Soldier Hinds, hero of the Empirion War, has had better days. Captured by the evil alien emperor Zordak, the noble soldier must now plot his escape from a tiny prison planet in Miniboss Studios' puzzle platformer, Planet 161. Using your [arrow] keys to move, [A] to jump and [B] to shoot, you'll manipulate blocks, use problem solving skills and platform your way to the wormhole in each level that brings you closer to freedom.

Created for the Ludum Dare 23 Jam, Planet 161 isn't just a great game for something created in under 48 hours. It's a great game full stop. Using three very different types of guns that allow you to manipulate your environment in different ways, Planet 161 dishes out cramped levels that unfold in complexity, offering up a few pretty compelling exercises for the gray matter while not suffering from being overly difficult. While it would be wonderful to see this pixel art gem fleshed out to a full length game, what we are treated to now is a perfect little lunch time treat chock full of charmingly blocky pixels, intriguing puzzle design, and a gameplay twist that leaves us wanting more.

Play Planet 161

Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl turns out to be a festering, shambling undead corpse that wants to eat boy's brains despite, oddly enough, being in love with him too. Boy then decides to put girl zombie in a cage so they can be together but he gets to keep his brains and, well, life. Thus is the story set for the simple yet endearing platformer, i saw her standing there from Krang Games.

It's tough going when the love of your life is a ravenous member of the walking dead. Clearly the two of you want to be together but for that to happen you'll have to use the [arrow] keys to move and jump in order to get your zombie lover to follow you into her cage. Of course, she's not the only zombie around, and so you'll have to dodge the hordes of undead you don't love, eventually using the [space] bar to shoot them dead (or... um... deader) if you are lucky enough to find a gun.

Clean and simple graphics, and a cheery acoustic soundtrack provide a back drop for a sweet storybook love story told in platform game form. The action is manageable enough to appeal to a broad audience, while still providing a few tense moments to keep you engaged. Meanwhile the story unfolds neatly with the gameplay, telling a tale that is whimsical, and ironic, and in some ways touching.

Play i saw her standing there

In this simple one-button platformer from NTFusion, you navigate your heart through the Passage of Life.

Using your mouse and your [spacebar], build bridges and jump your way through decisions like making friends, gaining knowledge and even falling in love. You'll be able to nab knowledge to protect yourself (literally, since it'll keep you from taking damage), friends to keep you going (and add to how much time you have on the clock), and even money to help you speed through life... though is that really what's important? You may not necessarily plumb the deeper questions of life, the universe, and everything, but at least you'll get to enjoy a colourful twist on the run-as-far-as-you-can genre. Fun, challenging, and well produced... and it's refreshing to play a game that isn't just killing all the bad guys.

Play Passage of Life

When a shipment of nuclear materials goes missing the fate of millions could be at risk and there's only one thing standing between them and total nuclear annihilation; you. In a RAC7's stylish stealth game, Stealth Hunter 2, you play as an unnamed agent that has tracked the stolen nuclear materials to a heavily armed fortress, and it's your job to sneak in, find out who's behind this dastardly plot, and stop them.

At the beginning of each mission you'll be given a host of objectives ranging from sneaking into heavily guarded areas to finding top secret plans. Navigating your unnamed agent through these missions is simple, using the [arrow] keys to move about with [spacebar] acting as a general purpose action button and [shift] allowing you to sneak around in silence. Meanwhile, a helpful tutorial system helps guide you through the several mini games that do a great job of changing the pace.

Ominous music and well crafted visuals set the stage for this surprisingly engrossing stealth action title. Control over your character is smooth and seamless, and seems to mesh perfectly with a difficulty that keeps this game fun and challenging while still not seeming too terribly hard. All of this is accompanied by a story that is at once generic, but still fairly well told with nice little details like eavesdropping thrown in to enhance the experience. Yes, it uses an isometric perspective which is always awkward thanks to foreground objects getting in the way and a somewhat awkward learning curve when it comes to getting used to your arrow keys, but Stealth Hunter 2 manages to make these issues seem at least tolerable. So if you're hungering for the feel of creeping past trained arm guards and dodging the watchful eye of security cameras from the comfort of your own browser, Stealth Hunter 2 is definitely something you'll want to check out.

Play Stealth Hunter 2

You can tell by the banner above that, after almost a year's hiatus, you are, once again, games! You Are Games is our way of inviting you to become a more active part of the Jay is Games community, join our little family, be a part of the team. Okay, given the nature of this edition, maybe "team" isn't as accurate as, say, "viciously competitive mob of chaos." But who cares? It'll be fun anyway.

We're offering up a caption contest, but you wouldn't expect us to do a caption contest like any other web site, would you? Of course you wouldn't. You can go anywhere to see adorable baby animals or politicians in uncomfortable situations. When you do a caption contest here at JIG, you're going to do it for an original comic drawn by our very own James Francis, creator of the excellent Babylon Sticks.

Simply submit your funny bone tickling, game related captions to this Halloween themed comic in the comments section below using a Casual Gameplay account (we'll contact the winner via the email address you have in it, so make sure it's up to date). You'll have until 11:59PM (GMT-5:00) on Monday the 25th to submit the best one-liners you can come up with, the more the merrier. And remember to keep your entries game related! We'll choose one winner to become the official caption for the finished Babylon Sticks comic next Thursday!

Just a few things to keep in mind before you stun us all with your comedic genius. Don't forget that this is a family friendly site, so please refrain from profanity and do your best to keep it clean. Also, the boys in legal tell me I have to inform you that:

• All entries submitted to this contest become the property of Casual Gameplay.
• You must be at least 13 years of age to enter.
• Void where prohibited.

Update: We have a winner!

We all know that, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," after which he discovered, or more accurately rediscovered, the Americas. In fact, some folks in the United States are enjoying a three day weekend commemorating this event right now. But did you know that Columbus' most amazing escapade never actually made it into the history books? That's right, but thanks to Vogat Interactive's new hidden object game, Columbus: Ghost of the Mystery Stone, centuries of historical omission have finally come to an end.

Before the famed explorer ever reached the shores of the New World, his search for new trade routes for the Queen thrust him into the midst of a devilish maelstrom. The wind and sea battered his beloved Pinta before crashing it against the rocks of some unknown land and pitching Columbus headlong into the deep. There he would've no doubt perished had he not been saved by a mysterious phantom of the sea. Though his new lease on life was undoubtedly welcome, Columbus soon found that his resurrection came with a price. Now wrapped up in the same curse that had trapped his spectral savior, Columbus must somehow find his way off this mysterious island, resurrect the cursed phantom, and ultimately save himself from sharing her fate.

Assisting Columbus escape his curse will be no small task. Ahead of you lie tons of hidden object scenes to put your observational skills to the test. Most of these will be the standard list style item hunt, but frequently enough you'll be treated to scenes where you will search for parts of larger items as seen in games like Flux Family Secrets. There's a little bit of an adventure influence at work as well as each hidden object scene will yield an item that can then be used to elsewhere to progress. Meanwhile the action is broken up here and there with a broad range of mini-games and puzzles. Succeed, and Columbus may survive to discover a new continent. Fail, and, well, I'm sure someone will eventually get around to stumbling across the Americas sooner or later.

Analysis: Beyond enjoying an extra day off, I don't often actually celebrate Columbus Day, but it's kind of nice to know I can commemorate the discovery of my half of the globe by Europeans with this juicy little object finder. While lacking in some areas, Ghost of the Mystery Stone does a fine job with delivering on the meat and potatoes aspect of gaming that twitches the fun nerve of hidden object fans everywhere.

The clearest strength this Columbus adventure boasts is in fact its item searching gameplay. There are tons of hidden object scenes to scrutinize here, and they're all actually quite challenging. Even better, this game manages to be challenging without resorting too often to common cheats such as the overuse of long thin objects, or burying really small objects in crowded backgrounds. The relatively high challenge is also pleasantly mitigated by a generous hint system, no punishments for excessive clicking, and some absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Some of the scenes you come across might be on the bland side, but most are clean, eye-catching, and beautiful.

Unfortunately, once you leave the realm of object finding, this Columbus adventure starts to fall off. There are one or two truly clever and original mini-games, but a vast majority of them are rehashes of mini-games we have seen time and again in hidden object games. Also, the adventure aspect here isn't terrible, but it's far from challenging and can feel maybe a bit tacked on. All of this is encased in story telling that is disappointingly mediocre. As lovely as the individual scenes are, the character art is rather plain, and they are forced to tell a less than inspired story with drab lines. In the end everything outside the object finding feels like nothing more than filler to keep you marginally occupied from one scene to the next.

But if you love straight hidden object action, Ghost of the Mystery Stone delivers. This one boasts a nice challenge, beautiful scenery, and the Leif Ericson prequel practically writes itself.

Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version

Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Get the full version

Fans of puzzle adventures rejoice! Knightfall: Death and Taxes, the third installment in Megadev's popular match-3/rpg hybrid series has finally arrived. When last we left our storybook couple, Knight and Princess were enjoying a quiet life in a forest cabin complete with requisite pile of riches and gold just out front. As some of our more astute readers may have already picked up on, leaving vast amounts of money and highly valuable baubles on the front lawn may pose certain security flaws.

While our hero from the first two Knightfall games snoozes away, thieves come along and abscond with the riches like, well, thieves in the night. This, as I'm sure you could imagine, puts something of a damper on Knight's morning coffee when he realizes that the lovely view just outside his home is missing exactly one massive pile of gold. There's only one thing for it. Time to don the armor and drill again and head out to reclaim what is rightfully his. This time, however, Knight isn't the only one setting out for adventure as Princess has also fitted herself with armor and plans on setting out with her giant spinning fan blade of death (or, technically, a giant seed. But whirring death blade seems equally descriptive).

Gameplay remains relatively unchanged from the previous installments. Each dungeon is comprised of a series of stages where your prime objective is grabbing all the keys and making your way to the exit. This is accomplished by clicking on and destroying clusters of three or more same-colored blocks. As blocks are destroyed, whatever was resting on them, including Knight or Princess (Princess is now a playable character), will fall down. You can also rotate the board by 90 degrees in either direction by either clicking the arrows on screen or using the [arrow] keys. Each cluster will cost you one AP point, and you can destroy single or double blocks as well, but at a higher AP price. Pay close attention to your AP because once you run out, each time you remove blocks you're going to lose some health instead.

Running out of AP isn't the only way to take on damage. In each level you'll be confronted with hoards of monsters, each with its own unique attack. Usually you can attack by either landing on them from above if you're controlling Knight, or, new to this game, letting them land on you if you are playing as Princess. Keep your wits about you, though, as this doesn't always work and some monsters may take a little ingenuity to overcome. The good news is that slaying monsters yields gold which can be used in the fairy stores to buy everything from armor to rings, and experience points that allow you to increase in character level thus upping your max HP and AP.

When you're not busy crawling through dungeons you'll travel around on the overworld map where you can stop at the local pub to listen to some gossip or stay the night to rest up. You'll also come across the aforementioned fairy stores, places where you can do some odd jobs for extra cash, and event based locations where the story behind Knightfall unfolds. Like Knightfall 2, some dungeons even include bosses that will put your block destroying wits to the test. Survive long enough and just maybe you'll get to the bottom of your missing loot and this mysterious Taxman that seems to be terrorizing the land.

Analysis: It seems very much like the folks at Megadev took the old maxim, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," to heart. One can appreciate the temptation to upgrade, update, and change everything, but Knightfall: Death and Taxes, remains true to the formula that helped endear it to its fans and I can't express how much this is a good thing. From the gorgeous SNES era graphics to the compelling and addictive gameplay, this rendition of Knight's adventures is everything Knightfall fans could expect only so much more.

And when I mean more, I mean lots more. Completing story mode alone will put you through at least 100 stages of block breaking, monster drilling fun, and then you still have another character to play through with as well as several other modes including an endless dungeon and a survival mode where you protect a puppy.

Also, don't get scared off when I point out that Knightfall adheres to its old formula. One of the more impressive aspects of Death and Taxes is how much innovation is involved within the boundaries of the formula. Some of this comes from the introduction of Princess as a playable character. After using Knight for so long, playing Princess will really require you to alter your strategy and perspective. Most of the innovation, though, takes place in the form of the multitudes of enemies you will face and the bosses. Old favorites (or not so favorite depending on how much of a headache they gave you) like the Dragons and the Gazers return, but newbies like the Vampire not only add some variety, but also some cranium exercise to the mix; not all of the standard monsters you meet here can be killed by simply drilling down (or spinning up) on them. We also got a taste on how creative Megadev can get with the bosses in Knightfall 2, and they have taken that to a new level with boss fights that add a whole new dimension of strategy and puzzling to the mix. This is particularly refreshing as it's all too easy to make boss fights simply repetitive and long, whereas Knightfall uses the opportunity to throw new curveballs your way.

Also available for iOS:

• Knightfall: Death and Taxes (iPhone/iPod Touch)

One of my favorite aspects of this Knightfall game, though, is the many noticeable improvements that come almost directly as a result of addressing player feedback from earlier games. Map navigation (though still not perfect) is much improved, dungeons can by replayed for grinding purposes, and you can sell off items at the fairy store if you're strapped for cash. All of these improvements and more appear to be direct answers to suggestions made to the earlier games from readers such as you, and while none of these improvements is individually earthshaking, they all come together to create a package that is tight and a pleasure to play.

While this is clearly the best in the series, it is in no way perfect. For instance, I would have really liked to see a little more tightness in the story-telling department. The opening cut scene, lacking any useful text, relies too much on assumptions and can be a little confusing. Further, as you travel from map to map, each section has its own little story on top of the broader arc, and sometimes it can be a trial keeping everything straight. This isn't to say that the narrative is that bad; some of the smaller plots are well told and I love Knightfall's abrupt and breezy humor, it's just that tying everything back to the main thread could have been better executed. Also, I should mention that having some non-Knightfall-like mini-games to break up the action would have done wonders. As it is, you do come across odd jobs that attempt to play this role, but whether its sheep herding or collecting gold in a sack, it's still the same match three game with slightly shifted rules. It's a step in the right direction, but a bigger step would have been appreciated.

But make no mistake, this is the ultimate Knightfall. Great gameplay, visuals, music, and characters come together in a dungeon diving, block busting romp. Whether you're a die-hard Knightfall fan, or have never played the series but love well built match-3 action, you simply don't have an excuse to avoid this game.

Play the Knightfall browser demo

Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

The next time you take a bath, I want you to pay particularly close attention to your rubber duckie (because we all know you have one). Now, you may think it's little more than a harmless toy, but I want you to consider that perhaps, just maybe, that rubber waterfowl is not nearly as harmless as you may think, and that lots of good men and women put their lives on the line to manufacture that bath toy. Enter Sam and William, two brothers that work in a rubber duck making factory that is so dangerous they have to wear special bubbles and dodge lethal pools of acid just so you can have a stupid yellow duck for bath time. This factory is so dangerous, in fact, that after a major accident Sam has been trapped somewhere in its labyrinthine depths. Now you must play his brother William and go rescue Sam in the physics puzzle platformer Bubblequod 2 from Garbuz Games. I hope that rubber duck makes you really happy.

In the first few levels of Bubblequod 2, you'll be going it alone, using the [arrow] keys to run and jump your way through each level until you get to the marked exit. When you come across the larger levels you can use your mouse to drag around the level and get a better view of the whole thing so you can plan out your path. And you may very well need to do some planning because you'll face more than some tricky jumps in this platformer; acid pools, weight sensitive switches, and giant rotating mazes partially submersed in water are only a few of the brain testing obstacles that stand between you and getting your brother to safety. Once you have been reunited with good old Sam, you'll also be able to switch back and forth between the two brothers using the [space] bar, because you can't have too much team work when deadly traps and overly aggressive rubber duck enthusiasts are in play. Just be sure to get both green guys to the exit alive and well.

Bubblequod 2 offers quite a few improvements over the original from updated graphics, to a more engrossing story, to a slightly less insane physics engine. In a way, the physics at work here are a little reminiscent of those employed in Gish, though admittedly not nearly as versatile, and yet sometimes just as frustrating (PROTIP: if you feel like you're having issues getting a jump to come off properly, try letting your character come to rest for a brief moment first, and then try. This will give the bubble a chance to make full contact with the ground). Perhaps the greatest improvement in this well done sequel is level design. While there are fewer levels in this outing, they are considerably more focused, employ a much wider array of obstacles, and can be quite clever. So go on and enjoy this nicely executed blend of action and brain teasing. I mean, your rubber duckie fixation put our heroes in this mess, you might as well enjoy the ordeal they must face getting out of it.

Play Bubblequod 2

In 1993, a small gaming company called Wizards of the Coast published a novel card game developed by college professor Richard Garfield called Magic: The Gathering. Originally intended to be something of a casual game to be played in between the larger campaigns present at gaming conventions, Magic's popularity almost immediately exploded. In the seventeen years since, not only has the game maintained its popularity, but it has also spawned a number of other collectable card games, each in their own turn serving as the source for novels, manga, and Saturday morning cartoons. There have even been a number of browser based collectible card games including Elements, a surprisingly deep and well rounded offering from Zanzarino Design.

In this fantasy themed collectible card game, you take on the role of an elemental, a kind of mystical spirit composed of one of the twelve elements, or fundamental building blocks of existence. As an elemental there are a number of skills available to you that you can employ to test your might against other elementals. If you are very good and very lucky, you may even prove strong enough to challenge beings claiming to be invincible gods.

Before you even think about annoying deities, though, it might be wise to familiarize yourself with the basics. In your standard duel each elemental begins with 100 health points, and your goal is to reduce your opponent's health to zero. You'll accomplish this using three basic card types: creatures, spells, and permanents. Creatures will attempt to attack your opponent each turn and sometimes come with special abilities that can further give other elementals severe headaches. Spells are cards that produce their effect once and are then discarded. Permanents, as their name might suggest, are played and continue to produce their effect permanently throughout the game (unless, of course, another card is played that negates the effect or destroys the card).

Of course, playing these cards isn't free and that's where "Quanta" comes in. Most cards require a certain amount of element specific quanta in order to come into play, and to get that quanta, you'll need to play special permanent cards such as pillars and pendulums. While we're covering quanta, it's also worth mentioning that often times the special abilities of some monsters also requires the usage of quanta to activate. Manage your quanta and knock your opponent out before he gets you, and you'll win some Electrum (that's the in game currency), and maybe even win a card.

Like all good collectable card games, the nuances and mechanics of Elements could go on and on, and also like all good collectable card games, the best way to acclimate yourself to them is to get in there and play. In between matches you'll be able to manage your deck, visit an oracle that gives you money and sometimes cards and special abilities, embark upon quests (which act more like a tutorial than anything else) and you can visit the bazaar where you can buy lots of cards and build up your deck. Happily enough, unlike real card games, you won't have to save up a week's worth of lunch money doing so.

Analysis: In many ways, Elements manages to capture much of the spirit that I once felt when I used to play its spiritual ancestor over a decade and a half ago. It sparks the imagination and puts your vision and strategic mettle to the test. It can suck you in for hours at a time, but with each match lasting hardly more than a few minutes on average, Elements can be as casual an experience as you like. There's even plenty of camaraderie to be had as you chat with other players over strategy, which card is the best to upgrade, what elements work best with each other, etc.

In truth, Elements plays much like a streamlined version of Magic: The Gathering, but it is important to note that there are plenty of differences at work here to make Elements its own game. Here, the complexity of the game's structure as a whole is minimized; however, the interplay that goes on among the dozen different elements creates a breadth of diversity and possibility that lends a wonderful capacity for complexity in strategy and deck building.

And yet, with so many different elements available, this game manages to maintain an admirable balance. No one element is "better" than any other element. Instead, each element has its own personality. Entropy relies heavily on instilling chaos and status effects, Death focuses on poison and capitalizing off of creatures removed from play. There is no single winning element, nor is there any guaranteed successful combination of elements. Monochrome decks can put a serious beat down before the other side has a chance to act, but Rainbow decks can be particularly brutal when crafted right.

Like so many collectible card games, deck building is a major part of Elements, a fact that has its positives and negatives. Elements provides a wonderful support system to take advantage of in between duels from an in game store to an unlockable upgrade service to an oracle that can be visited daily for money among other things. I think the biggest thing lacking here is a way for players to barter cards directly amongst each other. This is particularly true when you start earning rare cards that don't really fit well in your deck. Another downside to how much emphasis is put on deck building is that once you get to a certain skill level, it becomes almost necessary to have an extremely focused deck. The problem with this is that while deck building is intense, actual matches can end up feeling like they are being played on auto-pilot as your deck only revolves around a single strategy.

It does take a while to get to this point, of course. Before you're playing at a truly competitive level you'll go through no shortage of grinding and thankfully there's a solid amount of skill stratification amongst computer opponents. You'll start at level 0 as you learn to play, but with patience, imagination, and skill, you can work your way up to playing the False Gods that inhabit level six. One of the best parts of collectible card games though is the ability to play real live players, and the bragging rights that comes from taking them to school. With a loyal and extensive following, you'll find no shortage of flesh and blood opponents to test your deck against. Unfortunately separating live opponents by skill level could have been done much better here. Unless you have someone specific you are going to duel against, PVP (player vs. player) matches are divided amongst upgraded decks and non upgraded decks. The problem here is that there's nothing stopping a highly skilled player from developing a deck without upgraded cards, meanwhile someone who finally has been able to upgrade their first card will likely get destroyed by someone with a fully upgraded deck. Creating PVP skill levels based on games played or record might give players a chance to enjoy more evenly matched games.

From a technical standpoint, Elements rates fairly well. There's a suitably large library of unique and rare cards each with its own gorgeous artwork. Meanwhile, aside from a little lag when playing PVP matches, the interface is mostly intuitive and responsive both in and out of matches. My largest complaint is that the game could do a much better job of indicating certain status effects. Sometimes when an effect is cast on a creature it will receive a marker indicating that the creature has that effect, but some effects don't leave markers which can lead to confusion if you aren't paying attention, and sometimes lose you a game if you don't realize an effect is in play soon enough.

Collectible card games can be something of an acquired taste and Elements is no different. Sure, it can be a very casual game, but you'll learn that to go much further beyond the beginner levels will require a level of dedication that is anything but casual. But Elements ultimately strikes the right formula that makes it easy to slip from a casual indulger to a devoted enthusiast. A solid mechanic supported by strong balance, versatility, and tons of creativity and possibility help make Elements an undeniably addictive offering and a respectable addition to the online collectible card game genre.

Play Elements: The Game

Thanks to Matt, Nixx, Sethum, Jb, William, Charles, Alex, and Will for sending this one in!

"Long is the way, and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light," is not just a great movie quote from a modern classic thriller (and, okay, a perfectly serviceable line from some poet named Milton), but it's also a fairly apt description of Tower of Heaven, a very challenging platform game from Askiisoft. If you're suffering from deja vu, it might be because we originally featured Tower of Heaven last year as a download, but now it's been ported to flash so you can torture yourselves with it just about anywhere you can hop on the net.

You play "you"... granted a dark green version of you with an enormous head and a strange little antenna thing on top, but it's still you. And you have decided to ascend the Tower of Heaven, ostensibly to talk to some deity or another, but I suppose it's just as feasible you've opted to make the climb because you're bored, or procrastinating on folding that big pile of laundry. In any case, as soon as you enter the tower you are greeted by a disembodied voice that welcomes you whilst at the same time warning you of the dangers that lie in wait.

To make your climb you'll use either the [arrow] keys or the [WASD] keys to move about, jump, forward dialogue, and either [down] or [S] will let you walk through doorways. Also note that you can save your game by opening up a mid game menu screen with the [ESC] key. You do not want to walk away from this game without properly saving first. Trust me on this.

But wait, there's a twist. You see, our invisible host soon grows wary of how easily we traverse his tower. As though spikes popping out of the ground without warning and whirring saw blades of death weren't enough, the host will periodically impose laws to make the road ahead even more challenging. Laws like no walking left or no touching blocks from the sides are particularly fun. And by fun I do mean throw your laptop out the window frustrating. May you be blessed enough to ascend the tower before pummeling your keyboard into a fine powder.

Analysis: From the spinach green color palette to the chiptune soundtrack to the big chunky pixels, Tower of Heaven is so reminiscent of the classic Nintendo Game Boy you can almost feel the eleven ounce plastic brick in your hands as you play. Indeed, it even feels like a Game Boy game which can be both a blessing and a curse.

Beyond the extremely nostalgic qualities of Tower of Heaven, the most striking aspect of this game is that it's hard, very hard, but in a unique and extremely interesting way. The laws that are periodically imposed upon you are creative and force you to look at levels in ways that you might otherwise overlook without the seemingly insane restrictions. Getting chased from the right by a saw blade becomes all the more challenging when you can't actually run left, just as a bunch of clustered blocks together looks outright perilous when you can no longer touch them from the sides. In this way, Tower of Heaven adds a puzzle aspect to the mix. One gets the impression that Tower would still be far from a cake walk without the laws, but trying to play with them will most definitely test both your platforming and thinking skills..

The controls are respectable. Perhaps they could be a little tighter in the jumping, and looser in the running; everyone has their own preferences, of course. There are plenty of concessions made to ease the blow of how hard Tower is; infinite lives, relatively short levels and a save option all are blessings to be counted especially once the difficulty ramps up. But the fact of the matter is that this is still a tough game that may turn off less nimble gamers. Also, it's actually not all that long. The high difficulty is what really gives this game its length so those who are really good at platform games shouldn't expect to get too much game play out of this title.

Regardless of whether Tower of Heaven is too hard and unbeatable, too easy and too short, or just right, it is most definitely worthy of praise. Askiisoft melds good production values, deep nostalgia, and a unique concept into a challenging yet rewarding platform game.

Play Tower of Heaven

Everyone who's ever been chained to a cubicle for a wage has experienced a kind of shared imprisonment. Yes, even here at JIG, where our cubicles are made from licorice ropes and gingerbread, where the boss never asks for TPS reports, and where we play video games without fear of reprisal because it's our job, even here in our ivory tour amid the pink fluffy cotton candy clouds we sometimes feel the oppression of our admittedly awesome cubicles. Every creature forced to toil away within the confines of those familiar and cheaply constructed (though in our case, mighty tasty) partitions has experienced that same monotonous, shoulder sagging boredom just as we've all experienced that same learned claustrophobia until it's all just too much to take. It's then, when the partitions start to collapse in on you, and the sounds of fingers clacking away at keyboards in a never ending drone (or, in our case, the thirtieth time in an hour you hear Art scream "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!") that you sometimes need to log off, put your headphones on, and go Take a Walk.

This beautifully musical platformer from Dachuan Lu (with music from Kevin MacLeod and art courtesy Min Lin) provides the very escape cubicle slaves crave directly through your computer screen. As the title might suggest, all you really need to do is walk, listen to the music, and occasionally jump over an obstacle here and there with either the [arrow] keys, or [Z]. If you miss a jump, no worries, simply go back (complete with Braid like special effects), and try again.

Your soul soothing stroll will take you across several lands each with its own soundtrack. As you take in the sights and sounds feel free to collect the hovering musical notes and while you're at it pay attention to the little birdies that begin to congregate around you. The longer you go without stopping or making an error, the more birds you accumulate, and the more notes and birds you collect help unlock special features such as bonus animation sequences. So what are you waiting for? Unshackle yourself from your particle board grindstone, break free from the constant torture of spreadsheet after spreadsheet, turn up that music and take yourself a little walk.

Analysis: It's rare to come across a game like Take a Walk, one that grabs you by both ears and exclaims in dulcet tones, "I am something special!" Usually evaluating and reviewing a game takes a lot of play time and guess work and gut checking, following your instincts only to second guess and ultimately decide that your instincts aren't worth an already scratched losing lottery ticket. And then you come across a game like this and from almost the beginning you feel a smile spread across your face and something inside you tells you that this game is doing it right.

Take a Walk is one of those dreaded "art house" games. The action isn't particularly fast and furious, there's hardly any challenge, and you won't find even one single alien, machine gun, anthropomorphic fungi, fire breathing dragon, princess, or evil fetus in a formally dressed jar. But neither is Take a Walk pretentious. Just as you won't find a number of button masher video game tropes, you don't have to worry about overly obscure metaphors, sanctimonious preaching dressed up as gameplay, or poor design decisions righteously explained off as some metaphysical something or other. What Take a Walk offers is instead gorgeous pen and ink artwork lovingly wrapped in a pitch perfect soundtrack with just enough gameplay to suck you into the whole experience.

While it seems simple, the attention to detail at work here is amazing. Each level is choreographed wonderfully to its designated song, so much so that, if you do want something of a challenge, you can actually try playing the game with your eyes closed, letting the beat and stressed notes guide when you jump. In fact, everything is connected in this game, the music, the scenery, even your character's mood. As we begin we find our downcast hero plodding through a depressing urban setting with a melancholy piano plucking out its melody in the background. By the end, we're running free through windswept trees and the happy strumming of steel strings.

Not that everyone will love Take a Walk. It can be a little saccharine sweet which won't please the cynical and embittered, and if you're looking for something with enough challenge to make sweat bead up on your brow and your fingers tremble, this ain't it. But if you are looking for a well designed game that showcases good music strolling hand in hand with good art, the only real thing to complain about is that this ends far too soon. Simple, beautiful, and earnest, Take a Walk provides a peaceful, smile inducing escape from your every day plod, and you don't even have to leave the confines of your cubicle to enjoy it.

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No, Towards The Light is not some sort of pixelated existential crisis in game form. Nor is it some touching art house game where one gains inner peace through the manipulation of abstract objects that serve as a visual metaphor for people and God. Well, maybe that last one a tiny little bit if you squint and tilt your head just so, but what Towards The Light really is is a challenging but fun classic platform game with a twist.

In each level you have two goals. Reaching the white door in the level will save your progress from that level as well as unlock the next. Meanwhile, you are going to want to collect all of the light blue spirits in each room in order to power up the giant soul cannon and launch yourself to who knows where. To do these things, you'll use your [arrow] keys to run and jump using [X]. Oh, and you'll also want to hold down [C] to go into ghost mode. While in ghost mode you will pass right through most spikes and platforms and walls. Also, if you happen to connect with an enemy while in ghost mode, you will possess that enemy, and more importantly, you gain their abilities.

Borrowing heavily off of MoneySeize, Towards the Light is a skill testing, spike hopping, bullet dodging platform game. What sets this platform jumper apart from the rest is the nicely implemented ghost mode that, combined with nice level design, allows the player to explore conventional platforming in new and unique ways. Towards the Light might not appeal to a wide swath of gamers, but lovers of all things platform should find this a decently juicy morsel to snack upon.

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