Douglas Chase, the hero of Tasty Poison's arcade puzzle game Dig!, has it rough. He works as an archaeologist for a failing museum, and in order to save his job, appease his boss and rescue the museum, he has to dig up new and exciting artefacts, pronto. And he has to do all this while mummies, tentacles and moles chase him, which never makes things easy. Oh, and toilet seats count as priceless artefacts, by the way. Have fun!
You can't help but smile when you make these monkeys happy in Pencil Kids' wonderfully interactive point-and-click puzzle game. In each stage, figure out what will make the weepy-eyed simian dance in glee. This means using objects creatively, solving puzzles and even completing a few arcade-type mini-games. Finish all 15 stages to be treated to a coin collecting adventure bonus level. But the joy on those adorable faces is what makes the effort worth it.
The protagonist of Pipikin Games' new arcade puzzler, Crazy Digger, seems to be able to eat all the gem and dirt he wants, and not gain a pound. Oh well, at least on this side of the screen there's less danger from chomping green things or cascading boulders. A simple and addictive time-waster in the Boulder Dash vein, if one with background music most will quickly mute.
Color Sheep from Trinket Studios is an intense arcade game about a sheep that can change colors and shoot lasers. Wolves have escaped the Wolfcano and are stealing colors from the world. Sir Woolson, the Knight of Light (that's you), can change the color of his fleece to defend against the dark minions. But wolves don't adopt one or two basic shades. Instead, they sport almost two dozen different colors, meaning you got a lotta mixing to do and not a lot of time to do it!
Rise of the Blobs is a colorful, creative, and fruity puzzle matching game from Robot Invader, the studio behind Wind-up Knight. In a world where marshmallows talk and pieces of fruit are weapons, you have the honor of saving the corn syrupy folk in an endless arcade game that isn't afraid to crank up the speed. In a welcome change from the norm, you must manage a three dimensional puzzle board that rotates at the touch of your finger, meaning you won't always be able to see what those pesky blobs are up to!
There's a new robot on the gaming scene! Help Sparkman navigate to the exit portal in this clever puzzle platformer. Use Sparkman's special ability to stop the screen from scrolling allowing you to maneuver through the sides of the screen to reach areas that you wouldn't be able to get to otherwise. Beware hazards and collect discs to get a perfect score in this creative twist of the platforming genre.
The world is crumbling beneath everyone's feet, and there's only one hope for survival: rockets to the moon! In Handy Game's puzzle release Rocket Island, your job is to develop hexagons of land into functional rockets as quickly as you can. Start with the sea, build solid ground, prop up a platform, then make a rocket. All you have to do is keep everyone alive as you frantically swipe between meteors and volcanic eruptions!
Game Balance's series of sliding-puzzles is back with a shiny new coat of sparkles in Orbox C! This installment may be a little heavy on the glitz and techno music, but the intelligent challenges should appeal to fans both new and old.
Everyone remember Boulder Dash? Back in 1984, a little developer called First Star Software released a puzzle game for Atari 8-bit computers that featured a treasure-hungry character named Rockford who spent his time digging through dirt looking for gems the size of himself. Turns out that activity worked out quite well for him, and it worked out well for us players, too, as the game thrived over the decades with a number of sequels and ports to other systems. Now, almost 30 years later, the hunt goes in in Boulder Dash-XL, a re-imagined and updated version of the classic game that has finally made its way to mobile devices. And you know what? It's still a pretty good time!
Our true loves over at The Podge have given one heck of a gift to us: Dibbles 4: A Christmas Crisis. When a Christmas version of an established series is released, it often turns out to be a level-pack except there with more bells on the soundtrack and sprites modified to include floppy red hats. But with new levels, new commands, and new animated ways to kill off your squad of helpers, Dibbles 4 is slightly-sadistic holiday fun for the whole family.
You've played memory before, right? That old chestnut of a game where you turn over cards one by one, trying to match pairs so you can remove them from the board. Well, how about memory mixed with the excitement of an arcade game? Fruitiny is a puzzle/memory game from Totano Corp. centered around this very mechanic, challenging you to turn over tiles, match pairs, and do it all with an increasingly fast rhythm. It's a simple concept illustrated with fantastic flair, and it's just the sort of game you can get hooked on. Plus: delicious pixel fruit!
Help Volty is a gorgeous arcade avoidance game with puzzle elements for your iPad. Work your way through a box of electrifying puzzles to help Volty the beetle escape. You'll need a clear head an fast fingers to get anywhere. Earn coins to progress, and watch out for mechanical monsters who will do anything to stop you!
Dreamy, addictive, easily playable and challenging at the same time, Dawn of Play's gorgeous little iOS arcade puzzler is the sort of thing that can take up all your free time. In two modes of "reverse Tetris" style gameplay, dismantle grids of blocks with the shapes at hand, either as fast as you can to stay ahead of the fall in arcade mode, or carefully and with planning in the deceptively more relaxing puzzle mode.
Everybody loves a parade, especially Sushi Cat! But when Wife Cat gets lost midst the bustling crowd, Sushi Cat knows it won't be easy to find his pink lady love. But he'll find her, even if it means eating all the shari, nori and neta in the county! Sushi Cat 2: The Great Parade is a new set of levels in Joey Betz's popular pachinko arcade game series. While undoubtedly a level pack more than a sequel, the inspired level design and surreal power-ups make it a pack of awesomeness that will leave you :3-ing
The world needs saving and only you, Kumo Lumo, a fluffy smiling cloud, can save it in this innovative mobile arcade puzzle game. Billed by developer, Blitz Games, as a "rain 'em up!" you are tasked with two things—grow up the good, drench out the bad—your only arsenal being a sprinkle of rain and a blast of lightening. It's a simple concept that puts a little sunshine into being a raincloud.
Mmm, delicious eggs. As we've learned from the Angry Birds series, round, legless piggies love nothing more than a good egg. And they'll do anything they can to get their snouts on one! In Rovio's latest physics game Bad Piggies, the tables are turned and you're working to help the pigs get what they want. Instead of slingshots and breakable forts, though, you're building rickety contraptions box by wooden box. It's a little bit of construction, a little bit of action, and a whole lot of crashing. Exactly what you need in a casual mobile game!
A strange name for a strange game, Oh Hi! Octopi! is an arcade/puzzle release from the creator of 1-bit Ninja, kode80. Combining single-screen levels with matching-type gameplay and purposefully obtuse controls, it can be a maddening experience trying to learn to play the game, let alone actually accomplish something. But once you do, it's a great feeling, and you'll finally be able to say a hearty "hi" to those little octopi as you smash them with a hammer.
Sticky Linky is an arcade physics puzzler from Sergey Batishev's Gluey Games! You'll match colors! You'll build wobbly structures! You'll see them crash to the ground after an unfortunate move! No other game is gonna do that! A somewhat generic presentation masks enjoyable gameplay of a surprising depth, which may eat up a half hour of your time without you even realizing it.
It's high octane snake as you slither around 73 levels, trying to keep ahead of the explosions caused by your own combustible body. A help as much as a hindrance, blast through bricks and push blocks with literally explosive force to make your way through progressively more difficult mazes.
Games centered around the sport of basketball seem to be making a comeback, and we're not talking about sports simulations, either. Titles like BasketBelle and Dude Perfect marry new mechanics to the old concept, creating experiences that are about as much like basketball as Homerun in Berzerk Land is like baseball. Now, Solipskier creator Mikengreg has released Gasketball, a physics-heavy mobile arcade game that's all about shooting and scoring baskets under some unusual circumstances. How unusual? Try reverse gravity triggers, teleportation platforms, pinball bumpers, and sawblades!
Your iOS becomes a gateway to arcade addiction in this oh-so-simple but endlessly enjoyable little dungeon-crawling hybrid. Swap tiles to gain treasure, supplies, and battle monsters as you try to keep running for as long as you can, hoping to amass a score large enough that our hero can escape the dirty castle he wakes up in. But with upgrades, achievements, endless enemies and more, why would you ever want to go?
Return to the same environment that started The Podge's addictive puzzle series, but this time with 33 all new problem-solving scenarios. As before, set action stones to command the dibbles and they'll lay down their lives in all manner of ways to ensure the king can safely complete his journey. Packed with puzzle fun, it's perfect for when you just can't get enough dibbles.
So Dibbles 1 wasn't enough for you and Dibbles 2 was too cold? Looking for something hotter to please sense of royal demandingness? Oh, and you want more challenge and new ways to order plucky red dibbles to their sacrificial demise? Then this next installment of the classic lemmings-style arcade game series is everything you command. By setting action blocks just so, in the right place and in the best order, you'll ensure the king is saved from his Desert Despair and you can rest easy knowing it was all for the greater good.
It seems that an ANSI face has gotten a second shot at the big time in Ozzie Mercados Jump Face, a one button puzzle platformer.Jump Face is a delightful skewing of common platform game mechanics, and indeed, it's certain that its unusual character gravity and momentum will frustrate some at first. Those who survive the initial rage-quitting impulse, though, will find a charming little game with some interesting puzzles.
Grab your Photonic Laser Blaster, and get ready to bring a little light to the creatures of the dark in Photon Baby, a genre-busting platformer by Jeremias Babini. Drawing inspiration from all manner of genres, Photon Baby is a unique little creation, with influences as far ranging as Laser Physics puzzles and the 16-bit classic "Zombies Ate My Neighbors". Some of the later levels get a little busy with competing inspirations, but overall Photon Baby is perfect for arcade gamers who wish Halloween lasted all year.
A certain giant nuclear lizard and his fellow monster nemeses have had exclusive raging rights in Japan, but has their reign finally come to an end? Adult Swim along with PikPok Games is contesting the monster mayhem supremacy with an arcade-style puzzle game for Android and iOS called Monsters Ate My Condo. As it heavily parodies the Showa (aka monster) era of movies, you need to appease the behemoths by feeding them condo buildings for super high scores until your apartment tower topples over. Your building may fall and the game will end, but you will keep coming back for more of this frenzied arcade action.
If a snake eats a pellet in the forest, and no one is there to control the joystick, does it still score a point? There's no need to get philosophical with Netgrind's Snakes On A Cartesian Plane, but you do need to put your thinking cap on. Each level puts a twist on the classic snake game, like disappearing traps, weirdly warping walls, and twisted controls. How many points can you rack up?
Jonathan Whiting is here with another wonderfully vague Ludum Dare entry, arcade puzzler, Niña Nueve. Taking place in a nine-by-nine room (or does it?), Niña Nueve leaves it to the player to determine its mechanics, even as they grow ever more complex. Niña Nueve is a short game that will be run through pretty quickly. Still, it is a heck of a ride.
From Munsie Games comes an impressive collection of mobile arcade games packaged together in one robust release: Twitch Arcade! Featuring a dozen games for the price of a single app, Twitch Arcade has everything from avoidance games to puzzle, defense, and shooting games, all playable from a single interface with easy to learn controls. No matter when you buy this tablet-optimized app, you get every new game added in future updates for free. And what better feeling is there than getting tons of games for one tiny price?
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, right? Or, perhaps more accurately, the needs of the upper classes outweigh the needs of the plebs. No matter how you dice the words, the point is it's ok to sacrifice a few little guys so the bigger, more important ones can survive. The mobile port of the browser game Dibbles: For the Greater Good illustrates just that, providing a charming and intelligent Lemmings-like game that just might make you rethink this whole "needs of the many" business.
180 might not offer a lot in the way of innovation, but you'll be hard-pressed to put this casual arcade puzzler for your mobile device down! Match coins in colours to clear space for as long as you can, and tap coins to flip them over and set up big chains. Simple, colourful, and oh so addicting.
The middle of the first decade of the 2000s brought us an extremely well-made one button arcade browser game by the name of Twin Spin. The simple concept spawned two sequels shortly after, and then the series vanished for some time while the developers went on to other projects. Now, thanks to the lovely mobile iOS platform, TwinSpin is back, and it's just as fantastic as it ever was!
Proke, a word game developed by Peter Hastings, is all about vocabulary building... literally! The goal of it is to build a mighty tower to the heavens, and your only tools are quick thinking and linguistic fortitude. While racing the clock, type a word that has the designated prefix or suffix, or for extra height, both. The faster you type, the higher you'll build. Extra points can be scored for typing the letters that appear in Bonus Bubbles, or doing combos of words with same prefix/suffix. Proke is a light kind of game, but it's very addictive.
It's tough to decide between two classics, so FonGeBooN has offered a unique solution: play both at the same time! That's what TETRISweeper is in a nutshell: a unique fusion of the tetromino-sorting gameplay of Tetris and the mine-avoiding tension of Minesweeper. TETRISweeper is an intense game to say the least, but surprisingly fun to fans of both its parent games.
What a world we live in, where mankind can walk on the moon, salad can be purchased in cups, and falling block puzzles can be fused with word games. If you're ready for your brain to have a little run through the multitasking wringer, Puzzlejuice is without a doubt the best way to hurt your synapses. With a little Tetris-like block arranging and a little Spelltower-style word building, you, too, can drive yourself mad with delight!
Frozen Candy, a holiday match-3 puzzle game from Avox Games, looks a heck of a lot like Puzzle Bobble. In fact, if good ol' dinosaur Bub was on ball-firing duty instead of that Brian Poesehn look-alike of an elf, one could be fooled at a glance for thinking it to be a complete clone. Once you start playing, though, the unique feel of the mechanics allow Frozen Candy to shine as it's own creation, making for something that feels both familiar and innovative.
In Dibbles 2: Winter Woes, simply place commands on a field to order the little dibbles to create a path for their king... by killing themselves. Sound gruesome? Shhh. Look at the softly falling snow. All is right with the world. Just repeat "it's for the greater good" until it feels right.
You've got to appreciate those evil overlords who go out of their way to spend that extra buck for solid dungeon construction. Now, if only they didn't leave their door keys lying around, their treasure would be safe from the local green-hooded retro hero contingents. Oh well. Dangerous Dungeons, an arcade platformer developed by Adventure Islands for a month-long game jam, has an old-school style and old-school difficulty to match.
Blocks That Matter, an indie game from Swing Swing Submarine, likes to do things a little bit differently. It likes to break the rules, mix up genres, tear down that fourth wall, and borrow the best from some of the most popular games ever released and turn it into something new. Blocks That Matter is part Tetris, part Minecraft, part Dig Dug, part platformer all wrapped into one, with a cute main character leading the whole thing up that serves as the perfect gateway to a game you won't be able to get enough of.
Arvi Teikari's puzzle platformer about a little space-bot collecting stars jumps out of 2007 and into your browser in this beautifully updated re-release. Sporting a shiny, adorable new style while still embracing the challenging yet relaxing gameplay of its originator, Once in Space is a cool little gem fans of the original will love and newcomers will find a lot to enjoy in.
Owners of iOS devices have been enjoying Mobigame's isometric arcade/puzzle game EDGE for over two years now. The game survived legal battles and multiple removals from the iTunes App Store to win a number of awards for mobile gaming excellence. Now, Mac and PC can come to the party! EDGE has arrived on Steam, carrying with it all the content of the mobile release with updated visuals and a new interface.
Is there a occupation cooler than Vampire Hunter? After seeing the exploits of Van Helsing, Buffy, Blade, Alucard and D, I'd be surprised if high-schoolers don't flock around the recruiting table at the yearly career day. However, not all of us have time for the years of intensive training that is required to spot vampires on sight. Thankfully, the University of Winconsin's Center for Game Science has developed an online training program that will focus your Vampire Vision through a combination of arcade puzzling and hidden object spotting... and it just might improve your regular vision too.
In Soul Tax, a new possession puzzle platformer from Jarod Long, the story centers on these two facts of... death. See, you're a ghost who's been haunting this extremely complex office complex, and one day the grim reaper shows up and lets you know that you owe tax on all the time you spent being an ethereal spirit. And how are you going to pay these taxes? Easy. Defenestration and pixellated murder.
We get you. You're too cool for regular platformers, right? They're so boring. So easy. Then why don't you bring your swagger on over to this tricky puzzle platformer and help one cool cat reach his goal. Can you make it to the exit? How about while only moving left? Without jumping? Within a time limit? You'll need quick reflexes, a cool head, and a dose of patience to proceed.
Ragdoll Cannon 4 will have you propelling hapless stick-like ragdolls at "HERE" targets across 50 new levels. This physics-based projectile puzzles now features 3 different ragdoll types, including explosive and sticky ragdolls. Clever level design and a stylized approach makes this one a worthy addition to the Ragdoll Cannon series.
Drop is a fine physics-puzzle game with a musical theme that shows a little clever attention to detail can liven up an otherwise ordinary game. Offering both Sandbox and Puzzle modes, the goal of Puzzle mode is to fill all the end pipes with bouncy white projectiles. Draw lines across the screen to maneuver those projectiles around obstacles and to their goal.
Anyone who has ever played the classic PC game Lemmings will recognize the gameplay in Dibbles. In each level, a troop of marching ant-like critters (who I suppose are the eponymous Dibbles) must be ferried to the exit point with as little loss of life as possible, taking special care to spare the life of the chief monarch Dibble. The fun in Dibbles is in breezing through the levels and seeing what other gruesome tasks you can set your Dibbles to executing. All For The Greater Good, of course.
As per usual with Tonypa games the difficulty curve in Regrebluli is pretty steep, but that's about the only complaint there is with this addictive, entertaining game. The one thing we can always count on with Tonypa is a simple idea (plain stark graphics and elementary gameplay) done exceedingly well.
Fame! Romance! Excitement!... none of which are for you. After all, Count Thrashwoode is the hero here, and you're just his lowly assistant. It's up to you to properly organise all the treasure he uncovers during his adventures and then properly equip him for battle in this quirky, unique puzzle game.
Buried in the dirt or sitting in the open pathways are letters or bones, simply run across them (or dig across them) to pick them up. Spell words to earn bones to buy bonuses and to move further in the game. Simple to learn with a lot of vocabulary complexity to be found, Word Up Dog! is casual gameplay that can suck you in and give you hours and hours of enjoyment. This fun, amusing, challenging game of spelling is entertainment for a wide range of ages, from those youngsters who want to improve their mad spellin' skillz to the older folks who enjoy a vocabulary challenge.
This lovely game by inversecoma offers everything we could want in a game, and possibly even that much more. This is an avoidance sidescrolling game that looks simple on the surface, but there's a whole lot more to it that will test your skills, patience and perseverance.
Planets have gone un-drilled for far too long, and Nitrome wants you to answer the call in this colourful, bizarre follow-up to 2010's popular arcade game about weird looking aliens with a passion for property damage. Smash, drill, and blast your way through 24 new levels and wild environments.
Shoot the pearls and save your ammo in this creative twist on the Peggle genre. What starts off as a simple, cheery arcade game gradually ramps up the challenge by introducing new elements to contend with on the playing field that do a lot to both make it stand out and steal your time.
In the original, he met his true love; in the level pack, he had to defend their honeymoon from various tropical mishaps. Now, in Sushi Cat 2, Joey Betz presents another thrilling chapter in this epic romance: rescuing the pink kitty from her diabolical bacon-snarfing puppy kidnapper!
Everyone's favourite sad but earnest little robot is back in a set of time trials. While it might lack a story, the spiritual successor to the original K.O.L.M. definitely does not lack a challenge. Can you complete these tricky platforming levels in under a minute flat? Just don't drag your feet, since failure is rather, uh... explosive.
Pencil Kids' new release in the hybrid puzzle-arcade series is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Players of previous games in the series should be familiar with the premise: a trio of monkeys is sad, and it's up to you to make them "go happy." Use the mouse to click on objects and locations, solve puzzles, shoot stuff etc. Some levels are click-fests in the Hoshi Saga model, others act like mini-escape games, others have a hidden object flavor to them, and still others are action-based. There's quite a bit of variation packed into the game's 16 levels and expansion pack. Let's monkey see what you can monkey do!
Monomaze, by Diffusion Games, is a futuristic arcade puzzler based around a remixing of the game of Dots. Place lines to complete loops and gain points, while gaining extra turns and exploding bombs. A game that cries for a multi-player mode, but is very good by itself.
Help three dollops of ice cream take back winter in this top-down action puzzler from Nitrome. Collect fruit and spit rows of ice cubes and you triumph over monster in forty arcade-style levels. Cute graphics and chirpy music hide some unforgiving difficulty.
Vanilla, jeans, thunderbolts - there have been many variations and 'improvements', but nothing that beats the original. That also goes for many puzzle games and while people are less inclined to meet an old favourite during an adventure game, on their own they hit the sweet spot. That, more or less, summarises my opinion of Bomboozle 2. It might not break new ground or usher in the new era of 'pop the colors' puzzle games, but this take on a classic isn't broken either!
When the hero's gone, what happens to the ones who get left behind? We're talking about the bad guys, of course, the little enemies you usually never think twice about. Nitrome's latest arcade platformer stars Enemy 585, who's not smart enough to figure out how to escape his tiny patrol area even seven years after the hero has beaten the game. As a friendly platform, figure out how to guide Enemy 585 through the levels, avoiding obstacles, and hopefully towards a better life.
Oh, brains. You are as delicious (to zombies) as you are useful (to anyone running from zombies). You're also apparently quite explodable, as evidenced in this colorful cartoon-like physics game BrainSplode!. Created by Rust Red Games, all you've got is a cannon, some highly-useful missiles, and a few mid-air power-ups that help you control things. Oh, and an inexplicable hatred of squishy pink brains.
Blosics 2 Level Pack is a new series of levels and a custom editor for the physics puzzler, Blosics 2. Shoot different-sized balls at various structures made of blocks, causing them to fall down. You have to deal with blocks on and around various stone, rubber and ice surfaces that effect trajectories, as well as exploding blocks and floating balloon blocks.
For some reason, everyone loves collecting things that are smaller than they are. We're not so much interesting in gathering buildings as we are looking at them, but if buildings were pint-sized, you can bet they'd fill our pockets like lint-covered jellybeans. Tasty Planet: Back for Seconds plays on this compulsion and puts you in control of a blob of gray goo that can eat anything smaller than it is. As you can guess, this is a dangerous thing to let loose on the Earth, but give it a time machine and all of the past and future could be in quite a pickle.
Oozy and the Tower of Wulu is a new action adventure and puzzle game from Oddity Games. Oozy is a cute lil' alien mollusk. Oozy has a dream. Oozy wants to slime the whole world. To do this, Oozy needs a magical shard; one currently held at the top floor of the Tower of Wulu. All Oozy needs to do is climb through fifty levels of a top-down maze, sliming baddies, exploding ooze, collecting lime jellies, and battling bosses all the while. Won't you help poor Oozy to realize his vision?
Survive 'n' Risk has you controlling a stickman with your mouse and keyboard as you leap across platforms, avoiding enemies and spikes to earn cash. Increasing the risk on each level earns you more cash, but makes things more difficult. Upgrade your stickman by purchasing various hats, which modify your jumping, floating, and energy abilities.
Following in the footsteps of Bob, it's... King Arthur? Yes, the liberator of Excalibur and avid collector of round tables has his own 'one click' action game. How many click does it take you to finish his adventure? And can you beat the records in the comments?
Color theory, sayeth Wikipedia, is "a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations." Color Theory is a puzzle platformer where you play a color-shifting pixel-man whose hue lets him pass through similarly colored obstacles. Both teach similar lessons: You know that red and green make yellow, green and blue make cyan, and blue and red make magenta, don't you? You should, if you want to master Color Theory.
Ka-Bloom is a colorful, cheery chain-building puzzler from Strongman Games, and also great training for when the floral monstrosities awaken from their millennial slumber.
Sushi Cat: The Honeymoon is essentially a level pack for the original Sushi Cat game. Both titles play the same way, and all you have to do is drop our kitty companion from the top of the screen and try to nom as much sushi as you can on the way down.
In Timemu, you control Timemu, an emu with control of time. Timemu (or "Tim" for short) is just trying to find a home, but must use his powers of temporal self-duplication and navigate several platforming levels to do so.
Alan Probe is back! In the new sequel to the popular surgery simulation game that we all fell in love with back in 2008, the good people at Adult Swim have come up with something gorier, more excessive, and far more satisfying than any of us could have ever hoped for.
While it's missing some bells and whistles (like sound effects, namely bells and whistles), and the name might be a bit of a misnomer (wouldn't true toroid Tetris wrap from bottom to top?), Torus makes use of HTML5, a shiny new programming language that's accessible on more platforms than before. While making a step into the future(!) of gaming, Torus pays homage to a classic with its own unique twist.
Need to shrink a planet? Apply your head to the problem and strap a drill to it. Just mind the local wildlife. In Nitrome's new action/puzzle game Chisel, get ready to tear through terra-firma like you have never done before - unless you are a moleman.
For anyone who loves this type of retro platformer, Super Granny 5 is the game for you. With over 100 levels, the ability to go back and do each level again until you've done it perfectly (and earned one of several trophies), and even a level editor to create your own insane levels, there are hours and hours and hours of fun to be had. Granted, the game appears to be aimed at the younger set, but there's a lot of casual gameplay here that can be enjoyed by anyone.
Cosmicube is one of those 'older games with a new twist' releases that you see every once in a while. The game uses the Unity engine to render a 3-D take on Marble Madness. The marble's track is made of red cubes mounted on a larger black cube. Your goal is to get a marble from its starting point onto the goal by moving your mouse to tilt the playing field. You're aided (and hampered) by an impressive physics simulation that feels very authentic and real, all while listening to a fast-paced soundtrack that fits the action and setting well.
Sure, he may look like a footlocker and have unsettling pink bags under his eyes, but if your dog or cat or other pet should ever fall down a mine shaft leading to a subterranean geothermic engineering project of dubious provenance, Amil is your go-to fellow. Created by Robert Stone, Amil is a gravity-switching platformer with retro stylings and just a scintilla of RPG flavor.
Between the kicking music, the fantastic anime-like visuals and animations, and the sheer fun of watching a round kitty cat power suck sushi make up for a lot. Not the greatest game around, but one of the most entertaining time-wasters imaginable. Surreal, silly mayhem in 15 levels. Just the sort of thing to put a smile on your face and brighten up your day.
Do you hate blocks? Sure you do. Look at them, sitting up there... judging you... laughing at you... not knocked down for points and fun... who do they think they are?! Well, in this snappy physics puzzle game you can give them their comeuppance! Blosics is back with a sequel, and it's bigger and better than ever.
Cover Orange 2 is longer (25 levels, as opposed to 20 in the original), trickier (some levels require very precise placement and timing), and then there's the level editor. Players who've managed to get all the way through can then try to create a level (or levels) of their own, limited only by their imaginations and, of course, the laws of physics. It's nice amid the glut of casual gameplay to be found out there that a designer listens to the gamers and uses that advice to create something even better than the first, even when the first game was pretty cool to begin with.
Go To Hell is a skill- and reflexes-oriented puzzle game by Metasauce, creator of Hex Empire. One part digging game, one part physics playground, the title welds the two elements together into a tightly-structured experience that's as intriguing to play around with as it is to beat.
Rain can be a destructive force, whether it's flash floods decimating crops, acid rain ruining an entire ecosystem, or a light drizzle canceling your afternoon jog. The new physics puzzle game Cover Orange introduces us to a whole new threat: spiky ball rain, which could threaten citrus fruit everywhere.
When explorers are ransacking your ancient ruins, who ya gonna call?!... well, no, not them. You call Guardian Rock, foul tempered smasher of trespassers and the curious hero of this quirky, cute arcade-style puzzler from Torpedo Lab. Slide your way across 48 levels of explorers, spikes, dynamite, and more. Your ancient civilization needs you!
The idea, as always, is simple. Get the red ball (or square) to touch all the flags by drawing physical objects directly onto the screen with your crayon-like cursor. This sequel to Magic Pen features 32 more puzzling levels, all selectable from the moment you start the game, mostly set in various crayon-rendered versions of historical locations. The level designs feel a bit more intricate this time, with more on-screen obstacles and even a few moving contraptions to cope with. There are no major improvements to the formula, but such a childlike, pure idea doesn't need them. This is a heap more Magic Pen for everyone who loved it the first time. Enjoy.
Yoshio Ishii (Nekogames) has just released a sequel to his unique, if no frills, self-cooperative game, Cursor*10. The update, aptly named Cursor*10 2nd Session, offers a whole new set of levels with the premise and objective still the same: You're a cursor in a tower. You have to reach the 16th floor in 10 lives, but your lifespan is rather short. And not only that, all your previous lives are being replayed, in real time, at the same time as you play. You will have to think on your feet and use cunning and puzzle-solving prowess to get through all 16 levels before your lives (and time) run out.
Nitrome creative duo Simon Hunter and Aaron Steed have been very busy being amazing, and Fat Cat is the strange hybrid product of their amazingitude. It wears the face of an exacting bullet-fest such as The Last Canopy or Pararalyzer, but underneath, its heart pumps the blood of a tightly choreographed puzzle game. We've never seen anything quite like it.
Nion is a stylish arcade-style game that incorporates a number of gameplay modes, including puzzle, accuracy, speed, survival, and several combinations of the above. It's built around the simple mechanic of shooting shapes that hover around the top of the screen.
World of Goo is a phenomenally creative physics-based building game where you assemble bits of goo to form structures leading to an exit pipe in each stage. The visuals are stunning, the sense of humor wry, and there are gameplay innovations at every corner.
Jump Jump Jelly Reactor is a matching puzzle game that isn't afraid to try out new ideas. Instead of flat and boring blocks, tiles or even gems, this game fills your screen with lively jellies that can be combined to form larger characters with brand new properties. Gameplay is a unique combination of strategy and puzzle matching that extends a good variety of tasks your way. It's rare that a matching game really catches my eye, but Jump Jump Jelly Reactor provides such a full experience, it's hard to pass up.
Curse you, Kable Monck, and the no-good game you rode in on. Evito Ball. PAH! There's a treacherous name if I ever heard one. Did you realize that it anagrams into A VILE BLOT? This evil little game comes with 80 treacherous levels that will have you climbing the walls before long. Trust me.
Cannons have a unique place in human history. Throughout the ages, they have served as an offensive weapon to knock down fortifications, an accentuation in pieces of classical music, and a rudimentary yet entertaining transport for clowns. Continuing in this rich tradition, let's launch stickmen at bricks to dignified tunes!
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!
Magic Pen is a physics-based puzzle playground created by Alejandro Guillen (Spin the Black Circle). It's easy to see the design, from visual style to overall concept, was taken from Crayon Physics, but because Magic Pen was done in Flash, it's much more accessible. Using the mouse, simply draw shapes to create bridges and guide the red ball to the flag. Making shapes and dropping them from the sky will set the ball in motion, and you can also craft structures with hinges (both fixed and movable) for more complex maneuvers.
Cursor*10 is a simple-looking puzzle game just released by Nekogames. You are a cursor in a tower trying to reach the top. Each of your ten lives is time-limited, and when one ends the next begins on the bottom floor. But you're not alone. As you start the next life your previous actions are replayed in real-time, creating a fun "cooperate with yourself" atmosphere.
The aptly named Absolute Awesome Ball Game is truly awesome because it manages to capture the thrill of discovery that we look for from pinball games and delivers that in an addictive, unique and appealing package. The game requires a bit of patience and perseverance before seeing any visible progress, but those that stick with it are in for a very pleasant and enjoyable ride.
We here at Casual Gameplay have been fans of the work Yoshio Ishii has been doing in Shockwave and Flash for several years now. He may be best known for his Neko series of games (neko means "cat" in Japanese), though he has also created some of the best Panzo games as well. His latest effort is this beautiful and delightful game that will give your brain some stimulation as you play.
This Flash remake of Taito Corp.'s now classic Puzzle Bobble (called Bust-a-Move in the US) looks and plays just like the original. Use the arrow keys to aim, and press the space bar to shoot. It's just that simple to play. The music is a bit repetitive, but otherwise the game plays great.
This Mr. Driller clone, created in Flash by Max K., is a decent version of the original game by Namco. Driller uses the arrow keys for movement, and the space bar for drilling. The object is to drill down through the blocks as far as you can without running out of air, or getting crushed. The level of difficulty determines how many rows of blocks y...
This pair of Flash games, hosted on Nobelprize.org, teaches you about the physics of liquid crystals while playing.
Crystallite is an action puzzle game, similar to Tetris, where you position the falling blocks by rotating them before fitting them in their place. Use the right and left arrow keys to position the blocks, and the up and down arrows ...
The 1982 classic arcade game of Q*bert, re-created in Shockwave for online play over the Web. The object of the game is to move your Q*bert around the play field, hopping onto each square to turn it to the target color shown. While the default keys to use for movement are U, K, H, and M, the game does allow you to change them to suit your preferenc...