The platform adventure will never die. And that's a good thing! Frogatto & Friends injects a little more life into the classic genre, placing great-looking pixel art and a satisfying action/exploration game in front of your eyes for the low low price of free!

Good morning, everyone! Oh, wait, it's the afternoon. Looks like Frogatto slept late again. Breakfast (er, lunch) isn't ready yet, so Frogatto decides to head into town to see if he can find a job. Things go wonderfully awry from there as you embark upon quest after quest, all in the name of earning a bit of cash.

As with most platform games, you can walk, dash, swim, jump, and stomp throughout the delightfully-drawn 2D world. Enemies are usually harmless unless they're carrying something dangerous, so don't be afraid to bump into them (or stand on their head). Frogatto's main trick is his ability to nab enemies with his tongue and spit them out as projectiles. Your reach is laughably short at the beginning of the game, but collecting coins throughout the stages will allow you to buy upgrades at the store. You can also purchase other upgrades such as power-ups to grant temporary invincibility, extra life hearts, a longer spit reach, and more.

Frogatto's world is vast and filled with neat surprises, and oftentimes you'll have to find (or open up) new paths to get to where you want to go. Frogatto can carry an item in his belly, so lugging keys from one place to another often becomes a necessary task. You can't wall jump or swim while your belly is full, though, so your traveling plans will probably change while you're chubby.

Analysis: Aah, old school platforming. Few game genres seem as comforting as a good old run through a 2D world. Frogatto & Friends incorporates a lot of elements to flesh out its environments, including an open, Metroidvania-style level design, parallax backgrounds, and upgrades to find in the wild and purchase in the store. You feel a little more drawn into the world as you play, an important part of the experience that keeps you engrossed in the game.

Frogatto & Friends was designed for the casual player from beginning to end. You aren't penalized for dying, and oftentimes you respawn at the exact same area. The challenge level isn't too high, either, allowing you to sit and play without wanting to throw your keyboard/joypad across the room. The length is also about right, ranging from 4-6 hours depending on how thorough you are with exploration.

One thing worth mentioning: wall jumping is unreliable, as if our amphibious protagonist will only stick to walls when he's in the mood. When a wall jump should work, it sometimes doesn't, leaving the player scratching their head in confusion. This never turns into a game-breaking issue, though, and with a little practice you can wall jump with a fair amount of reliability.

Frogatto & Friends is a beautiful platform adventure that calls forth nostalgia with a healthy smattering of modern gaming sensibilities. The project code is open source, meaning you can contribute to the development if you so desire, and the team has plans to add a lot more to the game as time goes by.

Also be sure to grab the iPhone version of Frogatto & Friends if you want to take the game on the go.

Windows:
Download the free full version

Mac OS X:
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Linux:
Download the free full version

Poker. You're either hopelessly addicted to it, or you can't tell a flush from a straight. The word itself conjures up high-stakes games in Vegas, dusty saloon matches between cowboys, and crummy online games played with real money. Fortunately for us, Youda Games has brought back its casual poker-meets-simulation game in the delightfully accessible Governor of Poker 2. No matter if poker scares you or excites you, this game's got something great in store for you.

More than just a simple card game, Governor of Poker 2 strings together a light storyline that gives you an excuse to leave the table and explore the land, spending your cash on buying buildings or at the general store. The governor of Texas has declared poker illegal because it's a game of chance. It's your job to show him it takes skill to win at this game, not luck, sending you on a romp through the state, visiting towns and flaunting your skills in a number of saloons.

The story doesn't matter all that much, though, as you'll be spending most of your time at the table staring at cards. Governor of Poker 2 presents a solid game of Texas Hold 'em against a table of computer-controlled opponents. For the uninitiated, Texas Hold 'em deals each player two cards with a set of community cards in the middle. Anyone and everyone can use these cards to complete hands, making the real strategy of the game watching the other players and trying to determine if they're bluffing or are holding a valuable pair of cards.

Before and after each game, you'll get a chance to wander around each town, talking to townsfolk, visiting stores, and purchasing real estate using your earnings. Each building you buy nets you a certain amount of income each day, allowing you to keep a little cash coming in even if you're unlucky in cards. The meat of the game is in poker tournaments, though, so be sure to enroll (and win!) at the saloon each day of gameplay.

Analysis: Youda Games has a reputation for cranking out simple but well-implemented casual games that are just slightly to the side of the norm. Games such as Youda Safari, Youda Camper, and Youda Farmer utilize a different perspective on seasoned game styles. The result is an experience that's familiar enough to be attractive, but different enough to keep you reeled in.

The Governor of Poker series is no different than other Youda releases in this respect. Even if poker scares you with its intricate rules, this game manages to tear down part of that barrier to allow casual players to come inside and play. A lengthy (and optional) tutorial will introduce you to Texas Hold 'em basics, walking you through each step as many times as you like. You can even peek at a cheat sheet to see the highest value hand you can make, allowing you to learn which cards form which hands.

Of course, the most difficult part of translating Texas Hold 'em to the non-meatspace is getting opponent tells onto the screen. Even though you can't see the faces of people in Governor of Poker 2, players often give clues if they're bluffing, if they're frazzled, or if they're about to be in trouble. You can start to pick up on their personalities after some time, allowing you to call opponents out when you know they have a habit of bluffing. The subtle tells aren't a huge part of the game, but they're there, and poker fans will definitely appreciate it.

Adding the light simulation aspects was a good choice by Youda, taking the game out of the saloon and into the dusty streets of Texas. It breaks the action up at just the right times, creating that more casual atmosphere we love to experience. You can, of course, just play poker (even doing a quick round from the main menu), so don't worry about getting your fix!

Governor of Poker 2 is well-made, highly accessible, and surprisingly addictive for all kinds of players. It doesn't offer a world of difference when compared to the original game, but for poker fans and casual gamers alike, you'll find something to love in this game.

Play Governor of Poker 2

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Play the browser demo
Order the full version

Hook up a few pipes and get that water flowing in this take on a very familiar, but equally popular puzzle genre. Aqualux is all about twisting and fitting pipes together, opening the tap and seeing all your work go the drain.If you played anything called Pipes, Plumber, Pipe Works, Pipe Dreams... you get the gist, you'll know how this works. You have a tap on one side and a drain somewhere else. By rotating and swapping pipes, depending on their type, you create a route to the drain, slap open the tap and watch your handiwork waste valuable aqua. The aim is to do it in as few moves and little time as possible, awarding you with different trophies. It is fun, very polished and pretty addictive.

Yet much it falls short as well, because this is just a demo of a download game. There are forty puzzles to beat, incorporating all the different obstacles and twists here and there. But it never reaches a certain crescendo and the game could certainly do with an additional twenty levels to really crank up the difficulty (fittingly the commercial game contains 100 levels). Even through the first play I mainly achieved gold trophies - as much as I would like to thank some unquestionable savant-like abilities towards plumbing, it's really just a matter of the puzzles not being very lateral. The ones where you rotate pieces, in particular, are so intuitive that you'll nail most them in the first go.

Even the two difficulty modes - casual and hardcore - just add time limitations before water slowly starts trickling into the pipes. It is slightly more nerve-wrecking and you need to compete on the hardcore level to get platinum trophies. But if you have run through the puzzles before it's not that much of a challenge, as the puzzles are still exactly the same. Finishing the game does unlock Match Mode, where you have to match a presented configuration of pipes against a running clock, but it's not quite the same as the main game's puzzle goodness. If Aqualux fails at one major thing, it's not informing you - after beating the game - that there is a download version available.

Aqualux has a lot of polish and it is fun to play. If it falls short, the download version is exactly the same but with more than twice as many levels.

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Friends! Aliens! Robot... thingies! Lend me your sensory unit of choice! Whether you're metallic, fleshy, or topped with antennae, you've got a place in Galactic Takedown, the action/defense game by Rob Scherer. Command an array of soldiers and turrets in pursuit of various planet-conquering objections, being careful to defend your battery, because your battery is kind of important to your spaceship. Everyone knows nothing puts a damper on a day of planetary destruction like having to root around the still burning wrecks of your enemies for some jumper cables.

Most of the game is played with the mouse; click on the ground to move your troops and turrets around. Aim and fire your troops en masse by pointing and clicking. Turrets fire automatically and seem to focus on whatever enemy is closest to your battery. Shoot down enemies to earn cash to purchase more troops and turrets to bolster your defenses and firepower. You also have abilities that come in handy during missions, and can be activated by pressing the corresponding number key or clicking on the icon. Just keep an eye on your battery's health, since if that's destroyed, you lose.

Analysis: The best stage of the game is level two, Planet Denose, where you must strategically kill enemies so that their ships crash into ground targets. Most of the rest of the game calls for no strategy at all other than "Hold mouse button, kill dudes, don't die." In fact, in one planet your sole objective is to spew 10,000 bullets. There's disappointingly little reason to replay as a different race. Everyone has the same turrets, troops, and abilities available; the only thing that really changes is when they're unlocked. The fact that your money and purchased troops are persistent across each level is a welcome change from defense games that wipe the slate clean at the start of each level.

The game doesn't really feel like it's aimed towards veteran gamers, and is instead the sort of thing that's easy to pick up whenever you have a spare moment and feel the need to blow something up. I would love to see the gameplay of the Denose level expanded into a full game; it could be an action/defense/puzzle/physics/shooter, and if you set the game inside a locked room and also required the player to level up by hitting keys to the music then JayIsGames would have to close because our tag servers would overheat. So maybe it's a good thing Galactic Takedown isn't that game. As it is, it's a fun, fast-paced dose of arcade action that proves if we just put aside our differences, there's nothing we can't make explode. Awwwww.

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Every Thursday evening when Jay lets me out of my kennel to give me my scoop of nourishing gruel while he checks to make sure the shock collar is still functioning, I take the time to pen you, our beloved audience, your Link Dump Friday with a trembling malnourished hand... hah! I'm totally kidding, it's the best here. We have a Hawaiian shaved ice maker in the break room, and every night Jay reads us a bedtime story and gives all the characters funny voices. This week we have broken down ponies, sun burns, alien junk mail, mountaineering, and the world's least safety compliant roller coaster. Enjoy!

• Sheriff Sam - This arcade/defense shooter hybrid contains a horse with a broken leg and other stuff you probably shouldn't laugh at. When Sam's trusty steed puts a hoof wrong, you'll have to hold off buzzards, aliens, and more until help arrives. Just point and click to shoot, and upgrade your abilities between waves. But while the gameplay may be nothing to get that excited about, I have a special snug place reserved in my heart for the writing, which is both weird and funny in an effortless, breezy way that makes you laugh when you least expect it.
• PostMan - I'd always heard the post man rings twice, not "the post man has to retrieve your alien mail from elaborate point-and-click puzzle contraptions with little instruction as to how to go about doing so". Literature lied to me! Despite its relative shortness, this little puzzler is big on charm, and thankfully lacking in Kevin Costner.
• Epic Coaster - How do you ride roller coasters? Do you throw your arms up over the hills and loops? Or do you blubber until it stops and have to be escorted shakily off the ride so you can lay down for a while under the t-shirts in the gift-shop? Heavily inspired by Canabalt, this is a stylish game where you try to keep the coaster on the tracks for as long as possible while racking up a high score and various bonuses. There's a good chance you'll lose interest long before you actually fall off the tracks, and the jump button occasionally seems to decide it doesn't like the way you pressed it. Still, if you're looking for some flash in your day, you've come to the right place.
• Holiday Sim - This snarky retro-looking point-and-clicker, choose-yer-own-adventure-ish game claims to be a simulation of a holiday, but I hope for your sake it isn't. Explore your surroundings, get achievements, and partake in such fine activities as gambling, sand castle building, baking yourself into a fine leathery crisp, and shark fleeing. Hooray! Forget Universal Studios, I know what I'm doing for my vacation this year! Painful peeling sunburns and expensive unpalatable tiki drinks all the way, yo!
• Mt. - Have you ever wanted to be a mountaineer? Sure you have. The bracing winds. The terrifying drops. The chapped lips. The itchy woolen socks. The ... wait, being a mountaineer stinks! At least in this tricky little game you can experience all the thrill with none of the discomfort. (Unless you count wanting to break your monitor discomfort.) Just type in the name of anything (mountain or otherwise), hint [enter], and climb away! The controls are definitely an acquired taste, but there's something addictive about it anyway.

A custom casual gameplay comic created exclusively for JIG by Babylon Sticks creator, James Francis. Follow Babylon Sticks on Twitter: @babylonsticks.

No, Towards The Light is not some sort of pixelated existential crisis in game form. Nor is it some touching art house game where one gains inner peace through the manipulation of abstract objects that serve as a visual metaphor for people and God. Well, maybe that last one a tiny little bit if you squint and tilt your head just so, but what Towards The Light really is is a challenging but fun classic platform game with a twist.

In each level you have two goals. Reaching the white door in the level will save your progress from that level as well as unlock the next. Meanwhile, you are going to want to collect all of the light blue spirits in each room in order to power up the giant soul cannon and launch yourself to who knows where. To do these things, you'll use your [arrow] keys to run and jump using [X]. Oh, and you'll also want to hold down [C] to go into ghost mode. While in ghost mode you will pass right through most spikes and platforms and walls. Also, if you happen to connect with an enemy while in ghost mode, you will possess that enemy, and more importantly, you gain their abilities.

Borrowing heavily off of MoneySeize, Towards the Light is a skill testing, spike hopping, bullet dodging platform game. What sets this platform jumper apart from the rest is the nicely implemented ghost mode that, combined with nice level design, allows the player to explore conventional platforming in new and unique ways. Towards the Light might not appeal to a wide swath of gamers, but lovers of all things platform should find this a decently juicy morsel to snack upon.

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How often do you get to say Stephen King was right? The vehicles have gotten sick of their soft, squishy masters, and I'm going to go right ahead and blame you for this one, pal. Is it because of the time you let those guys who stank of Axe Body Spray drive it to their kegger? Is it revenge for that one thing you did in your parents' car you think nobody knows about? Pipol Smasher by Vogd is a physics puzzler where the goal is to incapacitate all the helpless ragdoll pipol to get to the next level and cause as much damage as you can. Click on a vehicle to start it moving, then click it again to make it stop. Since the pipol are strangely reluctant to be smashed and have tried to place themselves where you can't get to them, you'll have to utilize your environment full of precariously balanced objects and the power of vehicular teamwork to reach them. Just don't get too cocky; send a car flying offscreen and you'll fail the level. If you get stuck, just click "restart".

If you're noticing some similarities between Pipol Smasher and Vehicles, there's a good reason for that... namely, Vogd created them both. As such, Pipol Smasher's first handful of levels feel like a de-cutesified retread of familiar territory. The biggest problem is actually one you'll find in the lion's share of physics puzzles, and that's a frustrating tendency to have to hope for the best as the physics engine takes over certain finicky events. There's also very little instruction given, so for the most part you're left to experiment with your surroundings and find out how creation objects react to a judicious application of homicidal car.

As mildly gruesome as it may be in concept, Pipol Smasher is actually bloodless, and there's something incredibly entertaining about dropping a bus on unwary pipol, or sending a helpless ragdoll flying towards his buddy to knock them both into a gout of flames. When the physics work the way they're supposed to and you nail the timing, certain levels are wickedly fun to watch play out the way they're supposed to. Only a few of the game's thirty levels are actually that tricky, requiring you to be quick with your clicks to win, and I might actually have preferred a bit more of a challenge. All of this combines to make Pipol Smasher a flawed but fun little coffee break of a game to enjoy. Then again, I am admittedly a little twisted. How about you?

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Thanks to Roomescaper for sending this one in!

Whoa there, cowboy. You can put away your trigger finger for today. Come to think of it, while you're at it, why don't you let the gears between your ears cool down a bit? Pulsate by André Michelle is a relaxing little musical webtoy where you just click to create. Click anywhere within the black play area to create an orange circle that will expand until it touches another. When the two collide, they emit a tone and then shrink back down before expanding again. You can create as many circles as you want, including circles within circles, and the result is a simple but calming melody that sounds a bit like rain and a bit like a sedate toddler on a xylophone. Hit the [spacebar] to clear the screen.

It's lovely, it's relaxing, and it's just a shame that there's no way to share your musical explorations with people you can't physically pull into the room your computer is in. The ability to also just delete a single shape instead of the whole lot would have made it easier to experiment. Still, Pulsate is one of those simple little things that can put a smile on your face, and that's always a good thing. Despite a distinct lack of space aliens to blow up or princesses to rescue, it's a great way to spend some time. So go ahead and create a little; we promise you the universe will be safe for one afternoon without you.

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Once upon a time (about seven years ago), there was a brave man who got locked up inside a dungeon. As he fought to escape the many rooms of the dungeon, he found that many more rooms were added over the course of the next few years. Originally featured here back in 2006, Studiohunty is proud to present the completed version of Dungeon Escape!

In the style of old laserdisc arcade games such as Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, the goal of Dungeon Escape! is to quickly click the flashing ovals to let your hero (named "Guy") react to his surroundings. Clicking too slowly or clicking in the wrong area means an unfortunate (yet oddly humorous) death. Some rooms might take a single click to escape from, while others require a complex chain of ten or more clicks to conquer. You're allowed to die three times, but after that, it's game over.

While the graphics are much simpler than the original Don Bluth animations, Dungeon Escape! still packs a lot of quirk and pizzazz into each scene. In fact, this is one of the few games where I've found myself to be laughing when I die (which happens a lot). To make it through the game, it might take a bit of memorization to recall where the hotspots are in each scene, but more importantly, fast reflexes and an agile clicker-finger (touchpad users might have difficulty with this game). So if you're ready to take a trip back to the 80's (or a few years ago, which ever is more comfortable for you), lead on, brave stick figure! Your destiny awaits!

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Okay, so a friend phones you up and says, "Hey, I have this great new place, you should see it! Big, beautiful windows that let in a lot of natural light, high ceilings, everything you'd want in a residence." So you go over and yes, cool place, but then your friend locks you in. In the real world, you would probably just pick up the nearest expensive object and send it sailing through one of those stunning floor-to-ceiling windows and wander out, probably punching your former friend along the way, permanently destroying the friendship. However, this is the world of Tesshi-e, so instead of wanton destruction it is time to Escape from the Big Windows Room.

Tesshi-e room escape games are getting better and better with each iteration. Like Escape from the Rest House before it, Escape from the Big Windows Room is mostly in English, so at least you know what's going on. And at least this time you've not just wandered into somebody's house blindly. No, this time you are lured there. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Once again Tesshi-e brings us a delightful little confection, a classic room escape. Simpler than some of the games previous, Escape from the Big Windows Room still has just about everything you'd want in an escape game. Easy navigation bars on the side of the screen, a simple, uncluttered space, accessible inventory, a mute and save button, almost everything. Now all we need is someone who can write Japanese to e-mail Tesshi-e about changing cursors, and we'd be all set.

Tesshi-e has really gone all out on the backgrounds this time. The space is frankly so stunningly gorgeous your first thought might not be escaping so much as trying to figure out how to steal the lease/mortgage out from under your so-called friend. You know, the one who likes locking you into confined spaces. It would have been nice, however, if a little more attention had been paid to the puzzles. Not that this is a bad escape, and the puzzles are all logical and flow from one to another, but this is an example of "Tesshi-e light". Pretty basic, and easily gotten out of, even with the usual alternate "happy coin" escape.

Despite a bit of pixel hunting and the lack of a changing cursor, though, Escape from the Big Windows Room is definitely a great break for the mid-week, a fun pick-me-up to get you out of the doldrums. And perhaps even dream of maybe someday being able to afford to live in such a fantastic space. Hey, even in this economy, a person can dream.

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This is it; the last door. Despite the efforts of the Elders, you've made it this far, and you don't intend to stop. Your followers will set up a camp for anyone who wants to come and join your cause, but it's up to you to brave the darkness. Why are you here? What exists beyond the long, dark tunnels full of strange machinery and menace? This is Sanctuary 17, the new retro, action, exploration game with roguelike influences from Twofold Secret.

Initially, you can see very little; all you have is a weak flashlight that severely limits your vision. Use the [arrow] keys to move around the randomly generated map, [X] to charge your shield (if available), and [Z] to interact with certain terminals and fire your weapon. But you might not want to do that unless you absolutely have to, since you have a limited amount of battery power and each shot uses it up. Most enemies are minor annoyances. Robots, however, are another story; you can spot them at a distance because of the glow they give off, and you'll probably want to steer clear whenever possible. A single hit from a robot laser means instant death, and with narrow corridors like these, maneuvering can be difficult.

Keep an eye out for terminals; each one you boot up provides a save point. They also allow you to communicate with Rusty, someone who stayed behind (wherever "behind" is), but is still pulling for you and can be of great help. Unfortunately, most of the terminals you'll find need to be jump-started with some of your battery power... a significant chunk, in fact. Looks like you'll have to hunt down some robots after all, since they drop valuable batteries when destroyed.

If you die, well... stop it! Your group has a limited number of followers, and as long as somebody is still alive, you can continue the journey as a new person. More people join your group the longer you last and the farther you go, so learning how to keep your eyes and ears open for danger becomes important if you want to last. Of course, the farther you go, the more dangerous the robots you'll face become.

Analysis: If pressed by a pressing sort of person, I might describe Sanctuary 17 as a "kinda roguelike". It's got the randomly generated levels and items, but is realtime rather than turn-based. Strategy will get you far; trick robots into firing on each other, and learn to be an opportunist... whoever said shooting someone in the back is cowardly probably wasn't talking about deadly robots. While the tools at your disposal are initially pretty meager, if you're lucky you can find better items within boxes in certain rooms; from more powerful weaponry to lanterns to night vision goggles. With the simple, pick-up-and-play style and intriguing story, Sanctuary 17 is pretty addictive. Unfortunately, it can be pretty frustrating sometimes, too.

The problem is that since the map is randomly generated, you tend to see a lot of long, meandering corridors, and the game doesn't really offer much in the way of scenery to liven them up other than "Robots!", "Oh God, other robots!" and occasionally, "STUPID, STUPID SPIDER CREATURES." It really makes you wish the layouts tended to be more involved than just hallway after hallway. As such, you can go a long time without anything happening, and it's easy to get discouraged, particularly when your heroes are so inclined to burst into squishy redness at the slightest provocation. The end result is a somewhat uneven experience, swinging between periods of atmospheric exploration that have you going "Oooo" and keyboard-snappingly frustrating instant death that has you going "ARGH".

Fortunately, the game's randomly generating layout comes to the rescue when you least expect it to. After several playthroughs (okay, attempted playthroughs), I was still finding new rooms and bits of plot that fascinated me, and it was enough to keep me coming back for more, at least until I finished it. There are apparently three endings to discover, but if you've played Sanctuary 17 all the way to the end at least once, you've probably seen most of the little events and rooms it has to offer, and trying to complete it two more times might be asking a bit much. Still, if you've been looking for that elusive "something different", Sanctuary 17 will provide, and despite its limited appeal, is still worth a look.

Play Sanctuary 17