod Touch. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.

Everybody wants to rule the world, and zombies are no exception. In Brainsss, a wild sort of mobile game by Lonely Few, you get to help the zombies start their plot for world domination. Part strategy, part action, part brains, you must lead and grow your zombie horde to complete the goal for each level. Humans just don't get it. Life is so much simpler if all you need are brainsss.

Brainsss is divided into phases, each with several stages and the first serving as a tutorial. Each level starts out with a few zombies to get you going. Simply draw a circle around the number of zombies you'd like to control and they'll outline in red. If you've selected too many, or want to divide your group evenly, you can de-select half of the currently selected group with the tap of the button. Once you've chosen the number of undead you'd like to control, tap anywhere on the screen and your mob will shamble along, ready for brains!

Your objectives change depending on the level, but more often than not, your main goal will be to turn every human into a zombie, prevent humans from escaping a building, or stay alive until the timer reaches zero. The humans you have to catch are varied, ranging from super fast scientists to firemen who can stun you and chop you to bits with their axes. Examine the level, then plan your attack accordingly. You get to decide if it's better to split your forces and trap people or if there is safety in numbers.

When you clear a stage, you are awarded stars according to how well you did. Not only do stars unlock more phases, they also earn you coins to buy level specific power-ups if you get stuck. Don't worry, you'll always get at least one star for making it through alive (or dead, depending on how you look at it). One handy thing to know is how the rage meter in the upper corner works. When you convert humans to your side (and also as you destroy their desks, garbage cans, etc), the rage meter goes up. When it is full shake your device or tap the meter to give your zombies a boost in speed and attack power.

Even with rage activated, it can be difficult to overcome the humans who want you dead. This can be frustrating, as the only way you lose a level is if every last zombie dies. It can also be aggravating on the bigger maps to switch back and forth between groups if you've split up your horde. However, there is a nice, (almost too) happy, soundtrack to accompany you, along with funny quips from the humans as you chase them down. Add on the amusing comics that unlock between phases, and the promise of new levels coming soon and you've got a game that is nearly impossible not to enjoy. Now get out there and use your Brainsss to start making zombies!

iTunes App Store (iOS):
Get Brainsss (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on an iPad. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.

When you look at a word like 'infect', it brings to mind the Black Plague, zombie viruses, and a whole mess of disgusting things you would rather not think about. Just add another 'c' in there and you get the brain-training logic puzzle game infeCCt that affects you for the better. You must lead a growing vine through temple ruins so it covers every tile on the board without using the same one twice. Backed by research in cognitive and memory physiology, Handy Games put together 300 levels of mind stimulating challenges that will put your powers of foresight and creative problem solving to the test.

Vines aren't going to cover the floors of ancient dilapidated structures by themselves, so tap and draw lines on the screen and they'll follow right along. You might not have picked the right path in your puzzling quest, so you can delete previous moves by tapping on older sections of the vine. Be conscientious in your moves because you lose points if you undo steps. If you finish quickly, though, you'll earn extra. You only get one chance to get a good outcome (you can't redo stages for a better score), so just take a deep breath and concentrate, one move at a time.

The puzzles in infeCCt are well done and designed with scientific data behind them to be as thought intensive as possible. The timer, however, detracts from the experience by throwing anxious energy on the player to finish fast and precise. While the scoring does show your solving prowess to the world in online high scores, it is unnecessary when the main attractive point of the game is its lack of gimmicky puzzle mechanics and focus on pure logic solutions. These minor distractions do not detract enough from the game to the point where you will want to stop, however. The game is simple to understand, but so demanding that you won't quit until all 300 puzzles are accounted for. It is an ideal casual title for its pick-up-and-playability because you can work your brain out for a few minutes a day and save the rest for another time. Improving your intelligence has never been so much fun!

iTunes App Store:
Get infeCCt (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)
Get infeCCt - Gold Version (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

Google Play Android Games:
Get infeCCt (Android)
Get infeCCt Free (Android)

NOOK Apps:
Get infeCCt (NOOK Color/NOOK Tablet)

Amazon Appstore:
Get infeCCt (Kindle Fire/Android)
Get infeCCt Free (Kindle Fire/Android)

NOTE: This game was played on an iPod Touch. Game was available in North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.