The parade of frogs plays trumpets to confetti as the apple moon flies in at 5:67pm. A stitch in time won't save the fairies because no elephant turns on a dime. We are going to the newspapers! We are going to the newspapers! Chocolate! Chocolate! Fax the memo to us! Tuned cans dance falling into mediocrity. Believe it or not, that's a quote from a movie, or at least it might as well be. Can anyone tell me what movie I'm thinking of? Oh, and I'm not crazy, it's just LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

• Turret Pong - It's pong, with guns! Use your turret to direct the ball towards your enemy's base-line.
• Statetris You should hopefully know all your states from last LDF, now play Tetris with the U.S. of A.
• Diggtris - Tetris Diggified! Play Tetris with shapes and colors determined by recently dugg stories on Digg.com. It may be hard to resist clicking "10 Tips for Razor Sharp Concentration" while you play, but don't worry, if you click a story the game will pause while you explore. PG-13 for the occasional foul language news title.
• Play the Game - A stomping, clapping, follow the leader rhythm game. Be quick on your feet or be left behind.
• Triangles - Avoid the triangles! Avoid the triangles! A left-hand/right-hand/keyboard/mouse coordination challenge.
• Poco2 Escape 2.0 - An interesting point-and-click, escape the room game.
• TriPeakz - The solitaire game sometimes known as Pyramids made twice as fun with head to head competition.
• Notessimo - Create and share songs with this simple but fun web toy.

Judging continues on the entries for our 3rd Casual Gameplay Design Competition, and it's proving to be quite difficult. We will be announcing the winners on Monday along with the results for the Audience prize, so be sure to vote!! Deadline for voting is this Sunday night.

When you run, what do you think of? What questions do you ruminate? What perplexing puzzles do you ponder? Do you wonder why people park in a driveway and drive in a parkway? Do you wonder if it really is that important for all the matches in a matchbox to face the same way? Or maybe you wonder how many jelly donuts would it take to build a solid fort against alien attacks. I got up this morning and started running. Now, of course, in my case there was a psycho running after me trying to force me to eat a suspicious piece of toast, but I still had time to ponder philosophical problems. So what did I mentally investigate as my feet pounded the pavement? I thought, how awesome it would be if today was...LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

• 50 States - Place all 50 States (US) on a satellite map of North America. See how much you really know! Check out the Africa map for a possibly greater challenge. Didn't do well? Blame your History teacher!
• Platform Racing - Similar to Kongregate Racing except lacking fun bubbles. Leap over pits and platforms picking up deadly items to gain the coveted first place. Fun mini races with unpredictable finishes.
• Revenge of the Stick - A DesktopTD-like defense game of office supply proportions.
• Switch'em Off - A slick but simple game where you click and shut down coal plants as fast as possible.
• Blind Pong - Play pong...blind. Rely on guiding sounds to play one of the simplest games made ear twitchingly devious.
• Three Little Pigs - Slide colorful blocks around the field to make lines of three. For each block you move, two more appear!
• Brick Break - Break the colorful blocks baby! Toss bricks from all four sides of the field to make matches of three or more.
• Frog Day - It's FrogDay, the second best thing to Caturday! The object is simple, get the frog to the goal, or collect all three pyramids. But to get a high score you need to carefully plan your path while breaking "?" Blocks for the yummy fruit inside all under a score eating time limit.
• Bomb Wars - Lob bombs at your opponent while avoiding getting hit yourself. Much like riding a bike, except not at all.

Any of these games truly capture your attention? Suddenly find all your free time sucked away? Let us know which games deserve a true Casual Gameplay review in the comments.

Harukio puts on his robe and wizard hat...

Which is better: Hard candy or chocolate? Bare feet or soft socks? A beautiful flower or a stunning sunset? A delicious cake or scrumptious pie? Soaring through the mountains or chilling on the beach? An earth-shattering solo or a unified band? Greeting each day like it holds the infinite possibility to be great, new and refreshing or a plate of somewhat old cheese? Well at least some questions in life are easy... like how about another LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

• Cursor Invisible - Play this rapid fire shooting gallery game and acquire limb spatial awareness, except with your mouse. In this game, you're shooting without crosshairs.
• Norakurabako - Escape the room, what else need I say? And yes, we do save all the Japanese ones for Fridays...
• Dice Move - Roll the die carefully around the obstacles to get it to the goal, but make sure it's in the right position!
• Zyrx - Test your visual memory with this devious disappearing dot grid. Seems like one of those things you're either good at, or you're not.
• Planet Trouble - Jump from planet to planet to float successfully to the trouble planet. Beware the flames!
• Ice Candy - Catch the colorful candies on your tray and then dump them into the slots below creating lines of 3 or more! Be careful, the candies fall from the top in groups of color, not from the bottom!
• Puppet Five - The infamous 5-line game with the addition of a score eating time limit and cute puppets!
• HBO Voyeur - Peak in on an apartment with many stories with HBO's intriguing 5 minute Voyeur. Watch life, death, love, and drama play out before your eyes. Explore the city for 4 bonus stories. Site contains violence viewed from a distance and no foul language. I mean, you can't hear them, you're across the street! Why are you watching anyway? Wait...Did you see that! What just happened?! Call the police! CALL! ... Why aren't you calling? ... Why? (Best viewed on PC 1.5 GHZ or higher, Mac G5 or higher. Also viewable on HBO OnDemand and no I didn't get paid for that.)

"As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them." - Albus Dumbledore

It's summertime! Days are long, and intros are short.

• Pac Adventure: Dracula's Castle Your basic little collect the items, avoid the baddies quest. Surprisingly decent! Note, this has nothing to do with Pac-Man, it just seems to be an excuse to remix the music.
• The ReDistricting Game - The political game of re-districting! Be sure to watch the overly dramatic intro!
• Ollie's Dance Experience - A pixely DDR game with a variety of music and some immature language in Ollie's quest to get his roller skates back.
• World of Dreams - An interesting platformer with flying pigs. Or as I call it, flying breakfast! Mmmm...bacon...
• Trolley Racer - Race in shopping carts! Don't try this at home (because you shouldn't have a shopping cart at home).
• Fingerjig - It's like writing an essay made by monkeys, but with points! Practice your typing skills with this slick game. Note: Because one part of this game tests the typing speed/accuracy of your right and left hand separately, dvorak users might have a disadvantage. (Beat my score! 579,439)
• Kenya Deluxe - I present to you the video link of the week: You may of seen it before, and it IS a classic, but have you seen it in Fullscreen HD 9600i Silver Platinum Deluxe?! It's Weebl's Kenya vid...huge-ified!

Do any of these games grab you by the fingers and yank you to a world of casual gaming fantasy? Or are they all yawn-worthy duds? Let us know which link dump games you feel are worthy of a full fledged review!

A simple man once said, "I will not let words get in the way of my message." He then proceeded to smash a grapefruit on his head, prance around wearing socks too small for his hands, and draft a declaration of independence for the ocean and all the little fishies.
So as to follow the words of this great man, here is your link dump!

• Monster Master - A card battling game highly reminiscent of Magic: The Gathering and other similar games minus the silly mana, and costly crinkly booster packs.
• Dawn of the Bods - Why are you reading this description?! Shoot the zombies! GO GO GO!
• Candy and Clyde - A WarioWare-like game with the choice to play goody-two-shoes or the sneaky creator of havoc.
• Xeno Tactic - The latest tower defense game. There are still a couple of issues left to fix in this beta, but its mission-based gameplay and slick Starcraft-like interface makes it a must play for TD fans.
• Gojirama - Phear da typing of the RIZARD!!! Groovy graphics but slow gameplay.
• Brain Stopwatch - Are you a minuteman? Because you better know your seconds for this! (groan).
• Flute Hero - Even more metal than Guitar Hero (because it's all metal baby!).
• LOQUACIOUS EYESICLE WILD-BITES - A beary strange tale. (Quicktime Mov)

I just got back from HOBY and boy are my arms tired! (Charlieeeeeee)

A sweet mango smoothie. Turning the pages of a favorite book. Dashing bare feet on the hot summer ground. The cool side of the pillow. The stretch after a nap. Smooth wrapping paper. A single piece of chocolate. A touch of fur. Starlit breezes. Sitting on the edge of a pool. The last drop of ice cream. Enjoy!

• Dreams: Chapter 1 - Interesting RPG with timed, turn-based gameplay that combines hammer smashing with a shotgun. And they said it couldn't be done... (Thanks Christopher!)
• RGB - Target shooter with elements of Hatch.
• Pattern Game - A simple little flash toy with swirly patterns. May keep you entertained for a few minutes. If you play this for an hour than either something is dearly wrong or you have some really good music playing in the background...
• Light Sprites - Game by one of our reviewer, Jared of Hero Interactive. It's a small world...hyped up on sugar. P.S. I LOVE RAINBOWS!!!!!!!!!
• Micro Panda - Light up the world...WITH A PANDA! "Drive" your panda around a little 3D world, lighting trees, flowers, and more with the sheer joy emanating from your eyes.
• Puzzle Freak - A board game with puzzles! Suggested sound volume: off. (I swear Albert cheats). (Thanks Frank!)
• Worms - Navigate a simplistic black snake to avoid deviously fast particles that are after your muffins! (Note: there are no muffins in this game).
• Doll Face - A somewhat dark video about...well, I'll let you see for yourself. (Thanks jbeaver!)
• SPARKLE ESPERANTUMOR STIMULATION - A fun collaboration video from the Psst! Pass it On film project. (Quicktime.mov)
• Jay adds: if you're over 21, you may want to check out this nicely done point-and-click detective advergame done in a distinctly film noir style. It's really an advertisement for Grolsch beer, so use your discretion regarding who plays the game. "It's Miriam...They're onto me...I had to hide the painting...I here someone is coming...Please hurry...You have to get it...If you don't find it before they do, I am dead!...You have to get it...There is not much time... AAAAAaaaahh!" Grolsch Gardens

• Super Special Sweet Summer Sbonus Svideo! - Charlie the Unicorn - Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarlie...

See you on Williams Street...

A little girl, when she was 8, wandered through a park during a family picnic. In the slick, wet grass at the base of an oak tree she found a small box. It was carefully crafted out of stiff, colorful paper and tied shut with purple yarn. The girl felt the weight of the object hidden inside as she slipped the box into her pocket, careful not to shake it. Later that day, as the sun drifted past the horizon, her mind entertained fantastic tales of the box and the mystery inside.

Seventy-three years later, this girl was now a lady. The colors of the box had faded, a corner had sunk in after being left in the rain, and the yarn was loose and frayed. Even so, the woman had never opened the box. Her good friend Matia, that the lady had known since college, asked her about the box one day. "You don't know who it's from?! Why don't you just open it? It could be something exciting!" said Matia, somewhat uncharacteristically.

The lady responded with a smile, "It could also be something shockingly boring. No Matia, I won't ever open it, although I have opened it many times before. Anytime I had a bad day, was anxious about something—like that speech, remember that?—or even just bored on a rainy day...I'd imagine what was in that box, and open it in my mind. Sometimes it was something wonderful, something that would have saved me from what ailed me. And sometimes it was something completely random, even useless. So no, I will never open it with these hands."

The two women went on to speak of other things and the box held it's secret for the rest of her life.

• !GNITION - A simple little driving game. Navigate the tracks as fast as you can before your time runs out!
• Saucer Attack - Run as far as you can while being chased by probe wielding aliens and jumping over the most inconveniently placed haystacks and fences.
• Processing game - A simple one button game. Adds tempting risks to improve on the SF Cave formula. Pass through yellow and red zones for large bonuses, and chance fate by skimming the ceiling or floor to rack up points.
• Su Puzzle - A tricky puzzle with a simple goal. Connect the three houses to the three utilities, without crossing lines. (Thanks Sam!)
• Climb - An amazingly simple memory game that will test the limits of your memory...simply.
• Ribbon Trail - Deftly control a ribbon of light in this interesting game. Works best on fast computers. (Thanks Nick!)
• Cake Dance - The sequel to "There She Is!!" from last week's Link Dump.
• S0 S0 S0ULFUL - One of the many web art pieces by YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES. Text and jazz, sometimes a story, sometimes poetry. Scrapes away graphic design, video, and other fluff but remains an surprisingly engaging web art. Works best fullscreen with sound. This is family safe unlike a few on the main site. Just as a warning, it is a bit long.
• Magical Trevor - One of the classic toons from Weebls Stuff. WARNING: This will get stuck in your head (like an unopened box) FOREVER! Have a wonderful day.

I R IN UR COMMENTZ FIXIN UR TYPOS

I've been getting thousands of emails from loyal JIG-goers asking me, "why the lengthy, random Link Dump Friday introductions?" Well actually, most of the emails are proposals and rich Nigerians offering cheap meds from Canada, but that's beside the point. Anyway, due to the imaginary backlash, I will now vow to keep things short, concise, and free of redundancy. These short introductions will not bog you down with words, sayings, poems, words, or scary and unnecessary punctuation. Instead, they will be free of repetitiveness and confusing sentence structure. Free of which they will be. Please see section 3-b for more detailed explanations.

• Red Team - Pilot two demon chickens through treacherous and slowly differing caves. Does your right hand know what the left is doing?
• Gravity - Navigate your smiley-faced alien through multiple missions centering on working with the laws of gravity.
• S3QUENC3R - A reverse Simon Says game played with numbers on the numeric keypad.
• Straight Dice - When faced with a grid of multicolor dice, most people run away screaming. In this case, try clicking the dice to match three or more consecutive numbers. By the Bloons creators over at NinjaKiwi.
• Circlo - A somewhat interesting twist on the puzzle bobble genre.
• There She Is!! - One of my favorite flash animations of all time. It's a few years old but still good. Stay tuned for part two coming next week!

And now, a treat for you! (All the previous stuff was distracting fluff). A recipe for Cold Mango Soup! Wait, I seem to have misplaced that one. Instead, I present to you a recipe for Cold Strawberry Soup! Here is what you need:

• 2 cups strawberries minus the icky green parts
• 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt, hopefully fresh
• 1/2 cup sugar or less...or more
• some orange juice (remember, cool people like pulp)
• no bees, no bees at all

Also try adding cinnamon if you're feeling happy, or sour cream if you're slightly bitter. Please note, all ingredients are optional, as you can have strawberry soup or not have strawberry soup. Stick all ingredients in a blendy thing with a blade and then eat it with your mouth (the soup, not the blade).

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Busy! Busy busy! Get it done now! Why have I dilly dallied so much with these intros? Time is money! Less talk, more action! Places to go! Places to be! Why say "hello" when I can just say "hi"? Schedule! Plan! Don't write, just type! Don't type, just text! Mail is too slow! Use e-mail! Why wear pajamas? Wear your clothes to bed! Eat dinner in the bathroom! Get it all done at once! Why drive to work when you can just live there? Why waste time taking the bus to school? The floor in English class is perfectly comfortable! It just needs throw pillows! Don't read! Watch bad movie adaptations! Don't write! Just type witty comments in caps! Don't read this! Just-

• Planetarium - HTML-based (no fancy flash) story puzzle with 12 installments. Registration required, but only so you can pick up where you left off, including entering notes and answers to clues in the spaces provided. Looks very well done, though on a cursory inspection only.
• Agent Wing Defenders - It's a shooter and it's kinda cool. The shield/recharge mechanic is a nice little innovation. The artwork isn't too bad with a nice pixel retro look, and yet it's your typical shooter. Arrow keys to move, [s] and [a] to shoot or shield.
• Enigmatica - Shift the blocks around to make lines of the same color. Feels a bit like a flat Rubik's cube. (Thanks Jochen!)
• Ulandsspillet - Point, click, survive. It's not in English but with a little bit of guesswork and logic, you should be able to figure things out. (Thanks Zetaland!)
• Stick of Death 2 - Hypnotic music, simple gameplay, and a severe lack of a pause button. Enjoy! I'd give you instructions but I don't like that look you gave me...
• Rocket Rescue - Save the meditating astronauts aimlessly floating in space! Avoid the wicked pull of gravity, or even use it to your advantage. Though, somehow I still don't understand how ramming a spaceship into an astronaut and eventually crashing into a planet is so helpful.
• Houses - Use the blueprint to build simply complex structures. It's a puzzle game that will work your brain but won't put a strain on your computer.
• Monoface - Funny faces are hilarious. Many funny faces all on one face? Hyper-hilarious! You might just find yourself laughing out loud. (Thanks T. Scott!)

"Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care." -William Safire

Don't let your muffins burn, they're more important than you think.

I have grown tired of your silly games and forgotten names. You have tried to outsmart me, thinking that you were the master of baking blueberry muffins and delectable pancakes. "Harrumph" says I, I says "harrumph" again! As I stroll away into the sunset like an atypical antihero, please mull over these games. But wait, there's more! These games follow the awesome theme of music, well at least until I got tired. Hopefully you will have forgotten what I said by the time you—oh look at that, a pirate cactus (yarr)!

• Streamline - music game by Coolio Niato. Survive the song, you know...the one with that annoying whistle part.
• Nightmares of Leia Ray - Too many games are happy bouncy fun fun time joy. Nightmares of Leia Ray is scary. Dark and scary. It's a pseudo-interactive novel-type game where you click objects to roll the "story" along. Pretty short and not much actual gaming involved, but it's still, you know, scary. Not for younger kids due to the frighteningness involved.
• Jelly Jumper - Sponsored game where you jump from one shiny expensive key to the next. Oh and it has music...in the background...(come on, humor me).
• Moon War - Simple two player war on the little prince's moon! FIRE ZE MISSILES! But I am le toast. Okay, take a nap...then FIRE ZE MISSILES!
• Graveyard of Drunken Souls - From the same site as Run Lil Broccoli and Pants Volcano, try this much more playable game. Graveyard of Drunken Souls is a simple beat up zombies game, but you get cool power-ups and when you kill a hundred zombies (which are red for some bizarre reason), you get a choice of three god powers. I'm not sure what they all do yet.
• Taken - by your love.
• ZoomQuilt II - This is not a game, but a work(s) of art. JIG veterans may remember the first ZoomQuilt, and this one is even bigger. Turn it up full speed for a mind-bending experience or slow it down to soak in the intricate details. There is a screensaver available if you just can't get enough. Note: This art piece contains some elements that could be deemed "mature" including some nudity and macabre imagery, though it seems fairly safe for a work environment.

Remember you can't take it with you.

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

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

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

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


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

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


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


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


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


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

Remember to get out and vote!

I bring tidings of bad news! Good readers, my computer has passed softly into the night...aka, it's dead. So the bad news is, there will be no Link Dump for this unfortunate Friday. I had planned this lengthy speech about the wonders of music games and why I love them so; but alas, that will have to wait. Even though I can go play the wonderful Elite Beat Agents, glorious Rez, intense Gitaroo Man, darling Beat Bubbles, inventive Sound Factory, or soulful A Break in the Road, I can not even tell you about it since I have no access to a computer. So, in lieu of such a glorious tale or exciting Link Dump, in it's place I present you with a short list of games dug up from the interwebs and from your wonderful game review submissions.

• Find your way out! - Honestly, I haven't the slightest idea what you're in, or why you might need to find your way out. Although I'd venture a guess it's a dangerous predicament. It's like a mini Hapland or Warbears, but with music from Kill Bill.
• Slither Link - Simple presentation of a unique puzzle game you may not have heard of before.
• Wordz - From the people who bring you games that end with "Z" including the smash LDF hit Glassez, comes this letter-switching multiplayer wordgame.
• Acid Factory - No, not that type!
  
  
• Tower Blaster - If you can find your way past the ads and the cutesy kiddie graphics, this is actually a surprisingly fun little game that's been around for quite a while.
• Space is Fun - WEEEEEEEE!!! IT'S TRUE!!!

Don't forget to check back later today when we announce the winners of our Flash game design competition!