More fun than I have had with a game in a long time, Peggle is the latest arcade action game from PopCap, and available as a download for Windows or Mac. Think of a pachinko machine and an upside-down breakout game and you will be close to the unique and simple gameplay found in Peggle. It made me giggle with delight.

Each level in the game consists of a variety of pegs arranged in formation—some formations are stationary while others move in undulating patterns. The objective is to clear all the orange pegs from the board by hitting them with any one of 10 balls that you start with. Using the mouse for aiming, fire a ball in the desired direction with the click of the mouse and then watch the results. It's just that simple to play.

If the ball happens to land in the 'free ball bucket' that automatically slides from side to side, then you are awarded a free ball! You are also awarded a free ball by racking up 25,000 points with a single ball. You will learn to carefully aim and time your shots as you improve your skills as there is much more to Peggle than simple blind luck(!)

To help you get started in the land of Pegopolis, you are tasked with completing a series of 10 training missions of 5 levels each. These comprise the Adventure mode of the game, which you must complete to move on and unlock the the more difficult Challenge mode. The training missions give you a chance to familiarize yourself and play with the Peggle Masters, each of whom represents a different type of power-up. A power-up becomes activated when you hit either one of 2 green pegs on every board, and their effects range from showing a visible guide for aiming your next shot to the powerful fireball that destroys all pegs in its path. Becoming familiar with the power-ups and how to get the most from them is important if you are to succeed with the more challenging levels in the game.

Once Adventure mode is finished you will then be able to begin chipping away at becoming Peggle Grand Master, reserved for only those players who can complete all 75 increasingly more difficult challenges. For example, in Adventure mode you only have to clear 25 orange pegs on each level. In Challenge mode there are 5 levels each in which you need to clear 35, 45, and 55 orange pegs; 5 levels in which you need to clear ALL PEGS; 5 levels in which you need to score 300,000; etc.

Analysis: I laughed out loud my first time playing, and I couldn't stop playing until I had all 55 levels completed in Adventure mode. It's just that much fun! It is such an easy game to understand and get started with, and yet you will discover that you simply can't succeed by just dropping balls haphazardly. There is a skill element to it that gives the game its depth, but it's deceptive. Not until the later levels when you find yourself quickly running out of balls will you realize a few strategies are needed to become a Peggle Master.

However, not only is the gameplay remarkable, PopCap really nailed this one in terms of enhancing the user experience. Through a concert of both sight and sound, a stunning display of particle effects explode on the screen to reward the player at the end of every level. But even more impressive is the dramatic, slow-motion, cinematic close-up just as the ball approaches that very last orange peg(!) And when the ball finally lands on it, the heavens open and a chorus of angels sing Ode to Joy! How cool is that?! Well, let me tell you, it doesn't get any better.

Oh, wait, yes it does. You can view an instant replay of any ball you've played and even save the replays to your computer's hard drive for later viewing again and again. You can even trade and share these replay files with others to show off your Peggle prowess. Lots of attention to detail can be seen throughout the game, from its gorgeous graphics and animations, amazingly realistic physics engine, colorful and infectious soundtrack, even the accessibility options available for colorblind individuals.

The downside is that the game does eventually become difficult. Some levels will have you playing again and again and you will still come up short. It can be a little frustrating. But concentrate on maximizing every shot and you will (eventually) succeed.

Peggle is a classic casual game: simple to understand, easy to pick-up and play, and difficult to master. Find yourself the nearest PC and download it now; it is very likely you will giggle with delight when you play as I did.

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Peggle is available to download from these affiliates:

Something Amiss is an online adventure game created by Tucker Bowen to promote his book of the same name. It has a distinctly classic Lucas Arts adventure flair with surprisingly good visuals. Two chapters have been released so far and Tucker has incorporated user feedback to make the experience as satisfying as possible.

The first chapter sets the stage and has you trapped in a dark, mysterious laboratory. Search the lab for clues to why you're alone and try to find a way out. It's a very short chapter and there isn't very much to do, but it's a good introduction to the series and gets you yearning for the next installment. Also, you'll need to remember a password at the end of Chapter 1 so you can play Chapter 2.

The second chapter in Something Amiss fleshes out everything that made the first one good and cleans up quite a few of the interface issues. After escaping the MRI room, Alice discovers she's no longer in Washington D.C., instead she's lost in the jungle. There's a lot more to explore in this chapter and the puzzles are more intricate.

To play the games, simply use the cursor to guide Alice around the environments. When you see an object you'd like to examine, use, or talk to, click and hold over it to bring up a small menu. A handy save feature is available for both titles, just hit the [esc] key any time during play.

Analysis: Something Amiss does a great job taking the classic adventure formula and turning it into a casual online experience. The story is filled with mystery, though it feels a tad cliche at times. It's early, though, and I feel there will be a lot of surprises in store. Some players have experienced a few minor interface glitches, so make sure you have the latest version of Flash and try a different browser if you continue to have problems.

Two great adventure games packed with mystery. Click.

Something Amiss: Chapters 1 and 2 walkthrough now available!

And now the moment you've all been waiting for! I present to you, things I like to eat (please restrain yourselves from jumping in joy). For breakfast I typically enjoy badly burnt toast with a crown of hard butter chunks. Sometimes, I even add a packet of jelly. The sensation of a strawberry surge across my taste buds is like no other pleasure. Lunch is, of course, only for weaklings. Dinner offers an amazing range of options. These can include delicious fettuccine in alfredo sauce, grilled salmon and pasta, spicy pizza or a bowl of stir fry. But what about dessert? Well of course there's the classic apple pie and vanilla ice cream, and for special nights you can enjoy delightful chocolate mousse. For those extra sophisticated patrons (monocle, top hat, the whole nine yards), I'd suggest a succulent black pudding.

As you may have noticed, I made a nice transition from talking about myself to talking about you (anyone who disagrees can see me out back). Why? Because I'd like to present you with a glorious menu of special Friday gaming dishes ready for sampling. Enjoy, and remember to select your favorite dish of the bunch! Bon Appetite!

We have a delicious special for you this Friday! We present two, yes TWO broccoli games!

• Run, lil' Broccoli - The blood-thirsty chef is out for to get your little green head! Do broccolis have blood? Do I want to find out? Isn't the plural of broccoli just "broccoli"? Should I go back and fix that? Why all the unanswered questions?


• Pants Volcano - Keep the suave broccoli dude shooting for the stars by shooting him with toast...and pants.

• Milpa - A rather fresh take on a match-3 where you swap crops in a line. Try making combos for culturally significant and nutritious bonuses.


• 5 keys - Keep track of your 5 grey diamonds to stay alive. The game does get a good bit more difficult, trust me. This week's score to beat is: 7430. I'm no pro so I think you can do it ;)


• Four Square Blues - Flip the tiles to make rectangles of four or more blocks. Not quite what you're thinking and a bit tricky to explain. Therefore I will instead describe how much I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Oh boy, do I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yes I do!


• The Impossible Quiz - A quiz of EPIC proportions! Test your untelligence! Answer questions! Think! Don't Think! Choose the right one: 1, 2, 3, or 4. Let confusion and eventual discovery rule the day!


• Giraffe - This song is based on a true story! Well, it's not as much a story as an attic...

Remember to get out and vote!

Fresh out the door from developer Nitrome is a brand new physics-based action game, Skywire. You control a small chairlift that runs a crazy path through the sky. Three passengers are on board who would appreciate if you got them to the goal unharmed. A variety of obstacles stand in your way, from birds dropping bombs (the real kind, not, you know, organic bird-type bombs), deranged-looking pandas, and whales that leap from the sea. Each hit you take knocks a passenger from the car. Lose all three and you have to start over again.

The controls in Skywire use a bit of physics to give it a very visceral feel. Press the [up] arrow to move forward and [down] to move back. You can't start and stop on a dime, you have to build speed. Momentum plays a huge part in the difficulty of the game, as you have to fight to climb inclines and hold back when you start sliding downhill. Don't be surprised if you find yourself grunting when climbing upwards to escape a crazed butterfly.

The art style is also superb and really lends a fun atmosphere to the game. Everything has a minature dollhouse feel to it that's difficult to describe but easy to enjoy. Most of the creatures are blocky and almost mechanical looking. Joining the colorful visuals is a wacky soundtrack that, despite my best efforts, is still stuck in my head.

There are 20 levels in Skywire, each with increasing difficulty. Your progress is saved automatically, so don't worry about messing up. Take your time and really drink in the game.

Analysis: This is one of my favorite games from Nitrome so far. I love the art style, the music is perfect, and the gameplay is really something to get into. Some of the hits you'll take feel a bit cheap, as the entire chairlift setup is vulnerable, not just the car itself. The stages often feel a bit short, but later when the difficulty increases you'll be glad they aren't longer.

Another great game from Nitrome to get completely addicted to. Click.

There is something inherently gratifying about smashing or destroying something, even watching a building be demolished is good fun. So it should be no surprise that we see the concept come up a lot in games. Stephen over at Ninja Kiwi claims that his latest Flash game, "is based on the very simple fact that popping balloons is fun." And you know what? He's right! In Bloons you get to pop a lot of balloons!

For control, you're given a small monkey with a handful of darts. To throw a dart, just aim with the mouse and press and hold the mouse button to power it up. A red arrow displays to help you gauge how hard to throw it; then just release the button when ready.

Clear each level by popping the target number of balloons displayed at the bottom of the screen. Of course, to make things interesting, you are limited to a certain number of darts per level, sometimes even to a single dart!

With 50 unique levels to unlock, Bloons will keep you busy for a very long time, if you let it. Stephen provides much in the way of environmental hazards and power-ups to keep the game interesting. Ice balloons, exploding balloons, tack balloons and boomerangs are only just a few of the wide range of items available. My personal favorite, the Pac-Man balloon, summons the mighty Pac-Man himself and places him under your control for a brief, sweet moment!

Analysis: There is a lot to love about this game, not the least of which is the pure enjoyment you get from popping all the balloons you can. Moreover, if you fail to achieve the target for a level, you can keep trying until you get it right. There's no concept of lives lost or game over; just keep trying! The unlockable levels provide a sweet reward of something new when you finally meet the target goal, and an integrated save system remembers which levels you've unlocked across play sessions so you can pick right up where you left off.

But the game is not without a few minor flaws. The aiming control seemed a bit glitchy in the version play tested for this review, and it needs some sort of feedback displayed for the player to gauge against previous attempts. Also, it seems that the power meter is inaccurate. When throwing darts at the same power, one would travel too far and another not far enough. Perhaps just a little tweaking and refinement is all it needs.

A couple of minor blemishes to an otherwise outstanding and very addictive new game from Stephen Harris and NinjaKiwi. Enjoy!

For even More Bloons, be sure to check out the follow-up with 50 new (and more difficult) levels! Click.

Bloons walkthrough now available!

You sit yourself down in front of an odd looking, dusty old monitor that displays what appears to be a radar screen with a few colored markers and controls along the outer edge. There are no instructions to be found anywhere, just the thrill of discovery by pointing and clicking with the mouse. You can do no harm to it; nothing is going to break or send you whirling into space without a helmet. So leave caution to the wind and boldly go into Orbit.

Designed and developed by Sean Hawkes for our 2nd Flash game design competition held a couple weeks ago, Orbit is the quintessence of what we were hoping to see in the entries submitted. It is a simple puzzle game with no instructions, one in which discovery is integral to its charm and appeal.

There is indeed a solution, perhaps even three solutions, but you must first determine what is required of you. And even when you know what you need to do, the puzzle is still a challenge to complete.

Analysis: The design and implementation of this puzzle is very nice, apart from the performance issues it causes on slower computers and the total lack of sound—the background music loop that you hear is actually the main menu soundtrack from the competition. It fit so well that we left it like it is.

When running on a super-fast computer, this game is gorgeous with its particles all flying around while getting pulled into the central star of the solar system, and the decaying trails that the planets leave behind. Unfortunately, the game runs very slow on my Mac and I found that I had to reduce the quality using the right-click context menu for the game to move as it should. However, keeping it at the slower speed actually helps by giving more time to complete the puzzle, since there's a time limit involved.

The grow theme is present here, and it becomes integral to the gameplay as you progress. And when completing the puzzle, the player is rewarded with a nice display of thanks. All things considered, Orbit is an excellent entry and a fine puzzle game experience for people of all ages.

The atmosphere is great in this one, and the pure experience this game provides outweighs the fact that the gameplay is not too terribly difficult (once you figure out what the gameplay actually is). I'm still not sure why the buttons on the right are necessary—maybe so that it's more difficult to win by accident?

A new game from Donut Games, creator of Castle Smasher, has just rolled onto the web: Chicken & Egg. All the cute chickens have been trapped in their eggs by the Easter Bunny. It's your job to match like-colored shells together by sliding the eggs across the grid. When the pairs come together, they hatch, revealing a set of rather bewildered chicks!

The game takes place on an 11x7 grid that looks like a chess board. Eggs, walls, obstacles and dots are placed around the screen. Click an egg to bring up a set of arrows showing you where it can slide, then click an arrow to send it flying. Eggs slide in a straight line until they come in contact with an obstacle.

You have a limited number of shots in Chicken & Egg, so be economical with your moves. The trick is to plan several steps ahead and only slide an egg if you're sure it needs to be moved. Collecting yellow dots will increase your score, but don't worry too much about them, as your bonus for finishing with shots remaining is much greater.

There are 30 puzzles in all, ten for each level of difficulty. Even some of the early puzzles will require thought as well as trial-and-error. Plenty of challenge to keep you busy.

Analysis: I'm always excited when a new game from Donut Games hits. Chicken & Egg has all the trappings of a quick, coffee-break-style game: easy to play, polished, and, well, cute. Having a limited number of shots adds to the game's challenge, but sometimes I wanted to sit and experiment with the puzzles without worrying about shot limitations.

Polished, simple and fun. Easter hits a bit early this year. Click.

The old "navigate through a maze" concept enjoys a small rebirth in the form of Overhead Persistence, a gorgeous Flash game by Acrid Rose. Guide the cursor through each level avoiding the walls and any other obstacles in the way. One mis-step and you have to start all over. Normally a game like this wouldn't be anything special, but Overhead Persistence provides a great audio and visual package along with a level editor and other extras to make a worthwhile experience.

There are two major modes in the game: persistence and existence. The former requires patience, a stubborn resolve, and chamomile tea to prevent your nervous system from frying itself. The levels are long and often tense, and one mistake sends you back to the beginning. Existence is much more casually-oriented and features shorter levels and less-stressful gameplay.

Another nice touch in the game is the ability to view background artwork and play any stage at your whim. It takes some of the pressure of completion away and allows you to experience more of the game.

Overhead Persistence is actually part of a series of "overhead" games with a similar "don't touch the walls" design. Each one has a unique theme, though Persistence is the most polished and complete of the lot.

Analysis: Overhead Persistence is just like any old maze game on the surface, but the beautiful visuals and soundtrack make it special. The creative maze elements (such as moving doors and swinging objects) make it exciting and challenging. The parallax backgrounds are a nice touch and add a lot of depth to an otherwise flat game. It's the same old mechanic at its core, but with so many bonuses it's hard to overlook. Click.

Cheers to Tim for sending this one in!

We are very pleased to announce that JIG has made it onto the tangible printed page of WIRED magazine in the April issue (shown).

You can find us mentioned in the Playlist feature, an article that lists 10 things the WIRED folks think are cool (or "wired") for the month.

It's not an exceptionally large mention, but we are nonetheless grateful for the opportunity to be included in such a well-respected print (and online) magazine. Thank you, WIRED!

(Now if only the Jayisgames.com on those pages were clickable. A small icon of our JIGster would be a nice addition, too. ;)

From John Hattan comes BaffleBees, a quick, fun puzzle game for those on a coffee break. Be the best by ordering your bees around the hive until your entire honeycomb is filled with honey.

Control of your bees is as simple as clicking and dragging. In fact, it is clicking and dragging. When a bee is on a honey spot, that spot and the surrounding six spots are toggled. If they started empty, then they fill with honey, while if they have honey, they empty out. By recognizing some common patterns that show up, you will soon be ordering bees around like a queen. Beware: you only have three chances to attempt for a hi-score. High scorers that have logged in will have their game displayed on the hi-score table the next day. The top games can even be played to show the steps that were taken to complete it.

Login is not required to play this game or any of the others on the site (a recent change), but logging in does have advantages. Most notably you can have your game displayed on the hi-score table. You can also start accumulating a wide array of trophies that are awarded for the different games. These awards come for a variety of reasons such as a perfect score or taking too long to finish the game.

Analysis: The game has extremely simple graphics and almost zero sound. That said, it is fun and casual play. I found this nearly a month ago and yet I still play it almost daily. Little details make all of the difference in a simple puzzle such as this. For example, the tile that you drag the bee out of is highlighted. This allows you to easily replace it without costing yourself a move.

There are a multitude of other games on the site as well. Many of the games are similar to other games at other sites. ConFusebox, is similar to Rotate2 at Games for the Brain, but its gameplay is much better. In ConFusebox, the pieces can be rotated in either direction and the game tends to feel smoother and more responsive on my machine.

Another interesting feature is the developer's blog which has been going since 1999. For those interested in developing games as well as playing them, John Hattan has some interesting insights into the game development world.

Overall, Baffle Bees is a fun puzzle to solve and a fun site to explore. Click.

Ah, the daily grind! One of the things we hope to do here is relieve you of some of the grind in your daily life, by bringing you the finest in casual gameplay the Web has to offer.

Today I actually bring a little extra grind with your relief in the form of Tau'ri Bedrock by Luca Deltodesco, an unusual and original platformer that is a bit reminscent of Loco Roco for the PSP, in some respects. In Bedrock you play a... slime? blob? that has been tasked to roll a boulder through levels upon levels of verdant terrain in order to return it to its parent rock. The arrow keys move your blob, which has the handy ability to squeeze to fit into the narrowest of passages and float on water.

Your boulder alas cannot fit through narrow passages nor does it float, and that's where the puzzle-solving of this platformer comes in. Without letting your boulder get too far ahead of or behind you, you must direct it onto elevators, toss it down steep ravines, and push it ever-so-slowly out of shallow pools in order to reach the end of each stage, where you are then presented with a factoid on the creation of the game itself and a password to return to the same level the next time you play. Was that a run-on sentence?

Analysis: Tau'ri Bedrock is an excellent game that is probably too easy, but I prefer too easy over too hard in a game like this. Push your little rock around each level and enjoy the delightful music accompaniment that doesn't ever quite get annoying, though the grinding sound of the rock as it rolls does just a little bit. There are very nice touches in the graphics, such as a grove of trees (a grove being, you know, like three) having varying levels of depth, so that you pass in front of some and behind others. It's especially fun when you're offered several downhill runs in a row and can just toss the rock down the slope and race after it as fast as you can, pretty much letting gravity take over.

A quick hint on movement: it may be my imagination, but it seemed that using the arrows in combination with one another makes you move slightly faster on the diagonal slopes. So when moving to the right and up at a slight angle, push the [right] and [up] keys together. It wasn't intuitive to me at first since you're rolling along the ground and it seems like it shouldn't matter, but it does. Don't get caught just holding the left and right arrow keys all day long, use them all. This isn't Super Mario Bros.

Thanks for listening, and enjoy Tau'ri Bedrock! Click.

Cheers to John for sending this one in!

Matt Hammill's downloadable Gesundheit! (Windows) is a beautifully hand-drawn, action puzzle game with a soothing toy-instrument soundtrack (you'll need it) and adorable sound effects. You play an allergic pig chafing under the invasion of hungry monsters from the mountains. The monsters can hear your footsteps, and if they see you, they'll eat you. But you have a secret weapon—your yummy snot! Build up a decent booger, launch it in the monster's direction and lure it toward traps that will swallow them up. You can only have one booger on the screen at any one time, to prevent you simply leaving a neat trail of boogers towards the traps. Bounce the booger off obstacles, toss it through portals and launch it across rivers and canyons. You can also do other neat things with your boogers. Experiment and see what yummy snot can do for you!

Analysis: This is a pretty nifty game to play. The principle is simple enough, but luring the monsters into the traps without getting snaffled is harder than it looks. The illustration is absolutely beautiful, with a watercolor feel that should entrance those of you who swooned for Sprout.

Another subtle feature that I think you'll appreciate is the soundtrack, which is high quality and has a certain Morricone-ish feel in parts. Unfortunately, the download is Windows-only, which is a shame as I think it would appeal to Mac users especially. Console yourself by checking out the rest of Matt's homepage, such as his bedroom and bio. Click.

Windows:
Download the free demo

Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.

Cheers to Joe and Remister for sending this one in!

The sequel to the hit real-time simulation game Virtual Villagers is upon us: Virtual Villagers 2: The Lost Children. The second installment continues the story and leaves everything intact that made the original game so good. Sixteen new secrets to uncover, new technologies, and a whole new beach to explore, Virtual Villagers 2 is the perfect sequel to an already captivating game.

After exploring their corner of Isola, the villagers from the first game uncovered a path hidden in a dark cavern. Two villagers followed this path and discovered a beach filled with hungry, dirty children fighting for survival. You must help them by teaching them the same farming and research skills you learned before.

Virtual Villagers is a simple and enjoyable strategy, simulation game with very straightforward game mechanics. Your goal is to keep the village thriving by ensuring everyone is well-fed, healthy and happy. In order to advance your technology and uncover the island's secrets, you must train the villagers to perform various tasks. Simply drag and drop any adult to the appropriate area to teach skills such as engineering, farming, healing, scientific research and more. Level-up these technologies to perform your daily duties more efficiently and unlock the hidden potential of the island.

One of the most interesting things about the Virtual Villagers games is they play out in real-time. There's only so much you can do in one sitting, so you have to play in short increments several times each day. Once you set the villagers to work, leave the game, have lunch, go to school or work, then come back later in the day to see how they've progressed. Although it limits the things you can do each time you play, it goes a long way for extending the game's life.

Analysis: Virtual Villagers 2 is a fantastic follow-up to the original game. Very little was changed for the sequel, but the first one got so many things right that Last Day of Work didn't need to re-invent the concept, just tweak it. Villager management is as easy as drag-and-drop, and the new mysterious are a joy to uncover. Virtual Villagers 2 feels a bit more polished than the original in a number of small ways, such as children resembling their parents.

Like Virtual Villagers 2? Check out our review of the first Virtual Villagers game. Also be sure to check out Westward, a similar casual simulation game set in the old west.

There are a few minor bumps in the road to Virtual Villager perfection, however. For starters, the game doesn't offer much in the form of instant gratification. Once your village is running smoothly, you can leave them alone for days at a time without checking in. It comes in handy if you don't have time to play, but if you're itching for your Virtual Villagers fix, it can be frustrating. Random events seem a bit more common in the sequel, so that does help ease the separation anxiety.

Virtual Villagers 2: The Lost Children is an excellent title that defines modern casual gaming. You don't have to put in a lot of playtime to get the experience of a long, involving game.

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Virtual Villagers 2 is available to download from these affiliates:

Virtual Villagers 2: The Lost Children walkthrough now available!

Guxt is a fantastic and free top-down shmup from Pixel, author of the beloved Cave Story, or Doukutsu Monogatari. Although not yet complete, a 5 stage demo is available for Windows.

USB gamepads are supported, but the controls are very simple even if you don't have one; move with the arrow keys and fire by pressing [control]. Collect powe-rups to upgrade your arsenal or increase your speed, and don't get hit. That's all you need to know!

One interesting feature of Guxt is the play-records directory, created when you run the game for the first time. A record is saved every time you play, and you can watch your previous games by dragging the save files onto the game window. If you're feeling generous, email them to Pixel to aid in his continued work tuning the game.

As with Cave Story, Pixel doesn't attempt to be revolutionary or even particularly modern, but his original music, sound effects and pixel-perfect sprites come together beautifully in this difficult but fair shooter. Enjoy!

Windows:
Download the free demo

Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.

Get the Glass is a 3D board game produced as a part of a new Got Milk advertising campaign in the US. The object of the game is to get the Adachi family around the board and into Fort Fridge so that they can...erm...Get the Glass.

Using the mouse, you throw a single die to move around the board. Most squares result in the picking of one of three types of cards: Fortune cards move you forward, Misfortune cards move you back, and Mastermind cards require you to solve a puzzle. Hot on your tail are the Fort Fridge security guards who will throw you into Milkatraz if they catch up with you. End up there three times and your quest is over. Turns are interspersed with a series of mini-games which you will need to complete successfully to proceed.

Analysis: Graphically, this is jaw-droppingly good. The retro look and feel really evoke a family board game and there is enormous attention to detail from the realistic physics of throwing the die, to the design of the in-game cards. The audio is similarly polished and the "interactive challenges" provide variety and ensure that the gameplay is both engaging and entertaining.

However, all the audio-visual finery comes at a price: don’t even think about playing this unless you have a broadband connection, and a fast one at that. Even then, loading times can be agonizingly slow and there are frequent breaks in the action for new content to load. I also encountered a couple of hangs when I ran this in Firefox.

That said, this game pushes Flash gaming to new graphical levels and deserves to be played. Click.

This week's Link Dump Friday is brought to you by the letters H, R, Z, and by the number 642. Look for references to those letters in each game featured below. Then multiply by the square root of pie (cherry). Once you find the solution, let us know by sending smoke signals from your backyard. We'll arrive shortly with a bouquet of beautiful flowers commemorating your efforts.

• Cosmic Crush - One part gravity, one part flailing around in the darkness of space. Cosmic Crush lets you absorb planetoids smaller than you in an interesting cross between Katamari Damacy, Orbital, flOw, and that game where you do stuff in space.
• Mesira: Chapter 2 - A nice-looking RPG with a good soundtrack and classic role playing gameplay. It's the second part of a series, but you don't need to play them in order to know what's going on. This installment is actually better than the original in many ways. You can always check out the first chapter just to feel like a good person.
• 5 til - It's 4 Second Firestorm, but not really. You're a spy doing typical spy-like things. Complete each task in the alotted time while attempting to be half as cool as James Bond.
• Paso Doble - A 3D java game where you control a puppet in a wooden maze who's trying to reach the goal. The trick is... you can only move two steps at a time. Brain hurt +10.
• Bubbles Revenge - It's a tribute/clone of Manuel Fallman's brilliant Bubbles game that we reviewed/mentioned here a very long time ago. This one was created by a fellow RIT student, Andrew Ray, and he tells me he spent almost a year in production with it. We can never get enough bubbles, bring 'em on!

And that wraps up another link dump. Ooh pretty.

Sometimes JIG contributor, sometimes game developer, Jared Riley sends word of his latest effort, a hypnotic and relaxing shooter if ever there was one. Man your bubble ship on an excursion through a vast bubble field seeking out hostiles to assimilate in Bubble Tanks.

Navigation control is with the WASD keys on the keyboard, aim and click the mouse to shoot. You are at first equipped with a weak but unlimited cannon, with larger and more fierce weapons available by absorbing the bubbles your enemies leave behind. The more bubbles you collect, the larger your ship and the greater your weapon become. But as you grow so do the enemies that you will find around you. Lose all your bubbles, however, and the game puts you back to the nearest safe bubble where you get to start your ascent again.

Analysis: The graphics are simple and yet nicely styled, and it all comes together exceptionally well. The soundtrack, although a bit repetitive, is relaxing and complements the atmosphere of discovery. As I was playing the game while writing this review someone submitted the game, using our online game suggestion form, and described it as being similar to flOw. At first I didn't agree; but as I progressed further with the game I could indeed see the similarities. Perhaps Bubble Tanks was influenced by the elegance of flOw, and yet it is most certainly a different game entirely.

The first few bubbles you come to contain instructional text that guide you into the game play gradually, this is a nice effect and a creative way of educating the player. Also, by forcing the player to move between bubbles, Jared can limit the number of objects onscreen at any given moment, thus keeping the overhead for event processing and collision detection manageable for a game that boasts over 37,000 enemies instantiated when the game begins.

Beyond that the game becomes a grand adventure of discovery. I particularly enjoyed how the enemies would change gradually, always keeping my interest by giving me something new to encounter before very long. That observation is from moving always in one general direction toward one of the edges.

I would like to see some gauge of my progress, perhaps a map showing the bubbles cleared, or the number of bubbles assimilated or within the size of my ship; just something to look at besides simply moving to yet another bubble. The game is still very nice as it is, and yet it would benefit from some sort of feedback regarding how far I've gone and how much further I have yet to go.

The other thing it needs is mappable keys. Any game that requires keyboard input should allow the player to change the default mapping to one of their own choosing. There are just too many different keyboards in the world not to support this optional feature in games today. (Update: new version now up with mappable keys! Thanks for the quick response, Jared!) That being said, I dislike keyboard controlled games as a rule, and that aspect of this game was my least favorite part of it. Jared tells me he would like to include an option for controlling the ship entirely with the mouse, so perhaps we may get an upgrade soon.

All things considered, an excellent job, Jared. It's a very addictive game and had I not reached some bizarre "function:include" error in the middle of play, I would probably be still playing and not finishing up this review. I am still unsure whether it was just some strange combination of keys I was pressing at the time, or if I actually triggered something in the program. Is there an end to the game? Please find out and report back. Click.

Danny Miller's Boomshine is a new riff on the chain-reaction action pioneered by Omega's Every Extend. The goal is to remove a given number of the colorful, floating dots moving around the screen.

Simply click the mouse to trigger an explosion; any dots that come into contact with the resulting circle will also explode, although after about 3 seconds each explosion will shrink and vanish. Every level increases in demand for the number of dots that must be removed, from level 1's laughably easy 1 out of 5 to the formidable 55 out of 60 in level 12. You'll want to make your first explosion count, because that's all you get. After setting off the chain-reaction, sit back and watch the explosions play out and, if you've removed enough dots, advance to the next level.

Boomshine is surprisingly addictive and the sparse visuals grew on me after my first dozen games or so. Overlapping explosions result in an appealing color blending effect, which can unfortunately cause a bit of slowdown. It would be a stretch to call Boomshine relaxing—watching those dots float by milliseconds after your chain-reaction begins to shrink is a little too agonizing for relaxation—but it is certainly refreshing, and a nice, albeit simple addition to a rapidly growing category of casual gameplay. Enjoy!

Tower of Babblers, an entry by Lars A. Doucet in our second Flash game design competition, is one part puzzle, one part frantic action game. It takes the contest theme of "grow" and morphs it a bit into "build", incorporating cute fuzzy creatures into one of the most unique titles entered into the competition.

Start by clicking the far right cubes a few times to uncover the stage goal. Colored stacks of blocks will appear in one of six positions, each representing a slot on the main part of the game. Your job is to build the towers represented on the right using three different colors of workers. Click the blocks to the left to make a worker pop up, and click the worker to change its color. Like-colored workers build the corresponding block colors, so group them together and let them do their thing.

The real fun comes when you need to destroy blocks or halt construction on a tower. To stop the workers, put a pair of different colors together. To destroy blocks, simply place one worker of each color on one square and they'll start tearing everything down piece by piece. Be sure to stop the workers before a tower reaches the clouds!

Analysis: Tower of Babblers has a great theme, wonderful retro VGA graphics and a delightful soundtrack. Lars has done an excellent job pulling together the whole package into an unforgettable competition entry. It deviated from the "grow" theme a little, but the game itself more than made up for that.

Many players found it difficult figuring out how to play the game. I tend to gravitate towards titles that don't state the mechanics up-front, so Tower of Babblers was even more fascinating to me. Would a tutorial or instructions make the game better? I'm inclined to say "no". Not only does it add a vital element of discovery to the game, it also fits nicely with the whole "Babel" theme.

Tower of Babblers is a welcome blend of puzzle and action elements that gets quite frantic at times. Thanks for another brilliant game, Lars! Click.

Be sure to check out other games by Lars here, or at his site Fadupinator.

Not quite Grow, but more along the lines of Build, the concept behind this game stood out more than most. Micromanagement games aren't really my cup of tea, but I'll give Lars credit for this one—there's not much that would improve this one in my opinion. Hiding the plans for the tower did not add anything to the game, and frustrated me to no end before I checked the comments. Also, the music got pretty irritating after a while. However, I loved the voices, the Biblical elements, and the old-school-type graphics. A very solid entry.

I liked the game fine, but as with zxo micromanagement games give me hives... ON MY BRAIN! I did however fall in love with the game at first sight because of the absolutely stunning, nostalgia-inducing EGA graphics.

I struggled with Tower of Babblers the first time I played, determined to figure it out. I could not. It wasn't until after the first few comments began to appear, which suggested to click on the vine covering to reveal the information underneath, that the whole game began to make sense. I understand why Lars chose to hide it—to enhance the 'discovery' aspect of the puzzle—but I feel the entry was harmed more than it was helped by doing so. That being said, and once the player is over that initial hurdle, Tower of Babblers rises into the heavens by virtue of being an enjoyable action puzzler. It is an exceptional effort with considerable thought put into every element. Original graphics and music make this entry really shine. Very nice job!

Games for the Brain is a delightful collection of short, fun and challenging mini-games playable right from your web browser. When we first featured Games for the Brain it had a smaller selection of games, but thanks to a few updates the site now hosts nearly 40!

While only loosely brain-oriented, all of the games on the site manage to tickle the gray matter in a different way. You get an IQ score for each game, but unfortunately it isn't cumulative and doesn't carry over between titles. Still, for a quick brain-related fix, it's a well-designed site with a wide variety of content. Click.

Here's a quick breakdown of a few of the new games:

Counterfeit - A "spot the difference" puzzle. Two images are shown, you must click the areas that are different.

Guess the Colors - A simplified version of Mastermind where you must use simple clues to guess the position of the colored pegs.

What Did I Search For? - Decipher the clues and see if you can figure out what the search was for. Similar to Gwigle.

SpeedType - Type the words as fast as you can as they fall from the top of the screen.

On a side note, Philipp, the game's creator, also has a collection of over 700 avatar sprites he has made available under the Creative Commons license. Perfect for instant messaging icons, forum avatars and much more.

Dotville is a city-building Flash game along the lines of Civilization, but greatly simplified. You play the leader of a tribe of Dots (yeah, Dots) and must rise to the rank of Emperor in fifty turns, then defeat the evil empire of Squares. It was created by Finefin for Neodelight.

Each turn corresponds to a year in your character's life and allows you to spend money building food-producing farms, money-producing markets, as well as your military industrial complex in the form of smiths and mines. Your people also have a happiness meter that goes down due to random events and hunger, but can be raised by investing in public works and fortifying your castle. In order to raise in rank—from a humble citizen to a hero, prince, king and then emperor—you must raise your fortress and the happiness of your citizens. It's simple, and yet somehow very complex.

Intermittently, the Squares will try to raid you, but they can be beaten, even without an army, with a few deft moves in a Tic-Tac-Toe mini-game. The final battle, which occurs if you've become an emperor by the end of the game, is a Rock-Paper-Scissors mini-game where you wager troops to deduct from the enemy's total, or lose from your own. Random events occur throughout and can be frustrating, as a sudden punk demonstration can thwart your happiness level a few turns before the end causing you to lose the game for no apparent fault of your own. But, there's a way to play that lets you shrug off even the worst fortune. I don't want to ruin the experience, but reinvest your money in markets as often as possible, and you'll do ok.

Dotville is a flawed but fun attempt to bring city management gaming down to a t