The Asylum: Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly Toys finally has another cute little patient to treat: Dub the Turtle. Just like the previous toys, Dub has a problem and can't be his normal cuddly self. It seems something happened to him with his previous owner, and now the poor turtle can't stop exercising!

Using your masterful skills as a psychiatrist, work your way down the checklist of therapies and get to the root of Dub's problem. Dream analysis, an interview with a sock puppet, musicotherapy and more are all at your disposal, and each one reveals a little more about the toy's history and current mental state. Can you help Dub take a chill pill and stop skipping rope? Play The Asylum.

Jay - If you have never played this game you are in for a real treat, as there are now 5 animals to cure and each with its own engaging story to tell through nicely animated cut scenes. The Asylum delivers one of the most emotionally moving interactive narrative experiences I have ever encountered in a Flash game. And it still remains one of my all-time favorites to this day.

For a larger game window, try this link.

Cheers to thecritic and moo for sending this one in!

A healthy smattering of link dumped games this Friday, many of which are from developers you already know and love. The creators of Warp Forest, Bloons, and Submachine each have a new game available to play, and as luck would have it, they're all different genres than the titles that the developers are famous for!

• Zeba - A brand new release from Bloons creator Ninjakiwi combines old-school top-down puzzle gaming with fire, acid and ice! Move the little critter around the grid and tap the spacebar to fire. Your goal is to eliminate every material from the screen, and it's not as easy as it sounds.
• Wogger-Mini - The series of Samorost-esque point-and-click adventure episodes recently hit a milestone 100 installments. That's... a lot of pointing and clicking.
• Mission to Mars - From the Mr. MothBall, Covert Front and Submachine series creator comes another great-looking platform game starring a weirdo alien collecting keys to unlock doors on Mars. Or is he an anteater in a spacesuit?
• Fireflies - A soothing game of luck and skill where you try to explode fireflies using the allotted number of shots. Your weapon bounces off the jagged walls, but aiming and hitting all the randomly floating bugs is almost more chance than skill. And does anyone else think it's sad to blow up fireflies?
• Touch the Bubbles 2 - From the creator of Warp Forest comes a musical puzzle game where you must repeat the melody using a series of bubbles. If you have a good ear for music you'll have an easier time with the game, otherwise it ends up being more of a guessing game.
• Conceptis - Few websites do free online/printable number/picture pizzles as well as Conceptis. Try your hand at weekly sudoku puzzles, or get fancy with kakuro, battleships, slitherlink, hashi, and half a dozen varieties of picture-forming puzzles. Some can be played online and all can be printed and solved with a good old fashioned pencil.

Thin Ice is the latest game from the Nitrome factory assembly line of casual gaming goodness. In this game you control a skater (of the wintery variety, not a Sk8ter) that is somehow threatened by the extended family of the yeti from that Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer claymation movie. You may recognize the characters from the previously reviewed (and excellent) Frost Bite. By skating circles around these strange creatures you cause them to sink into the pond, where they presumably die of hypothermia. Freeze all of the things that are different from you to win and move on to the next charmingly snowy level, but don't fall into the holes cut into the ice yourself or you'll lose about 25% of your health meter.

The game's interface is fluid as a snowflake that melts before you can show anyone: Simply click the mouse to skate and move the mouse to adjust the direction that your skater moves. This results in a really gentle adjustment that allows you to lace beautiful patterns all around. While you're sinking beasts into the lake, you can also pick up treats like ice cream and letters that spell "BONUS" which gives you points. Elegant and pristine with very nice pixel art filling out the sides.

Thin Ice is an enjoyable concept executed in classic Nitrome fashion, but it fails to provide an experience without a few minor kinks. In this case, the speed with which your trail recedes is equal to the speed of your skater. I guess the designer thought that making the two speeds equal would create balance, but it actually creates some frustration. Often I found myself chasing the trail in order to close a circle, something that might easily be tweaked by adjusting a variable in the code. Likewise, the physics feedback from colliding with a monster could be tuned down.

Overall, this is another fantastic experiment gone mostly right. Play Thin Ice.

As noted in the comments, Thin Ice is a game with roots in another game of the same name released in 1986 by Mattel Electronics for the Intellivision. The gameplay mechanic of creating loops around enemies and objects dates back to the arcade game Quantum by Atari, from 1982. Notable Flash games more recently that employ a similar mechanic include gameLab's Loop and Ferry Halim's Floats.

Beetle Wars is a great looking shooter disguised as a war between super powered insects. You are but one little super powered beetle and have the potential to possess an assortment of miraculous talents, available via purchasable upgrades. Select the ones you like with the hard-earned cash you earn by defeating your foes.

Your goal is simple: Kill all the other beetles and insects around you without dying; how you achieve that goal is not so simple. With 18 levels to complete and 19 different skills to choose this game gives you a lot of choice as to how you want to define your winning strategy. It has a good mix of passive, offensive, and defensive abilities to suit almost any strategy you can come up with. Although you have 19 different skills you can choose from, you will first need to save up the gold to pay for them and even then you can only take 6 with you into each battle. You start out with a simple ranged attack but it isn't too long before you are able to afford some of the better skills

You may need to play some levels a few times in order to save up for some of the skills you need to beat the later levels, but with a variety of different level types, this shouldn't really be too much of a problem. Although I did find the difficulty curve to be quite steep, and the gameplay a bit slow to get rolling, this game is definitely worth the trouble.

The game does save your progress so it's perfect if you just want to play a level or two on your coffee break, or sit at home and plow through the whole game. And even after you're done you can play through again trying a completely different set of skills. Play Beetle Wars!

From GUMP, the creator of Rental House comes another well-produced, point-and-click, room escape game.

Guest House puts you in a similar situation as most games of its type: click the mouse to select items; double-click to examine items in your inventory. Once you begin to move about the room and examine the various items and objects that await your puzzle-solving skills you will see that this is no ordinary room escape game.

Like his previous efforts, GUMP's latest escape game has a nice Viridian Room feel to it, both in style and quality. The only thing missing is a little narrative to thread everything together. Play Guest House.

Cheers to Megaera for the alert about this new release. =)

Did you know that today is the 328th day of the year? You only have 37 days left to ponder the events of 2007 before you leap into the future and begin living the life of a 2008ian. Hope you have your hoverboots ready.

Aveyond (Windows, 24MB, demo) - With the release of Aveyond 2 scheduled for December 5, it's time to brush up on your role playing skills by diving into the original. Created by Amaranth Games, the same studio that gave us Grimm's Hatchery, Aveyond is an old-style console RPG set in a fantasy world. No surprises there, but the plot, gameplay and pacing draw you in like few other games can. Some way it's like Westward, some say it's like every Super NES RPG ever released, but just about everyone agrees that it's a whole lot of good game. Aveyond isn't aimed at casual gamers, so expect to sink some time into it before you're thoroughly hooked. You can also download the demo or grab the full version of Aveyond from Casual Gameplay.

FastCrawl (Windows, 45MB, demo) - Miss the satisfaction you get when leveling-up characters and completing an epic RPG but don't miss the 80+ hours you must sacrifice to do so? Try FastCrawl, a deliciously old-school role playing game that strips away the learning curve and presents a thoroughly enjoyable game perfectly suited for a coffee break. You can also download and order FastCrawl from Arcade Town.

Route 960 (Windows/Mac, <1MB, free) - You are a driver. You have a car. You have to drive said car through horrible mountain terrain. As fast as you can. Slam down the [X] button to blaze your way across stunningly rendered Atari-age graphics and pump up the volume to hear mid-80s arcade sounds that should be extinct. Route 960 is so retro, you'll laugh. Seriously.

Deathworm (Windows, 3.5MB, free) - Oddly enough, this simple little game has been making waves in the indie gaming community for quite some time. Similar to Dolphin Olympics in playing style, you control a sandworm that swims through the ground and surfaces to eat people, animals, and more people. Sure, it's a bloody game, but it's small and simple enough to actually captivate you. And who can get that music out of their head?

Head Over Heels (Windows/Mac/Linux, ~15MB, free) - A remake of the original game, this isometric adventure is tough as nails but just as rewarding (assuming nails are very rewarding). Jump, walk, carry objects and grab items as you work your way through the puzzles in each room. Regular JIG visitors may recall the Flash game K-Mart Haunted House and its resemblance to this classic title.

Woozy from the post-holiday food rush in the U.S., Link Dump Friday attempts to set its mind on other things. Namely, free online games. Trains have nothing to do with food, so they're fair game for today, as are Japanese numbers, being dumb, and brains. Well, brains could count, but not really. Something's missing, though. Just one more game to complete the day. How about... AH! This skydiving game has nothing to do with food, this Lamb Chop — oh, wait, nevermind.

• San*Go - What would happen if a word search puzzle married a match three game? They would live happily ever after and create little baby games such as San*Go. Japanese for 3*5, your goal is to create as many three to five letter words as possible on the grid by swapping letters. Once a tile has been moved you only have three turns before it locks into place. It takes some time to bend your brain around the concept, but when you get the hang of it, look out, addiction. Created by Studio Cypher, the same team behind Entropic Space.
• DumbWords - From Hamumu comes another game along the lines of Dumb: The Game, only this time the game really is dumb. All you have to do is guess what the most popular answer to the daily question will be. That's it. You have to register for a free account, as scores are tallied and good guessers receive prizes.
• Railz - A simple logic puzzle game, Railz challenges you with bulding loops of railroad track by swapping pieces with empty spaces. After you swap a tile, a new piece is thrown in its place. Unmovable tracks toss wrenches in your plans and force you to be flexible. And hey, look! There's a 'Z' there instead of an 'S'!
• Brain Drain - A riddle game along the lines of God Tower and Ouverture Facile, only this one keeps things light-hearted and slightly whimsical. In addition to scouring the depths of your mind for clues, you'll also have to experiment with using the keyboard and mouse to solve puzzles a little more viscerally.
• Lamb Chop Drop - Created to benefit the Make a Wish foundation, Lamb Chop Drop is as simple as the name implies. You control a little sheep who has just leaped from a plane. Collect as many stars as you can to increase your score, and grab "?" bubbles to spice up your fall.

Believe it or not, Nitrome has just released another new game just days after Headcase and Pest Control. This one is for the MTV Arcade and it's called Twang. As the sound of the title implies, Twang is all about flinging a ball by pulling on nodes that connect pieces of platforms together. The resulting slingshot motion sends you flying around the stage hoping for a safe place to land.

Twang is entirely mouse-driven, simply grab the smiling nodes and pull back in any direction. The angle and intensity of your tug makes all the difference, so if you want to go high pull straight down, but if you want to move forward, give the node a little nudge in the opposite direction. With practice you can get the subtle nuanced flinging to send you almost anywhere you desire.

Analysis: While Twang shows the same level of polish and style as other Nitrome games, I can't help but feel it comes off as a little random. Blind luck is always a part of gaming, but in Twang every toss rolls the dice and gives you very little control over the outcome. It's the same sort of feeling I get when playing pinball. Practice, as always, curbs the randomness, but it's still a little too uncontrollable for my taste.

One of the best things about Nitrome games is the variety of new obstacles and creatures that appear as you progress through the levels. Twang is no different, introducing a number of fun twists just when you start to get used to everything.

Worth its weight in rubber bands (maybe twice over!), Twang is a fun and wacky game of platforming physics. And you just gotta love that twanging sound. Play Twang.

You can also play Twang at the MTV Arcade.

If you're a regular visitor here, then you probably love casual games and puzzles as much as we do. Most of the games featured here are browser-based, but once or twice we've featured a puzzle or two that require the old-fashioned method of pencil and paper. The logic puzzles from Coudal Partners are what I'm referring to, and they've just published another one, called Let's Do Lunch, for the Thanksgiving (US) holiday.

The Set Up: Four movie actors are in a cafe, sitting together at a square table, like the one shown here with the seats numbered. They are discussing their most recent projects while waiting for their salads. Each has just returned from a different location where he or she was shooting a different type of film, one of which is a costume drama.

From the information provided can you figure out where each person sat, his or her full name, the location he or she had just returned from, and the type of movie each had shot?

There is, of course, a contest associated with this puzzle and fabulous prizes will be given away to 6 lucky winners, the top prize being an authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza. Visit the puzzle page for details.

If you love this type of logic puzzle, be sure to check out Puzzlers Paradise, a website filled with logic puzzles just like this that you can print out, or use an integrated Flash interface for solving them. Good stuff. =)

Best wishes, from all of us here at JIG, for a happy and safe holiday.

We see clones of classic casual games everywhere—games with blocks that fall and lines that clear. But the ones that really shine through are those that build on a classic formula and make something new out of it. Chain Factor is one of the those games.

While the game may seem intimidating at first, with its grid of all sorts of numbers and the occasional boulder, it is actually deceptively simple. The game is played by dropping numbered discs into a grid, one by one, attempting to clear other discs off. A disc is considered "cleared" when it is in a row or column the size of the number on the disc. For example, if you placed a disc labeled 3 into a row of three discs, the disc of 3 would be cleared.

The downside to this creative approach is that it's virtually impossible to understand unless you know how it works. Luckily, there is a helpful FAQ available to explain how the game works, but the lack of an in-game help menu does create a slight barrier to new players.

The graphics in this game are not very impressive, but they are stylish and they maintain a sleek, chic look. Every disc is color-coded depending on it's number, but the colors are so similar that the effect is lost to some extent. Even the optional special powers have creative black-and-white logos.

Mentioning the powers brings up another point. This game, while simple at first, has an underlying layer of vast complexity. Special powers, available for use in Power Mode and Survival Mode, have to be unlocked, but not necessarily by you.

There is a password for each stage hidden... somewhere. In the media, on the highway, anywhere they can stick it and get away with it. These passwords then have to be entered three times to unlock a new power. Interestingly enough, you don't have to supply any passwords yourself; once three people in the world find and enter the password for any one power, that power will be unlocked for everyone to use. Every new power unlocked adds another twist to the Power and Survival Modes, and, until all of the powers have been unlocked, the new powers should give you a reason to go back and play again.

Analysis: Chain Factor is a beautiful game. Aesthetically, the environment is clean and modern. The game play is novel and manages to offer something that I've never seen before. The way the powers are unlocked is also an innovation to appreciate. This game is what you get when you manage to pack a fresh idea, a great developer, and a whole lot of fun together into one game. Play Chain Factor.

Cheers to Spectre, Kevin, Gregory, Ian and Dave for suggesting this one. =)

Pest Control is the latest from Nitrome, makers of the recent HeadCase and YinYang. You are the exterminator, your job: kill the bugs. You run through a wide variety of scenarios including different kinds of bugs, all timed, with slightly different win conditions. It's WarioWare with a swatter, and it (mostly) works.

The game is split into several levels that each have nine scenarios to beat. Each scenario involves a different kind of insect. For instance, in one you'll need to swat 40 flies in 30 seconds; in another you'll need to swat the bees without getting hit by their stingers, all in less than 25 seconds. The gameplay is simple: you control the position of a swatter with the mouse, and when you click, it swats. You must complete every challenge to unlock and advance to the boss scenario for the level, and you can replay them in any order to try for a higher score.

The game is not perfect though, both psychologically and in the gameplay balance. The bee levels in particular really get me, I was stung by 11 bees back in September while walking my dog through a marsh, the feeling still haunts my nightmares; if you've ever had an unpleasant experience with any member of the Arthropoda sub-phylum you'll be able to face those repressed memories here, probably to therapeutic benefit. Then there's the gameplay, because each section is a distinct version of the game, there is a need to give each a deal of balancing and play testing in order to keep the difficulty curve consistent and avoid any nagging issues. A terrible example of this is level 4-1, where you must swat down the fireflies while they're unlit. The problem there is they stay unlit for inconsistent time periods and without warning return to their harmful lit states. There are less dramatic examples of disproportionately difficult sections, particularly later on, that impede the player from enjoying a smooth flow to completion. Topping it all off, the chronic clicking involved in some of these levels can be exhausting, which might just compound with the disgust of dealing with all those bugs, but nobody said the job of an exterminator would be easy.

If you've got the stomach for it, I recommend you suit up and Play Pest Control.

Anika’s Odyssey: Land of the Taniwha is a beautiful point-and-click adventure by Tricky Sheep similar in style to Sprout or Samorost. In fact, it was designed and programmed by Jeff Nusz (Sprout), with art by Tom Robinson.

You begin with the innocent task of gathering water from the well. As a great eagle swoops from the sky and absconds with your rabbit pal, the bucket becomes a stool that allows you to jump the fence and begin your adventure!

Control is entirely mouse-driven and centers around clicking hotspots on the screen to enable various events. Your cursor will change when you hover over a clickable spot. To look around the environment, simply slide the mouse to the edge of the screen and it will gradually scroll in that direction. The game is largely exploration-based, so it's important to pay attention to your surroundings.

Puzzles are mostly confined to hunting for the next point to click or discovering which order to trigger the events. There are a few more traditional riddles to solve, however, but nothing too difficult. The game is heavy on charm and light on frustration, almost like an interactive storybook.

Anika's Odyssey manages to tell a simple but engaging tale with nothing more than images and sound. The visuals are absolutely beautiful, complete with layered backgrounds that give the illusion of depth. The music is equally enchanting and, when paired with the story of a young girl on a quest, conveys the rather innocent sense of adventure Anika must feel herself.

It's funny, it's cute, and there's a host of zany creatures just waiting to be discovered. Anika's Odyssey a little bit of storybook magic. Play Anika's Odyssey.

Anika's Odyssey walkthrough now available!

Talk about your misnomers! With a name like The Mind Bender, you’d think you were in for an epically long and devious puzzler. Instead, you get a simple, breezy platformer that should make for a nice break from the some of the more intense offerings we’ve reviewed lately.

Let the soothing oriental soundtrack whisk your worries away as you navigate your way through each level using the arrow keys. Using mouse-over-matter techniques, you may drag the wooden boxes to places that help you get over obstacles or keep you from landing on the dangerous spikes. Just click the box to form a telekinetic tether and drag it where you need it to be. While it is being transported, the box will blow an electric blue, and you’ll be able to pass right through it if you wish, but it turns solid again once it comes to rest (unless you’re in the way).

Besides spikes and boxes, the only other special block type is a glowing green barrier. You can pass through it, but blocks may not. There are no moving blocks or platforms, no keys to collect, no coins to seek out, just you and some boxes. This necessarily limits the variety of levels, but The Mind Bender does a good job of exploring the possibilities nonetheless. It also makes the mouse/keyboard duality of controls bearable, since at no time are you under any pressure to use both in rapid succession.

It’s OK to zone out while playing The Mind Bender — it’s really not that taxing on your brain or your fingers, nor is it trivially easy. Instead, it hits the sweet spot in between, in the realm where it’s possible to put yourself halfway onto autopilot while you decompress. Think somewhere in between Solitaire and Ball Revamped.

Or just play it for fun. That always works, too. Play The Mind Bender.

The third installment of the Core series, Prism Core, has just been released by John Feltham of Arcade Cabin. The game is similar in concept to the previous two in that you must figure out how to power the core using the various tools from around the room. This one proves to be somewhat more difficult than the previous games, however.

You are given a choice between three items to start you on your way: an instant camera, a genetic print out, and a power core. You will need different items for different reasons depending on which item you choose. For example, with the power core the game will tell you that you do not need the beaker on the table. This implies that with each item you may have to come to a different solution or that you will have to come to the same solution in a completely different manner. Either way is a very unique and welcomed twist on the escape the room genre.

Analysis: My biggest concern with this game is that I found it much more difficult than the previous two and had a lot of trouble getting going. This may not be an issue at all, perhaps my way of thinking is just different than the method of problem solving required by this game. All in all this is a great addition to the series and I definitely recommend checking it out. Play Prism Core.

Prism Core walkthrough now available!

Battle for Wesnoth is a free, open-source turn-based strategy game originally designed by David White. It's similar to games like Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Shining Force in that each player commands an army of units, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Battles take place on a hexagonal grid and layers take turns moving armies and issuing commands.

The first major feature that sets Battle for Wesnoth apart from the competition is the presence of simple online play. None of this joining 187.13.122.23 and opening ports 2000-2500 only to find the servers are down. Instead of forcing players to host or join games, Battle for Wesnoth has its own dedicated server where anyone can play. The online experience is very easy to use and works seamlessly. Online games can even be saved and loaded at a later time, so even if someone loses their connection the battle will continue.

If you aren't into multiplayer there's a vast amount of single player gaming to be had. Whereas a typical tactics game might offer you a few campaigns, Battle for Wesnoth starts you out with no less than six. Ranging in size from a few hours to several days worth of play time, each campaign could stand alone as a game on its own. Not only that, but literally dozens more user-made campaigns can be downloaded for free right from the game's title screen. This adds near-limitless gameplay to an already robust title.

Battle for Wesnoth is also very friendly to users who wish to create their own maps. The rich editor (included in the game) allows you to use any element you've seen in a campaign in your creation. Artistic types can grab a separate program called CampGen to make an entire campaign, including customized units!

Analysis: Coded by many different programmers and featuring community-made graphics, campaigns and music, Battle for Wesnoth shows what a collaborative effort can accomplish. It also manages to streamline a complex game genre into something casual players can enjoy. Battle for Wesnoth is free and is available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux. Download Battle for Wesnoth.

This edition of Weekend Download serves as a firm reminder that some video games used to be painfully difficult. None of this coddling, tutorialized hand-holding gameplay you find today. Back then you were tossed in a blocky four-color world and had to fend for yourself. Brutally difficult games may be a thorn in the side of modern-day casual gamers, but it will help you appreciate the experience programmers have collectively gained over the decades.

Diner Dash: Hometown Hero (Windows, 21MB, demo) - After returning from her adventures on a cruise ship, Flo finds her hometown is a bit run-down. What better way to spice things up than by serving good food? Diner Dash: Hometown Hero uses the familiar time management formula and tasks you with seating customers, taking orders, serving food, collecting tips and clearing tables as efficiently as you can. The twist comes when the power goes out, quirky customers demand special treatment, or when Flo hires an assistant and competes for tips. Upgrade your restaurant and customize its look as you progress, then upload it to the Diner Dash website for others to play. A brand new multiplayer mode lets you compete against friends to see who the best diner dasher is!

ToJam Thing (Windows/Mac/Linux, ~5MB, free) - An almost trance-like single screen shooter, ToJam Thing is all about inflating and popping floating red bubble things that meander about the screen. When they burst they release collectables that increase your score. They also let loose poppers that will cause other red bubbles to explode, causing chain reactions. The game ends when the song ends, but there's a nice boss fight to cap off the experience.

Untitled Story (Windows, 8.4MB, demo) - An exploration-based platform game with a charmingly childlike hand-drawn visual style. It gets pretty difficult, but the level design is excellent, and there's a lot of different things to do. If you've played Seiklus, it's a bit like that, but with a ton of boss fights. The download is a demo (a rather substantial one), but you can get the full game for as little as one dollar, if you want to support the author. (Thanks Psychotronic!)

I Wanna Be The Guy (Windows, 39MB, free) - Think you're good at video games? Let this one prove you wrong. Forged in the fires of old-school platforming, I Wanna Be The Guy is brutally difficult to the point of being unfair. To make through each stage you'll die no less than two dozen times, each the result of a cheap game mechanic you could never have predicted. Trial-and-error is your weapon, and with time you can whittle away at the levels by experimenting and hoping you don't get squished. Game is in pre-alpha stage, so expect glitches here and there, and we'll slap on a PG13 rating for lewd humor and gory pixelated death scenes.

Banana Nababa (Windows, 2.5MB, free) - Continuing the "you're not good enough to beat this game" theme, Banana Nababa is another old-school flavored platformer with a high level of difficulty. The difference is you only battle bosses, none of that stage stuff in-between, as you climb the tower. Each of the six foes are tougher than the last and you'll have to use a little experimentation to learn each one's attack patterns and find a weakness. If you're into challenge, Banana Nababa is definitely the way to go.

Like an updated version of the classic Lemonade Stand game, Coffee Shop puts you in a young entrepreneur's shoes with the power to make or break your budding business. Buy ingredients, adjust your secret recipe, and set the price per cup to sell as much coffee to passers-by as you can. Strike a balance between customer satisfaction and profit and you're on your way to java-induced bliss.

Before each business day begins you'll have a chance to stock up on supplies. To make and sell coffee you need four ingredients: cups, coffee, milk, and sugar. You can adjust your coffee recipe to make a creamier, sweeter brew that customers might enjoy. The more you use in each cup the fewer people you can serve, so experiment to find a comfortable in-between.

Adding even more variety to the mix, customers have different preferences for their cup of joe, so you won't be able to please everyone all the time. And on cold days more people want a warm drink than hot days, so be sure to drop your price when the sun is blazing. Customers let you know what they think about your brew with icons floating over their heads. Keep a running tally of the overall opinion and adjust your recipe and inventory the next day.

Analysis: Coffee Shop is an excellent update to the old Lemonade Stand game some of us were hooked on back in the early days of computer gaming. The brief tutorial makes everything seem much more complicated than it really is, so read through it and dive right in. You can always adjust things later.

Excellent visual design and well-balanced gameplay, the only slight bone I have to pick with Coffee Shop is if you run out of ingredients and your stand closes, you have to sit there and wait out the day. Of course that kind of rubs in the fact that I didn't buy enough coffee to feed the hungry masses, so maybe the forced wait has a purpose after all.

A polished and highly addictive game. Makes you crave coffee, which can be a good or a bad thing. Play Coffee Shop.

The genre of casual resource management games is a true hit or miss genre that either appeals to you or it doesn't. If it does, then you are one of the people who has contributed to the wild success of Diner Dash, Cake Mania, and the like. And if it doesn't... this may be the game to change your mind.

Papa's Pizzeria, by Flipline Studios in Ohio, is more than your average resource management game. While a typical entry in the vein of Diner Dash would require little more than clicking on various hot spots to make and deliver the food to customers, Papa's Pizzeria gives it a more personal touch. Rather than clicking on an order and then on a station for topping the pizza, only to watch the pizza top itself, you must actually top the pizza yourself.

The basics of the gameplay are simple: Just swap through four stations, each an important part of the pizza-making process.

• The Order Station: This is where you will take orders from when a customer approaches the counter.
• The Topping Station: Once you have an order (or two, or three) queued up, this is where you will go to prepare the pizza. Topping is easy—simply drag and drop various toppings onto the pizza, according to the customer's specifications. Here's where some tricky bits come in—the customer not only decides what toppings he wants, but also where they should be put. For the best pizza, the toppings will need to be roughly evenly distributed around the area of the pizza he wants the toppings on.
• The Baking station: Once you finish working on the toppings, you can send your pizza directly to the ovens, where it will cook. It's up to you to take the pizza out when it's been baking for the right amount of time.
• The Cutting Station: After taking the pizza out of the oven, it's sent straight here. By drawing lines from end to end of the pizza, you cut it into pieces, according to how the customer ordered it to be cut. Then, when you are satisfied, you can finish the pizza, sending it out to the customer.

Your performance at each of these stations directly determines what score—or rather, how much tip money—the customer awards you when you pass the pizza along to him.

There is also a major element of time management present in this game. From the moment you take the pizza off the oven, you will be virtually locked into cutting it and serving it—which takes time. Perhaps too much time, if any of the other pizzas in the oven are ready to come out.

To help balance the amount of time it takes to serve the pizza and the amount of time it takes to stick the pizzas in the ovens, after topping a pizza, you get the option of saving it for later—very useful for when you finish a pizza but can't put it on the oven yet due to bad timing.

Analysis: What makes this game stand out from Diner Dash, Cake Mania, Miss Management, and the other notables of the genre is the presence of skill-based challenges. Not only does your skill at handling the various stations affect your tip—it also determines how quickly you can get done with the pizza itself.

The presence of these skill-based challenges really fleshes out the game beyond a simple challenge of what to click and when. That, combined with the excellent graphics and pleasant (if repetitive) music makes this an excellent game, both for the resource-management buffs and those of us casual gamers just out for a good time. Play Papa's Pizzeria.

You can also play this game at Kongregate for achievements.

The holiday season is approaching so everyone knows what that means: hoards of enemies that never seem to stop coming, training new troops, adding new turrets to your base, cannons with legs, stealing crops from your local agriculture community, and messing with the forces of gravity... All the usual stuffo. Oops. Did I say the holiday season? I meant LINK DUMP FRIDAY! Wooty-tooty!

• Age of War - draws elements from a complex strategy game and puts puts it into a much simpler format for the casual gamer. With only one base to defend on a 2D plane, it's very simple to keep track of everything that's going on. And with the ability to advance through different time periods the game utilizes 16 different units and 15 different towers very effectively. Did I mention you get special powers? Because you do.
• Twilight Heroes (previously reviewed) - is a rather old-school browser RPG where you make choices, explore, find items and gain abilities by clicking links, sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure story, but much more interactive. By day you're an under appreciated worker in a droll job, but when the sun sets you put on that crime fighting mask and patrol the streets. You develop super powers as you play, such as telekinesis or super strength, all depending on the class you chose when creating a character. Build your crime hideout when it's dark, but don't forget you have work the next day.
• Cannon Runner - is actually TWO games for the click of one. One is a simple but entertaining shooting game where you move your line… thingy... around and shoot stuff such as targets and cannons firing at you. Over time your weapon levels-up and becomes more powerful. The second is a more complex game that puts you in the place of a cannon that has legs. Your goal is to simply reach the end of each level. However, your cannon can't jump, so you must use your attack to propel yourself in the air as well as shoot enemies that are trying to stop you.
• The Guarded Garden - is similar in concept to Pac-Man where you must run around eating as many carrots as you can while avoiding the dogs that chase you. You lose health over time and when you get attacked. You can run by holding space but this will deplete your health reserves. How many carrots can you has? Om nom nom nom.
• Sola Rola – the Gravity Maze - is a unique puzzle game in which you need to get two blobs — Wiz and Waz — to their respective buttons. Their space ship is off-course and they're bored, so they decided to play with their ships gravity maze. Use the left and right arrow keys to rotate the stage and the blobs will roll around as blobs tend to do. The puzzles start out fairly simple but do get progressively more difficult.

Well this about wraps up this week's Link Dump Friday I hope these games can tide you over until JIG Poker Night, tomorrow at 3:00 PM (GMT -5:00).

Headcase is the latest platforming fiesta from Nitrome, creator of Hot Air 2 and Skywire. Set in a world of lush pixel art where gravity is fickle and your head is huge, you play a superhero dream-avatar (yes, that's about right) with a big 'up' arrow on your helmet. You stick to walls, ceilings and floors, allowing you to move around platforms as if you were an insect. You also have the ability to jump/fly in a straight line, kind of like Superman.

The controls are about as simple as you can get: Walk back and forth with the [arrow] or [W] and [D] keys, and jump with the [spacebar]. Enemies can also be dispatched using this head-bashing method. Not only can you jump from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, but walking to a corner causes you to change orientation. This works very smoothly and, when topped off with the spacebar gliding, gives the game a very relaxed flow that's hard to match. Kind of like Sonic the Hedgehog on a slow day.

There are 25 levels to work through and the difficulty progresses quite smoothly. Be prepared to get squashed more than few times on your way to the end.

Nitrome fans will recognize many elements of the game's design, from the catchy music to the visual design and even the level select screen. Headcase is another game with artwork by Simon Hunter and programming by Aaron Steed, as was the previously reviewed Nanobots.

Its good to see a game that doesn't try to say too much but simply presents an unusual beauty in the idea that anything is possible. Play Headcase.

Warbears is back with a brand new adventure in Warbears Mission 3: An Oceanic Problem! Training has ended and the 'bears are tasked with an important job: save a group of hostages from a vile band of "animal creatures that can talk". Gionatan Iasio has infused this game with the same stylish presentation as before, and the signature Warbears humor is back and better than ever.

Each character in Warbears has a set of context-sensitive moves that changes depending on your location and what events have transpired. For example, Agent Ryoh loves to use his katanas, and depending on what's nearby his actions will be different. Activating these moves in the right order is the key to beating the game. In other words, just start clicking, lose the game, then start all over again. This trial-and-error gameplay is reminiscent of Hapland and the Grow series of games.

Dive right into Warbears: Mission 3 and let the string of failures begin! Play Warbears: Mission 3.

Warbears: Mission 3 walkthrough now available!

Solitaire is as solitaire does, but sometimes a version of the classic card game appears that makes it feel fresh and interesting all over again. Enter World of Solitaire, a sleek and highly customizable DHTML version of solitaire (no Flash, just Javascript) created by Robert Schultz of Cosmic Realms. It's the next best thing to sitting down with a deck of cards, only now you can sneak in a game or two while you're at work.

Everyone and their uncle knows how to play at least one version of solitaire. World of Solitaire includes 22 varieties of the single-player game. That's... that's a lot of solitaire. From the classic Klondike to Scorpion, Pyramid, Yukon and others you probably haven't even heard of, the whole gang is here, complete with instructions on how to play.

Aside from the sheer number of games available, what makes World of Solitaire actually worth playing is the options palette. Don't like the table background? Change it. Don't like the look of the playing cards? Choose a new theme. Want the cards to animate faster, a sharper-looking deck, or the computer to auto-play obvious moves? Go for it. Customize to your heart's content, but don't forget the timer is running and there's a game to be played.