The scores have been tabulated and the results are in: the overall winner of the minimalism-themed Ludum Dare 26 72-hour Game Jam is Leaf Me Alone, a retro Metroidvania-style platformer by Mark Foster and David Fenn. Now, "minimalism" and "Metroidvania" aren't two words that usually go together (except, you know... alliteratively), but Foster and Fenn have put together a wonderful little world for a pixelated-blob-type-thing to explore. You'll be moving said pixelated-blog-type-thing with the [arrow] keys, using [Z] to jump. Exploration is when much of the game's charm lies, but suffice to say, throughout you'll be discovering new areas and abilities, all the while trying to unlock that strange gate near where you started the game.

Works like Fez, Melodisle and Proteus have shown that the thrill of uncovering new vistas is no less intriguing even if said vistas are low-rez, and Leaf Me Alone continues that tradition. Leaf Me Alone is a relaxed, quiet kind of experience, more about the journey than the destination, with an almost-poetic feel. Some parts of the game are a little aimless from its lack of explicit direction, and it could use a few more visual cues to distinguish platforms "pass-through-able from below" from the "ones-you'll-clonk-into" variety. Still, Leaf Me Alone is a solid winner, and going on the trip it offers won't leave players too... sigh "bushed".

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Snaaaake! is the latest action-packed arcade game from Fernando Ramallo and Miguel Pérez Martinez, and it's absolutely gonzo in the best possible way. Use [WASD] to control a monstrous snake as it rampages its way across the country, hitting [spacebar] to constrict, and causes as much damage as it possibly can within a time limit to unlock the next level. Each stage is full of people and things to destroy simply by ramming into them, and hitting a red "P" barrel will net you a temporary random power-up. Meet certain conditions on each stage to complete "tragedies". Does that make you feel like a bad person? Of course not, you're a giant snake! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

From its toe-tapping menu screen soundtrack to the monster-movie-tastic tune that plays during levels and its fantastic visual design, Snaaaake! is one of those games you really love to look at and listen to. There's a great "The horror... the horror!" vibe to everything, and watching people flee in terror before you while the news-ticker at the bottom of the screen is more amusing than it should be. That said, with little variation beyond new scenery to wreck, it does wind up feeling a bit repetitive, and being unable to discern exactly what power-up you're about to grab is frustrating since not all of them are that useful. Still, Snaaaake! is the sort of giddily over-the-top crazy arcade game that captures all the simple joy of being a giant monster Rampage-fashion, and with one fantastic presentation and easy to pick up gameplay, makes for good clean fun. Provided your definition of clean is massive property damage and untold human carnage.

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It's a common enough problem for a cute little alien: you promised to meet your sweetie in the park, but there's candy. So why not collect the candies and bring them to her? In Flip and Go, a game from Lampogolovii, making the date perfect is not as simple as it looks.

As with most puzzle platformers, use the [arrows] or [WASD] to move. You can use [Z], [X], or [C] to pause everything for a second and flip your environment. Your shadow helps you figure out where you'll end up after the flip, though there's a wide enough variety of challenges that sometimes it's deceptive. Dark blocks don't flip, for instance, and neither do you, but the girlfriend does when you get to control her. Add pulleys and locked doors and a host of other elements, and you have quite a mindbending diversion. There aren't a lot of levels, but what Flip and Go lacks in length, it gains back in originality, challenge, and sheer adorableness.

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Logistics is a physics puzzle game from Robb Akerson. Using only the most basic features from building games such as The Incredible Machine or Crazy Machines, it's your job to move objects around the screen, one piece of candy or one block of ice at a time. It takes a bit of fiddling to make sure everything is in the right place, but Logistics is built with casual players in mind, providing a good logical challenge but never making you feel frustrated.

Your mission is to get the stuff from the red dispenser into the green dispenser. You do this by placing simple structures like conveyor belts, fans and springboards, then adjusting their angle until everything's just right. When the path is prepped, tap the red dispenser to plop out an object (what that object is varies between levels) and watch gravity do its thing. On the way to the exit you'll want to try nabbing special icons to go for that perfect score, but otherwise just get everything in the green dispenser and move on!

Probably the most appealing thing about Logistics is the artwork. Everything looks like it was ripped straight out of an I Love Lucy episode, right down to the icons and menu screens. It sets a fantastic mood for the game, keeping it lighthearted while you fuss over the perfect placement for a conveyor belt. There are currently three themed stages to play, each with a dozen levels. Three more are listed as "coming soon", and we can't wait to see what Santa's Workshop or Clockwork Apple brings us!

There is always room for one more puzzle platformer. Especially when the protagonist is a smiley, and even more when the game takes a well-known format and gives it a little twist. In Kolobok by Trinbox, the twist is that... wait for it... there is absolutely no jumping whatsoever. Gravity can be so cruel. Once you figure out that there's no point in pressing what you think the jump key should be, the rest is easy.

Use the [arrow] keys or [A] and [D] to move left or right, and down [arrow] or [S] to eat a magic mushroom. No, not that kind of magic mushroom, you hippie. These give you special powers. For example, you can only stay underwater for three seconds in your normal state, but if you eat a frosty mushroom, you can freeze water and then waltz across it. There are a number of obstacles, from spikes to spiders – some can be eliminated, while others have to be avoided. With twenty quick levels and just enough of a challenge, Kolobok won't take up a lot of your time. Having said that, sometimes it's quite difficult to beat the time limit and get all three stars, so the achievement addicts among you might stick with the game a bit longer. In any case, Kolobok is good fun and a proof that a little innovation goes a long way.

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When you look for a good room escape game, what do you look for? Logical puzzles, to be sure. Interesting scenery is also nice. A decent control structure makes everything better as well. But do you also look for a ninja protecting himself with bubble wrap? A strange line of leaping dancers? Some dude with a green face peering at you through a hole in the wall? Small blue men doing...something to a vase? Anyone familiar with the preceding will recognize those particular tropes, Yep, Detarou is back in town with yet another bizarro fantasy-land madhouse in Hitonchi.

Detarou's escapes are always filled with an equal mixture of logic and madness, and Hitonchi is no exception. The amusing and bizarre elements of the game, however, would be nothing without the logical underpinnings of the puzzles. As usual, Detarou hands us a fantastic mix of visual clues that, only when combined in the right ways, will help us point and click our way out of yet another madhouse filled with stunningly strange sights. One of the more interesting characters appears to be some sort of shout-out to the escape men from No. 1 games, but in a...well, let's just say a more adult version, shall we? Hitonchi delivers yet another fantastic Detarou three ending escape along with visuals that will definitely linger longer than the game. Not for young kids or those easily offended, Hitonchi is still a fantastic addition to the genre and a great mid-week break.

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CastleMine from Mugshot Games combines tower defense with a little bit of old fashioned digging. Instead of mapping out mazes for creeps to crawl through or building balloon things on green green grass, you get to dig underground one block at a time. Uncover extra gold deposits, additional resources, or even nests of enemies as you attempt to defend your castle from the threat from below.

CastleMine very neatly divides gameplay into two general phases: digging and maintenance. Your first task is to tap a shovel icon to dig through a block of soil. You can only dig sideways or down, not up, so when those shovel icons appear, choose with care, as you're creating the very path your foes can use to attack you. If you dig out blocks of gold or crystal you'll add to your resources pool. If you dig out a relic you'll gain some additional XP. If you hit a skull, enemies become more difficult but you'll be one step closer to a perfect score in that stage.

When you're not digging you'll be placing towers in the dirt or upgrading them once they've gained enough experience. There are nine defense towers ranging from fire balls to lightning, stingers and shock towers. You also have a few support towers that increase adjacent tower abilities, adding another layer of strategy that becomes very important later in the game.

The lure of delicious resources is tough to resist in CastleMine, but you can't just go digging all crazy like if you want to keep your castle safe. That slight tension between gathering gold and keeping defenses strong will keep you glued to this game for a very long time. Later levels get difficult without much notice, and you have to experiment with upgrades vs. new towers, just like most defense games of this nature. But with 150 levels and an entire array of tech trees to fill out, there's no shortage of strategy in this delightfully unique tower defense game!

Play CastleMine (browser demo)

The year is 1978. A child has found a game they've never heard of before. It fits into the Video Computer System's cartridge slot just fine, though, and the paper found attached to the game spins an interesting tale of demons and castles. The child is not ready for what they are about to face, for in this game, losing a life means losing a bit of mind. Once that mind is week enough, it will become a perfect conduit for... things on the other side of the screen. And they been waiting. Misadventure is an action-adventure horror game by Mike Houser, done in the retro style of a pseudo-4-bit Atari game gone horribly wrong. Move the little blip with [WASD] or [arrow] keys. You pick up object automatically by walking into them, though you can drop them with [X] or the [spacebar]. Though the manual at the start of the game will give you some general guidance, for the most part, though, you will be on your own.

Whether it's the Godzilla NES Creepypasta, Ben Drowned, or even The Story of the Blanks, it's interesting to see how authors have, as of late, used the retro-gaming medium to create a unique brand of fourth-wall breaking horror. One supposes the premise works so well since it combines the kind of skewed nostalgia and innocence that makes old toys and amusement parks so creepy, with the the technical confrontation of a glitched screen: those things always end up looking like a portal into madness, so it's a natural fit that they should ending up being one.

But where Misadventure excels in its creepy cosmic horror atmosphere and slow-building sense of dread, it could afford to be a bit more explicit in its gameplay mechanics. They can be sussed out well enough after a couple of deaths, but by that point, some players might be too freaked out to want to try again (or, at least, frustrated). That being said, Misadventure uses its pixelated blotches of red to create a world that's, in many ways, more viscerally frightening than many horror games with top of the line graphics. Those in the mood for a scare should turn out the lights, turn up the sound, and steel themselves into pressing start.

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Thanks to Dan for sending this one in!

There but for the grace of my ten-speed and a bunch of hand-printed fliers go I. Jackson Lango's Canvasser tells the story of what it's like to be really invested in a cause and trying to get everyone on board with it. Through gameplay that's part strategy and part sim with just a dash of arcade action, you're tasked with helping a charity raise money to prevent a forest from being clear cut. But as anyone who's ever tried to do it will tell you, successful canvassing requires a bit more than waggling your brows and thrusting a donation tin at someone, and you'll need to be persistent, people-savvy, and even thick-skinned to survive meeting your goals each day... and your coworkers!

Just click people to interact and make choices. Each day you're given a target donation amount, then sent to a different location to try to raise awareness... and funds! How much people are willing to donate depends on a lot of things, from their mood to the location, but most importantly, how much they care about the matter at hand, and how much they trust you. Those two factors can be raised by talking to them about different related topics, but be careful not to bore them or scare them off by asking for a lot of money. Equally important is your confidence, which increases not only by hitting certain milestones, but by performing well in interactions. Keep an eye out for power-ups that can randomly spawn during a stage, since nabbing one can temporarily give your stats a boost. Watch your time, though, since when the clock in the upper-right corner ticks down, you're done for the day, so be sure to move fast and talk to as many people as possible. When your confidence bar is filled, that's your time to strike, since people will be much more receptive to you! Just be careful, since if you fail to meet your goal three times in a row, you'll lose your job... though meeting your goal at least once resets the three strikes.

Despite looking fairly simple, Canvasser has a bit of neat depth to it. Factors like the weather can influence how people react to you, and even the age of a person can determine how long they're willing to listen to you talk without getting bored. The game is, undeniably, more than a little repetitive, and not everyone likes scrambling within a time limit. Especially when you fall a single dollar short of your goal and are still treated like a failure. But on the other hand... Going out day after day, worrying about meeting deadlines and quotas, the frustration of getting brushed off or knowing who you're talking to isn't really listening to... by presenting all of this in an arcade game-like format, Canvasser gets its point across in an entertaining way without beating you over the head with it. Of course, whether that point still remains fun as a game is up to you. Sometimes funny, good looking, and definitely unique, Canvasser is worth a look... and just might make you think twice the next time you go to reflexively brush that person on the street corner with the clipboard off when they ask for a moment of your time.

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Captain's Log: Stardate: 52120.13*: After a weekend viewing of a certain blockbuster release (no points for guessing which one), the JayIsGames Vault Commander wishes to share some of the greatest space games from the JiG archives with the rest of the universe. As this is well within the parameters of our five year mission, this week in The Vault, we now present a smattering of classic action, strategy, and physics titles. End transmission.

• Omega Crisis - There's nothing quite like the rush of exploring the unknown, being the first to set your eyes upon planetary vistas never before encountered... and then exploiting all the available resources to the fullest as you fend off the streams of filthy xenos who are sore they came in second. Omega Crisis, a 2010 defense shooter by Lucidrine, truly captures the tenseness of being a tiny pocket of humanity possessing only a few thin walls standing between them and annihilation. That is to say, it gives you the stress of both frenetic PEW-PEW-ing, but also the necessary strategic resource management needed to ensure spindly face-huggers don't randomly start pouring in through an overlooked weak spot in your barricades. It's a heck of a crisis, yes, but, fortunately, a very enjoyable one.
• Star Relic - There is comparatively less PEW-PEW-ing Star Relic, a 2010 turn-based strategy board game by Indigon, but that's just because your weapons of choice aren't blaster, but armadas. It's a game of careful planning against tough-but-fair AI opponents, with a unique "orbiting" mechanic that justifies its interstellar setting. Star Relic is easy to pick up, and hard to stop playing, as players will be ever-wanting one more go, certain that THIS is the time those slimy reptiles and confusing asexual space blobs will know defeat... or those slimy, confusing humans, if the reptiles or asexual space blobs happen to be your team of choice. Star Relic is nothing if not equal opportunity in its sliminess department.
• Gravitee 2 - After all that future warring, you might be ready for a fun, simple, relaxing game of golf. Well, Gravitee 2, a 2009 physics sports game by FunkyPear, will help you out on two of those counts: fun and relaxing it is, no doubt, and slinging your space-ball around planets starts out easy enough. By the end of the course, however, getting all the medals will anything but simple. Gravitee 2 may use planets and hoops in the place of sand traps and holes, but the joy of achieving the elegance of a perfect shot remains. And, with the game's replay code system, you can share your mad skillz with all of us! We promise not to get too jealous!

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!

* Stardate may not be at all legitimate in any way.

If Beret Applications' Demon Chic were a person it would be a Brooklyn-dwelling record store clerk riding a fixie to a farmer's market while listening to Yo La Tengo. It would be of the species Homo ironicus—in other words, the creature popular culture has dubbed the hipster. Yet, astonishingly, the game is neither as insufferable nor pretentious as this analogy would suggest. Instead this mobile piece of art instead is an entirely successful marriage of action RPG gameplay with an absurd, darkly funny, and frequently touching story.

Gary and his boyfriend Ashok are forced to take in Ashok's brother Devraj as a roommate after Devraj finishes college and can't find a job. The game's allusive and frequently tangential narrative follows the trio as they battle the demons induced by schizophrenia and drug abuse in both figurative and literal forms. Battles are conducted by dragging floating letters to the bottom of the screen to form words that deal damage. You start with FIRE and ICE but as the game progresses offensive and defensive buffs are added, and enemy weakness make the psychotic plants and disembodied heads that much easier to defeat. You can select skill improvements every few battles, but overall the roleplaying aspect is downplayed in order to allow the player to focus on the aesthetics and narrative.

Analysis: Like the guy that spends an hour every day perfecting his bed head, Demon Chic's shambolic exterior belies the effort that it took to produce. The dialogue tossed back and forth among the three central characters deal with race, sexuality, mental illness, and other topics you wouldn't expect to see in an RPG based around pulverizing demons. It's a testament to the realistic quality of the dialogue and situations that we wondered if the three main characters were based directly upon real-life counterparts. Coming as it is from three young friends, Demon Chic's dialogue is heavy with references to sex and drug use, yet these are incorporated naturalistically; it never feels as if the writer is out to shock. This is the rare game in which the label of mature content does not mask embarrassingly juvenile presentation or sensationalist posturing.

Demon Chic is a message game, certainly, but its offhanded nature works in its favor to soften the capital-I Importance of its underlying themes. It's perfectly possible to just enjoy Demon Chic purely as the idiosyncratically gorgeous work of New Media art that it is, but it's also impossible to step away from the game without subsequently pausing to reflect briefly on what you have just witnessed. It is remarkably neither heavy-handed nor polemic despite referencing situations that most games never venture near.

The gameplay, interesting enough but rudimentary, is completely overshadowed by the stunning audiovisual display. Each screen is a legitimate work of art, with endearingly cartoonish and sketchy backgrounds interspersed with surreal watercolor illustrations. You will want to progress the story just to see what absurdist delights wait around the next corner. The soundtrack is as equally high quality, with tracks coming from psychedelic rock vets Queen Elephantine. Imagine a band led by Jim Morrison's stoner metal cousin and you're halfway there.

We initially expected this unusual presentation to become grating, but thankfully it never does. The narrative is inventively spry and changes direction and form frequently, switching between slice-of-life vignettes and hallucinatory side stories in a way that keeps the flow pacy. As soon as you tire of one section, a fresh change in perspective appears.

It can't be emphasized enough: Demon Chic is a visual narrative in which gameplay elements are only a minor presence in an overall experience. Those expecting deep roleplaying mechanics will be disappointed. Yet although the gameplay is basic it is not extraneous—art and game are tied together. The art could not exist without the game, and vice versa. By the inclusion of this participatory element the metaphoric impact of the narrative is increased, and a product is created that presents an kind of experience unable to be duplicated by other forms of narrative.

The late Roger Ebert famously questioned the ability of the video game to ponder great questions about the human condition without becoming a mere ghost of existing text based forms. A uniquely involving and often wryly funny meditation on human tolerance and difference, this game answers the question implicit in Ebert's statement: what can a video game say that other forms of art cannot? A landmark in app design and an indication of the medium's emerging maturity, Demon Chic deserves to be experienced by every iPad owner with an open mind.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to egg the Flintstones' car, you're about to find out. Disaster Will Strike 2 is Anton Koshechkin's sequel to the physics puzzle Disaster Will Strike!, and it picks up where the original left off. Your goal is to destroy all the eggs on the screen by destroying the structures around them (à la Sieger), and your tools are various natural (and un-natural) disasters. (Haven't you ever wanted to use bees as an offensive weapon? I know I have.)

Disaster Will Strike 2 ramps up the difficulty much faster than the original, and it has more levels, but the only really new element it introduces is the Epidemic tool that lets you infect an egg, which then infects other nearby eggs. But each level presents a unique challenge, and fans of the first game will simply crack over the sequel. (There had to be an egg pun in there somewhere, don't look at me like that.)

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Disaster Will Strike 2