You know what are always enjoyable? RC Tanks, especially ones that you can use to fire things at your least-favorite sibling. It took Emitter Critter to realize how this universal archetype of fun might translate well to flash form, and the result is the new top-down shooter, Awesome Tanks. It's nothing too complicated: Shoot stuff. Get coins. Buy upgrades. But when so many arena games are drenched with gore or zombie blood (not that there's anything wrong with that!), it's always cool to see polished genre works that are "kid-friendly" without feeling too "kiddy". Awesome Tanks' fifteen levels have the combination of frenetic action and colorful explosions that all ages should enjoy.

Danger Dungeon is a fun little exploration-based action RPG from InsaneHero. There's a huge world to explore, with some cool pre-rendered 3D graphics to look at and a ton of ways to customize your character to your play-style. Some aspects feel a little rushed: particularly noticeable is how your CPU allies have the kind of AI that flits back and forth between "useless" and "suicidal". Overall, though, it makes for a fun love letter to old-school dungeon crawlers and should satisfy anyone looking for a little fantasy action during their coffee break

Zombies Ate My Phone, a Phones4U advergame developed by Koko Games, isn't the first top-down zombie action shooter we've ever featured on JIG. It's probably not even the first top-down zombie action shooter we've featured that's set in a mall. However, it is, in all probability, the first top-down zombie action shooter wherein you can chuck vintage LPs at a mummy. And you know what? Sometimes that's enough.

Ahoy ye barnacle-blistered land-lubbers, and welcome about the JayIsGames galleon! Today we be featurin' Frantic Frigates, a top-down action shooter from Berzerk Studio. Thar be rumors of sharks, pirates, and alien ghosts swarming the seas, and they've been leaving folk mighty groggy. Only ye and yer motley crew of constantly firin' cannon firers even stand hope to make the waters still. Those looking for a treasure chest of frenzied fun will find it here, I swear by my tattoo.

You start off on ice, which is rather natural for penguins, but soon enough you'll be sending your rampaging army into the jungle and beyond. This is a game where turtles are evil. And can hide under the ground sometimes. And also carry military-grade weapons on the backs of their shells. Look, turtles bad, penguins good, alright? You've got to upgrade la resistance manchot if you're going to stand a chance. Say by hacking off the beak and replacing it with a zombie beak.

A couple of months ago, we featured Insectonator by Denis Kukushkin and family. I thought i thought it was a fine shooter, and going by the site ratings, it seems that many of you agreed. However, I did have a small problem with it: as fun as it was to blast various anthropods into lymphatic chunks, the whole thing did seem just a shade sadistic. I mean, most of those beetles were just minding their own business. If only the developers came out with a version that featured enemies for which the average gamer had no compunctions eviscerating... something like, oh, I don't know, the stalking legions of the undead. Well, guess what, Insectonator: Zombie Mode is here, and with it comes new weapons, new arenas and new achievements. And zombies. Tiny, tiny zombies.

Roadkill Revenge is a top-down action puzzler where you control a rocket-powered vehicle with the intent of causing a chain reaction of destruction across 45 traffic-filled levels. Accomplish tasks ranging from blowing up specific buildings or vehicles, or causing a certain dollar amount of damage.

Bugs and I have an uneasy friendship. On the one hand I can appreciate the beauty of creation in their skeletons, the elegance of their societies, and the important role they play in our ecosystem. On the other hand, should one drop down the back of my shirt, talks are going to break down pretty quickly. It is to the latter part of my psyche that Insectonator, the new shooter from SonarGames, is aimed. It might not be too nice to all things great and small, but if you have a hankerin' for some arthropod blastin', it'll be sure to catch you in its web.

Not Your War is a classic-style vertical shooter that feels like Robotron or Smash TV. Use the mouse and keyboard to control your small craft as you survive through 11 levels, taking on waves of enemy drones, fighters, and ships. Upgrade your ship and take down the Rhean forces in this challenging arcade title.

Notebook Wars 2 returns you to the world of sketch-drawn ships and fighters in an epic vertical shooter by Francisco Ferreres and Dream Forge. Control one of ten hand-drawn ships across 13 levels that look like something out of a teenager's sketchbook. Blow away the bad guys to earn cash to upgrade your craft and fly to victory.

First impressions count for a lot. In the case of Soul Redeemer, the new top down zombie action shooter by the Bekho Team, it introduces itself with a plot-explaining narration that cracked me up, though I don't think it was supposed to. Still, whenever a game starts by expounding on how, every couple centuries or so, the alignment of constellations somehow release demonic forces to eat our souls, and the only thing standing in their way is a warrior dude in asymmetrical armor shooting stuff... I'm going to stay around. And I'm glad I did! While Soul Redeemer is not the most original of games, it has a charm to it that fans of the genre should enjoy.

Never in history has one man worked so hard to collect so many that cared so little as to follow him properly. But that is just all part of the challenge in this noteworthy CGDC 9 entry. Zip through the colourful levels trying to gather enough friends to proceed, while trying to keep your massive human chain from blundering into dangerous obstacles.

Bubble Tanks 3 takes the series to new heights by combining the best of the Bubble Tanks core gameplay with the customizing features from Bubble Tanks Arenas. The result is a solid sequel to a very popular Flash game series that's a lot of fun to play. The campaign is solid, the user-created tanks keep things fresh and the enemy editor is a ton of fun and will keep this version of the game living for a long time to come.

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.

The pixel world inside your computer needs your help in this top-down retro shooter from Irsperanza. Customize your tank and weapons as you mow down wave after wave of enemies. If you might enjoy enjoy skulking around an arena, dodging bullets, seeking out waves of baddies, and upgrading a puny starter tank into a mighty juggernaut, Shoot Pixels will make for some high quality low-rez action.

The last thing you remember, you were just another tourist enjoying a visit to a rather unique museum. Now you find yourself stranded fifty levels below the surface, bristling with memory, and no clue how you got there. Fight your way back up in this top-down horror shooter, but be careful; the walls have eyes... and teeth.

BigTree TopGun is a top-down shooter that employs the familiar "rotating turret" mechanic; enemy bugs enter the playing field from all angles, while each level the amount of enemy waves increases. The onslaught consists of a diverse array of evil little buggers that fly in erratic, difficult-to-hit patterns and possess innate abilities that make them immune to certain types of attack.

Notebook Wars is a top-down, vertical scrolling shoot-em-up with personality and charm. It starts out a little slow, but it's not long before it picks up the challenge. And while the art style may be the main attraction here, the relaxed and casual shoot-em-up gameplay paired with lots of upgrades to outfit your ship with together make this little shooter shine. If you're looking for a nice and enjoyable, cool looking side-scrolling shoot-em-up, it'd be hard to go wrong with Notebook Wars.

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?

The fictional land of Pixela-RT witnessed years of prosperity. Now, a dark portal spews forth endless waves of Space Invaders inspired monsters intent on destroying all that is good and pixely. Luckily, volunteers from across the land take to the sky in small white spaceships to fend off the menace. Endless waves of enemies face down your small white ship on an apocalyptic top-down battlefield in this arena shooter from Epic Shadow.

Join the fight against an evil space corporation in this top-down space action game, where your ship is armed to the teeth with weapons, shields, and other goodies to blast away at everything that shoots back. And it's in space!

Trafalgar Origins is a top-down naval combat game commissioned by Channel 4 and created to promote their upcoming television show. It plays similarly to Sid Meier's Pirates, is mission-based, and is an entertaining and educational peek at the age of sail, and one that will take you many hours to beat with quite a bit of replay potential.

Got mech? Time to suit up in Mechanical Commando 2, a fast and frantic top-down shooter from Berzerk Studio featuring lots of enemies, lots of bosses, lots of missions, and lots and lots of bullets. With achievements and upgrades galore, it's enough to satisfy the trigger happy space marine inside all of us.

Hostile Spawn is a top-down arcade shooter similar to Robokill in design. Move through a sci-fi setting grabbing weapons and taking out aliens with your mad skills. Although it's similar to other games in the genre, Hostile Spawn has a strong emphasis on exploration, carving itself a nice cozy niche amongst its brothers.

In the mood for a seriously intense turn-based strategy game? Solium Infernum is about as non-casual as you can get, featuring no in-game tutorial and a 30+ page instruction manual. But it rewards players with superb open-ended gameplay that has as many paths to victory as you can conjure.

Strap on your lasers in this sequel to 2008's Robokill as you're forced to make an emergency landing aboard a suspiciously silent space station. Shoot down waves of enemies, buy upgrades, and above all else, stay alive as you delve deeper into the mystery. If Holmes had death robots at his disposal, he totally would have used them instead of Watson.

Starcom is a top-down space shooter and strategy game, with subtle RPG elements like a well-paced story progression and "missions." You are stationed aboard a Galactic Command Starbase (space station), playing the role of a space fighter pilot with a starting mission of fending off alien attacks. Starcom really shines, revealing story elements at just the right moments while incorporating it all into the gameplay progression.

Swarm Gold is an update to, and replacement for, the original Swarm created by Reflexive Entertainment back in 1998. The new Swarm Gold features an impressive emulated 3D graphics system and realistic sound. You have free range to fly around the entire map just as we've seen in many modern top-down shooters.

Play as a weakly little microorganism in a big world (a Petri dish?) filled with other microbes and bacteria, and it's survival of the fittest in there. This is Darwinian fighting style at its most primeval. Binding to proteins, self-replication through division and eating other microbes... these are your signature moves.

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.

In Larva Mortus, you play a 19th Century ghost hunter (or rather, an "agent of exorcism"). Plow through monsters and demons with your trusty broadsword and an assortment of weapons, such as shotguns and flame throwers, to rid the land of supernatural evil forces.

Nonoba, a Flash game community headed by game creators and developers, hopes to ride the incoming wave of multiplayer Flash games by making its own multiplayer game API available to Flash game developers. One of the more popular games showcasing this new technology is Nonoba Racer, a multiplayer, top-down racing game that focuses heavily on community play and advancement via upgrades.

Robokill is an extremely well-polished shooter game that's as fun to play as it is easy to learn. You play the role of a mercenary robot hired to investigate and eradicate the hostile forces that have taken over Titan Prime, a space station orbiting Mars. On the order of Crimsonland, and if you've never heard of Crimsonland or the RIP series (top-down [WASD] shooters), you're in for a treat.

Bubble Tanks is a hypnotic and relaxing shooter if ever there was one. Man your bubble ship on an excursion through a vast bubble field seeking out hostiles to assimilate. The more bubbles you collect, the larger your ship and the greater your weapon become. But as you grow so do the enemies that you will find around you. It addictive and relaxing, a dangerous combination.

Borrowing a page from the book of Ikaruga, the absurdly talented developers of Stimunation Games have just released this stunning Flash shooter that will make your jaw drop and your eyes water from ogling the screen for hours.