The Plan is a short experimental game that tells the story of a helpless, little fly at the bottom of a vast forest. Navigate with the [WASD] or [arrow] keys and, well, that's it. A side project by Krillbite Studio as they work on Among the Sleep, it's a simple idea at its surface — buzz about between branches and soak in the serene environment. Scripted events like a wayward breeze as well as other, more physical, obstacles occasionally interrupt your progress, but are fitting enough with the overall concept that they don't disrupt the flow of the gameplay.

Despite the constricting invisible walls and a playthrough length around ten minutes at a leisurely pace, The Plan evokes a much greater sense of scale. Most surprising is how introspective, atmospheric, and emotionally charged it is, given its focus on a creature we often associate with poop. Initially, it appears to lack direction and a clear goal, but don't let those first few moments of aimless wandering discourage you. It's called The Plan for good reason, and discovering why leads to a whole new depth of interpretation. I won't spoil things with over-explanation, but I will tell you the two most important words you must know to fully experience this world: fly up. Fly up to witness the evolving skyscape, fly up to boldly go where no fly has gone before, fly up to find what fate has planned for you.

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When a main character looks like something that walked out of Donnie Darko and wanders a bizarre, natural world that must be Samorost's neighbor, you know things are about to get more than a little surreal. Antennaria Games delivers that surrealism in spades in A Rabbit Fable, a point-and-click adventure where one rabbit's fanciful reality, dreams, and memories all meld together. Click to move around, collect items, or interact with other characters and objects. The lack of a changing cursor leads to the occasional pixel hunt, however, most important areas are easily distinguished from their background. Many of the puzzles require solving some bizarre concepts, but are not nearly as difficult as they first seem. Often, they can be solved by simply collecting and combining items in your inventory and delivering them to the right characters.

For a story with a protagonist that has no real dialogue, there are some surprisingly emotionally engaging moments. It's hard not to feel a pang of regret when you see the poor rabbit's head hang in dejection as he peddles off pieces of the one thing left he holds dear. Having to constantly trek back and forth at a frustratingly slow pace hinders that immersion, but the charming moments of levity draw you back in and keep the tone from going stagnant. A lot more can be said about this short story of a lonely soul who only seeks love and greener pastures, but A Rabbit Fable is odd, imaginative, and special in a way that needs to be experienced rather than told.

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Meet Gray, a lunar alien with a tongue as sharp as his wit. He's a little bit cute, a little bit evil, and a lotta bit bored. Having only read about the solar system his whole life, Gray decides the time has finally come to explore its wonders himself. He sets his sights on our blue planet, aiming to tour the scenery, meet the locals, and maybe conquer the globe while he's there. But the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry, and aliens are no exception when Gray is forced to make a crash-landing. Guide him back to his UFO and away from the horrors of the rural countryside in Gray's self-titled traditional point-and-click adventure. Just try not to let him destroy any of the local woodland creatures, okay?

Click the icons at the bottom of the screen to inspect, touch, and speak to your target, navigate through scenes, or access your inventory. Double-clicking the edge of the screen will allow you to transition to the next scene automatically, and the character's initially sluggish movements can be adjusted by increasing the "Speed" option within the menu indicated by the question mark icon. However, the developer cautions against altering this feature as it may cause certain audio and sound effects to go out of sync. Gray is something of a walking Wikipedia, and while some will enjoy his know-it-all recitations, others may find him much too chatty. You can press [esc] to skip cinematics or click to speed up those lengthy conversations, but doing the latter risks potentially missing vital clues. You'll be missing out on a lot of the fun too, as the humorous commentary encourages you to explore every option.

Unless you're as clever as our bookworm protagonist, you'll likely have to resort more than once to the ham-fisted approach of smashing things together to see if the magic of adventure game logic creates something useful. The process of solving some of those puzzles can feel occasionally cumbersome when fumbling with the inventory window and picky click-detection. (I'm looking at you, moth!) However, solutions will come to you more easily once you start to get an understanding of what it is exactly the game wants you to do, and the smarty-pants feeling of success is as rewarding as its often comical outcomes.

Everything from the snarky writing to the retro artwork is reminiscent of the classic adventure games of yore. What's more, Maciek Fitzner manages to take only a 4-color palette and paint a world that is vibrant and, at times, even beautiful. The length of the journey is relatively short, probably around an hour your first playthrough, yet feels more expansive as the world transitions from day to night. Gray may say he's antsy to escape, but if you enjoy black humor and colorful characters, you won't be in any hurry to leave.

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In addition to the bad habit of napping just about everywhere, poor Yumi must have some frightening B.O. to make an entire salon staff seemingly abandon the building and lock her inside while she slept. Although her plans of being pampered and enjoying the seascape have been thrown out the window, she will not be able to escape quite so easily. Fortunately for us, her frustrating scenario translates into another enjoyable installment of Aries Escape: Episode No.007.

Libertechno maintains the clean and simple layout of previous episodes, relying on the usual controls. Point-and-click to pick up objects and interact with specific areas conveniently indicated by a changing cursor. Use the side arrows to navigate the room and the bottom arrow to leave a zoomed-in window. This time around, instead of colorful legos, you're on a scavenger hunt for a collection of cards. When found, they and other items can be examined or combined by selecting their respective icons in the boxes at the bottom of the screen. Despite the narrative text being in Japanese, the language barrier is avoided where it counts as the clues and codes are presented in English.

Once you have a feel of the room, it's time to get to the meat of the brain matter. The handful of puzzles you'll encounter are fairly logical, however the hints aren't always straight-forward and you may be tripped up by a couple red herrings. Sometimes even recognizing what is or is not a clue is a challenge, and applying the information you collect to the right puzzles can prove equally daunting. While the gameplay presents a variety of difficulty ranging from elementary to mentally engaging and some refreshing originality, Libertechno sadly leaves out the colorblind yet again with the presence of more than one color-based puzzle.

In addition to the regular ending, a second "perfect" ending provides extra gameplay to enjoy, because if you're like me, sometimes normal just isn't satisfying enough. Expect the pleasantly bright graphics and light, melodic background music befitting a beauty salon to provide a cheerful atmosphere and set a relaxing mood perfect for putting your mind to work. It only makes sense that people would come here to get their scalps scrubbed, now if only the manager would let you leave!

Note: to turn off sound, select the [tool] icon and adjust the bottom slider to the left. Keep the top slider, which controls click sensitivity, all the way to the right.

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Oh, sleepy escapers, won't you ever learn? You've point-and-clicked through so many challenges and freed yourself from so many prisons only to fall victim to the clichéd curse of narcolepsy once again. In this room escape by Selfdefiant, you dozed off while petting a kitten at the Little Critters pet store and woke up to find yourself locked securely inside. It's unlikely the owner will appreciate discovering someone hiding out with their fluffy merchandise, so you're left with only one option: you Must Escape the Pet Shop! That is, if you can keep yourself awake long enough.

Use the mouse as your guide to inspect and interact with the areas, items, or animals in each room. Directional arrows at the sides of the screen allow you to turn left and right, and a changing cursor helps to identify important objects. Your progress is saved automatically (likely in anticipation of your unpredictable sleeping habits), but it probably won't take you more than a few minutes to finish given the game's relatively short length and the low difficulty of its simple and logical puzzles. Fluffy animals and bright, cartoony graphics offer a kid-friendly experience and just enough mental stimulation before your next power nap.

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Disney's Gravity Falls is about a small, rural town in Oregon where strange, occult happenings are an undercurrent to every day life. But for two of its denizens, Dipper and his sister Mabel, the outside world is out of reach when Grunkle Stan accidentally locks them in the attic of his museum/home/bizarre curios shop. Now it's up to you to help them break free in this point-and-click adventure game, the Mystery Shack Mystery.

Play as either Dipper Pines, the intelligent and insatiably curious young adventurer, or as his adorably goofy sibling Mabel. Each character offers a slightly different experience while you collect items, search for clues, and most importantly, escape! A changing cursor helps to eliminate most of the pixel hunting and a hint button exists to offer a useful nudge if you need it. The game isn't particularly difficult or long, and Mystery Shack Escape probably would have been a more fitting title given the lack of any one overlying mystery. However, these shortcomings are counterbalanced by a bunch of laughs, secret easter eggs for fans of the show (including a very esoteric coded message), and some inventory-based puzzling that's suitable for kids and inner children alike.

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In the first chapter of Myosotis, your search for Lily drew you to an eerie hotel where your struggle for answers only led to more questions and tragic results. In Myosotis: Chapter 2, a point-and-click adventure by Mike Morin (aka ImpendingRiot), the body of your true love lies stone cold dead before you. Beside her still corpse, a box flashes suspiciously while the words of a blank-faced scientist literally hang in the air: "You can still save her." Now, your journey transitions to chasing the past as it quickly becomes clear that you're being tested for more than just your patience.

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Click around the screen to interact with objects or to send Rick moodily trudging over to inspect them. Solve the puzzle in each room to unlock the next door. Pay close attention to subtle signs and frequent word play, as the answers range from fairly obvious to quite devious. Depending on how long it takes you to decipher those clues, it's a relatively short distance from start to finish. Much of the time spent is centered equally around building Rick's story of lost love and buried memories as it is to actual gameplay. The melancholy tone and bleak, muted atmosphere — which is enhanced perfectly thanks to the haunting melodies by Hania Lee — bristle with emotion and create a compelling force to discover what lies behind every door, even the ones that may hurt to reopen.

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It's safe to say by now that Detarou has lovably weird down to an art. Nowhere else but in those strategically crafted, surreal worlds could you catch yourself thinking "Well of course that swarthy ballerina has my cable, but what color was the monkey again?" Even more strange, yet endearing, characters (and the return of an evil panda lurking behind their amusing facade) await you in Detarou's escape game, Pattsun March.

In tradition with the Detarou canon, puzzles follow a bizarre sense of logic for the most part, and you'll have to rely heavily on your problem solving skills. Being able to observe your environment, translate those often absurd elements into necessary clues, and apply them to practical use are the keys to open the many locked doors in this maniacal morsel of a room escape. Keep your eyes peeled for helpful hints and a wary cursor over that save button ready for potential hazards. Once again, you are assisted by the handy-dandy changing cursor, but the clean design makes it hardly necessary while there is nary a pixel hunt in sight. So put on your smarty pants and equip those thinking caps, folks. If you want that oh-so-rewarding feeling of finding all three endings, you're gonna need 'em!

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Throughout all the bathrooms, balconies, bedchambers, and any other room that can fit a puzzle of the escape game universe, one name is whispered that is known to summon strangeness incarnate. A name so unusual, we here at Jay is Games aren't allowed to speak it without donning a scarlet bathrobe, drawing on a pencil mustache, and doing our best Vincent Price impersonation. That name... is Detarou! dun, Dun, DUNNNN!! As soon as you're done shivering in your boots, perhaps you can check out Detarou's (dun dun dun!) latest surreal escape game Deteruyo.

It's not a typical feat to take elements of the incredibly bizarre and somehow turn them into a series of coherent clues, but Deteruyo is anything but typical. Detarou fans will be pleased to find healthy doses of obscure cultural and anime references (who wouldn't enjoy a Sailor Moon-esque derrière transformation?) and a handful of pleasantly challenging puzzles. It should be noted that some of these puzzles are color based, which will likely present additional difficulties to the colorblind. Other minor quibbles appear, such as the unpredictable uses of some peculiar items and a boatful of red herrings. Fortunately, players are assisted by the familiar clean design, simple navigation, and the helpful feature of a changing cursor to indicate active areas. Lovers of the logically odd and oddly logical can expect the entertaining and rewarding feeling after breaking through each of the three endings in another incarnation of Detarou's signature flair.

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Help, help! The kingdom is being repressed! And what better way to overthrow the tyrannical King than by building a Pocket Creature army? Well, there might be better ways, but this is the way you're going to do it! Hire, raise, and evolve a team of monsters to fight your way up to the battle royale in this strategy game by NTFusion.

Start by purchasing a squad of adolescent Spirits, Puppets, Dragons, or the Undead in the shop, then switch to the team menu where you can swap up to 4 monsters into the team or feed your baby creatures to reach higher levels. After gaining a new level, you can evolve your creature into an even stronger, and often spookier-looking, form. With four creature types and seven evolutions per type, that's up to 28 possible monsters under your control! When you have a fighting group ready to go, simply click an available mission on the map to wage your first battle.

When it comes time brawl, it's up to little more than good strategy and a bit of luck to ensure a win. Because of the unique leveling tree, bigger monsters aren't necessarily better. Knowing your enemy is key, and arranging a team that can excel at certain battle types can make all the difference between victory or defeat. With a balance of status attributes and creatures that can heal, deal big damage numbers, take hits, support the team with unique abilities, or attack from a safe distance, you won't ever be at a loss of variety when it's time to plan your attack. Achieving a high grade after battles will earn you piles of gold to upgrade to an even stronger team, which will quickly become a necessity when that difficulty curve starts to rise.

The simple but appealing visuals add a touch of flair with haunting sceneries and character models that range from kooky to downright creepy. While there's a lot to enjoy here, there are also a few causes for frustration. Without any option to skip or speed up matches, it can sometimes be tedious waiting for a battle to finish. It's a shame that the monster abilities are all passive, and it's hard not to think of it as a lost opportunity to allow the player some involvement during combat. However, there is some benefit to taking time to observe battles, as it gives you a chance to compare how certain fighting styles perform against different enemies. Whether your army is built on cunning tactics or brute force, you'll soon find a favorite go-to team of creatures that's sure to leave the oppressive King shaking in his boots. So, come! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!

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If history has taught us anything, it's that robots want a lot of goodies. In Last Robot 2, an arcade action platformer by Karma Team, a greedy bouncing machine is willing to soar to astronomical heights to get what it wants: gold coins and a special space treat!

Using the [arrow] keys to navigate the automaton astronaut, you'll have to avoid bombs, collect coins, and purchase upgrades to make it all the way to the top. It's a long way to deep space, but fortunately for you there are plenty of collectable hearts to refill your health bar and lightning bolts to refuel your engine. Reminiscent of the iOS action title Doodle Jump, this simple game is quick and easy to beat, but incredibly hard to put down. The rapid ascent and avoidance based gameplay keep the pace fast enough to prevent the constant climb from becoming dull, despite its repetitive nature. With a sizable bundle of achievements and upgrades, there's plenty of replay value and a whole lot of fun combined in a bite-size package. That's one small hop for robots, one giant leap for machine-kind.

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Symphony is a simplified adaptation of the popular music puzzle game Auditorium (which the creator, kpaekn, gives due credit to). Control the colorful streams of light into the target rings by positioning the arrows to fill them with music. There are three stages or "movements" composed of nine levels each. Many levels are simple and intuitive, while others will have you wracking your brain. Fortunately, there are often multiple solutions to a puzzle, so don't be afraid to get creative with how you play.

Although lacking somewhat in originality, it is an undeniably well executed homage to its predecessor. The soothing flow of color and music as well as the stimulating puzzles combine the perfect melody and harmony into an entertaining symphony.

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