Hatch

On over at Eyezmaze has just released another addition to his ever-expanding collection of unique and enchanting Flash games. Hatch is an action arcade game that will put your reflexes and hand-eye coordination to the test.

To play, put your fingers on each of the keys of the keyboard representing the five colors as displayed. The game allows you to assign any keys that are most comfortable and accessible to you. It becomes important later in the game to be able to switch between them quickly and without having to look at your fingers. =)

Click Start to begin and items of the first color will begin to fall. Simply move the mouse to position the egg-ball-hatch thingy underneath the falling item to 'eat' it. Keep moving the mouse until all 40 items have fallen. Not too bad. Now the fun begins. The second level will drop 40 more items of two (2) colors. You must press the corresponding key to change colors before eating an item of that color. Level 3 has you switching between three (3) colors, and so on. At the end of the game, your score is tallied and the egg 'hatches' into something depending on how much was 'eaten'. The game saves what was hatched each game, so you just gotta hatch 'em all! It's a compelling reward system for a fun little Flash game.

While the game may appear unique, it actually borrows its gameplay core mechanic from Dennis Koble's Atari Avalanche coin-op arcade game of 1978. The same gameplay was later to appear repackaged for the Atari 2600 by Activision's Larry Kaplan in the game Kaboom! of 1981.

All things considered, On has managed to create a whole new game playing experience by adding his charming and original graphics and sound effects to a classic gameplay formula, while at the same time increasing the difficulty by adding multiple layers of complexity to it. The result is a game that is sure to delight and entertain people of all ages with On's simplicity of style and characteristic charm. Click.