Amberial: Nebulosa Realms is the latest from OddGoo and sequel to the first Amberial game released last June. The mechanics of the original are put to an olympic workout; rolling a ball around has never felt so fresh. From the terrestrial furnace to the skyways, to outer space and distant nebulae, this game explores both increasingly exotic settings and increasingly clever level design.
The [left] and [right] arrow keys move your ball. Since you lack the ability to jump you must bend the bouncing physics to your will in order to get around. There is an orange swirl somewhere in each level—similar to the one carved on ball that you navigate—and you must get there while avoiding hazards and the ever present bottom-of-the-screen. Each level throws new variations and gadgets at you, demanding adaptation, while several play with gravity, throwing you up and down in rythmic alternations.
Getting to the end of each level within the time limit gets you a bonus medal, and there is also a special exit (marked with a big "A") that represents an achievement as well. Completing all levels with all possible accolades unlocks secret content, available in the uppermost menu tab, including the Tower Of Glory.
Analysis: Amberial is to platformers as Sonny is to RPGs: the zenith of the genre implemented in Flash. There is only a small flaw to mention before I gush on the greatness: I wish the camera would scroll down a bit more so I can see where I am liable to fall and move accordingly. Otherwise, this is purity; the game takes an absolute minimal approach to mechanics. From the basic theme of a ball bouncing, with a glassy audio effect you come to love, a multifaceted gameplay is worked out in 22 finely crafted levels. One level introduces speed boosting and unfolds around that; another is based upon bounce-pads, launching you from asteroid-to-asteroid, then tops it all off with some bumper-based wall-jumping. A few more levels takes the classic maze or obstacle-course approach, but fits them within an interesting combination of impediments. You never feel like things are becoming repetitive. There's even a boss fight at the end of the "official" levels. Once you've completed all the levels you can go back and try to attain mastery of them in an attempt to finally reach the top of the Tower of Glory, which appropriately tops out your mental calibration to the dynamic and consummates it with a happy smile of accomplishment.
Dig into one of the best platform games ever to appear in a browser, Play Amberial: Nebulosa Realms.
For a style-less nerd, I have some pretty intense feelings about fashion. Stripes with plaid? Socks with sandals? Bring me my pitchfork and flaming torch! So when I'm forced to match not only socks with sandals, but fluoro green socks with tan sandals, just so I can complete a level of a Golf-like solitaire game, it causes me to break out in hives.
Fashion Solitaire is a surprisingly challenging blend of solitaire and dress-ups, almost in the same way Fairway Solitaire pairs golf with a card game. You must dress a certain number of models with at least a hairstyle, top and bottom garment and shoes before you can progress, and there may be conditions attached, such as including a red item. You can earn more dollars by designing your own clothes and adding them to the solitaire deck. On the solitaire side, each card represents a garment type (i.e. shoes, jewelry, skirts, etc) and features particular colors and patterns. They are stacked in piles with only the top card exposed, and you use the exposed cards to dress your model. You can stack cards of similar type (but not color or pattern) and remove unwanted cards to the reserve pile, or to a blank deck. Earn more dollars by picking up a group of cards of different types, i.e. a skirt, top and jewelry, to dress your model with one click. It's easy and fun! Well, up until you have 8 models to dress and no reserve stacks and for some reason you have four different garment cards exposed, none of which are the one you need to meet the conditions criteria, and model A is demanding a plaid dress that you've already used on the model that wanted brown a couple of screens ago.
The game seems to be aimed at people who like fashion rather than gaming, and as such, takes a little while to ramp up the difficulty. Once it does, though, it's challenging enough for any solitaire enthusiast. The feature of being able to design your own clothes is a nice touch. You can't design the shape or pattern — you unlock them as you progress — but you can match shapes with patterns and colors and swap the resulting card with one in the default deck. Strategically, you should try to keep a variety of colors so you don't end up struggling to meet that last compulsory condition before you can progress to the next round. At the end of each section, you have a fashion parade with the best garment designed in each round, as chosen by you, giving you the option to take photos and send them to friends!
Analysis: I have a few quibbles with the presentation. It's hard not to compare this game with JoJo's Fashion Show, and even though the gameplay is much richer, the artwork is kind of bland. The colours and patterns offered in the design screen range from OK to awful and the images are sharp and choppy. It can still look good, but the unfair tendency is to think "JoJo's fashions are so much prettier" if you've ever played that game, and of course a lot of this game's audience will have done so. There's also a fairly pointless "Buy Clothes" feature which I really haven't used — there's no scoring bonus the way there is with designing your own clothes, and you still have to swap the item with an item in the default deck. You can't turn hints off. In terms of gameplay, however, none of these are show-stoppers, just things that it would be nice to see developed further.
Long story short, this is a fun, addictive game that will have fashionistas screaming when they have to match fluoro pink with flouro green just to get a model off the screen... wait, we're in the middle of an 80s revival, it's all OK!
Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.
Fashion Solitaire is available to download from these affiliates:
A little bit of this, a little bit of that. This edition of Weekend Download throws a strange variety of games your way, but with one major headliner: Westward 2. Insert obligatory "oohs" and "ahhs" (and maybe even a "cool it's about time yay" or two) here.
Westward II: Heroes of the Frontier (Windows, 41.6MB, demo) - The sequel to Sandlot's Virtual Villagers-esque hit sim Westward has finally arrived! Strike out across the old west as you set up new towns and combat the growing dangers of the untamed land. Gather resources, survive natural disasters, and keep your citizens alive as you fight off bandits and construct over 20 new types of buildings. The story picks up where the first game left off and has you directing the fortunes of three old-time heroes. Also new is the ability to zoom in on the action thanks to entirely new 3D visuals.
Rom Check Fail (Windows, 2MB, free) - Imagine if you had the heroes, enemies, backgrounds and music from classic 80s games mashed together like WarioWare gone retro. What you'd get is Rom Check Fail. The game has you moving with the arrow keys and attacking with the [spacebar]. Your moves and those of your foes change every few seconds when the game remixes everything again, so you've got to meta-game a bit in order to defeat all twenty levels. Mind-bending fun.
Owl Country (Win, Mac, 24.8MB, free) - Owl Country is a pulp game made by a few indie folks after a creative jam session at GDC. The result is a kitschy B-game with solid production values, tricky but rewarding gameplay, and personality to spare. Press the arrow keys to fly left and right, up to flap, and hold the space bar to perform aerial acrobatics. Get those pigeons, lest they rule the night!
Perfectionism (Windows, 1.3MB, free) - Perfectionism is the latest exercise in gameplay as metaphor by Jason Roher. You start with 99 moves (the green number, upper left) and zero points (yellow number, upper right). Click on an arrow at the side or top, then click on another, similarly pointed arrow to shuffle a column or row. Doing this moves every yellow disc on that line, the object being to move yellow disks into the rings, scoring you a point. The genuis of the game is, you have to make a choice between spending moves trying to get more points out of a level, or moving on to the next one. It's a puzzle game that puts you in a battle with your own perfectionism.
Dangerous Highschool Girls In Trouble (Win, Mac, 15MB, demo) - Dangerous Highschool Girls In Trouble is an innovative hybrid Puzzle/RPG from Keith Nemitz, the man who brought us The Witch's Yarn. The game has you controlling a gang of unruly, semi-liberated highschool girls in 1920s America. Four mini-games involve taunting, manipulating, and flirting as you socially maneuver through the den of snakes that is the secondary education system. A compelling storyline and interesting advancement mechanics makes this a classic that crosses audience boundaries.
Come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price is Right! One of the oldest televised gameshows still in production today, The Price is Right has seen several dozen seasons in the United States and is broadcast in almost as many countries (OK, il prezzo è giusto!, anyone?). That's a whole lot of people sitting in their living room trying to guess the price of a wine rack with removable shelves. Now, developer Ludia is bringing the same formula to the casual gaming realm, dropping you front row center as one of the contestants!
The Price is Right is a gameshow centered around guessing the prices of various retail items. From paper towels to dinnerware to cars, you'll come across a huge variety of things, some easier to peg than others. Each game begins with a showdown between you and three other contestants (computer-controlled in single player mode, but you can get some friends in on the fun, too!). A fully-voiced announcer describes each product in detail along with a short video clip from the television show. Then, enter your guess for the item's retail value. The contestant who comes closest without going over wins and earns the chance to win even more money.
After the price war is over, you'll participate in one of nearly two dozen minigames culled from the gameshow. Cliffhanger is here (you know, the yodeling hiker guy), along with Master Key, Range Game, Hole in One (or Two), and yes, Plinko! Each game is a variation on the price guessing theme, and the possible winnings vary with the level of difficulty. After completing one of the games, winners will move on to the Showcase Showdown, spinning the famous wheel just before the final competition begins.
Analysis: I'll admit, The Price is Right does command a bit of nostalgia for me, as it seems the show was always on TV in the background of my youth. Part of the reason this game is so fun is because it captures the show so well, only now you can actually participate instead of just yelling at the screen. My first few minutes playing taught me something very important: apparently I'm terrible at guessing prices.
Presentation wise, The Price is Right gets the job done, but sometimes I shudder at the blocky, lifeless models that make up the contestants. And the audience is frightfully repetitive. Just how many people decided to wear yellow t-shirts that day? These are only cosmetic annoyances, however, and don't affect the gameplay one bit. It sure would have been some sweet icing on the cake, though...
Even though I could never verify it, the true "randomness" of some of these games seems in question. For example, when playing Plinko, the first two chips I dropped scored a perfect $10,000. Ever see that happen on the show? And I almost strangled my monitor when contestant after contestant would beat my high 80-90 score on the wheel with a single "lucky" 95. Come on!!!
So how will this game fare to those unfamiliar with The Price is Right world? You probably won't feel that same sense of excitement as you "come on down", but the challenge is certainly there, and the mini-game variety is impressive (unless price guessing isn't your thing). Unfortunately the demo is quite short, allowing you just 30 minutes to try before you buy. But if you enjoy things from the outset, the game does nothing but get better and better as the hours fly by.
Despite a slightly lacking presentation, The Price is Right game manages to capture the thrills of the television gameshow remarkably well. Each game is unique, and multiplayer is a great excuse to gather the family around the computer. As you score higher and higher in the main game, you'll also unlock the ability to play any of the mini-games right from the title screen. Who could possibly say no to playing The Price is Right games at your leisure?
Great alone, great with a friend, great with the kids, great with your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend. The Price is Right is just... fun. Loads and loads of pure fun.
Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.
The Price is Right is available to download from these affiliates:
Casual adventure games are gaining ground as titles such as Azada and the Dream Chronicles series cut out the complexity and serve up a little lighthearted gaming alongside item-based puzzles. Natalie Brooks - Secrets of Treasure House follows suit in an adventure that uses optional hidden object scenes to earn hints to solve puzzles in the main quest. It's a good blend of genres that, despite its rather short length and occasional grammatical hiccup, holds your attention with an interesting story and varied gameplay.
More of a linear adventure game than anything, Natalie Brooks - Secrets of Treasure House plays out through a series of first person locales interspersed with comic-style cutscenes that progress the story. Natalie has inherited her grandmother's home and learns there's hidden treasure somewhere within. She quickly discovers the house is scheduled for demolition, however, and begins her quest to save the family house. Gather items and talk to townspeople as you try to solve puzzles in each area. Puzzles are self-contained, meaning the items you pick up in one area will be used right there, so you don't have to lug things from scene to scene.
The interesting mechanic in Natalie Brooks is the use of hidden object scenes as a mini-game of sorts. If you're stuck in the main part of the game, simply click the magnifying glass at the bottom of the screen. The area you're in will be littered with items and a short list of things to find appears. Find the items within the time limit and you'll earn a few hints to point you in the right direction. You can even hop from location to location while in hidden object mode, breaking the monotony quite well. These diversions are short and rather easy (although some of the item names are a bit too vague), so even if your mortal enemy is hidden object games, you can have a good time.
Analysis: Natalie Brooks - Secrets of Treasure House is one of those games that grabs you early on and never really lets go. The protagonist is likeable, the characters just comical enough to make you grin, and the overall art style keeps your eyes plastered on the screen. The distilled adventure-like puzzle solving is done quite well and, despite the linearity to each quest, manages to keep you guessing without laying on too much obtuse ambiguity.
I was initially skeptical of the hidden object scenes (not my favorite genre), but they're so short and easy they become a welcome change of pace. As the game progresses you have to do more and more of them, but I honestly didn't mind. It was worth the pixel hunting to get clues for the puzzle I was solving. Also, Natalie is a bit too chatty from time to time, and some of the dialogue borders on the trite. Expect a few grammar mistakes here and there as well, which is an unfortunate blemish on the otherwise excellent presentation.
Natalie Brooks - Secrets of Treasure House is pleasing from stem to stern, with just the right balance of genres to keep the pace at a steady clip.
Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.
We have another winner to announce today, and we also want to thank everyone for participating in our Asylum plushie drawings!
Congratulations to Zoya(!) for winning this adorable Dolly plushie from The Asylum! Zoya's name was drawn at random this afternoon here at JIG headquarters, and we'll be sending out Dolly just as soon as we get a shipping address confirmation (an email has been sent, so check your inbox Zoya!).
Be sure to keep checking the site, as we'll be giving away another Asylum plushie again soon! Oh yes we will!
Kava-what? Is it a Pacific island drink of shamans and storytellers? No, Kavalmaja is the latest game from the brilliant Tonypa. A departure from his usual explorations of the abstract, Kavalmaja is a tile-based, Zelda like exploration game, except you have a wacky, randomly generated name. Unlike Zelda, it strips away combat, re-emphasizing the flow of the maze.
Movement is simple and straightforward, just use the [arrow] keys to move around. You will, however, need to familiarize yourself with the symbolic language that Tony has created. Some highlights to get you started:
- The two-armed green block represents you, the player character.
- The green cross icons on the top-left represent your health.
- Red tiles will deduct one health if you intersect with it. Health recharges when you go to another screen.
- Striped blue tiles act like ice, causing you to slide until you hit a wall.
- Blue arrows will move you in the direction they point.
- Blue grids toggle switch effects.
- Blue concentric squares are teleporters that whisk you away to another area of the maze.
- Yellow diamonds are power-ups that you collect for points. You need 50 yellow diamonds to find the final teleporter that ends the game.
- There a few different types of door blocks, you will need to find special items to unlock them.
Analysis: This is a minimalist exercise in flow control; that classic, gem-like, diamondoid gameplay that fans of Metroid or Zelda-style games know and love. It's about having multiple paths and having to deduce which are passable and when the others are ripe for unraveling. The dungeon is a big puzzle that you're working toward a solution for, from the inside out. Expect nothing more and you'll be in bliss. The only knock against it is that some of the obstacle blocks look similar, but the more you play the more you become familiar with the language.
Spire in the matrix of Kavalmaja.
Kavalmaja walkthrough now available!
Early April Fools!!! AH HA HA HA!! HA HA!! LOL!!! HA HA HAHAHA!!! HE HEEEE HEEE!! WOOO!!! Heh heh... heh... hehheh... heh... HAAAA HA HAHAHA!!!! :-D
Marvin Spectrum - A quick reflexes-based game where you duck, dive or jump through obstacles that come your way. The interesting mix-up is that you must change colors with the [ASDF] keys to match with the obstacle you're trying to pass through, else you get fried! Brain hurt owie.
Growth - A beat-based sound toy where you place three drum sounds on a small rectangular grid: snare, hat, and kick. Hit the play button and the drummer gets to work, and your music causes a unique tree to grow in the center!
The Four Seasons of Castle - From the author of last week's Wonderful Sea, The Four Seasons of Castle is another short but adorable room escape game flavored with a little RPG fantasy. Slide through the environment with the arrows at the top of the screen, and click on items to interact. Grab every item you see and try using them everywhere!
Sound Clock (beta) - Tap out a few beats with this simple sound toy. Just drag and drop dots onto the clock-like circles, adjust the speed, and you're good to go, Mr./Ms. DJ Man/Woman!
Mystery Mansion 101 - The first in a series of minimalistic room escape games presented in two-color wireframe glory! Is it just me, or did video games always used to look this cool?
JIG Poker Night - Every Saturday (4:00 PM) through May 17th. Join us for a chance to win fabulous prizes. Or not. You decide.
A brand new platforming adventure game has just been released from Nitrome: Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam! Dirk Valentine uses similar mechanics as Nitrome's own Frost Bite. Move Dirk with the [arrow] keys and aim with the mouse. Press the left mouse button to fire the ricocheting chain gun. The slightly more serious tone and steampunk setting is a departure from Nitrome's usual fare, but the high quality of artwork, music and overall design remains the same.
It's 1897, and for the last five years Baron Battenberg's Steam powered war machines have ravaged Europe. Led by Great Britain, a handful of countries set out to stop the Baron. A tiny airship arrives at its destination, carrying Britain's greatest spy, explorer and fighter, Dirk Valentine. It's your job to fight off the Baron's army of soldiers and steampunk machines as you create your own platforms using Dirk's handy chain gun.
The chain gun is both your main weapon and a useful tool in this game. Not only does it dispatch enemies and collect medals, it also creates platforms that can snake across ledges. When standing on a brown-topped platform, fire the chain gun at another unarmored piece of ground. The chain will form a bridge between you and the other platform. If it bounces and hits other unarmored platforms, your bridge will continue and build up to three nodes. Later in the game it can perform a few more tricks, such as stalling platforms or zap through teleporters to take out enemies from afar.
Analysis: By far, my favorite setting for a video game is deep inside a steampunk world. The gears, the machinery, the airships, the clanking metallic gadgets. Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam certainly doesn't disappoint on this front, as Nitrome manages to create a convincingly interesting story and environment without getting too serious. It's nice to see the studio's fine pixel artwork shift to a slightly new style.
Aiming definitely takes some getting used to in this game. Dirk's chain gun fires from just below the actual mechanism (in case it connects to the ground to create a platform). The result is you always fire just to the side of where you were aiming. With practice, this becomes a non-issue.
Some chain platforms you create can be murder to use, especially ones that are more vertical than horizontal. They're handled quite well, to be fair, but it's difficult to tell just how far you can move on some before falling to the ground. There's also an odd glitch that causes your character to freeze if you press the mouse button too rapidly.
As a little bonus bit of trivia for everyone, the famous Wilhelm scream makes an appearance when you take out some of the soldiers. It seems just a bit out of place, but it'll make a lot of people grin, so it's worth it. Nice touch, Nitrome!
Familiar, but fresh, and with a setting rarely seen in casual games. An excellent release from Nitrome! Play Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam.
Cheers to Ashiel for sending this one in!
So you have Harry Potter, see? Only, ok, make him shorter. And plumper. And with a bowlcut reminiscent of Javier Bardem's Oscar-winning performance in "No Country For Old Men." This is Tom "Tucker" Crubucker, and he's a student at Hogwarts—er, Zibward Wizard School, sorry—and he needs your help. You see, he's about to take his final exam, and it's his last chance to earn his wizarding diploma. But poor Tom is so nervous and so clumsy that he accidentally trips and bangs his head against a table—and when he wakes up he's in a locked room full of magical objects and enigmatic puzzles! Good thing he has an army of veteran point-and-clickers to help him out, eh?
The Final Spell is not the most polished room escape game I've ever seen, nor is it the prettiest or most ingenious. It is, however, undeniably charming and completely good-humored. The format of the game will be familiar to anyone who has played a few of the kabillion examples of the point-and-click genre: collect objects, combine objects, use objects in more-or-less logical ways with the rest of the room, etc. No pixel-hunting, though, hallelujah! The puzzles are fairly easy and intuitive, and it probably won't take you more than 10 minutes or so to complete the game. What makes The Final Spell fun is its sense of humor, provided mainly by the many pamphlets and books scattered around the room, and sheer cuteness; an endearing amateurish sensibility is combined with just enough substance to leave you grinning.
The game does have a few annoyances, most notably that many of the necessary objects in the room are impossible to pick up until one has read the correct book or pamphlet; however, the game is nice enough to tell you that it isn't time yet. Also, near the end players might be stumped by a matter of semantics or, as I like to call it, "I have the answer but the &$&#! game isn't recognizing it" syndrome. Still, taken for what it is—a quirky, fun little adventure, perfect for a coffee break—The Final Spell does not disappoint. If the Submachine series is a marathon workout, think of The Final Spell as light calisthenics.
Help Tom achieve his wizarding destiny: Play The Final Spell!
The Final Spell walkthrough now available!
I'm not sure why developer Wellgames chose the tagline "Puzzle pattern pandemonium!", or why they shoehorned that ridiculous "Z!" into the title. This is perhaps the least Xtreme, least pandemonium-laden game I've ever seen. In fact, if you're playing it without a mug of cocoa and an oversized sweater, you're doing it wrong. For Patchworkz! is—in the popular new trend of taking an incredibly boring activity and making a fun video game from it—a game about quilting.
Each level presents you with an incomplete quilt, essentially a jig-saw puzzle with sections missing. A selection of patches sits at the bottom of the screen, and you finish the puzzle merely by dragging them one by one into the correct positions. However, the rules are the opposite of those for a regular jig-saw. Patches come in a wide variety of different shapes, and a piece will never match its neighbor in color or pattern. Therefore you must intuit, from the patchwork already in place, what the overall design of the puzzle is and how the new pieces must fit into it.
The faster you complete a quilt, the higher your score. The level numbers stretch on for quite a while, so Patchworkz! keeps track of your progress between sessions. I've had some trouble with the game forgetting my profile, though, so be warned that can happen, and always keep your hot cocoa close at hand.
Analysis: The gameplay is addictive, and the presentation is top-notch. Wellgames has included a near-endless variety of designs and patterns, and if the graphics aren't exactly soft and quilt-like, they are at least crisp and attractive. The cheery dink dink dink of correctly placed patches is sonic comfort food, like a bottomless bag of jelly beans.
But Patchworkz! is intriguing mostly because it taps into a totally different set of skills (or "skillz", as the quilterz say these dayz) than just about any other game. Often a quilt will be so fractured that you must fill in the gaps using only your sense of color and balance. I find that remarkable. When is the last time a video game tested you on your talent for visual composition? Play Patchworkz!
Note to Macintosh users: You may experience trouble getting the game to load. This is a temporary situation the developers assure us.
Note to my aunt in Reno: I am kidding about quilting being boring. Please keep sending me cozy comforters.
You've been looking for some kind of escape — a vacation to paradise, maybe, but you'd probably just settle for a nap. So, here, you now find yourself sitting in front of this screen once again. But why are you wearing those pale green socks?
Welcome to the Tipping Point, a point-and-click adventure by Dan Russell-Pinson. With serene, yet highly detailed graphics and soft music, this game is a break away from the ordinary. There are now three chapters of a slightly surreal story available now, with an unknown number yet to come.
In the first chapter, you'll find yourself stuck in front of the TV, with nothing better to do than channel surf. This will soon change, as you begin to be followed by great blue herons and answer a call for help. In the second chapter, you'll be scrambling for clues along a deserted beach. Well, deserted except for the herons. They must like you. The third chapter whisks you away to a tropical rain forest with exotic birds and bugs buzzing all around. There is even a treehouse to explore.
If you're planning to resume the 2nd or 3rd chapter without first playing through each one in succession, you'll need these chapter codes:
- Chapter 2:
QLOKIT - Chapter 3: FREEKL
Analysis:: Tipping Point is slightly strange, moderately challenging, and intensely beautiful. The photo-realistic graphics and soft ambient noises will transport you to another place. (Unfortunately, the detailed graphics only follow long loading times, but they are entirely worth the wait.) While the storyline seems a little odd and surreal, the puzzles are straightforward and logical. Most can be solved just by exploring and clicking around, so don't be afraid to do a little hunt-and-clicking.
As soon as the game starts to seem too simple, you may suddenly find yourself stuck, and pushing towards your own Tipping Point. Play Tipping Point.
Cheers to Stelios for submitting this one! =)
Tipping Point walkthrough now available!
10 Gnomes episode 3: Early Spring Garden has been released! The third installment in the 10 Gnomes series by Submachine author Mateusz Skutnik continues the point-and-click "find the gnome" gameplay that holds our attention for precisely ten minutes. The goal is simple: click your way through a photographic landscape searching for hidden cartoon gnomes. You only have ten minutes to find all ten, so speed is just as important as a sharp eye.
Photographic images, all toned down to grayscale, make up the environment in each 10 Gnomes episode. This installment drops you in a garden where gnomes have hidden themselves behind bushes and inside bamboo stalks all around the area. Using the mouse, simply pan left and right searching for hotspots that allow you to zoom in for a closer look. Explore every nook and cranny of the eerily quiet garden to find the gnomes before time runs out.
What 10 Gnomes offers is glaringly simple: a streamlined hidden object game clothed in point-and-click robes. Its premise can be summed up in one terse sentence and you can easily make your way through each episode before your coffee gets cold. But what makes the games special is the sleek, almost artsy feel to the entire presentation, right down to the grayscale photographs and dark, troubled music. But of course you're searching for happy little gnomes, so it isn't as serious as it sounds.
Another great installment in the simple but fun series. Play 10 Gnomes episode 3: Early Spring Garden.
10 Gnomes episode 3: Early Spring Garden walkthrough now available!
Sonny is most likely the best Flash RPG yet made. Imagine fluid battles that don't feel like a grind, complete with fluid animation and tactics that are actually interesting and fun. Now, imagine that you're a superhuman zombie. Yes, Sonny, this is it.
The interface is all mouse driven as we've come to expect with Flash. In battle, you and your allies are on one side and your enemies are on the other. Clicking on a character brings up a contextual ring of orbs representing the techniques you can use: for enemies you will see attack options, and for yourself and your allies you will see buffs and healing options. Instead of magic points you have health and focus. Using a technique usually costs focus and a certain number of turns before you can use it again. Winning battles gives you money and experience, which allow you to get better gear and level up. You can also spend points on increasing your stats and investing up the tech tree. While not necessarily revolutionary, Sonny is executed so smoothly and with such balance that it makes Flash seem as good as any other platform for a game design of this type.
Analysis: This game is a textbook example of staggered variation, which means the battles offer a lot of distinct feelings based on who you're teamed up with and who you're fighting. In some cases, you may be depending on your ally to give you the recharge, in other cases, you'll be waiting for your opponent to use a technique that puts its guard down. The game continues to feel fresh and demand tactical adaptation throughout, this is no mere climb up the experience ladder. The story is fairly shallow, but uses some interesting narrative techniques in its understated ambiguities, including the nature of the protagonist and his relationship with other NPCs. At the end of the story section (semi-spoiler) the context of the final fight left me questioning something I never looked into, and a jaunt into the inventory screen confirmed my hypothesis to chilling effect. The fourth act is a more open-ended, game-y scenario you could invest a lot of time in, at which point the system is pushed to its beautiful limits, and the major flaw of the game, the relative stupidity of your allies' AI, begins to show wear.
Created by Krinlabs for Armor Games, Krin has outdone himself with this one. Treat yourself to a superb RPG experience and Play Sonny.
If you haven't been keeping up with our 5th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, you should know that most of the games have gone through several updates based on feedback received since we rolled them out last week. So, you really owe it to yourself to check out the latest upgraded versions.
And now we invite everyone to take part by voting for your favorite(s). Each finalist is represented by its icon along with a "vote" button next to it. The vote button will take you to a PayPal donation form where you may donate $1 (USD) or more to the respective game. (You do not need a PayPal account to vote, PayPal accepts credit cards as well.)
We are limiting voting to only those who donate as it discourages ballot stuffing. And besides, it's only a dollar, so please show some support for all the effort these talented designers put forth for you to enjoy. No one is obligated to vote, and all we are asking for is a single dollar from each of you.
At the end of the competition (April 7th), all of the votes will be tallied and the game that receives the most community votes will be awarded the Audience Prize of $500!
All proceeds* from the vote donations will go directly to each respective game designer(s). Of course you may donate more than a dollar when you vote, though your vote will still count as just one vote. (*Your donation less any fees PayPal deducts prior to our receiving it. For reference: PayPal takes $0.33 from a one-dollar donation, but only $0.45 from a five-dollar donation.)
The deadline to vote is Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 11:59 PM (GMT-4:00).
To cast your vote, simply use the PayPal ("Vote") link next to the game icon you wish to vote for, and then enter your donation amount in the PayPal form. "Vote for this game" links have also been added to the competition page for each entry. Thank you kindly for your anticipated contributions of support!
Total from voting... $437.34!
Not quite the level of support we've seen in previous competitions. Our sincerest thanks to everyone who voted and for your kind support of these competitions!
Boxhead: The Zombie Wars by Sean T. Cooper is the fifth installment of the Boxhead series. The premise of the game is a bit self-explanatory: You are at a war with zombies and their evil friends. Zombies are actually a lot more sociable than you might think if you can understand what they mean by those grunts and moans. Unlucky for you the only ones who CAN understand them are faster zombies, teleporting vampires, golems, and devils. Unlucky for them you have a whole arsenal of weapons at your disposal, ranging from a simple pistol to nuclear based air strikes.
The primary goal in the game is to stay alive for as long as possible, but there are several ways to go about this. You can choose to take a more offensive front and plant traps for zombies like exploding barrels, or a more defensive approach by building yourself a base complete with rocket launching turrets. With eight playing fields to choose from—four of them geared towards the offensive approach, and four towards the defensive—there is plenty of room to adapt your own style of fighting the zombie horde. However, be warned that choosing the levels with defenses already built for you will start you at a higher level in the game.
The upgrade system for your weapons is quite unique in that it is based on combos. The higher your combo the more things you unlock. It starts out pretty easy, getting a combo of 5 kills will score you a shiny new shotgun, but it takes a combo of 500 to get the nuclear strike. Your Kill combo is displayed at the top right of the screen and you will notice the numbers slowly fade; each time it fades your combo will decrease by one. The higher the number the faster it fades so make sure you are killing faster than it is decreasing! Lucky for you, your explosions don't hurt you, so don’t be afraid to use yourself as bait to lure a bunch of zombies into a row of barrels and blow them all up.
Analysis: Even though this is the fifth in the series, Sean does quite a good job at keeping the new ideas flowing and adding to the core gameplay of the series. With enough variety to keep fans of the genre entertained for quite a while, this really is a game that shouldn't be overlooked. However it isn't without its drawbacks. Take the game's sound, for example. There is no music in the game, and the sound of gunshot after gunshot can get pretty tedious after a while. There are also a few bugs in the game, some pretty serious, others not so much. Occasionally the game will stop after a level is complete, and never continue on, leaving you alone and desperate in a field of crimson, clover and charcoal with only the few remaining unsinged trees to keep you company. Since Sean seems to be continuously updating his games, it's likely this may be addressed and squashed soon.
Boxhead: The Zombie Wars is still a game very much worth exploring even if action based game play isn't your thing. Take note that there is quite a bit of cartoon violence and blood animated in this game, so viewer discretion is advised. Play Boxhead: The Zombie Wars!
C'mon, everyone is doing it! Let's tear apart the place, looking through piles of stuff or branches of plants, looking for colorful, small, and oval objects! Eggs, you say? No, no, who searches for eggs anymore? We're hunting for dolls. Ok, just one doll: Lion's doll. But we might just collect a basketful, anyways.
Nekonote Escape 7: Doll is a slight twist on the average escape-the-room game. Rather than looking for a way to open the exit, the goal of this game is to please poor Lion, who can't find his favorite doll anywhere. No wonder; someone has stuffed dolls all over, in the strangest of places. Collect all these joyful little faces and one just might turn out to belong to Lion.
This cute point-and-click game has many features common to games of this genre: a few puzzles, a mini game, and excessive pixel hunting. Most objects are collected and kept in an inventory along the right side of the screen, where they may be examined or combined with other objects. (One exception to this rule is the set of dolls; as they are gathered, they seem to disappear into limbo.)
A simple escape game can be a delight all by itself, but sometimes the greatest discovery is that it isn't by itself. Nekonote Escape 7: Doll is, as the title indicates, the seventh in a series. Each of the other games offers its own unique challenge, while following the adventures of the same crew: Lion, his doll, and a giant pink octopus. The first in the series is fairly primitive in terms of our point-and-click standards. Through the series, the scenery and puzzles gradually improve. So, played in order, it is easy to see both the evolution of escape games, as well as the difference a little practice can make.
By the time the seventh game in the series rolled around, the creators found the right combination: simple aesthetics and maddening frustrating solutions. It will be interesting to see what escapes the future will bring. For now, please enjoy yourself and Play Nekonote Escape 7: Doll.
Or, enjoy any of the other six games in the series:
- One: Escape From the Room
- Two: Mom's Memo
- Three: The Dream
- Four: Lion's Room
- Five: X-Mas
- Six: The Dream II
We have another patient from The Asylum that needs a good home, and that's where you come in.
As before, we will give away Dolly to some lucky visitor with a JIG Casual Gameplay account! All you have to do is leave a comment here on this entry by signing into your Casual Gameplay account. If it's a valid comment, our little mascot (the JIGster
) will appear next to your name. That's all there is to it!
We will draw one lucky name at random this coming Friday (March 28, 2008). Be sure your email address in your profile is up-to-date and valid, as we will be sending you an email to confirm your account and to request a shipping address to send you this cute, adorable, multiple personality disordered Dolly. Good luck! =)
If you're playing the game again (or perhaps even for the first time) and need some help, you might find some helpful hints, tips or even a walkthrough on one of our previous Asylum reviews.
It's no secret that the casual game market thrives on repetition. For every new experience, there are 9,184 clones (I looked it up), and eventually even the most hardcore hidden object finder is going to get bored and take up macramé. Great for the friendship bracelet industry, not so good for the starving game developers. Eventually, they'll all be out on the street with piles of colored beads, offering passers-by the chance to match three beads together in exchange for food.
And that's where PlayPond comes in. With DragonStone, the studio bravely mashed a marble-grouping game with a shoot-em-up, spray-painted it with a medieval fantasy theme, and literally turned the whole thing on its head. The result is an exciting and perilously addictive experiment, with the friendly face and high production values of a casual game.
Your hero is Baldric, an armor-clad oaf in love with a princess. She loves him too, and since we can't have peasants marrying princesses, the king sends Baldric on a dangerous quest to retrieve the fabled DragonStone. The idea being that Baldric will perish in the jaws of a dragon and leave the princess single, in case any wealthy bachelors come along with a spare fiefdom. The story is gobble-de-gook, told with tongue in cheek, an excuse to send you through 8 beautifully illustrated lands containing 80 levels of carefully sculpted puzzle action.
Your weapon is a mouse-controlled magical bow that shoots two kinds of ammunition. Click the left button to launch colored stones. If you form a group with at least 3 stones of the same color, they will disappear. This is not unlike Zuma or Bust-a-Move, but in DragonStone, when you eliminate all the marbles attached to a rock outcropping or pile of earth, the whole formation crumbles away, letting you advance to the next part of the level.
Sometimes destroying a piece of scenery in this way will release prizes, which you can catch with your bow. Coins can be spent on upgrades at certain places in the game, while other objects give you extra lives or restore your health. Some objects, like spiky balls and poison flasks, can harm you and should be avoided. All the while, the puzzle is slowly advancing, and if any stone, platform, or pillar reaches the top of the screen, you'll lose a life and have to restart the level.
Clicking the right mouse button fires arrows, which are good for destroying targets and fighting the menagerie of creatures that will be attacking you. Getting struck by too many vampire bats and fire balls is another good way to lose a life. Your enemies range from giant spiders to surprisingly terrifying dragons, and seeing what new beast will come after you next is a major incentive to keep beating levels.
Early in the game you'll also learn about your magic attack. If you hold down the right button for a moment, you'll unleash a marble-vaporizing sonic blast that can save your bacon if you've messed up part of a puzzle, or if a particular baddie is too much for you. Later on, you'll be able to purchase powerful screen-clearing spells that can be used only once per level.
Analysis: Perhaps the smartest choice PlayPond made was to position the bow at the top of the screen, and let your marbles fall into the puzzles according to gravity. This means they can design levels with slopes and valleys, and groups of one color of marble supported by groups of another color. If you place a stone well, you can often set off a giant chain reaction and make your life significantly easier. Of course, later in the game, that same chain reaction can release waves of stinging thorns for you to dodge, so you can never rest easy, even when you've solved a puzzle correctly. That combination of reflexes and analysis means that DragonStone will be rewarding for players who like to work their whole brain, but it might find a smaller audience than more specialized games.
At first, the marriage of shooter and puzzler seems unnecessary, even awkward. Most of the time, you can take a moment to clear out any monsters that appear, and then go back to solving the marble puzzle un-interrupted. It's like playing two separate games. But when creatures start walking around on the puzzles and sniping at you from behind indestructible blocks, everything comes together. It really feels like you're laying siege to a hostile den of mythical creatures, albeit in an abstract, color-matching way.
Reinforcing the illusion is the excellent background artwork. Levels have multiple layers of scrolling scenery, which creates a terrific sense of open space. The music and sound effects are at worst unobtrusive and at best wonderfully atmospheric.
Are there problems? Well, it's a little strange in a game with so much dodging that your magic bow is so large. It takes up a third of the horizontal playing space, so avoiding attacks usually means just hurling it all the way to the left or the right. It's easier to catch coins with a huge target like that, of course, and that's probably what the designers were thinking. But it's a little rich to expect players to dodge multiple projectiles with the massive thing.
More inconvenient is the fact that you can only see whatever marble is currently loaded in your bow. There's no way to see what color is coming up next, so you have to take a moment for your brain to process each new color before you fire. Sometimes when you're in a tight situation, you'll long to have some advance warning.
But despite those hiccups in the design, DragonStone is compulsively playable. There are dozens upon dozens of clever puzzles, featuring a variety of special objects. You'll encounter explosive barrels, color-shifting Medusa heads, treasure chests, ice blocks; the list goes on and on. Unlike many casual games that rely on random layouts to create replay value, PlayPond has simply created a huge amount of content. 80 levels is a lot, when each level is a long series of challenges itself. Add in multiple endings, a screen-full of awards for completing various tasks, more silly puns than you can shake a stick at, and two different difficult