The first adventure game I ever played was Maniac Mansion. I was in 4th Grade, and for some reason the classroom happened to have a decade-old Commodore 64 with a collection of not-entirely functional floppy diskettes that we LOAD,8,1-ed at random. We never really made much progress into saving Sandy from Dr. Fred (due largely to our lack of understanding re: the concept of "copy protection"), but it inspired a love of adventure games that has continued with me to this day. So join me for three favorites of the genre, this week in the JayIsGames Vault.

Eight years ago, a man's fantasy became a reality in a form never seen before: JayIsGames.com, a giant arena to feature the best of casual gameplay. Soon, it became known the authors of those games featured would win the people's ovation and fame forever. Thus, if memory serves me correctly, we look to the land of the rising sun to feature some of the best casual gameplay works from the nation of Japan. The heat is on in the JiG Vault! ALLEZ JEUX!

Tis brillig and the slithy toves are gyring and gimbling in the JiG Vault. All mimsy are the games from the past, and they're so good, they'll make your mome raths outgrabe. Yes, today we are beamish to present three of the more surreal entries from our game archives, and I'm sure they'll make your day quite frabjous!

Not many people know that JiG originally started as a tournament conceived by mysterious businessman J. Bibson, in the attempt to find the world's most powerful game reviewer. We were all set to start the first round at the JiG docks... but then a new Eyezmaze game came out, we all got distracted, and decided to start a website instead. And so, we peer into archives of that website as this week in the JayIsGames Vault, we feature some of the best casual fighting games of years past.

I think that one of the signs that I'm getting old is my increasing inability to comprehend the appeal of the latest hot must-have toy of the season. Silly Bands? Zhu Zhu Pets? Paper Jamz? I just feel like I'm missing something. No matter... I have the plethora of webtoys in the JiG Vault to keep my increasingly crotchety personality at bay. Here are three of my favorites, which I think will be fun for both the young and the young at heart.

The Bard tells us that brevity is the soul of wit. That goes for games as well as JiG Vault summaries. So let's jump right in to this week's collection of hits that are as sweet as they are short.

Rob Allen... Ninja Kiwi... Rodrigo Roesler... by their powers combined, they are... the Vault! Toss in a monkey, a murder, and one strange campsite, and you have the recipe for some seriously great games from 2007.

What do you really need out of life? Sure food and shelter are nice, but don't forget the other important things too, like adventure, mental stimulation, and creativity! This week's installment of the Vault highlights three games that embody those traits and celebrate everything bemusing, perplexing, hilarious, and even a little frustrating.

This week's installment of the Vault will make you scream bloody murder! Literally, since an iconic horror adventure about the worst cabin in the woods ever is involved. Also featured; adorable, monstrous captivity and a pair of pants to die for!

I read the mysterious scrap of paper my contact has just put in my hand... "MHCFRYM AV RGU VTW GHIYN!"... Let's see, if I rot13 that, I get "ZUPSELZ NI ETH IGJ TUVLA!". Unscramble and... "PUZZLES IN THE JIG VAULT!" And what type of puzzles do we have this week? Action starring a Lego-Robo, adventure with a cast of steady teddies at the ready, and a styling tiling board game remix.

As Tuesday peeps its head over the horizon, we usher in another installment of The Vault, and another batch of games from the olden days (2007 is plenty olden) designed to keep you coming back. Rescue a princess using stealth and your wits, become the ruler of the land's most adorable (but needy) tribe, juggle every delicious aspect of pizza making, and pilot a group of people through ridiculously treacherous terrain. And all before the middle of the week rolls around! Man, you're productive. You deserve a raise, and you can tell your boss we said so.

Let me see... going from all the evidence in front of me... I'm going to have to go with... Tricky! In the JayIsGames Vault! With this week's handful of games from the past!... Okay, the games below might not be of too much help in discovering who killed Mr. Boddy, but any amateur sleuth out there should enjoy the collection of not-so-elementary cases to crack. They take us to crimes around the globe: from the underbelly of the big city, to a small-town circus, to the deserts of Egypt. The game's afoot!

I have to tell you, the first version of this column was pretty dire. Fortunately, a team of programmers spent six months updating the elements for this Golden Platinum Article of the Year re-release. Anyway, this week, I'd like to share some of the best remakes from the JiG Vault, and a nice collection they are: a bubbly action puzzler, a sonic-booming platformer, and a truly explosive shmup.

Fast food, vampires, and fatally bad poetry round out this week's edition of the Vault, where we peer into some of the older gems of the last decade. Featuring arcade action, challenging simulations of business management, and one of the most fiendish interactive fiction puzzles ever, it's a meaty feast of nostalgia.

The front of the Othello box promises that it takes "a minute to learn... a lifetime to master". Now, admittedly I've never been all that interested in spending my lifetime becoming a reversi-master (especially if Settlers of Cataan is nearby), but I think the phrasing is something that resonates with us as gamers. This week in the JayIsGames Vault, we take a peek a trio of games: puzzle, word, and platform, where the complexity hides just below the surface.

This week, at the JayIsGames Vault, we have three masterpieces from the past: an other-worldly point-and-click classic, a horror shooter that won't stay down, and a tasty bowl of primordial soup.

This week's Vault is for people who don't like fast-paced gameplay, but still appreciate the finer things in life. Which is to say... really super awesome stupendous games. Here are three titles you can relax, sit back, and play at your own pace while still enjoying a challenge and some of the best work to come out of the Flash development community.

This week's Vault tickles your brain with three different types of puzzles, ranging from a deviously simple-in-concept brain teaser to a set of surrealist explorations through one very jazzy (and inky) landscape.

It's been a long time since my village was destroyed. Since then, I've been on a journey that's spanned the world-map, searching for the six Medallions of Power. Now, as I place the final medallion, the Medallion of Light, I hold my breath as the stone gate slides opens... To reveal another edition of the JayIsGames Vault! Today we have a point-and-click puzzler to treasure, a pixel space shooter that's the alpha and omega, and a retro roadtrip to the coast you'll be sure to enjoy... providing you can ford the river.

After some incessant needling and the exchange of certain bits of valuable information, I finally got my hands on the combination to the JayIsGames vault. Let me tell you, taking the grand tour is quite an experience: you'll find all manner of slightly-dusty but still excellent casual games. Today we'll be looking at a point-and-click advergame that puts others to shame, an adorable shockwave action game that will be sure to throw you for a loop, and an artistic webtoy that you might find a little sketchy

The Vault is seemingly endless, which is awesome! It means there are soooo many fabulous games to revisit. It's like Washington's Library of Congress in here, only funner. And unlike Grandma's photo albums crammed full of awkward family photos, there are no cringe moments when you revisit some old time Flash games. So let's pull up our ergonomic computer chairs, grab our Manually-Operated User-Selection Equipments and enjoy an interactive look at this week's Vault offerings.

What do we love? Stories, addictive simple gameplay, and... milk? Hm! The Vault caters to all kinds of tastes, and this week features a look at one of the simplest but most addictive stacking games around, a remarkably fun and silly board game designed to promote bone strength, and a point-and-click adventure originally conceived as a class project.

What-what in the Vault? This week we crack open the archives to peer blearily into the past at the very beginning of one of the simplest but best escape series around, take a peek inside the cranium of one very strange webtoy, and rip things up jmtb02 style with one seriously flashy shooter.

The Vault takes a stop in 2007 and reminds you of the splendors to be found within The Tall Stump, the brainbending puzzles awaiting in 3D Logic 2, and the simple colourful joy that Seed offers. It's some of Dora's personal picks, and just the tip of the iceberg in a year of pure, undiluted awesomeness.

I ventured down to The Vault last night to see what I could dig up from the dusty old shelves down there, and I'm sure you're going to like what I found! Although these games haven't been in the limelight for quite some time now, they're still classics as far as browser games go and everyone should enjoy them at least a couple dozen times! Featured below is a room escape, an arcade game and one of the first physics puzzle browser games I ever played.

The holidays may be over, but that doesn't mean it's time to stop playing with toys. This week's edition of The Vault features some of the best webtoys you'll find, touching on artistic expression, creativity, and even just plain ol' jaw-dropping surreality.

Selections from The Vault for this week are 3 of my all-time favorite games, and I'm thrilled to be able to share them with you again. All three of these gems have long-lasting appeal: a puzzling platformer, a short yet challenging point-and-click adventure, and a remarkably futuristic turn-based strategy game. Individually, each of these games represents a tremendous achievement in browser-based casual gameplay and if you've never played them before, you're in for a real treat.

Stop and smell the roses... the pixelated ones, that is! This week's Vault offers you up a selection of some of the loveliest games you might not expect to stumble across, from an intelligent game of chess, to a rabbit's quest to destroy negativity, to a little bit of holiday cheer in one itty bitty package.

This week's installment of The Vault takes you on an adventure... three of them, in fact! We've brought out three of our favourite games that best capture the spirit of adventure, and are just the thing to check out if you could use a little escape from your everyday life. And who better to take you on that journey than a fluffy blue rabbit, a morose arachnid lifeform, and an evil mastermind? Sounds like a fun group to us.

The theme of The Vault this week is replay, featuring Hanafuda, Flip Out!, and Puzzle Pirates. Some games get their own special place in our bookmarks or game folder and have us coming back to play again and again, year after year. Okay, well... maybe the theme should be obsession... ?

This week's episode of the Vault features robotic puzzles, high-flying mammals and fast-paced arcade gameplay, and proof that you have it better than you think you do in one of the trickiest (and perhaps most subtly thought-provoking) simulation games on the web. It's Dolphin Olympics, Gateway, and Ayiti: the Cost of Life!

What makes a puzzle? This week's edition of The Vault has three examples that prove a puzzle isn't just about crunching numbers or smooshing the corners of a jigsaw piece to make it fit where it doesn't belong. Featuring a randomly generated brain teaser, a stickman with multiple potential horrible fates, and something simply soothing, we've got something for everyone. Unless what you're into is zombified pirate pony sudoku. Sorry. Maybe next time.

They say that games are like cheese - they get better (and smellier) with age. I've got some excellent vintage games in my little corner of The Vault, and you're free to enjoy them...once you get past my nefarious gauntlet of traps! I've got pits, hungry tigers, mimes...my depravity knows no bounds.

This week's Vault contains some real oldies-but-goodies. Browse through an assortment of classic addictive gameplay as you mine for gold, eat some fish, and top it off with a sprinkle of geography. It's all there for your recommended daily gaming consumption!

"Will you step into my vault?" said the joye to the JayIsGames readers. And there she stopped, because the idea of attempting to parody the entire poem was the scariest thing she'd heard of this Halloween season. Nothing else could compare. Certainly not these three games. Nope. No disturbing underbelly to any of THESE games. Just pure, innocent Tuesday goodness.

This week from the Vault we revisit a few games that excel in the area of artistic expression. Flash and other browser-based games have truly emerged as an art-form unto themselves, and it's a pleasure to be able to share some of our favorites that embody the creativity, heart and soul of developers who create browser-based casual gameplay.

This week from The Vault, we bring you a selection of games bearing the most important quality you can hope for; weirdness. From a girl whose head decides to float away, to a peasant who doesn't smell like he should, and more, we've got all the strangeness (and all the fun) to make your week right, and all straight from The Vault!

It's Tuesday, so it's time for another installment of The Vault, your guide to some of the brightest gems we've showcased in the past. This week, we feature games from three different popular genres with a spacey-type theme that fans shouldn't miss; arcade, escape, and puzzle.

It's the inaugural edition of The Vault, a brand new weekly feature designed to highlight some of the best games we've come across in the history of JayisGames. This week we bring you one of the best (and craziest) launch titles the internet has ever known, a surprisingly emotional point-and-click puzzle about an asylum full of toys, and one of the most beautiful puzzles you'll ever come across.

Zeebarf, the author of Reemus and The Visitor, brings us a fully-explored sci-fi world in classic point-and-click adventure game style. From the nuances of animation to the excellent puzzles to the rich storytelling, A Small Favor is one of the best adventures available for your browser.

Thule Trail is a re-imagining of the grade school classic, Oregon Trail, but instead of playing a family of 19th century immigrants, you play a group of 20 somethings road-tripping to a music festival. Instead of going to Oregon, you're going to Santa Barbara. The game takes its name from the 20th century occult society that sought the road to Atlantis; the music festival you travel to is called Atlantis, so it works. The rest of the game follows suit like a friendly slacker.

Seed is a soothing, botany-based webtoy diversion that lets you cross-breed several different kinds of flowers into pretty mutant hyper-flowers. Just click, drag and drop to crossbreed, or sit back and let evolution take over. You can even share your creations with others as you discover different varieties of remarkable looking flowers.

From GUMP, the creator of Rental House comes another well-produced point-and-click, room escape game. Guest House puts you in a similar situation as most games of its type, and yet once you begin to move about the room and examine the various items and objects that await your puzzle-solving skills you will see that this is no ordinary room escape game.

Anyone that has been visiting this site for a couple of years will likely remember the amazingly popular Hyperframe from 2005, a 3D logic puzzle of connecting same-colored blocks on a 3D cube with unbroken non-intersecting lines. There is a new version of a clone now available, appropriately titled 3D Logic 2, and it's just as well done and addictive as the original Hyperframe was.

It's got action. It's got puzzles. It's got zany... everything. The Tall Stump is an action platformer that feels like an adventure game laced with short puzzles. As you travel through the game you find strange items and learn to use them in even stranger circumstances, all in the name of working your way deeper into the stump. An exceptional game that won best of show in our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, and now follows-up that achievement with being the top platform game in the Best of 2007.

Lonely House-Moving is the latest social metaphor driven arcade game from the folks behind everyone's favorite slapping game, Rose and Camellia. You play a lonely shmuck who, after watching his girlfriend leave him in a moving truck, suddenly gets the inspiration to act. Leap over moles, avoid crows and jump over stuff flying out of the truck and try to catch your girl!

Tower Bloxx is a captivating action/puzzle game originally created for mobile phones. Using the mouse button you must drop pieces of a skyscraper from a swinging crane at the top of the screen. Stack the blocks neatly or you'll be in for a tough time as the building reaches toward the sky and sways in the wind. A quest mode lets you build an entire city one building at a time and also adds a little strategy to appease the more hardcore gamer in you. It's a near-perfect blend of casual and serious gaming that everyone will enjoy.

Bodilies combines beautiful graphics and animation, and haunting, melodic music with a story that actually works and feels right. Help Neil in his quest for freedom and self-actualization; it leads you through an interesting point-and-click adventure you won't soon forget!

Bloxorz is a simple idea for a puzzle game that is beautifully executed. The objective is to tumble a rectangular block through each stage and deposit it into the square hole at the end. Using a series of bridge-opening switches, teleporters, and block-splitting switches, solve the puzzle each stage presents to move on to the next of the game's 33 levels.

The hand drawn animations and old-school Jazz music soundtrack of Miestas and Menulis set the tone for an experience that is just this side of cool. The simplicity in controls leaves you wishing for something more polished until you realize the environments more than make up for it. Both games create a surreal world interactive art adventure to point-and-click through.

Mindscape is a side-scrolling platformer with a... twist, in that the entire level rotates as you play. There are three "worlds" with four levels each, which steadily progress from the creepily joyous Candy Meadows to the joyously creepy Center of Your Mind. It's a brilliantly conceived and executed platformer of the highest level.

Too often do we come across Flash games (especially shooters) that are either too brief or too repetitive. Luminara is a brilliant example of how to avoid those problems. It's simple enough: you are a dot and you fire bullets. And like any good game, the premise always stays exactly this simple. What gets more complex are the subsequent waves of enemies that come at you.

Slither Link by Luke Harrison will tickle the fancies of you logic puzzle fans out there. While Luke gets the credit for making this polished Flash version of Slitherlink, the actual puzzle was invented by the Japanese publishing company Nikoli. Nikoli is also known for popularizing Sudoku, and publishes a number of other similar logic puzzles.

If you haven't played Feed the Head lately, there are new features to explore! It represents a piece of interactive entertainment of a type we don't often see anymore. There is perhaps no goal, no win condition. It's just plain fun to play. An enjoyable little webtoy for you to discover on your own terms. Spend a couple minutes or an hour. Lose yourself. Feed your head. Escape.

Get the Glass is a 3D board game produced as a part of a new Got Milk advertising campaign in the US. The object of the game is to get the Adachi family around the board and into Fort Fridge so that they can...erm...Get the Glass. It's an absolutely beautiful game with gorgeous scenery and surprisingly smooth animation.

Escape Series #1: The Car is a point-and-click room escape game that does everything it should do without venturing beyond the scope of the genre. Regardless of its normal appearance, The Car provides a great room escape experience that's both fulfilling and free from random pixel hunting. Short and sweet, and with more installments to come.

For those who prefer a single-player experience, or at least one to practice with to hone one's skills in preparation for a heads-up match against another human opponent, and if a little Japanese text won't scare you off, then give Taro Ito's GameDesign Flash implementation of Hanafuda a try.

Winterbells is a very simple wintertime game with the same gorgeous art and music found in all of Ferry's games on Orisinal. In Winterbells you control a snow-white rabbit who hops onto falling bells as they drift down from the night sky. Use the mouse to move the bunny left and right and time your jumps to keep moving upwards. The longer you stay hopping the higher your score.

Rabbits are blue and red, seals enjoy sea shells, and foxes make successful hotel owners. Those are just a few of the lessons we learn from BR's Climate Chaos, a gorgeous adventure game set on a group of small islands. The main character is Blue Rabbit, who, like your average rabbit, equipped with a digital camera, sets out on a quest to help the natives of the various islands to solve their problems with the local weather.

Have you ever had that weird feeling that you are a giant, controllable, seeker missile flying down a long tunnel avoiding obstacles? What?! You say you haven't? Then you must not have played The Missile Game 3D by Damien of DX Interactive. For a fun and simple game that's taken a simple concept of "avoid the object" and infused some life into it, look no further.

Things don't feel right out here... despite the optimism. Ayiti: the Cost of Life is one of the best political web games released this year, right up there with The McGame and the comic genius of Airport Security. Unlike most games with a political message, such as September 12th or 3rd World Farmer, Cost of Living actually has a strategy that works, but it's buried in a heap of faulty (and revealingly so) tactical blunders.

Tri-achnid is a new action/adventure platformer in which you play as a creature of an endangered species of exopod on the verge of extinction. Your goal is to find a safe place for your brothers and sisters, who are tucked away in a portable cocoon, by moving throughout each level using a unique click-drag gameplay mechanic.

Purgatorium is a short and creepy point-and-click escape-the-room game with some rather horrific graphic visuals nestled inside. If you have played either of Ben's other horror-genre interactive narratives, Exmortis and Exmortis 2, then you may already know what to expect. Created especially for Casual Gameplay.

Pod Panic is a gorgeous little arcade Flash shooter that is simple to play and terribly addictive. Each level presents you with an increasing number of pods, round bumper-like objects that tend to gravitate towards your ship, and a string-creature that is rather hypnotizing to watch. Great old-school arcade fun in a tight little package.

TinyGrow is a captivating flash toy that lets you create a surreal garden scene by finding and dropping different types of seeds. Thick black trees sprout at random from the bottom of the screen, each with a rotating icon in the center. Click the icon to activate one of several events to discover seeds and grow more foliage.

Gateway is an impressive and delightful 3D puzzle game from Anders Gustafsson, awarded Honorable Mention and the coveted Audience Award in our first game design competition. The game has a very simple premise: guide a robot through a series of rooms; but you will have to solve a mini-puzzle within each room to advance.

Ever watched Flipper and were jealous about all the tricks he could do? Now you, too, can have the charm of a sea-based mammal with Dolphin Olympics. This flash game by Alan Rawkins puts you in the role of a dolphin in an infinite blue ocean. Build speed, leap from the water and perform tricks to rack up a high score and boost your speed for the next jump. It's a surprisingly simple idea that borrows elements from a number of games yet feels fresh each time you play.

Created by Robert Kabwe of Montreal, Nimian Hunter makes use of an engine that creates the illusion of 3D in Flash, and it's very, very good. Play as a hunter on a mission to feed the beast that commands you. There is a narrative that unfolds as you play, with at least two different endings. Altogether a unique and unusual game.

Gamma Bros. is a deliciously slow-paced old-school space shooter created by PixelJam. It's written in flash and offers both an online version and downloadable files for the Mac and Windows. Although simple in looks and design, Gamma Bros. gives the illusion of a massive game world interspersed with moments of action and quiet space floating.

Dice Wars is a unique new turn-based strategy game from Japan. Using nothing but dice and a randomly generated territory map made of hexagons, the game is similar in gameplay to that of the board game, Risk, though much simpler and quicker to play. The objective is to conquer all territories and eliminate all your opponents by attacking them with dice.

Escape to Obion is a five-part series of short point-and-click Flash games by Matt Slaybaugh of SkepticTank.net. The games are strongly reminiscent of old-style adventure games such as Myst, complete with the mysterious atmosphere, fiendish puzzles, and an absolutely gripping sense of exploration.

Nest of Moai is an online flash game that will take you exactly 90 seconds to beat. Fortunately there's a little more to it than just one run through, and with its quirky sense of humor you'll play it several times in a row.

Megatons of action packed into a tight little Flash package that features appealing graphics and effects, and a dynamite soundtrack. Combat Heaven is an insanely great shooter with periods of non-stop over-the-top action that is intense and gratifying. Amazing fun awaits just beyond the learning curve.

If you haven't seen Small Forest Story yet, it definitely deserves to be played through once for the holidays. And while it won't present much of a challenge for you, the pixel graphics are exquisite and the characters are adorably cute, especially the little bunny dance.

Flip Out is a straightforward, easy game to play. The objective is to flip over all of the white tiles within the time limit. If you do, a time bonus is awarded. You get to move on to the next level if you get at least 75% of the tiles before time expires. It's a simple idea of game done right, and it's fun and addictive, too.

Flyguy is a delightfully interactive Flash piece that is full of surprises. Use the arrow keys to navigate the flyguy around the environment and uncover the entertaining vignettes that await you. Created by TVM at Trevorvanmeter.com. Not a game, but fun just the same.

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is a massively multiplayer online game world in which players take to the high seas to compete for pirate booty all the while playing addictive casual games! Sounds like a blast, and it is! So, climb aboard and see what all the fuss is about, and play free! =)

A remarkably rich and highly detailed Shockwave game created for Lego by the folks at gameLab. This turn-based strategy game is a triple-A quality production set in a stunning high-tech universe. The developers have expertly combined story elements with engaging gameplay to create an extraordinary, satisfying and immersing experience.

Built in 1970, and deserted some time after that, no one has entered the house since the entire family committed suicide due to reasons unknown. Point-and-click your way through The House to unfold the mystery of what really happened to that fateful fictitious family. Best viewed alone, late at night, in the dark, and with the sound turned up. Not for the faint of heart.

You are a fish dropped into a fish tank. Your job is to eat any fish that are smaller than you, which makes you grow. As you grow, you can therefore eat larger fish. Become king of this tiny sea world food chain.

I have point-and-click happiness to spread throughout the world today in the form of a cube. Not so much a puzzle as it is an interactive narrative that unfolds with each click of the mouse in the appropriate place. See what happens when a mysterious cube falls out of the sky and lands on the ground in the middle of a very round town filled with round things.

The grandaddy of all escape-the-room games, Jan Albartus' Mystery of Time and Space dates way back to 2001 which, in terms of casual Web games, is almost the beginning of time. In MOTAS, you don't get to escape from just one room, oh no. There are now 20 rooms to escape from! Limber up those point-and-click fingers, you're about to embark on an epic classic.

You don't know where you are, and you don't know what you're doing there. You just know you have to get out. Such is the scenario that The Doors drops you into when this excellent point-and-click adventure game begins. Truly one of the best of its kind.

A lovely Flash point-and-click game from (fictitious) development company White Kiwi, this one will keep you busy for just a short while. It was created as a class project by a group of students, and it is quite enjoyable and very pretty. The world would be a better place with more games like this.

A remake of 2004's Penguin tossing games, Nanaca Crash adds depth to the original by featuring nine (9) different characters that affect game play in unique ways. There is a lot of fun packed into this deceptively simple looking game, including summoning, combos, special abilities, and some very nice graphic effects.

Deep from within the bowels of the seriously twisted mind of Robin Allen comes this Flash game simply titled: Hapland. The author claims that it is "more an interactive world of bizarity" than a game, yet there is indeed a 'win' condition and it has something to do with lighting both torches to open the stone portal and thus unleashing the power within. And now with sequels: Hapland 2 and Hapland 3!

Net is a game about connections. There is a central energy source, and the objective of the game is to connect all devices to the energy source in the fewest moves possible. Of course, if you're like me, I ignore the number of moves and just try to finish a puzzle. Subtitled "The game for the mind", this game definitely falls into the category of a brain teaser.

Brent Silby has created one of the coolest arcade games I have played in a very long time. Think retro-cool as in Galaga, Defender, Centipede and Robotron, and you'll be close to what the action is like in surely one of his best games to date. Replicator captures the essence of arcade action fun and delivers it lovingly in a browser window.

"My name is Ada. I'm going to show you how to catch butterflies." Loop is a delightful action game that makes use of the mouse for drawing loops around butterflies to catch them. It's a full-featured, multi-level, gorgeous Web game with personality, style and grace. If you haven't seen this one before, don't miss out! Created by gameLab, and hosted by Shockwave.com.

Can you torque the talk? In this unusual Flash adventure game your spacecraft crash lands on an alien planet, and to escape you must observe the culture and learn a new language to communicate with the inhabitants of this alien world. Remarkable in its originality and design, as well as its gameplay.

The Museum is a point-and-click adventure from French design team Anode & Cathode, and is one part mystery and one part figure out what the object of the game is. Your task is to collect the objects you find while exploring the museum and, well, put them back where they belong.

The Dark Room is an absolutely brilliant Flash puzzle game that is as gorgeous as it is enjoyable. Using only the mouse, point, click and solve the mystery of the dark room in this amazing and remarkable hi-tech themed puzzle game. Created by Jonathan May of Woolythinking.

For a thousand years, the prairies of Siberia were plagued with saltacoles, the rarest species of mollusk. But now, only a single male remains and it is trying like a crazy person to reproduce. Fortunately, he learns there is a female that exists, and sets out on a journey through 5 terrible caves to be with his love and save the species. Experience this beautiful and original Flash game by Voet Cranf.

A cross between a point-and-click puzzle game, interactive art, and a Rube Goldberg invention, Treasure Box is a gorgeous and fun little Flash game that puts you to the task of finding the treasure of a king long since passed. It's a short and beautiful interactive multimedia adventure from an artist with a purpose.

XGen Studios is behind this Flash game that is reminiscent of the old-school arcade games Dig Dug and Boulder Dash. Hired to mine the dangerous planet of Mars, you are given a robotic mining pod and sent off on a mission to bring home the Motherload, a fabled cache of rare and valuable minerals. Dig far below the surface of the Earth to earn money for upgrades and find treasure.

We all need Safeplaces to hang every now and then to rest, relax, recharge, review, rebound, replenish, release, receive, renew, and reward ourselves. So take a break, and take time to take in that which is around you. Smile, giggle, laugh and love. Play.

The Grrr Game puts you in control of a white rabbit, on a quest for carrots, using the arrow keys to move around the isometric pseudo 3D environment. Landing next to any hateful object will cause the rabbit to whip out his gargantuan hammer and whack the smithereen stars out of it, and thus turning it into a lovely object of affection.

A storm at sea has left you shipwrecked on a strange group of islands filled with mysterious gadgets and devices. Use your wits to solve the puzzles and escape it if you can. Archipelago is a point-and-click first-person puzzle adventure created in Flash by the amazing puzzle master himself, Jon May.

Add together stylish pixel graphics, a compelling techno soundtrack, and challenging gameplay that appears deceptively simple, and you wind up with an excellent little action puzzle game called BLiX. This highly addictive game was created by gameLab and is hosted by Shockwave.com.

Gold Miner is a cute and addictive little Flash game that has you mining for gold using just a claw and reel to unearth valuable treasures in a race against the clock. Each level provides a dollar value goal that must be met within the time limit to move on to the next. It's a well produced game with cute, appealing graphics and sound effects.