Games Featured:
- • Adventure Apes and the Mayan Mystery
- • Star Guard
- • Raimond EX
It's a platforming fest on this edition of Weekend Download! We've traveled to the far away land of Platformia to find awesome run-and-jump-and-shoot games for you to play. Our expedition resulted in a backpack full of treasures, the best of which are below!
RunMan: Race Around the World, by Tom Sennett and Matt Thorson, is a full-fledged follow-up to the RunMan series of speed-centric platform games. You control the titular RunMan who's really, really good at running. He's so good, in fact, he's entered a race to run around the world. Too bad everybody else quit when he showed up. RunMan is also an HonorableMan, however, and before he'll accept the winner's crown, he's going to earn it by running around the world on his own two little yellow feet.
Games Featured:
- • Glumbuster
- • Jed
- • Awakener
Why do bees have sticky hair? Because they use honey combs. Why do Weekend Downloads have a bunch of games? Because spending your weekend reading about and subsequently sorting pieces of lint isn't nearly as fun.
Man-eating plants! Skeletons! Giant spiders! Falling boulders! What do these things have in common? They're all very, very deadly. And they, along with a host of other unpleasantness hungry for your demise, are waiting for you in Spelunky, an incredibly addictive roguelike platformer from Derek Yu. Explore, descend, discover... just remember to watch your back and keep one hand on your whip!
Games Featured:
- • Journey to the Center of the Earth
- • ASCIIpOrtal
- • GIana's Return
Three truly heavy-hitting games on this edition of Weekend Download, two of them weighing in as unofficial sequels to commercially released games. Don't let that keep you from trying Journey to the Center of the Earth, however, as it packs even more punch than the name brands!
Games Featured:
- • Do You Remember My Lullaby?
- • FallOver!
- • Duck Fight
When wacky games and serious, heartfelt games coexist, one never knows what could happen. This edition of Weekend Download pairs the decidedly quiet, thoughtful non-game Do You Remember My Lullaby? with two loud, zany platform action games. Why? Because we can!
Ben Leffler continues his popular horror point-and-click series in Exmortis 3, when your time for revenge may come too late to do mankind any good. Introducing new abilities, new locations, and dripping with atmosphere, Exmortis 3 is exceptionally well made, but may be over too soon for some players.
Games Featured:
- • Paul Moose In Space World
- • Solar Plexus
- • Onslaught of the Electric Zombies
- • Rock Warrior
- • Cave Bounce
This edition of Weekend Download happens to be Weekend Download number 101! That means we've featured roughly 400 games since February 2007! Exclamation mark! To celebrate, today's article features five free games, enough to keep you busy for hours on end. It also features an extra amount of love, but if you've been following WD since the beginning, you knew that already, didn't you? AWWWW!!!!
The main goal in Osmos is simple: you, an amoeba-esque organism known as a "mote," must absorb smaller motes to become bigger. As your size increases, you are able to absorb more and more motes until you are the largest one in the area. This seems like a simple objective, and at its core it is. But, in order to propel yourself around to capture motes, you must expel a part of your own mass, which in turn decreases your size. It's a beautiful and unique game of calm strategy and intense thought.
Games Featured:
- • Beacon
- • Broken Cave Robot
- • NICE CAVE!
It's a weekend of Ludum Dare! The solo game development competition sends people on a quest to create a game from scratch in 48 hours based on a theme. The results are always interesting, though don't expect a long and polished product from two days of work. The theme for the most recent Ludum Dare competition was "caverns".
Games Featured:
- • Minima Bomber
- • Tasty Static
- • The Thing with 40 Eyes Girl
- • Tango Strike
Remakes, revivals, and retro-styled games are the stars of this edition of Weekend Download. We've got that tasty old-school gameplay philosophy, primitive pixel graphics, and a penchant for minimalism all wrapped into one.
Games Featured:
- • Bombie Zombie
- • BOOM
- • Broken Brothers
Aah, I love the smell of flat, shapeless pixels in the morning! And four-color screenshots in the afternoon. And any combination of the above at any time of the day.
Games Featured:
- • JiroSum
- • Tower of Heaven
- • Why
Just like milk, cereal and toast make for a delicious breakfast, a math-based shooter, a retro platformer and an emo arcade game make for a scrumptious Weekend Download. Seriously, try it with butter or ghee!
Games Featured:
- • Little Bee
- • Skull Daddy
- • Attack of the Deadly Mutant Fishies
- • Carpe Universum
Normally, I'm not much of a shmup fan. Three of the four games featured below, however, happen to be shooters. And I happen to have enjoyed them. Which is neat! Sure, they're decidedly less "serious" than most games in the genre, but still, you shoot stuff, so that counts, right?
Games Featured:
- • Spirit Guide
- • Alpinist
- • Category 5
- • The Ascent
It's TOJam time! The Toronto Independent Game Jam #4 was held May 1-3, with participating teams producing 37 games! Below are just a few of our favorites. Be sure to check out the TOJam 2009 games page for other unique titles.
Games Featured:
- • Tanaka's Friendly Adventure
- • Alexitron's Journey to Learn GML
- • !Xorpl
Games exist to expand your mind, train your reflexes, broaden your appreciation of all things— naaah! I'm kidding, who cares about all that stuff, amirite? Really, most of the games we play exist just so we can have fun. And that's exactly what we have on this edition of Weekend Download: three tiny, simple games to deliver a bit of mindless fun.
Games Featured:
- • Heed
- • Kung Fu 2
- • QQUAK
- • Post I.T. Shooter
Ohhhhh, sometimes I can't get enough of that old-school retro-styled CRT TV in the living room playing games when I'm supposed to be learning my multiplication tables goodness! An incredibly low-res Quake-inspired game is a heavy dose of nostalgia, but pile on top of that a short Lucas Arts-style adventure game and an unofficial sequel to a near-forgotten NES title, stick a Post-It note on the front, and you've got a recipe for a relaxed weekend.
Games Featured:
- • Bunny Blaster
- • Frobot
- • Proto Shooter
- • Egg Worm Generator
The Experimental Gameplay Project has returned! Originally started by Kyle Gabler and Kyle Gray, the site encourages rapid prototyping of new gameplay concepts in a short period of time. World of Goo began as an experimental game called Tower of Goo, so you can see how much creative potential an idea like this has.
Games Featured:
- • DinerTown Tycoon
- • Kitten Sanctuary
- • Pahelika: Secret Legends
Our goal is to bring you only the games that are worth playing, meaning most of these titles are left in the forgotten realm of Didn't Quite Make It land. This is especially true with downloadable games, as it's a bit more of a commitment to buy a game than just click on a link and play. Some games look good, play well, and are entertaining enough to be featured, but for one reason or another they just didn't make the cut. Here are a few games that are, by all rights, excellent titles to play, but for one reason or another didn't quite get their own review.
Games Featured:
- • Holdover
- • Ninja Robot Winning Gameshow
- • Gray & Green
Painfully difficult retro gaming time!!! Three platform games on this edition of Weekend Download, each one doing its part to remind you just how bad you are at playing games. Until you play the same part a dozen times, then you're awesomely talented!
Games Featured:
- • Space Exploration: Serpens Sector
- • Bitfortress
- • Tombed
It's the weekend!!! That means you have a little extra time on your hands. That means I get to take away some of that time with a handful of free games. That means you get to have fun on your weekend. Don't forget to mow the lawn, though.
Games Featured:
- • Storm
- • Save the Planet
- • Heresy War
This week, we'll take a look at the finalists in the 2BeeGames Indie Game Competition. Out of the six, we have previously featured two: Auditorium and Bumps, and the other is technically not a download Buccaneer Battle. Here is a quick rundown of the remaining three amazingly deserving titles. You like to vote, right? After playing these games, go vote for your favorite!
Games Featured:
- • The Mirror Lied
- • Takishawa is Dead
- • Somnia
All three games featured this week seem to be a bit on the chilling creepy eerie ominous side of things. Nothing like hordes of zombies leaping from behind locked doors, more like quiet, haunting environments that are suspiciously empty but filled with cautious intrigue...
Games Featured:
- • Type Fighter
- • De Toren
- • Toast Boy
- • Sheep!
This edition of Weekend Download makes me hungry. Hungry for TOAST! It also, by extension, makes me want to ride on the back of a sheep, but that's a completely different thing, innit?
Games Featured:
- • Ivory Springs
- • Kaivo
- • Storm Assault
- • The Gutter
- • Squid Yes, Not So Octopus: Squid Harder
Something for just about every type of gamer in this edition of Weekend Download, including a few titles heavy on exploration (one with a grappling hook! :-O ), a psychedelic shooter, and an experimental art game complete with vomit!
Games Featured:
- • Enviro-Bear 2000
- • Okkuplektor
- • Star Cannon
- • Vector Locust
TIGSource has long been a focal point where independent game developers congregate, and its recent TIGSource Cockpit Competition inspired several dozen programmers to craft over 40 fine games for our playing pleasure. The following are the four winners as chosen by votes on the TIGSource forums. Aah, independent games, how we love your rampant sense of freedom and unchecked creativity.
Games Featured:
- • RunMan's Monster Fracas
- • Crush!
- • Acwabatiacs
With the review of Tom Sennet's "When The Bomb Goes Off," last week, a grave realization came to hand: our site is tragically void of Cool Moose games! This travesty is now rectified. Thank you and have a lovely day.
Games Featured:
- • Crazy over Goo
- • Dad Would Be Proud
- • Portals thru Dreams
This edition of Weekend Download is brought to you by: Platformers. Platformers, making you run, jump, stomp, dodge and run (some more) to the exit for almost 30 years!
Games Featured:
- • Ninjah
- • Plobb!
- • Ten Ton Ninja
The introduction to this weekend download has been stolen by a ninja and replaced with a depressed bubble. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you happen to see a ninja, please attempt to stop him and ask for this paragraph back. That would be very much appreciated.
Games Featured:
- • The Mushroom Engine
- • Madhouse
- • Gate 88
- • Pandaland
This edition of Weekend Download is dedicated to cells. No, not the kind you find in prison, the kind you find right here, inside your body. The squishy little things surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane. How about a hand for cells? All 100 trillion of them!
Games Featured:
- • Icy Tower
- • Frog Hunt
- • Zombiepox
- • Gate
This week, three of the four games featured come from the development group Free Lunch Design. Why? Because one of their games turned this writer onto the world of free games and further to that, in all its history JIG has featured just one of their games. What better way to say, thanks for all the lost time spent playing, then to shine a bit of light on their highlights.
This week, word skills and paint skills will go head to head in a dazzling array of visual and wordy deliciousness. In the left corner we have the book smarts, with knowledge of words and quick thinking. In the other corner, painting, featuring brushes, stamps and a burning desire to see a creative vision realized. It's the author vs. the auteur in this weeks... Weekend Download.
Games Featured:
- • Annie Android
- • You Probably Won't Make It
- • Assassin Blue
- • Ping Pong!
- • House Globe
You like old games, right? Games that were made before everyone had a computer in their home. Or games that were made last week and just look like they came out of the decade that brought us Prince, Trapper Keepers, and rolled-down socks. Simplicity knows no age, of course, and that's just what these games strive for in one way or another.
Games Featured:
- • Pac-Man Physics
- • King
- • 30 Second Hero
- • Zombie Holiday Prologue
What, no theme this week? Actually, there is. The theme is... uh, eclectic. Meaning a collection of things which just happen to go together because I say so. Enjoy this weeks partially themed Weekend Download!
Games Featured:
- • Abuse
- • TAGAP
- • Easter Avenger
In platform games, its standard fare to jump over or on top of your enemies. Occasionally you are granted a weapon with the rather limited range of directly in front of you. Fortunately, every now and then, an often overlooked method of weaponry is employed: control the hero with your left hand on the keys, while simultaneously aiming anywhere on screen with the mouse, providing 360° of free-firing joyous joy.
Games Featured:
- • Jetpack
- • God of Thunder
- • UrthWurm
- • Revenge of Froggie
- • Primrose
A lot of games featured on JIG are intensive. They require Flash 10, or Unity or some sort of graphics card capable of displaying something more than monochrome. However, sometimes gamers just don'thave the latest hardware requirements to play the latest whiz-bang flavour of the month. So without further ado, here are a selection of games developed for the trusty old DOS system.
Games Featured:
- • Mario Paint Composer
- • Mono World
- • Balldroppings
- • The Crowd
When you think about it, music is all around us. That's usually because we have our iPods in our ears. Or our MP3s blasting through our computer. Or some concert DVD on the telly. Or we have the radio on. The point is, now you can play games and actually make music at the same time, isn't that something!
Games Featured:
- • DroneSwarm
- • Beast Invaders 2
- • Boidtrancer Maniac
- • The Fool and His Money
Shooters! Shmups! Games where you hit buttons and destroy things! Vertically scrolling, arena, clones, remakes, minimalistic... shooting games! Thusly is the theme of this edition of Weekend Download. Except for that other game at the bottom...
Games Featured:
- • Jumpman
- • Kakuro Nichiyou
- • Where
- • Classic Night
Four simple but stunning games this week, ranging from strikingly bare-bones to the artistically slanted. Classic Night breathes a rare sense of wonder into a normally stale genre, while Where doesn't pull any tricks and simply drops you in a gorgeously-drawn maze.
Games Featured:
- • Din
- • Restraining Order
- • The Illusory Persistence of LOVE
Hello humans, and welcome to the Global Game Jam edition of Weekend Download! The GGJ is a three-day event held in dozens of cities around the world. People show up, pitch their ideas based on a theme, form groups and start making games! The results (of which there are also dozens) range from spectacular to quirky to artistic to downright weird, but all show enormous creativity in one way or another.
Games Featured:
- • Syberia
- • Dracula: Origin
- • Syberia II
Hungry for a good, meaty adventure game? We've got three excellent titles that will draw you in with a deep story, keep you hooked with delicious artwork, and perplex you at every turn with some seriously challenging puzzles. They may not be as casual as some might prefer, but they more than make up for it with a heavy-hitting presentation and well-designed gameplay.
Games Featured:
- • NUD
- • MacHeist 3
- • Afterlife: Rickard's Quest
If you were looking for the latest edition of Weekend Download, I'm sorry to inform you it's been in a terrible accident involving scissors, a blowtorch, and those annoying little pudding cups in the aluminum tins that, if you snap off the "easy open" tab, suddenly become an impenetrable fortress of pudding protection.
Games Featured:
- • Walkie Tonky
- • Tag: The Power of Paint
- • Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
- • Legend of Princess
It's a weekend of power-hitting downloads! *shock and awe* Four huge games lurk below, each bearing the hopes and dreams of a different set of gamers on its respective creative shoulders. It's enough to make a grown gamer cry. *sniffle*
Games Featured:
- • Aquarium
- • Little Ghost Joe
- • Nexuiz
- • Harvest: Massive Encounter
Two tiny games and one behemoth in this edition of Weekend Download. Aquarium and Little Ghost Joe are both rather cutesy and simple, whereas Nexuiz is gritty, serious, and all shooty with guns and stuff. Variety's neat, innit?
Games Featured:
- • Spaceball 2000
- • Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!
- • The Manipulator
We polled over 800,000 random people on the street and asked them one simple question: are you a squid, or are you an octopus? The response was overhwelmingly the former, prompting us to re-evaluate our personal belief systems so that squid occupied the highest echelon of importance.
Games Featured:
- • Caster
- • Abandoned
- • greenTech
Serious question: if you were a failed experiment of genetic engineering, what would be your weakness? In the case of the poor critter from this week's game Abandoned, it's a limited supply of oxygen. Personally, I would be unable to comb my hair without first dislocating my left shoulder. Think about it. That'd be a rough life.
Games Featured:
- • Spelunky
- • Gravity Bone
- • Widelands
- • Ivory Mahjongg
If you ask me (trust me, you did... and if you didn't, you know you wanted to), the selection of games on this edition of Weekend Download are some of the most well-rounded and fulfilling titles ever to grace a single article. We've got a pixel-perfect 2D platformer, a 3D spy game, an old favorite RTS title re-imagined in open source, and the classic mahjong puzzle game. Can I get a "YAY!" along with a few high fives?!!
Games Featured:
- • Verge
- • From Primordial Egg
- • Eversion
- • Lost in Eldritch
- • Theatre of Cruelty
The recent TIGSource Commonplace Book Competition has ended, yielding heaps of creative, unusual, and slightly dark games. Entrants were challenged with using a line from H.P. Lovecraft's "Commonplace Book", a notebook of disjointed, cryptic ideas, and create a game around these snippets of text. Below are a few of the top picks as chosen by the TIGSource community.
Games Featured:
- • A Tale of Two Kingdoms
- • The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge
- • AssaultCube
- • Hideous Sounds in the Dark
His consequent newspaper exceeds orange juice after a patronized disclaimer. The vehicle concatenates soil. When can soil compose above an individual? A deserted outline ministers to soil past a rotten attribute. WEEKEND DOWNLOAD WOOOO!
Lyle in Cube Sector is a relatively old Metroidesque platformer in traditional NES style. You play as Lyle, who adventures through Cube Sector, using cubes for everything from attacking enemies to playing basketball to feeding a dog, with the ultimate goal of retrieving his cat Keddums.
Games Featured:
- • This is a Cry for Help
- • The Gear that Works
- • SudokuAdept
- • QWAK
- • Ghostbusters
This edition of Weekend Download answers a question that has been plaguing mankind since 1984: who ya gonna call (especially if there's something strange in your neighborhood)? The answer is, unequivicobaly, QWAK. Wait, no, the other thing. Ghostbusters. Yeah!
Games Featured:
- • Meritous
- • Marathon Trilogy
- • Verge
- • Cosmic Invaders
Did you know that the original meaning of the word "weekend" referred to the time from noon Saturday to Monday morning? Did you also know the word "download" seems to have originated in 1980? AND, did you know I spent a little too much time reading about the etymology of these words?
Games Featured:
- • Akrasia
- • Portile
- • The Lake
- • Glider
While playing all the games that I do to find something worthy of a Weekend Download, I get to see a huge variety of wacky, creative, strange, bland, and forgettable game titles. Not featured in this edition of Weekend Download (nor in this plane of existence): The Dentist is Fun, Party Games for You and Your Ex, Three Reasons Tofu is Evil, Help! I've Swallowed an Ant!, Give Me Some Cake, and Super Reptile Diploma.
Games Featured:
- • Last week
- • Enigma
- • Iter Vehemens ad Necem (IVAN)
- • Elona
- • Rock Boshers
Last week, on Weekend Download, I had the tiny problem of listening to the constant drone of a leaf blower somewhere in my neighborhood. This week it was back, with a vengeance, and it directly affected my downloadable game playing experiences. When I was playing Oxyd, all I could do was smash into walls. When I played IVAN, I couldn't kill a bat. I couldn't explore all of Elona because focusing was out of the question. And zombies in Rock Boshers took me out a few times too many because my mind was elsewhere. Maybe I should take a hint from the protagonist in Violet and start eliminating the distractions by any zany means available?
Games Featured:
- • Xoldiers
- • MageGuild
- • Argonaut
- • Lightmare
- • Aquaria
- • Crayon Physics Deluxe pre-order
I compose this edition of Weekend Download with the sound of leaf blowers screeching through my windows. Not only does half my neighborhood believe leaves in their yard are evil, but apparently creating hours of noise pollution for everyone in the area is an acceptable price to pay to shove them in the street. I miss the good old fashioned, non-air-and-noise-polluting leaf rake...
Games Featured:
- • Lynchmob HD
- • Karateka Mania
- • 10800 Zombies
- • Now Boarding v1.1
- • World of Goo for Mac
Along with three slightly crazy games, in this edition of Weekend Download we have a few games that have gone through a metamorphosis of sorts. World of Goo is now available for Mac (!), and one of my favorite resource management games, Now Boarding, has had a significant upgrade.
Games Featured:
- • Tile World
- • Red Spheres
- • Pirate Fishing
- • Run for It 2
The following message was stolen from artbegotti: This episode of Weekend Download has been brought to you by Triangles. Triangles are three-sided shapes that have three corners with internal angles that add up to 180 degrees. Triangles come in several varieties, including right triangles, equilateral triangles, isosceles triangles, obtuse triangles, and more! Triangles are also well known for their structural stability in architectural design. So go out and try some triangles today! "Triangles... We're Not Square!"
Games Featured:
- • Tumbledrop
- • Off-Road Velociraptor Safari
- • Rasta Monkey
- • Mars Explorer
Now it's time to break the rules. A little. This edition of Weekend Download highlights winners of the 2008 Unity Awards, games created using the Unity plug-in that are playable right in your browser window. Technically they're browser games, but since you have to download and install something, they're downloads, too.
Games Featured:
- • Garden of Coloured Lights
- • Treasure Hunter Man
- • Timerocketxby
- • Skullpogo
Some odd news to go along with your games: Recently the American Heart Association announced that the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive" provides the perfect beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim. While this will certainly help save a number of lives, I really don't want to see disco (or qiana shirts) make a comeback.
Games Featured:
- • Avert Fate
- • Alex the Allegator 4
- • Little Machines Still Goes Deeper
- • Waxy's Sushi Party
Look! Over there! It's a giant robot alligator with a bunch of little drills going out to get some sushi! Before he sees us, reload your grenade gun with cherries and tap the appropriate key when his sushi order floats over the red zone!
Games Featured:
- • X-Moto
- • Zatikon
- • Love
- • Lugaru
Sometimes indie game developers really impress me with their rampant creativity. This week, for example, we have a surprisingly deep strategy game from Chronic Logic that looks like it was stolen from 1992, a fighting game starring rabbits, an unfairly tough platformer called Love, and a physics-based racing motocross racing game. When "Hey, I have a neat idea!" is the driving force behind a game, you know you're in for a good time.
Games Featured:
- • G2: Geeks Unleashed
- • Scrapbook Paige
- • The Hidden Object Show: Season 2
More games to make you scratch your head, this bonus edition of Weekend Download features a few titles that caught my eye in one way or another. I especially enjoyed G2: Geeks Unleashed, not only for its corny references (every one of which I understood!), but for its unique strategy/puzzle gameplay.
Games Featured:
- • Mystery Chronicles - Murder Among Friends
- • The Lost Snowmen
- • Cavern of Doom
- • Goban
Two really fascinating blasts from (or to) the past this week: The Lost Snowmen, which spiritually resurrects one of my favorite games from the 90s, The Lost Vikings, and Cavern of Doom, which takes pixelated graphics to an almost painful extreme.
Games Featured:
- • Fable of Griselda
- • Hold Me Closer, Giant Dancer
- • Thieving Raccoon
- • Squish
- • Gang Garrison 2
- • Little Girl in Underland
This edition of Weekend Download highlights some of my favorite entries in the recently-ended (and completely awesome) TIGSource Bootleg Demakes competition. Designers were challenged to remake a game for a system released before its time. So, for example, creating a Super Smash Bros. knockoff for the NES. Nearly 70 games were entered in the competition, so be sure to check out the competition page and try some more on for size.
Games Featured:
- • Kumoon
- • Archibald's Adventures
- • Mission Extreme
- • Chex Quest 3
This week we have what is perhaps the strangest Weekend Download offering of all time: a sequel to a ten year old game originally packaged with Chex cereal. Yes, it's as odd as it sounds and yes, you have to have some pretty serious nostalgic yearnings to really get into the game. But hey, Chex cereal looks like miniature waffles, so how can that be a bad thing?
Games Featured:
- • Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
- • Archaist
- • Solar Wolf
- • Guru Logic Champ remake
The intro paragraph to this edition of Weekend Download was delayed in an unfortunate airport scheduling conflict. Lacking the teams of writers normally required to complete this task, we have instead substituted the introduction with a single character, printed here:@. We hope you enjoy it.
Games Featured:
- • Karoshi Factory
- • Jumper 3
- • Happy Runner
- • Syobon Action
There you are, standing on the precipice. Your pixelated toes hang over the edge. Taking a deep breath you move forward — and fall, cursing the heavens and hoping that the louder you say "But I pressed jump!" will make a difference. Such is the fate of all characters at some point — they fall. Some games take the idea of making that perfect jump and dare you to try hard at every turn in order to make every single jump count, and every miss hurt.
Games Featured:
- • Alien Abduction
- • Hammerfall v.0.21
- • Det Officiella EDGE Dataspelet
- • Visit 2: Dark Tower
Today I would like to use this space to address a horrible error made just one week ago: I neglected to mention the previous Weekend Download was number 50! That means we've placed over 250 downloadable games before your eyes, which is... well, plenty of excuses not to do your homework or fill out your TPS reports.
Games Featured:
- • World Mosaics
- • Cy-Clone
- • Yard Sale Junkie
Each week we churn through dozens of downloadable casual games searching for just the right ones to feature. Is it interesting and fun, or is it just another clone? Does it have pretty pictures? Much like our weekly Link Dump Friday feature, this edition of Weekend Download highlights some of the games that, for one reason or another, didn't quite make it to a full review but are still unique and worth playing.
Games Featured:
- • Phun
- • Teeworlds
- • Choke on my Groundhog, YOU !@#$% ROBOTS
- • Avoid the Evil Space Eel
- • Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
Eels, phonic substitutions, time-traveling groundhogs, and a game that lets you beat up Kirby-like avatars that represent people from around the world. Let's all join hands and sing a song of — OH MY OMELETS THE EEL IS EATING ME!!!
Games Featured:
- • Pittoch
- • CryptRover
- • Big Building Boom Blues
- • Armand and the Foppish Hat
You like it old-school? That's good, because on this edition of Weekend Download, we've got a healthy dose of retro-style gaming ready to throw you back a decade or two!
Developed back in 2003 by Moonpod Games, Starscape may be considered an "oldie" by the gamer crowd, but it's a goodie. Launched as a shareware game without the distribution support that it has today, Starscape flew under the radar, gathering a respectable following slowly but surely. Today, it's been finally starting to hit the major distro sites and people are either discovering or taking a second glance at this little space shooter/strategy game created half a decade ago.
Games Featured:
- • Bombermaaan
- • Scrollbit
- • Bricksmith
- • Calamity Annie
If I were made of LEGO-style bricks, I would have an extra arm at the center of my back. Sure, it would make sitting down awkward, my shirts would never quite fit, and buying gloves would be kinda pointless, but... Please? Can I have it anyway?
Games Featured:
- • a game about bouncing
- • Atomic Worm
- • Boondog
- • G:plus
Along with our usual smattering of games, this week we're featuring one of the games from the recent Toronto Independent Game Development Jam (TOJam), a three day gathering of game makers held every year to inspire creative ideas. Be sure to check out all of the TOJam entries for more experimental gaming goodness!
Games Featured:
- • Frozen Depths
- • Hydro Hydra
- • Mondo Medicals
- • Mondo Agency
Good day and welcome to Weekend Download! For your comfort and ease of existence, we promise that Weekend Download will never say it's going to call you after work and never do so. Weekend Download will also keep its promise and get you that extra cash when it does your taxes. Weekend Download is also low in calories, low fat, and high in FUN.
Games Featured:
- • 8-bit Killer
- • Black Shades
- • Ainevoltas 2
- • The Infinite Ocean
A lot of first person gory goodness on this edition of Weekend Download. Two of our featured games are first person shooters, while a couple others pour on the macabre in their own special way, even if they happen to be packed with colorful pixel art!
Games Featured:
- • Tropico Jong: Butterfly Expedition
- • BlockOn!
- • INNO-vation 2007
- • Phyta
A few short, experimental-type games this week, including one from prolific Game Maker designer cactus, a two color game where you are a wild boar, and a game where you control a dark sun to capture golden butterfly/angel-type things. And just to make sure you don't go mad with weirdness, there's a nice relaxing mahjong game to tame the inner beasts.
Games Featured:
- • Ancient Quest of Saqqarah
- • Puzzle Hero
Sometimes a formula just works, and in the case of the tried-and-true matching setup, we've seen it work time and time again. This edition of Weekend Download highlights a few new games that take the matching to a new level with interesting twists on the old convention.
Games Featured:
- • Rescue: The Beagles
- • Dyson
- • Self-Destruct
- • dropTD
- • Everyone Loves Active 2
Recently, TIGSource held a competition centered around procedural generation, games that create their content on the fly rather than presenting pre-made areas crafted by the programmer. This gives the player a new experience each time he or she plays, opening the doors of replayability and creating some unpredictable situations. Below are the top five entries as determined by player votes. More than 60 games were submitted, so feel free to peruse the competition page for more procedurally generated goodness!
Games Featured:
- • iFactor
- • .kkrieger
- • Masashikun Hi!
- • Vlak
- • Minimal Yahtzee
Sometimes you come across a game that looks amazing and receives nothing but praise from all the reviews. Everything looks positive and you just can't wait to play it — then you notice the download size. It's massive. How can you justify downloading something so large? Sure, it might be good, but maybe you'd like something that would be a little quicker to download. So here you are, four games that provide a decent experience at a fraction of the bandwidth.
Eschalon: Book 1, the debut title from Basilisk Games, will take you back to the nostalgic days of Ultima and Might and Magic. It's a turn-based, tile-designed RPG, a system that many fans of the genre are familiar with. Eschalon offers a rich, engaging and open-ended world to explore, with a similarly deep storyline. It's a modern-day tribute to the old CRPG's that fans grew up on, at a time when storytelling, adventuring and honing your character's skill took precedence over shiny graphics and cutting-edge mechanics.
Games Featured:
- • Overgod
- • Ancient Ants Adventure
- • Caveman Craig
- • Space Game: Mujakwi
- • Laser Bunny - Adventures in the Alien Death Mines!
What do you get when you cross prehistoric man with a group of combative ants and drop them in a few procedurally generated areas? I have no clue, but this edition of Weekend Download will probably be the closest thing to an answer you'll ever find.
Games Featured:
- • On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
- • Bridge Building Game
- • Foldit
- • The Jackyard
Old and new, artistic and scientific breakthroughs, and a little bit of wacky fruit-loving robots, too. It's the most widely varied Weekend Download in the history of the universe, as verified by independent laboratory experiments!
Stardrone is a genre mashup download game, featuring a mix of elements including arcade action, pinball, breakout, gravitational physics and collect-the-objects. Although it might sound a little confusing, the game simply boils down to you (a ball) lighting up stars to reach an objective, and it's remarkably fun to play!
This edition of weekend download highlights a few notable IF titles. All you need is a computer and the ability to read and you're good to go!
Virtual Villagers is back, and we're so excited we couldn't wait until the weekend to tell you! With Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City, the surprisingly addictive real-time simulation game sticks with its proven formula and makes a few minor tweaks to freshen up gameplay. With new secrets to uncover, new technologies, real-time weather effects and a whole new island to explore, Virtual Villagers 3 has all the ingredients that made the first games so compelling, plus more.
Games Featured:
- • Janitor Dan The Spaceman
- • Zep's Dreamland
- • Worminator III
- • Keith Goes Painting
As you well know, new games are released everyday. So many, in fact, that it's impossible for anyone to play them all. This week we present a selection of downloadable platform games, one of the most popular genres of all-time. These aren't new games, however—they're just four nice games you may have missed before there was a Weekend Download.
Games Featured:
- • The Hidden Object Show
- • Debrysis
- • Octave Engine Cake
- • Karoshi 2.0
- • J20
- • Obake
A game where the goal is to kill yourself, a Japanese ghost who absorbs and turns into enemies, and a downloadable sandbox webtoy where you build things out of rice and then set them on fire? Yep, smells like a Weekend Download all right...
Two heavy-hitting adventure games hit the casual scene this weekend, one a re-release of a classic point-and-click title, the other an exclusive from a seasoned adventure development studio. Each one spins an unforgettable tale using famous crime novel monikers everyone should recognize. Although the titles take strikingly different gameplay approaches, each one offers a deep mystery experience wrought with hidden agendas, misleading clues, and plenty of riddles to solve.
Games Featured:
- • TrackMania Nations Forever
- • Savage: The Battle for Newerth
- • Psychonauts
- • Mubbly Tower
Ready to fill your hard drive to the brim? This weekend we've got several commercially produced games released as freeware. That means you get all the polish and production value of a big studio title without shelling out the cash. You'll have to be patient while they download, and the games aren't as friendly to casual gamers as we'd like, but you can't beat paying nothing for a game that used to carry a retail price tag.
Games Featured:
- • Toribash
- • In the Woods
- • The Sewer Goblet - The Wu-Tang Clan and the Wu-Tang Baby
- • The Power
You awake rather late in the morning, the sun bursting between the blinds it's been banging on for hours. Your head hurts a bit, and your stomach aches ever so slightly. What was that you ate last night, anyway? Veggie lo mein? Groggy, you pull yourself out of bed, flip on the trusty computer and connect to the Internet. Your favorite website immediately opens, and your dreary face brightens as they rest on the sanctuary that is Weekend Download.
Games Featured:
- • Voxelstein 3D
- • Made in Wired
- • Bullfrog
Our main course this evening is a heaping plate of voxels served on a bed of romaine and topped with bits of rock from an underground jail cell. Following that will be a tiny space ship served in bite-sized pieces that must be consumed within three seconds.To wash that down feel free to eat as many bugs as you see fit.
Games Featured:
- • Miss Teri Tale
- • Danger Mouse in the Black Forest Chateau
- • Albero and the Great Blue Emblem
- • Noitu Love 2
- • Ad Nauseam 2
Noitu loooove Miss Teri Tale! Danger Mouse? In the black forest, ad nauseam, with Albero and the great blue emblem.
Games Featured:
- • Pac the Man
- • Napkin Race
- • Downhill PAKOON! 2.Many Unlimited 2009
- • Orbit Racers
Driving, driving everywhere, but not a brake to squeek. Er... never mind about that lousy rhyme, its driving time! So hop in, close the door, and press that pedal to the floor. And you can also play the other non-driving games. You know, if you want to.
Games Featured:
- • Return to Dark Castle
- • Floating Islands Game
- • The Yore
- • Frozzd
In addition to an utterly superb isometric adventure game, on this edition of Weekend Download we'll be teasing you just a bit. Teasing how, you say? Teasing with a Mac-only demo and a preview build of a game that isn't complete! Yes, we're cruel. But you'll love every minute of it.
Games Featured:
- • Westward II: Heroes of the Frontier
- • Rom Check Fail
- • Owl Country
- • Perfectionism
- • Dangerous Highschool Girls In Trouble
A little bit of this, a little bit of that. This edition of Weekend Download throws a strange variety of games your way, but with one major headliner: Westward 2. Insert obligatory "oohs" and "ahhs" (and maybe even a "cool it's about time yay" or two) here.
Ready for some serious content? This week we spill the beans on two games — one brand new, the other, well, not so new. One is serious, the other... not so much. One is in color, the other— well, you get the picture. It's The Graveyard and a remake of the classic King's Quest II!
Games Featured:
- • Rainbow Web II
- • Gun Mute
- • The Hangover
- • Powder
Hangovers, guns, and retro roguelike games. Sounds like a typical Saturday night in the 80s. This weekend, however, we're celebrating the good ole days casual gaming style, which results in less money spent, fewer blackouts, and absolutely no inexplicable bruises.
Games Featured:
- • The Count of Monte Cristo
- • Seven Minutes
- • To Hell in a Hamper
- • DoomRL
She is tolerable, I suppose. But she is not handsome enough to tempt me. Bingley, I am in no humour to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. Go back to your partner and enjoy her smiles. You're wasting your time on me. Just give me a few Weekend Download games and that's all I could ever need.
Games Featured:
- • Sparkle
- • Knytt Nano
- • Gravitation
- • Neverball
- • Out of Order
- • Return to Sector 9
A very special treat reaches lucky gamers this weekend: a mini-release from Nifflas, author of Within a Deep Forest and both Knytt games. KnyttNano isn't much more than two tiny experiments Nifflas cooked up while trying out new ideas, so don't expect a life-shattering sequel-sized experience, just two simple games worth their weight in atmosphere alone.
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