Fresh out of the oven from PastelGames.com (with coding by Mateusz Skutnik of the Submachine series fame) is a short but zany point and click room escape game called The Great Kitchen Escape. You start off staring at an extremely colorful kitchen that looks like it was lifted straight from a cartoon. Click the arrows to move around the room and use the mouse to interact with objects and gather items. It's an easy point and click game that scores major points for its artwork and slightly wacky puzzles.

There's no story behind The Great Kitchen Escape, but it doesn't really need one. The goal is to find items in the kitchen and assemble a few of them to make your way out of the room. Your inventory is displayed at the top of the screen and a tiny tool icon in the upper left corner takes you to the assembly menu. Look everywhere and click everything to uncover all the items, as you never know what role an object will play in the grand scheme of things.

The Great Kitchen Escape is a very short game and not very difficult, but the visuals, music and atmosphere are just so fun you won't be able to help yourself. You feel like a kid in a cartoon as you snoop through cabinets and play with the parrot in a cage. No pixel hunting or frustration, just pure and simple room escaping. A perfect diversion guaranteed to induce a smile or two. Play The Great Kitchen Escape.

The Great Kitchen Escape walkthrough now available!

(Warning: This game features adult language, gothic imagery, and bittersweet lyrical content. You may well find something here that will offend you.)

Your role in Scuttle Buggery is that of of a lowly beetle, trudging through a grimy, moth-infested world stitched together from burnt paper and rusty typewriter parts. Your burden is to find drops of oil and liquor near the discarded musty bottles from which they spew, and push them into the appropriate drains. Steer your filth-ridden insect avatar with the arrow keys. Hold [space] for a burst of speed and tap [space] to shove a nearby droplet into the distance. You win when you've deposited enough of the right substances into the right drains. You lose when you run out of time, or when you've accidentally filled a drain with too much of the wrong kind of liquid. And that is when a clockwork skeleton wearing a top hat comes out to mock you.

Scuttle Buggery is a depressing game, not least because of the melancholy and vengeful soundtrack. But also because of the other beetles who, like the callous grinning back-stabbers who make up your real-life social circle, make it their mission to interfere with you at every turn. Too often, once you've finally stuck together a satisfactory bubble of absinthe and lined up a straight shot to the absinthe drain, a dumbly enthusiastic ladybug will mug you and knock your loot into a corner. It's a shame there's no "murder" button.

So in this fashion, you make tidy your own insignificant corner of a forgotten and decrepit place. Like your everlasting tears, you wipe away the poisons, though you can never truly erase the stains they left. Are you making a difference? Does the slow morphine drip of incremental achievement justify the loss of a few precious moments of your time upon this earth? The answer, of course, is "no."

Analysis: Scuttle Buggery is an advergame for the newest album from gothic rock band Johnny Hollow, and most likely another creation from one of its band members, Vincent Marcone (A Murder of Scarecrows). Though he's done such a wonderful job of blending game, music, and visual design, it's hard to tell where the game ends and the promotional website begins. Even the tutorial is baked right into the home page, and beating levels in the game unlocks tracks from the song list for you to sample.

The artwork is sumptuously detailed, perfectly matched to the music, full of decadent textures and decay. The liquid transparency effects are especially noteworthy, but everything, right down to the creepy flutter of a moth's wings, has been rendered with sickly beauty and realism. If your beetle's controls are a little stiff, it can be excused due to the convincing bug-like way in which he moves.

The actual gameplay is pretty decent, with a few caveats. The liquids you must push around can be very close in color, to the point where you can't tell whether you're looking at a tan droplet or a black one, if they're both sitting on a dark surface. Drops get hung up too easily on corners. And some levels are difficult to the point of agony. If you get stuck on a particular challenge, you'll have to hear the same lyrics every time you restart, which can get annoying no matter how darkly poignant the poetry is. I hope you like track 6, "boogeyman", because you'll be hearing it a lot. Finally, the initial load time is excessive, even for this level of audio/visual polish.

But in the end, this is how an advergame should be — uniquely tailored to the mood and intention of its product, and entertaining in its own right. Let it soothe your wretched soul, if only for a moment. Play Scuttle Buggery.

Cheers to Toby for submitting the link to this one! =)

Samurai bears. Puzzle-solving robots. Snowmen with bombs. We're used to suspending a little bit of belief when it comes to the games we play. Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, however, really tests the limits. You play a raptor driving a jeep with a spiky ball and chain attached to the rear. Your goal is to chase down other raptors and throw them into a teleporter that sends them to the future. At this point it's a good idea to throw intellectual understanding out the window, because this game is all about hitting dinosaurs with cars for points.

Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is presented in full 3D thanks to the Unity plugin, the same engine under the hood of When Orcs Attack. And, for a browser-based game, it looks great. Drive through the lush jungle using the [arrow] or [WASD] keys and tap the [B] button for a quick turbo boost. The [spacebar] deploys the chain and spiky ball that's used to clothesline raptors or drag their limp bodies to the teleporter. As for the cool jumps, crazy crashes and lavish stunts, that's up to your own driving insanity.

The goal in Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is to get a high score, and there are several things that factor into this. Capturing and teleporting raptors is the most obvious way, but you also net a few points for doing spectacular stunts, damaging your vehicle, and grabbing orbs scattered around the stage. Each time you increase your score there's a small window of opportunity for you to multiply it by doing the same thing again. An online high score table lets you track your numbers and compare with dinosaur safari-ists around the world. There are even a few achievement awards to be uncovered.

But forget all that stuff, this game is really about driving around (as a raptor), knocking over dinosaurs, smashing into stuff, and pulling off cool stunts. Seriously.

Analysis: Yes, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is a strange game idea. Yes, that's what makes it fun. The raw dose of driving, destruction and dinosaurs is enough to get just about any gamer's blood pumping, while the 3D environment is ripe for exploration. The wild arcade-style action gameplay encourages crazy stunts and stupid tricks, which is always a nice bonus. The controls are a bit clunky and take some getting used to, but they work fine in the end. Smashing into velociraptors and dragging their bodies around does seem a bit disturbing at times, but there's just enough fiction to the setting to keep realism at bay.

The only real drawbacks to this game are technical in nature. For starters, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari requires the Unity plugin, which you must download if it isn't already installed. And even with everything ready to go you can expect a long load time, no matter your connection speed. Some players have also reported numerous slowdown issues with the game. Hopefully the developer will pull out the toolbox and start optimizing the game very soon.

Despite its technical limitations, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is crazy enough to work. For raw dinosaur-based jeep-driving carnage, look no further. Play Off-Road Velociraptor Safari.

All hail, rejoice, Hallelujah! Put on your party hats and shine your shoes, for it is a day of great celebration: the fifth coming of the Submachine. The parade is about to begin, the marching band is just getting warmed up, and...hey, where is everyone? Guys? You're all going to miss the fireworks display, and Cirque du Soleil is performing! Oh, the jugglers look so sad. Where on Earth could everyone be? I just don't....

Oh. Oh, right. You're all glued to your monitors, aren't you? Point-and-clicking away maniacally, like the addicts you are. Fine, I guess I'll just have to throw away all these commemorative Wisdom Gem t-shirts. What? No, I'm not upset. I mean, I did just spend half my savings on this gem-encrusted "portal" float, but that's ok. That second job at McDonald's should help me pay off the loan in, oh, 15 years or so.

.....ok, enough with the sillies. In all seriousness, this is an exciting day. Murtaugh, aka Mateusz Skutnik, has been a Casual Gameplay superstar practically since the debut of his Submachine series, way back in September of '05. The original Submachine was a fairly easy, relatively simple point-and-clicker that nonetheless became quite popular due to its clever puzzles and clean design. As enjoyable as it was, in my mind the real brilliance of the series began with its sequel, Submachine 2: The Lighthouse, which began in earnest to develop the spooky, enigmatic plot that has continued throughout the rest of the games. In Murtaugh's words, "it's all about puzzle-solving and escaping from closed installations of submerged machines (hence the title sub-machines)." It's not nearly that simple, however; you'll need to play the games to discover more.

Submachine 5: The Root brings the player to what was perhaps the beginning of your long, arduous adventure, the first created Submachine structure. It is the "root" of your quest, and for the first time a bit of light is shed on why and how your journey began. Anyone familiar with the point-and-click genre will find the game easily comprehensible and accessible.

Analysis: The Root does not disappoint. Unsurprisingly, Murtaugh has once again created a beautifully atmospheric, immersive, challenging-but-not-confounding game that leaves the player eagerly awaiting the next chapter. I love how the games' stylistic details mirror and complement the environment and content; from the mechanical noises when switching screens to the near-lack of ambient noise, every aspect of the game reflects the feeling of being inside of a machine. The structure and mechanics of the game are the same as previous chapters, though a few interesting elements are added (I especially like the automatic note-taking function).

My one real frustration with the games is how easily it is to become thoroughly lost while playing (though perhaps that's part of the point). A map would be invaluable, and at least in the context of this particular Submachine would make sense. Still, a minor gripe to a fabulous game.

A word to the wise: While each Submachine can be played and enjoyed without context, I highly, highly advise players new to the series to start at the beginning. A significant part of the pleasure of playing the games are the "aha!" moments when a connection is made between one chapter or another, when the dimensions of the story begin to be perceived. While the Submachines are each well-made, fun point-and-click games, the mystery infused into the series is what makes them truly special. Ah, how I envy you, first-time Submachiners! A bounty of gaming goodness awaits you, a veritable cornucopia of superb casual gameplay.

For the rest of us, it's back to the machine: Play Submachine 5: The Root!

Also, be sure to check out Murtaugh's website, Pastel Stories, home of his other excellent work, including Daymare Town and the Covert Front series.

Still not Submachine satisfied? Play the entire Submachine series...

• The original Submachine
• Submachine Zero: Ancient Adventure
• Submachine 2: The Lighthouse
• Submachine 3: The Loop
• Submachine 4: The Lab
• Submachine 5: The Root

Outside the main storyline, and yet still another great Submachine, is a game created for the band Future Loop Foundation:

• Submachine: Future Loop Foundation

Submachine 5: The Root walkthrough now available!

Whether you're going for the gingerbread transmutation or the old fashioned stew, you gotta respect the rights of satanic magick users to extend their lives indefinitely by robbing life from the young. Right? If you're on board with that proposition, you'll like Witchhunt: Nooboo Mary, a time-based defense game from Nobstudio (remember NOBuzzle Tree?) where you defend a witch's house from an angry mob of villagers.

The game takes place over a long, horizontal field with the witch's house on the far left and the violent commoners marching in from the right. You can pan the camera over this moonlit real estate by dragging the mouse to the left and right extremes of the screen. Your spells are represented by icons on the bottom panel, each one costing a certain number of souls to cast. Try clicking on the frog, you'll see your mouse cursor turn into a targeting reticule. Hover it over an unlucky brownshirt and click to cast the spell. Click repeatedly to blow the frog up like a balloon, a total of six times (but never seven) explodes it into amphibious confetti. Each kill is one more soul in the collection bin, which you can use for casting more powerful spells or save to buy new/upgrade existing ones in-between levels. The first few stages feature only a few slow peasants, but they keep coming faster and in greater numbers. In order to deal with this surge, you need to invest your soul-cash wisely.

Analysis: It's nice to see a game with some attitude and a cohesive aesthetic. The music is moody but not "My Chemical Romance" moody. The writing is coy and sardonic, the graphics are crisp and iconic. The gameplay gets in a sweet zone after level four or so, where simply spamming frog spells won't cut it and you have to start spending those souls more strategically. Unfortunately, the game isn't perfectly balanced, so one particular spell emerges as a dominant strategy. I'd like to see a more even field there, to deepen the strategy, and more levels to that strategy. Untapped potential is always a drag on a reviewer's heart.

This game is a devilish little gem. You should go on a Witchhunt.

Planet Cruncher, from the fine folks at Rock Solid Arcade who brought us Stunt Pilot, lets you satisfy your appetite for destruction by casting you as an omnipotent exterminator of worlds. It doesn't exactly feel like a game about the deaths of billions, encased as it is in a shell of relaxing arcadey puzzle gameplay. But sometimes you have to play a game in your own way, and I choose to play this one while cackling maniacally and stroking an imaginary long-haired white star-cat named Lord Galaxathon.

Your goal in Planet Cruncher is to collect a certain number of crystals on each level by smashing together planets of the same type. As in Loop or Floats, you must capture groups of identical objects by drawing loops around them with the mouse. The more heavenly bodies you encircle at one time, the more goodies the resulting explosion releases. Collect the spiral of scattering crystals by simply touching them with the mouse.

Encircle at least four planets at once to produce a special bonus planet that will double the crystal output of any matched set you include it in. Accidentally loop mismatched objects together, and you'll create a black hole, which will meander around eating planets until you can circle it again. Twice per level, a comet will shoot by. Touch it to produce a quick additional reward of crystals.

At first, the planets will sit in place, easy prey for your magnetic universe crayon of doom. But before long, you'll be faced with screenfuls of bouncing planets in three different varieties. If a planet comes in contact with an outline as you are drawing it, it will explode, taking your unfinished loop with it. The tragedy of that is now you have one less world to mine for crystals, making it that much harder to reach quota. If you fail to fill the crystal bar at the top of the screen, your game is over, presumably because your cosmic gambling debts have caught up to you.

Although you may initially be tempted to play Planet Cruncher with gusto, making quick circles and taking opportunities where you find them, you'll probably run out of steam once the level quotas get higher. Eventually, you'll need to take advantage of the 2 x bonus planets and avoid needlessly sacrificing individual worlds to your impetuous whims. Rock Solid Arcade has chosen not to include a time limit, so your score will be better served by patience. It works best to sit back and ponder the situation, literally waiting for the planets to align before you strike, serving your justice cold, just like a good vengeful almighty being should.

Analysis: Planet Cruncher's presentation is up to Rock Solid's usual high standards, with clean, professional artwork and sound effects. The static background could use some animation — twinkling stars, slowly rotating nebulas, that sort of thing — but there's plenty of colorful orbs to attract your eye anyway.

The pacing is quite slow for what is ostensibly an arcade game, but there's a pleasant awareness to be found here, once the requirements get more demanding and every move has consequences. In order to do well, you'll need to spend a lot of time just watching and hoping for like planets to group together of their own accord. It's a nice time to pet the cat and do some cackling. Comets sometimes break up the silence, but otherwise this is a calming experience, if you're an untroubled planet-smasher. It's an arcade game for the quiet mind.

Unfortunately, Planet Cruncher peters out after a while. The crystal quotas keep getting higher, but there aren't any new concepts after the first few stages, although there are some fast-paced bonus levels. There isn't ever even a new background. And therefore, there is slim incentive to continue, once you've more or less mastered the technique.

Which brings me back to completing the picture by providing my own megalomaniacal back-story. I'll feast upon your immortal souls, insignificant denizens of Saturn! Bam! Smash! Mwaaahahahahahahaa! Play Planet Cruncher.

Factory Balls, from Bart Bonte, was for me the most immediately appealing entry of JIG's Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4. Maybe it was the elegance of the core concept and the out-of-the-box thinking it provokes; maybe it was the simple awesomeness of making ball-people with rabbit ears. Either way, Factory Balls is a great, albeit short, game that displays the clean design and quirky sensibility that I've come to love in Bart's work.

In Factory Balls the goal is to create, using various tools, the "ball physics" required for each level (I take issue with the term "ball physics" for this process, but I'll get into that later). The player begins with a rotating cog full of plain white balls and a palette of gizmos that, when used in the proper order, will cause the plain ball to match the goal design. Through logic and trial-and-error, the usage of each tool is discovered.

This description is a bit abstract, so maybe an example is in order. In the sixth level the player must create an orange ball with black "eyes" and an orange nose (it's easier seen than described). One of the tools paints the ball orange, another paints it black, another creates a nose and a fourth puts "sunglasses" on the ball in order to allow the eyes to remain black while the rest of the ball is painted orange. The order in which you apply the tools is the challenge of each level.

The game spans 14 levels of increasing complexity, and is over if the player messes up too many times and runs out of white balls. Winning or losing, however, hardly seems the point; to me Factory Balls feels more like a neat puzzle-tool than an actual game. Half the fun is enjoying the creativity of the tools: a black stripe is created by a roll of masking tape, the "create a nose" tool is represented by a sideways plunger, and a light bulb is used to illuminate the ball from inside out. It's a bit like a hi-tech, quirky version of Mr. Potato Head.

Analysis: Factory Balls is an absorbing and inventive game with many of the whimsical details of Bart's hallmark style. In order to succeed the player must step sideways into Bart's peculiar and mischievous world, in which the edicts of logic are twisted ever so slightly; it may not entirely make sense that a sideways plunger would create a nose, but then again it kinda does—and that's the fun of the game.

During the judging of the competition, my one hesitation in awarding highest marks to Bart was that, well, I didn't think Factory Balls really had much to do with ball physics.

phys·ics (fiz'iks)
—noun (used with a singular verb) the science that deals with matter, energy, motion, and force.

This is going to make me sound like a mean old codger, but I didn't see a lot of the above in the core content of Factory Balls. Bart does provide a neat "extra" in the form of a ball tumbler (a larger, player-controlled version of the game's rotating, plain ball-filled cog), but it feels more like an a last-minute attempt to introduce the theme as opposed to an actual integration of "ball physics" into the game. Part of the competition, in my mind, was having to abide by the limitations of the theme, and I don't think that Factory Balls entirely did so.

But, y'know what? In the end, it really doesn't matter (I love you, Bart!). Factory Balls is an engaging, creative and most of all fun addition to Casual Gameplay, and I adore it. I think it has the potential, with added levels and perhaps increased complexity, to become truly outstanding.

This is one you don't want to miss: Play Factory Balls!

Jay - It just goes to show how subjective judging a competition like this is, because I viewed making a puzzle out of changing the actual physical properties of balls to be a clever play on words and a unique and creative implementation of the "ball physics" theme. Still, as others pointed out, I would like to see more puzzles, randomized puzzles to increase replay value, and perhaps even a build-your-own-puzzle with a code to share your puzzle with others as elements that would propel this entry from 'good' into 'great' territory. A very creative entry from one of our favorite developers and an active supporter of our competitions by participating in every one of them so far. Well done, Bart, and thank you kindly!

Basho Kioku is the latest puzzle game from prolific designer Yoshio Ishii of Nekogames. You are faced with a grid of 36 squares, and your goal is to click on each of them in turn. Each round, a random combination of these squares lights up orange, and you must choose one of them. There is no indication of which squares you've previously selected, but if you pick a square more than once, you lose a life. Losing three lives ends your game. You'll be under a strict time limit, and your score depends on how quickly you make your choices.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? But unless your brain is much less packed with cotton than mine, it's impossible to remember more than a few steps back. The real game is in figuring out a system for keeping track of your progress, using the six draggable markers provided in a box on the left side of the screen. You can position these markers freely, even on the borders between squares, and it will pay to invent a foolproof shorthand for yourself.

Ishii-san coats the simple idea in an understated shimmery gloss, complete with wonderfully quirky and anxious background music. There is an unfortunate Flash-related exploit (find it yourself) that could potentially spoil the game, but there's really no point in cheating at a little puzzle like this. It's an otherwise flawless koan that plays on the tension between the randomness of your choices and the solidity of your strategy. Nicely done, Nekogames. Play Basho Kioku.

Are you the type of person who walks into a room and immediately thinks about a remodel? "Ew... who put those curtains with that carpet? And that coffee table is way too close to the couch. How do you reach the window?" Perhaps you like to dabble in feng-shui. Or, maybe you're one of those weekend warriors when it comes to home-improvement. In any case, you're ready to try out your hand at design. If so, welcome home. Home Sweet Home, that is.

Home Sweet Home is a creative new spin off time management and career simulation games. Putting you in the shoes of both an interior decorator and a construction contractor, this game tests both your creative skills as well as your speed and agility. With the expert help of Dee Ziner (whose bright smile could be found in toothpaste ads) you'll begin filling your client's requests and homes. The requests vary, some obvious, some quite cryptic. Some, like the Packrats, may want to display the many things they already have, while others will have you begin with an empty room.

For each house you'll receive a budget which can be spent on anything from paints and floors, couches and cabinets, to plants, paintings, and other accessories. While the clients leave some hints as to what they like, the bulk of the choice is left up to you. "A blue retro lamp with a shabby white country rug? That could work. All it needs is a TV... or maybe a set of funky pagoda-shaped shelves?" A thumbs-up/thumbs-down meter will tell you if your clients are pleased or not.

When your design layout is complete and approved, you're ready to start the building process. Here, you'll become the contractor, as you direct your workers through the remodel process. This gets tricky. You have three workers, each designated by their own color. As you work, various items or furnishings will light up in matching colors. If you match the workers to the right items (for instance, have the green guy work on the vase that is lit up green) they will work harder and faster. If they are working on an item that isn't lit up, they will grow tired, and eventually need a coffee break. (You can bring the coffee pot to them to avoid stopping in the middle of a project.) Be careful! Mismatched colors cause clumsiness: Eventually, if your worker is building an item that is lit up in a different color, they will injure themselves, and you'll need to bring in the first-aid kit... IF you can get them to stand still long enough.

In case it isn't enough of a challenge to keep the right workers on the right project and fueled with caffeine, your workers will also request various tools along the way, that must be dragged out of the toolbox. If you don't grab the right tool in time, the work doesn't just stop... it reverses. Walls will un-paint themselves and pictures will blank, so don't let anyone pause for long. Also, after a few levels, you'll need to clean as you go. As each worker finishes their project, they'll appear with a trash icon and wait to be directed to the refuse can. When they've dropped off the trash, they'll be ready to begin the next job. If you can get everything built in time, you'll earn some cash and be able to move on to the next home.

Home Sweet Home even allows you to spend the money you earn by decorating your own house. As the game progresses, new items become available. Your home gives you a chance to try them out without going through the whole building process. If you like to change it frequently, or test client's designs before building, you can take a snapshot, and add it to your growing portfolio. Eventually, you may find yourself becoming the most famous designer in the neighborhood. (Dee might be a little jealous!)

Analysis: Overall, Home Sweet Home is an excellent casual game, offering just enough creative liberty along with puzzles and time challenges. In some ways, however, it is fairly limited. Your house only has one room to decorate, as only living room and dining room furnishings will become available throughout the game.

There are hints at a sequel with kitchens and bathrooms, but hopefully, some aspects of the game will be redesigned first. The toolbox, for instance, has a few glitches. You might click on one tool and find yourself carrying another. This doesn't make gameplay impossible, but often frustrating. Another drawback is the abrupt ending. After designing 50 houses, you're done. There is no warning or fanfare, just a congratulatory message and an invitation to keep decorating your own house. A way to return to previous clients homes for extra remodels would help the replay value enormously. Even still, the creative possibilities found in Home Sweet Home, mingled with the pleasant Sims-like atmosphere, should offer many hours of delight.

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

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

Home Sweet Home is available to download from these affiliates:

You are in for a treat. King's Quest III is a classic from the early age of graphic adventure games. Originally designed by Roberta Williams and published under Sierra Online, the game has been completely re-made by Infamous Adventures in the Adventure Game Studio engine and released as a free download. They even have a voice-pack! Somebody canonize these people as saints.

In the old days, adventure game interfaces involved typing messages and using keys to move. This remake offers a slick modern update where you can simply click around to move and interact with the environment. The right-mouse-button cycles through the Look, Move, Talk, Use and Item options, while the left button activates them, making interactions pretty simple. This is due to the virtue of the AGS engine's design, and it works nicely, like you'll use an item, click right, and then be able to immediately click left to move to the newly opened area because its right up next in the cycle. You'll also want to make note of the inventory, looks kind of like a suitcase, in the top-right section of the screen. The inventory lets you do useful stuff like grab items to use on the screen, or combine them, which you'll be doing a fair bit of. Infamous offers a privatized Social Security level of options in that they have an FAQ, a walkthrough and a hints section on their site, so you can get whatever degree of assistance you want in making your way.

Analysis: The game itself is one of the best in a series, which is like the Final Fantasy series for adventure games. The premise here is actually pretty clever, the first half of the game involves freeing yourself of the evil wizard that has raised you from infant-hood. He commands you do to chores for him and then goes out of town or takes naps. During these intervals you'll have between ten and thirty minutes to explore the secrets of the wizard's home and the surrounding country-side. Your quest then, is a quest for knowledge: knowledge about the world, knowledge about the nature of power (in this case, magic), and then knowledge about who you are. In other words, it's a somewhat meaningful, human psychological dynamic that we can all relate to, and it is expressed in gameplay. Did I mention this game was originally made in 1986?

Underscoring this journey of exploration and gathering is an underscore of the imminence of death. You may be used to games that don't kill your character or give you plentiful auto-saves. To Heir Is Human, like other games in the series, makes you save manually, and you'll want to do so often. A surly cat on an old stair can trip you to your death, as can a misstep on a mountain path. The greatest spectre of mortality in the early game is your own apathy or lack of care — if you fail to turn the tables on your enslaving oppressor he will kill you, and if you don't cover your tracks before his returns or awakenings, he will... also kill you. Its weird, maybe this is only noticeable because we've become so used to smooth rides and automatic saves, but there is a sense of self-responsibility and standing up against totalitarianism that comes out of this, as well as a sort of appreciation for the life you've got. Wandering the countryside of Llewyn, you put yourself in the character of a young man whose whole life has been cloistered servitude, and you appreciate the eagle, the moss growing on the rocks, the warmth of the barmaid, the friendliness of the shopkeeper. It is a literary experience that is at least on par with Harry Potter - that might not be saying much by Harold Bloom's standards, but it's pretty good considering the relative immaturity of this medium.

The latter half of the game is a journey back to your homeland, and a reconciliation with what has happened. Without spoiling the plot, the feeling you might get when you do return home, and find the place locked out and silent, is stirring. The cleverness you'll feel you when use your self-assembled magics to solve puzzles is, in an opposite way, cathartic.

In short, King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human is a classic because it makes you feel things well beyond the usual dopamine drip. It makes you feel human. And now its been made publicly available with excellent production values and a smoother interface. Please, have yourself a meaningful play of King's Quest III.

Windows:
Download the free game

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

It's time for Mysterious Mysteries of the Unknown! Mysteries! We've uncovered an old, import-only Japanese Game Boy Advance puzzle game from a company that folded shortly after publishing the title, leaving only a ten level PC demo and countless frazzled eBay searchers. Furthering the mysterious mysteriological setting (that's not a word, is it?), in Blood Ties you'll investigate kidnappings with a 450 year-old vampire, and a recent Cactus release drops you in a dream-themed platforming game that makes no sense. What a world we live in.

Blood Ties (Windows, 44MB, demo) - Based on the television series that's based on the Blood Books by Tanya Huff, Blood Ties brings the familiar law enforcement/mystery setting to casual gamers as a hidden object game. Vicki Nelson is an ex-cop and private investigator with failing eyesight. Working with a 450 year old vampire who is also the son of King Henry VIII (yes, you read that right), you'll investigate the disappearance of 14 members of a secret society called the Hellfire Club. Each member carries a fragment of a magical tablet that keeps a demon named Astaroth banished, and if the pieces aren't reunited once a year the demon will break free. Which is bad. The plot is a bit convoluted, but makes for interesting scenery, and the game itself is straight-up object finding, no pesky minigames to get in the way.

Swarm Racer (Windows/Mac, 1MB, free) - Why race one vehicle when you can control a whole swarm of them? Why race vehicles when you can control bees?! Zoom around each stage collecting gems while trying your best to keep the group together. Funky backgrounds and a stylish audio package make it an almost psychadelic experience.

Psychosomnium (Windows, 1.6MB, free) - From Game Maker developer Cactus, Psychosomnium is a short experimental platformer using the dream world as a setting, complete with illogical puzzles and scenarios that make little to no sense. Expect strange things to happen, and don't give up just because an obstacle seem impossible! As Cactus said, the game is not a prank.

Big Box of Blox (Windows/Mac, 11MB, free) - Tetris is so two decades ago. Not only do we want to stack blocks nowdays, we want to smash them as violently as possible. Enter Big Box of Blox and its multiple game modes, tiled themes and satisfying crashing sounds as you make matches. As groups of blocks descend from the sky, switch their position with the [arrow] keys and try your best to line up groups of three. It's sort of a cross between Lumines and Tetris.

Guru Logic Champ (Windows, <1MB, demo) - A sad tale in portable gaming history, Guru Logic Champ was the brainchild of Japanese developer Compile. Released only in Japan for the Game Boy Advance, the company tanked not too long afterwards, leaving a superb puzzle game to wither in obscurity. Fortunately a ten-level PC demo was released, allowing many more gamers to experience the sometimes infuriating logic puzzle bliss. The full game is import only and is a tough one to find, but if you enjoy this kind of puzzle, download PopCap's Pixelus for a similar experience.

Millenipede (Windows/Mac, 1.1MB, free) - A retro-themed arcade game inspired by Centipede. Shoot mushrooms, dodge spiders, flying saucers, snails and the millenipedes themselves as you climb your way up the high score board. Blocky pixel graphics included, sticky arcade buttons and annoying little kids picking their noses omitted.

If you've seen one match three game, you've seen 'em all, right? Azkend aims to change that, but not in the way you might think. Instead of shaking up the gameplay or introducing awkward new features, developer MythPeople spent time polishing the game to a brilliant shine. The end result is typical puzzle gameplay with a gorgeous visual design and sound package. It goes to prove that a rich presentation with tried-and-true mechanics can turn an otherwise ordinary game into a real gem.

A team of archaeologists discovered a mysterious relic in Far Asia, but it turned out to be more trouble than good. Azkend begins with the team embarking on a return trip to reach the Temple of Time, restore the artifact to its original location, and lift the evil curse. Each leg of the journey is represented by a black and white photograph that is gradually colored in as you complete levels. You also earn pieces of talismans that introduce new tiles, such as bombs and hammers, for the next group of levels.

The mechanics in Azkend are, as one would expect, wonderfully simple. The goal is to complete a match of three or more tiles using every hexagon on the board. Simply click and drag the mouse over tiles to link them and release to send them spinning. A satisfying clinking sound accompanies each match. Later levels introduce a number of different elements that help/hinder your progress, such as bombs, frozen blocks and steel tiles. Just enough spice to keep your interest alive.

Each time you turn an unused hexagon you're awarded a lightning rune. Fill the Thunder Meter with as many as five runes and helpful bolts of electricity zap down from the sky and clear an equal number of tiles. You can even unleash the furies of nature by snaking long chains of tiles across the board. Part of what makes Azkend so enjoyable is its sense of epic drama. This is how the gods of ancient mythology would play a match three game, with fire raining from the sky and lightning bolts crashing at every turn. It all fits into the tale of ancient Oriental mystery and is executed with rich style.

Analysis: I've played several casual games designed by MythPeople, and while they never charm me with original concepts, they do have an undeniable sparkle that makes them fun to play. Azkend is a prime example of this, as its basic mechanics are as common as casual gaming itself, yet when you package it in such a beautiful audio/visual world, suddenly it grabs your attention and won't let go.

Azkend does feel a bit lacking in the gameplay department, however. Other than the unique power-up system, don't expect it to bend the rules of casual puzzle gaming very much. Each level is more of the same matching with slight variations. Just enough to keep it interesting, but not much more. It doesn't ruin the experience, strangely enough, but match three veterans will likely blaze through the game without looking back.

What would have been an average match three clone for the shovelware pile has been made enjoyable by applying a little elbow grease. While I can't help but think how much greater the game could be with a few drops of gameplay innovation, Azkend is still a package worth unwrapping.

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Azkend is available to download from these affiliates:

Stunt Pilot, from talented developer Rock Solid Arcade, is a challenging, high-quality game of precision acrobatics. It transcends the familiar trope of flying through rings with a sophisticated scoring system and singular control. The result is a simple but engaging test of skill that would fit comfortably in any 80s video arcade, although it would probably be the prettiest game there.

Your goal is to fly a colorful prop plane through a series of rings, which will appear in increasingly more difficult layouts as you advance levels. You can tackle the rings in any order, and take as long as you like about it, but finishing a level quickly will award you a substantial score bonus.

Controlling the plane is deceptively simple — just press [up] or [down] to raise or lower your nose. But two things will keep you from breezing through the rings without care. The first is that your plane has momentum. It feels almost as though you are sliding on ice at first, and you'll have to deal with a lot of over-corrections before you get the hang of it.

The other is that your plane never turns around. When you're flying to the left, the plane is upside down, and the up key will actually drop your vehicle towards the ground. You have to correct for this by performing a little mental stunt yourself and remembering that your controls are always relative to your current trajectory. The real challenge is learning to handle the plane properly, not the rings, and your transition from awkward tree-bait to elegant master of the skies will be your greatest reward.

If that's not enough for you and you'd prefer to rack up some points, then you'll need to use the boost, which is controlled by the [space] bar. Pressing boost will make your plane faster and even harder to wrangle, but the score for the next ring you conquer will double. If you hold down boost through multiple rings, your score multiplier will increase for each one, and you'll get a bonus at the end of the level, based on your longest combo. Even if you don't use the boost, your points for clearing rings will gradually increase so long as you don't crash, but the only way to reach a high score is to get a little bit reckless.

Analysis: Stunt Pilot is a class act through and through, with gorgeous, nearly photo-realistic rendered graphics and enthusiastic background music. Rock Solid Arcade earns their name by providing rock solid controls and collision detection, although both have the potential to make you pull your hair out at first. You see, the edges of the rings, which are apparently made out of anti-gravity titanium, crash your plane on contact. If you can't pull off a clean run through a chain of rings, you're probably toast, and that means your basic score multiplier goes back down to zero.

But as with any difficult but reliable game, the emotional reward is greater when you succeed. You'll feel like an ace whenever you speed through a level with a perfect combo, purple smoke trailing proudly behind you. Even the prop plane seems be having a good time, what with its endearing spontaneous barrel rolls, and if you ever start getting frustrated, it's fun to just do a few figure-eights in an unoccupied part of the open sky.

The incentive program is a little lacking, with naked points and personal satisfaction your only rewards. It would be nice to get a shiny medal after a perfect level. And there doesn't seem to be a high score table at all, so if you thrive on competition, you'll have to compare scores manually. I also would have liked a little more interactivity when the plane crashes into things — rings falling to the ground, punctured hot air balloons, that sort of thing.

But Rock Solid Arcade has already addressed most of my criticisms with their next two releases. The rings can't kill you in the toned-down Stunt Pilot Trainer, and Dogfight: the Great War applies the same control scheme to a series of WWI combat missions, complete with a giant zeppelin boss. Both are worth your time, if you dig this style of gameplay. Play Stunt Pilot.

Note: the following games have nothing to do with this paragraph about plywood. It's just fun to know that a vast number of varieties of plywood exist, tailored for all manner of conditions and uses. Softwood plywood is usually made either of Douglas fir or spruce, pine, and fir. Decorative plywood is usually faced with hardwood, including red oak, birch, maple, lauan (Philippine mahogany) and a large number of other hardwoods.

• Iron Dukes - A gorgeous RPG/action hybrid where you play a scientist/greedy treasure hunter in a fictional version of the late 19th century. Pilot your ship through storms, dive for gold and defeat crazy steam-powered foes all in the name of getting rich and buying more cool stuff to equip. Iron Dukes is up for Best Web Browser Game in the 10th annual Independent Games Festival, so if you like the game, head over to the audience awards page and cast your vote! (One level demo, contains strong language.)
• Tailtag - Like ladybugs? Who doesn't! This rather cute arcade game has a simple goal: form a chain by brushing the last in line against a free-roaming bug. Different bugs are worth different points, and the faster you work the higher your score.
• Dupligon - Think you're the best polygon drawer this side of the internet? Time to put your skills to the test with this short brain teaser-type game. A polygon appears for a few moments, then vanishes and the screen shifts to a drawing board. You must place points and try to mimic the polygon's angles.
• FWG Pinball - A great-looking pinball game with simple controls and a nice arcade-style feel. The camera is a bit shaky, especially at higher speeds, but otherwise it's a smooth experience. You know, if luck-driven pinball doesn't frustrate you.
• JIG Poker Night - gets bigger each week (oh yes, it does!) every Saturday. Check this page each week for time of day (usually 4PM Eastern), then make sure you're there in the JIG lounge because the tournament starts promptly. In other words, you can't join the tournament after it has started, so get there early. The winner each week qualifies for a championship tournament in the spring where we'll give away an iPod Nano and a Nintendo DS!! What are you waiting for? Come join in on the fun!

To be announced? Text-based adventure? Television Bureau of Advertisement?

TBA, from game developer John Cooney (jmtb02.com), is none of these things. But what it is... is a whole lot of fun.

At first glance, TBA appears to be of a game of extreme simplicity. As you blast through the first level of this arcade action game, doing nothing but striking the space bar until the ball flies into the goal, you may wonder "What's the point?" But don't let any first impression fool you. Once you get going, the game really shows it's true colors.

The goal of TBA is simple. Get the ball from the start of the level to the goal by blasting it from launcher to launcher with a simple tap of the [space bar]. Simple, right? Just keep tapping until the ball hits the goal, right? The trick comes when these launchers start moving, spinning, and flipping. When you discover the precise timing required to actually get the ball from launcher to launcher, you will begin to see the true depth of the gameplay.

From the first launch to the last, you'll have a blast. The game sets an additional layer of depth with the inclusion of "par" times. These times serve as passive goals — if you want to go for par, go for it, but if you don't, you don't have to. For those of you who like having good scores, this will add a good amount of replay. The graphics in-game are both pleasant and informative — every type of launcher having a different color. For example, the goal is red, blue launchers don't move, the ones that do move side-to-side are turquoise, etc.

The visual effect that strikes me most is the natural progression of time. A sky background is visible throughout each level, and, as the level goes on, the color of the sky rapidly changes from pleasant blue to red to purple, simulating the passing of the day. This effect is far from subtle — the entire spectrum of colors can be seen in only a few seconds.

The sound and music, while not outstanding, are on par with what you would expect from a jmtb02 game. An upbeat techno loop populates the levels while the level select has a much calmer, quieter loop. The sound effects, however, are virtually nonexistent. The only one I heard during gameplay was the sound of the ball re-spawning back at the start.

One nice design feature is the fact that you can play any of the game's 25 levels in any order you wish. If you get stuck in this game, it's okay, because you can just move onto the next level and worry about the one you were stuck on later.

Analysis: TBA is pure, simple fun. While it's not going to last you more than a few hours, those few hours will be well-spent. The game itself is easy to pick-up and is well-designed, starting with a basic mechanic and sprinkling in variety every few levels. And it is built on a solid "beat your score" replay base. Thanks to its short levels and auto-saves, this game is great for a lunch break, between classes, or any time you can spend a few minutes on the computer.

And, on top of all this praise, what may be most impressive is the fact the entire game was written in just four days. Play TBA.

Accurately described as a "drag action game", Irritation Stickman is the latest effort from dan-ball.jp, home of the Powder Game and Liquid Webtoy. The goal is to pick up and drag stickmen through each stage, avoiding spikes and other traps along the way. You can only keep your grip for a few seconds and must drop stickmen to recharge, forcing you to think before flailing the cursor around the screen. It's a simple but fun action game that produces some hilarious moments of stickman insanity.

You have 99 seconds to drag at least one stickman safely to the goal. The faster you work and the more stickmen you save, the higher your score. You can also grab coins and time-bonus orbs for extra points, but they're often stashed in out of the way areas and are hard to reach. There are six stages composed of three sub-levels each, playable in any order you like.

Each stage is packed with dangerous objects that will cause your stickmen to go splat in one way or another. Strangely enough, no amount of slinging or dropping will injure these guys unless they collide with something hazardous. While sometimes you can simply grab and sling them through corridors, often you'll have to carry each stickman one by one through dangerous territory.

Once you get the hang of the squidgy mechanics you can practice some more advanced techniques you'll need to gather all the coins and complete some of the more difficult stages. Juggling several stickmen in the air across a pit of spikes is extraordinarily satisfying.

Analysis: For a simple, silent game with tiny visuals, Irritation Stickman is still a lot of fun. It almost has a webtoy feel to it, as you can just as easily spend your afternoon slinging stickmen around and watching them splat against the wall as you can completing stages and competing for a high score. The cursor is a bit touchy at times and tends to draw stickmen together when you click, almost as if they were magnetic. This can be frustrating when you're trying to move one character at a time, as the more you pick up at once the less time you can hold on.

Another great time-waster from a talented developer! Play Irritation Stickman.

Cheers to Sam for sending this one in!

Just a quick reminder that we are just a few weeks into the design and development period for Casual Gameplay Design Competition #5, and there is still plenty of time to come up with an idea and to get your game design underway that incorporates the theme: UPGRADE. Up for grabs are prizes worth over $10,000, and the deadline is March 16th.

Highlights of questions that have come up during the past couple of weeks include:

• What are the size restrictions, if any? - For your game to work with MochiAds, your game must be a minimum of 300x300 (about the same size as the competition logo image above). We are limiting maximum width to 800 pixels.
• I am having difficulty getting MochiAds to work, can you offer some help with that? - There is excellent documentation available for getting MochiAds up and running in your game. Also, Emanuele Feronato has just published an excellent article about the MochiAds new leader boards(!) If you're having specific problems and can post your questions here in the competition thread, we'll try to address them so that everyone may benefit from the questions and answers.
• How much blood and gore will be acceptable in this competition? - This is a very good question since we have never made a formal announcement regarding our policy towards violent and mature content. With respect to the competitions, we would like to encourage all developers to steer clear of unnecessary or intense violence, blood and gore in their games, and to keep mature themes to a minimum. If violence or mature themes are necessary for your game, please use the ESRB Teen rating definition as a guideline to the limit of what is acceptable.
• Can a game entry load external data or other SWFs? - Yes, your game may load external data or SWFs. Please use a subdirectory named the same as your game to store the external data files and SWFs in. However, doing so could reduce the ease with which other sites can host your game, thereby reducing your chances at the Viral award.

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