Breaking Banks can be nice, and Escaping from Prison can be satisfying, but diamonds are a stickman's best friend. And, wouldn't ya know it, the Tunisian Diamond is on display at Stickville Museum. It's night, so the usual rabble has gone home. So it's just a couple of guards standing in your way. With all your technology on-hand, they should prove no problem... Right? Ha. Ha. WRONG! Puffballs is back with Stealing the Diamond. And remember, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

Maybe I'm expecting crime syndicates to have a unreasonable level of precognition, but I gotta say... I really can't see a situation in which killing the family of a guy named Mr. Vengeance is going to end positively. I mean, you have to think that with that name might get a little ticked off and have access to revenge-friendly weaponry. But hey, you have to kick off a rail shooter somehow, and you can't argue with what works. It's Mr. Vengeance: Act One by Russian developer TxGames. He'll roar. He'll rampage. He'll get bloody satisfaction.

Way back in 2003, XGenStudios released the first version of Stick RPG. A semi-remix of the flash dating sims that were gaining popularity, it focused on humor and role-playing elements rather than scantily clad anime girls. Whatever its inspirations, the tale of a Stickman trying to make it in an unfamiliar world was quite fun and quite well-received. And so fans eagerly waited for a promised updated sequel. And waited. And waited. And years later, Stick RPG 2, a huge open-world RPG, has finally been released. Was SRPG2 worth the wait until "when it was ready"? Unambiguously, yes.

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.

Arijigora is a point-and-click puzzle game from Japan starring stick figures against a diabolical biological creature. Click on the right items, and with the right timing, to save the stickman race from the threat to its existence. If you're familiar with the Hapland series, then you'll feel right at home with this new game from author Hozo, who even gives a nod to Rob Allen's original as the inspiration behind this one.

The Hapland-meister strikes again with a wacky new puzzle game. Use your point-and-clicking skills to figure out what needs to be done (and when!) to reach a solution to this odd and very ...purple puzzle. I'm particularly loving the soundtrack.

In Ragdoll Invaders, the falling spikes are replaced with lasers and explosives, but lo and behold, your floppy ragdoll stickman is replaced with... another floppy ragdoll stickman. But wait, there's more! His arms, unlike the other stickman, have been replaced with DUAL CHAIN GUNS. Which have unlimited ammunition. This pretty much makes any game flipping hardcore.

The third and final chapter in the Hapland series and this one is arguably the best of the bunch. Not only is the game visually stunning, it is also just about the right size and difficulty to enjoy by oneself. A genre defining series from a very talented young artist. It doesn't get any better than this.

Filed under the Hapland/Puzzleland/Industrial Place Thingy category, Odubang 2 is an online point-and-click adventure game where timing and precision cursor clicks are your key to survival. Guide a spastic stick figure through an MS Paint world of red soil and gigantic green boulders. It's a short but entertaining game.

It seems our hero's balloon has been shot down by the paperclip factory's anti-aircraft artillery, and it's your job to find a way back home. That is the opening sequence that drops you into Industry 2, the sequel to last year's Industrial Place Thingy. Like the first game, this one follows the same point-and-click stick-figure formula popularized by Rob Allen's seminal work with the Hapland series of games.

You might know XGen Studios as the makers of Fishy, Motherload, Stick RPG and Defend Your Castle. Well, they have created another excellent Flash game, only this time it is a top-down shooter and features over-the-top multiplayer melee action in any browser. In Stick Arena, you take the role of a stick figure aiming to kill everyone else in sight to elevate yourself within the ranks.

Escape from Rhetundo Island is a little bit point-and-click, a little bit Lemmings, and a little bit Hapland all rolled into one. It strings together a sequence of individual screens, or vignettes, through which you must safely navigate the stick-figure protagonist, Johnny Tag. Another amazing game from Rob Allen.

Voted Best of 2005 by the visitors of Jayisgames, Hapland 2 is less a continuation of the original as it is the same game with all-new puzzles: The objective is once again to open the stone portal and unleash the power within. And while that doesn't exactly give any clue as to what to do, it does at least provide a goal to work towards. Thanks to its popularity, there is now a Hapland 3!

I broke down and bought a PSP over the weekend so I could play Lumines. And now, that is all I can think about. The game is brilliant, loads of fun, and the music is infectious. In fact, I have to post this game quick because the battery on the...

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!

This classic fighter has been around for a couple of years, and yet it is still one of the best Flash fighters I've seen. Stick figures are the characters in the XiaoXiao series of games, and there are plenty of them to challenge you in XiaoXiao 9: Fight Man.

An odd and addictive little game of violence against stick figures intent on invading your castle. From what I can glean, the gameplay has some depth by allowing you to purchase additional units and upgrades between levels.