Strategists and fans of collectible card games alike are bound to enjoy Highgrounds. Featuring both a single-player and PvP matches, the latter of which takes full advantage of its turn-based nature and allows for asynchronous play like you might see in Words with Friends or similar games. Unlike many games that employ a similar model, microtransactions don't spoil the fun. Instead, players who try the game and like what they see have the option of paying for more without being forced to break out their wallets in order to enjoy themselves.

Vested Interest's mouse-driven puzzle game starts out simple but quickly gets... weird. Your job is to align squares and figure out patterns before completing them, but the deeper into the game you go, the more you'll realise this game is far more clever than it seems at first blush... meow!

Our pink, be-bowed alien's giant eye is too sensitive for earth, so the only option she has, naturally, is to steal the eyesight of the people around her, which warps reality to their perceptions! It sounds morbid, but this sequel to the original unique puzzle platformer is actually both cute and clever, with more intriguing environments to explore even if the gameplay hasn't changed.

The colours, THE COLOURS! FunByJohn delivers a bouncy, riotous arena shooter about blasting other tanks with blobs of deadly colour across a variety of fun-house landscapes. Chaotic and charming, though not without its sticking points, its a vibrant way to blow up a coffee break.

Let's face it. We've all been there, and being the new kid sucks. Help the new kid navigate through the school day in this short and sweet point-and-click adventure game. With a little help from you, the new kid will have no problem facing down school yard bullies and embarrassing jackets.

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.

A room where the surroundings are so lush and comfy looking that in real life you'd be kicking back and enjoying living the good life. And Sienna Room has some pretty fun puzzles to distract us with during our stay. So, kick back and enjoy the zen calm of one of Tomatea's early room escape efforts in Sienna Room, a place so comfy looking you might never want to actually leave.

Wouldn't it be weird if you looked into a mirror and saw things that weren't in your world? That's the stuff of noitcelfeR 2, a cool puzzle platformer by Wix Games, where some obstacles can only be seen in the reflection beneath you. It's a simple but high concept, and though a little taxing on the CPU, it's done quite well.

It's kill or be killed in this turn-based strategy game. Create a team of top-notch soldiers to fight for your side. Study each unit's stats to choose the most efficient way to take out your enemy. Battle in several different pixel-y landscapes against various monsters until you come out on top!

Inner Vision, a flixel visual novel, from debuting developer Sunil Rao, tackles one of the most important subjects, and one of the most difficult to do justice: suicide. Based on the author's own experiences with depression, Inner Vision presents you with three individuals contemplating killing themselves, and asks you to talk with them. It's a game that's not at all subtle about its message, but it's one many deserve to hear: "You are not alone."

Here you go again—locked inside a barely furnished room and there's no door key within sight. And what's with all these disfunctional buttons? Point and click your way around, interacting with and examining objects until you discover the method behind the elements here and can secure your freedom. UnReal presents a different type of escape game puzzle that's just as refreshing as it is frustrating.

Do you think the other bad guys complain about you? It seems unfair that they have to just stand around and let you kill them, even ignoring the whole magic bouncing bullet thing. Lock and load for a whole new batch of levels for Mibix's simple but stylish physics projectile puzzler!

Infrarift Entertainment presents Shijid: Shadow of the Warrior, an arena RPG about a ninja completing the final stage of his training, in preparation of facing the warlord who killed his father. From 2005, the limitations of the then-current Flash engine take a little getting re-used to. However, as a browser RPG, its battles and gameplay were ahead of its time, and yet the limitations of the engines gives the game a charming retro quality.

The zombie apocalypse is hard on everyone, and paddling down a dank bayou isn't anyone's idea of a good time... unless you're playing the latest chapter in Hyptosis's choose-your-own-adventure series. With all the blood and profanity you've come to expect, if you enjoy this particular brand of interactive fiction and don't mind some unforeseeable deaths, make time in your coffee break to take a leisurely paddle down the water.

All you have to do is click, so how hard could it be? Koutack is a gorgeously simple little puzzler where you're trying to combine all the squares on the field into a single stack by clicking between adjacent ones until all of them are nested cozily on top of one another. Easy? Not quite. Lovely and relaxing? Abso-tootly.

And now here they are! The most daredevil group of daffy drivers ever to whirl their wheels, ready to compete for fame and fortune in the championship of Renegade Racing! A side-scrolling stunt racing game by Paul Gene Thompson, Renegade Racing is one wacky road rally you won't soon forget. It's a little derivative of the Cyclomaniacs series, but still a heck of a lot of fun.

When a storm lands an airship sailor on a strange island and his friend isn't there when he regains consciousness, finding a way home is going to be even more difficult than you might already think since the residents of this place are more than a little... weird. A short but beautifully surreal point-and-click adventure with a case of odd logic but tons of personality.

Moonloop's gleefully goofy retro shooter signs you up to become part of a counter-terror squad off to stop a mad scientist. Rescue hostages and blast baddies the only fashioned way by simply charging in guns blazing, or go the strategic route and make use of cover, flashbangs, ropes, and more to get the drop on your enemies and save the day as smoothly as possible.

Robamimi takes you on a wonderful ride from beginning to end during this aesthetically gorgeous escape-the-room game in the tradition of Hermit Rabi and Wonder Fountain. Just follow a changing cursor to gather tools and solve puzzles until you open the door: only to learn there's more to explore! The hexagonal room designs mean extra footwork in your efforts to make sense of clues, yet the reward is well worth the experience.

Kung Fu paradise's little brainchild, Tsuregemu 4, drops you in the three-room house of an animated white stick figure named Shirojin; his only housemate is his cat. Obviously, your task is to escape from the house by any means necessary, even if you have to solve a hundred puzzles to do it. The drill should be familiar by now: click around to inspect and interact with things and pick up inventory items, and use or examine things from your golden inventory bar at the bottom. Tsuregemu 4 won't be winning any awards with their 3D graphics, but you can tell what you're looking at most if not all of the time. The game's true meat, however, is its puzzles, which are original and cleverly designed without being too nonsensical, and many of them require interacting with Shirojin and his cat in various ways.

There are two circles in front of you: Circle A and Circle B. One of them has a certain quality. And the question you must answer, in this puzzle game by Yoshio Ishi, is simple: Which? Figuring out the challenges will depend less on logic, and more on playful experimentation to determine what the developer had in mind. This can be occasionally frustrating, but all of the levels are quite clever, making for a quality five minutes of fun.

Coming out of your shell can be hard, so wouldn't it be nice if everyone looked the same? After all, we'd all be happy then, wouldn't we? Talha Kaya delivers a personal puzzle-platformer mixed with an art game to tell the story of a guy, a girl, and figuring out who you are and what matters most is action.

They say the grass is greener on the other side, and one sad, little rabbit knows that better than anyone else. After failing to make his way into paradise, he's dropped into the surreal world of A Rabbit's Tale, a point-and-click adventure by Antennaria Games. Interact with a cast of bizarre, comical creatures and solve your way through puzzles and challenges in order to help our hero overcome defeat and find his true love.

Ready for a challenge? When you accidentally activate a mysterious dark prism that begins warping the land around you, you have to track down each piece and deactivate it. Easier said than done since the prism's influence has sent out shifting pools of blackness that turns friendly flora, fauna, and even the land itself deadly. A challenging, stylish platformer from Connor Ullmann and Noel Berry.

Don't get too close to these teddy bears... they're less about being cuddly-wuddly and more about wreaking bloody vengeance. Lead, outfit and train a squad of lethal furry killing machines in team deathmatches in order to get revenge for the sacking of your village. A fun if frantic and more than a little chaotic action-packed platforming experience.

Sterile laboratory setting. Series of dangerous test chambers. Generic Omnipresent Voice running the show. Oh, and a syrup that can bring you back to life. With clever level design and overseer dialogue that captures just the right mix of humor and menace, Revive, a puzzle platformer by JonBro, is perfect for players looking for that sweet spot of simple concept and challenging gameplay.

When a defense game gets almost everything right, kiss your productivity goodbye! In Dreamgate Company's gorgeous title, you're building a towering mechanical structure and staffing it with upgradeable weapons like miniguns, tesla cannons, and saws in order to stave off waves of enemies. With smart design and sneakily casual gameplay that will bring you back for more, it's a highly polished and engaging little strategy game that's perfect for passing time.

Under the sea! Under the sea! Darling it's better down where it's wetter take it from me! Eat a lot of little fish, without being turned into a tasty dish, chomp all the small ones, flee from the big'uns, under the sea!

Vertical shooter meets RPG? It's not as far-fetched as you'd think! Framed for a crime he didn't commit (not that he wasn't planning to) Josh the thief finds himself swept up in a battle for a magical gem and forced to gather a group of unlikely allies in this unique hybrid from IriySoft.

It ain't easy bein' green, especially when you're a lone frog in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and all you have to eat are mutant flies who want to take a bite out of you too. Monzazart serves up a familiar but quirkily-themed little physics puzzle where you'll use a truly remarkable tongue to climb, swing, pull, and lift your way through levels and hazards.

No matter where you are, it's always TomaTea time—time to settle back in your lounge chair, dip your feet in a cool blue pool and gaze up the halcyon sky to escape from whatever stresses might be bringing you down. Point-and-click around, gathering tile pieces, helpful objects and clues to solve puzzles until you find the exit key. It's the perfect blend of thinking and relaxation as you encounter the familiar puzzles and pleasant atmospheres for which TomaTea can always be relied on.

As silent and weird as a Detarou can be, there is also much puzzle love to be found inside any escape-the-room game from this developer. Umiga is no exception: the puzzles massage your grey matter while surreal and oddball humor keeps a grin on your face. You'll need to do some extra footwork and thinking to put together clues, but it's always the right amount of difficulty to be exceedingly fun.

Broom attack! Also, you might be trapped in a dream. Or some other sort of subconscious realm. It's tough to tell, but judging from the strange sights and the cryptic "as legend has foretold" messages from sages and statues, there's definitely something odd going on here. Anodyne from Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka is an adventure through a melancholy world that plays out like a classic 16-bit RPG. It borrows some of the best micro-concepts from games like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Yume Nikki, and even Earthbound, creating a world that's as innocent as it is moving and as dangerous as it is surreal.

I told you! I told you not to trust clowns! And now the kingdom is in peril AGAIN because one seriously creepy jester has kidnapped the royal family! In this simple but gorgeously made realtime strategy game, you'll travel across the land besting and recruiting a roster of heroes with unique abilities to defeat your foes in defensive combat and eventually bring peace to the kingdom once more.

Grab your grandfather clock and go back to the future with Adam, a short puzzle platformer made in just 48 hours. In order to charge up your time machine, you've got to place your clock in the heat zones to gather energy. But with every time you make a collection, time resets, and you've got to dodge your previous self in order to avoid a chronological conundrum!

Full of questions about who he is and how he came to be, the little who knows a few things already: the world is dangerous, so move blocks to mitigate that danger and use the [arrow] keys to move around it. The world is also lonely, until the moment he meets "her" and, together, they make their way toward the light, seeking answers in this atmospheric puzzle platform game with as much emphasis on story as on the puzzles it contains.

A great calamity is approaching, and you're the only one who can stop it. Unfortunately, you're a sentient stone idol who can do little more than use your patience and timelessness to let the world and time pass around you, watching the landscape change with time and the seasons (or your own actions) until a solution presents itself. Scriptwelder delivers a slow but beautiful bit of interactive art married with clever puzzling for a zen-like experience.

Pull up a seat beneath the Japanese quilted Kotatsu and enjoy this delightful little gem based on the traditional heated table frame. If there is any downside it is the lack of a changing cursor which might lead to some minor pixel hunting, a small complaint considering the entertainment this little gem brings. Sit down, power up, and let the warmth of Kotatsu Escape sooth away the stressful day.

Happy birthday to you, haaa-ppy birthday tooo you! Well, it's somebody's birthday here in LiberTechno's festively decorated escape-the-room game, and this somebody thinks it's great fun to rig up the room with an abundance of challenging puzzles. This equals a hefty amount of content while the large banquet table in the center of the room will also challenge your navigational skills, which is especially happy for anyone who'd much rather sleuth his or her way through clues than fill up on frosting-laden cake.

Strange things are happening in the town of Vortex Point, and a pair of ghostly burglaries are just the start of it. Head up a paranormal investigation in this fun and freak point-and-click adventure from Carmel Games. Don't worry if you don't feel like you have the brains to tackle it. This one features two just laying around.

Can you handle the demand for split-second timing and reflexes while constantly being vaporized? If so, this challenging yet simple little stylish platformer is calling out for you to conquer it as you run, leap, and dodge across a cityscape full of hazards and portals.

You are Edwin, an ordinary kid, ready to beat your favorite game "The Legend of Hooligan" when, before you know it, you're lying unconscious on your bedroom floor. Paying homage to and parodying your favorite RPGs of old, this point-and-click adventure is a deep pool of satisfaction for those who love racking up awards for every success as well as failure, who delight in discovering the many ways to kill—or die—in an oozing, bloody chaos of body parts. It's not a game for everyone: painstakingly precise timing and the patience to restart after multiple deaths is requisite. While it's surprisingly short, Elf story overflows with engaging graphics, narration and action.

Remember when? Nicolas Cannesse's short action-adventure/interactive art piece will have you asking yourself that as you go on a journey through the evolution of games. Made in just 48 hours for Ludum Dare, it'll remind you that there was a time when polygons didn't exist, save points were a myth, and just how far we've come over all.

Many people have issues with their childhood, but Adam doesn't even remember his deceased parents. Now a thirteen floor apartment building slowly reveals the horrors of his past in Tempa Labs' point-and-click adventure game, Traumata. Puzzle your way through each of the floors as you avoid an evil, lurking presence. What awaits you on Floor 13?

Underneath that rainbow of squares lies demons galore! Cool demons, though! Mamano Digger is a simple idea puzzler by Hojokama Games that makes the SameGame formula feel a little different. A minimalist gaming experience that probably won't have much replay value once you've beaten it, but you probably won't be able to stop playing until you do.

Quick, the patient needs a heart transplant, and a doctor! Too bad all they have is you in this hysterical, gory, and very challenging simulation where you control each finger of your hand individually as you attempt to perform life-saving surgery... without dropping a bonesaw into his chest cavity!

There's nothing unfamiliar about the setup of Find the Escape-Men 49: In a Hut. Since this is a Find the Escape-Men game, you have to find 10 green men before you can pull off your great escape. However, it shouldn't take long to realize that something is a little... off... about our protagonist. I feel we could feature more work from No1Game, since what they do, they do well. Their puzzles are original and logical yet not too frustrating, there's no tear-your-hair-out pixel-hunting, and there's just the right amount of whimsy holding it all together.

This third installment of Mike Morin's surreally noir point-and-click adventure, continues to chronicle Rick plight to save his wife, Lily. Taking a turn that is strange dream slash time melding, Rick feels like someone's playing a cruel game with him. Propel him further through the story and solve a series of puzzles to unlock the final door to find a new destiny...or another beginning?

This sub mission was a fiasco from the start, but if you could have said no to your Nazi commanders you wouldn't be spending December 1941 in the depths of the Atlantic. And there are... things out there. Subbania is a metroidvania-style action-adventure by ektomarch, where cosmic horrors lurk in the depths. Quite unsettling and atmospheric, if a little stingy on save points.

Hexaganator is a soothing point-and-click puzzler from Char Studio that's perfect for those brief snatches of free-time that present themselves throughout the day. Just click and drag your hexagons to their proper slots so that the colors match to create a perfect pathway to harness the power that is the hexagon. Get them all in the proper order on the first try to receive all three stars at level's end.

Spin had a girlfriend, but he fell down a hole! What else do you need to know? Spin Spin: Chapter 1 and Spin Spin: Chapter 2 are a pair of puzzle platformers by Chris Hughes that take the simple ideas of world-spinning and spike-avoiding, strip them down to its minimalist essence, and the result is truly something special. Presentation is a little no-frills, but these are very cleverly designed games.

Ready, set, fold! In this simple to learn origami puzzle game, your folding skills will be tested like never before. Enjoy a relaxing atmosphere as you try to create various shapes with your paper with a limited number of moves. Origami has never been so much fun!

Polymer Rabbit kicks it up a notch with the next entry in their top-down shooters with Frantic 3. More levels, more bullets (and let's not forget bigger bullets too)... they're just gonna throw everything they can at you. But you can take it cause you're a lean, mean, projectile-avoiding, shooting machine. Seriously, your ship's set to auto-fire. At least that's one less thing to worry about as you weave your way through 15 stages (plus 15 more bonus stages) of bullet hell.

Stupid heroes! Always looting your randomly scattered GPs, knocking down your doors and whacking that stupid sword of theirs against your orbs of true evilness. Well, this one picked the wrong dungeon to vandalize, because you're the Atomic Creep Spawner and you've got a whole mess of atomic creeps just waiting to be spawned.

You need to be playing with a full deck to take down the Four Horsemen and ultimately The Beast in this real-time strategy game from Nerdook. Summon powerful warriors to the battlefield from cards you earn and unleash spells to drive the enemy back before they do the same thing to you. A simplified game, but an enjoyable one, and good for letting your inner warrior out on a coffee break.

Join Yepi on Yepi planet as he attempts to rescue his Yepi girl from hostile aliens in BeGamers' delightful and whimsical point and click adventure. You just need to find the right combination of actions to get Yepi across the scene and on to the next. This is a short and sweet little time waster, packed with tons of personality, quirky characters and backgrounds, and more than a little rude humor.

Everything wants to kill or trap you in Nitrome's newest arcade game, where you control a cheerful little block that travels along poles it shoots out of itself as you move. Get to and connect the nodes on each level to win, but when figuring out the deadly properties of your environment is part of the fun, it's harder than it looks.

A charming, sea-side salon seems (try saying that 5 times fast) like the kind of place you'd never want to leave... only this time you don't seem to have much of a choice! Libertechno returns with the seventh episode of Aries Escape, along with a whole new batch of dastardly puzzles to keep you locked inside. Navigate the room and explore your hint-laden surroundings by clicking key areas indicated by a changing cursor. Can you solve the hair-pullingly difficult riddles before you ruin your brand new 'do?

In this short, logical escape from GamezHero, you wake to find yourself trapped in a room with only a few poor, departed souls for company. You'll need to click around to find a way out, and with some superbly creepy atmosphere and straight-forward puzzling, this is a simple but tidy little escape to keep you entertained. Also available free on iOS and Android!

Lost and alone, the little gray pegasus stranded in the Everfree Forest doesn't seem to have a hope to safely navigate the hazards... until an expected friend shows her the way. Though the controls might be too frustrating for some, Derpy's Story features superb atmosphere, some lovely animated cutscenes, and unexpected heart.

In order to repay a massive debt to the notorious Pike Club, you're given a chance to earn cash by competing in a series of matching games. Just clear the board by making pairs from memory, and you're golden. But with various beneficial and harmful effects, talent and skill cards to add to your debt, and the strange members themselves to deal with, that's easier said than done. A clever twist on a simple concept with a very unique style.

Technology has advanced all walks of life but every now and then I'm sure the primitive colonial side of you craves a chance to go back to a more simple time. A time when warfare was fought with rowboats and planes that needed a passenger to fly itself. Well today is your lucky day for Colonial Wars is available for you to sink your teeth into. Break out your maps and strategy books because you'll be the guiding force behind entire fleets and it's up to you to take ownership of every island you see!

Getting into a science laboratory is much easier than it looks; just ask Dee Dee. Getting out of one, however, is another story. espcgm's clever little escaper drops you into what appears to be a chemistry lab, and tasks you with puzzling your way out. Don't let the MS Paint graphics throw you off; Escape from Mystery Science Room is not a bad game. The meat of an escaper is its gameplay, and this is a game that has it; the puzzles are logical and flow well, and although there's no changing cursor, the lack of pixel-hunting means you don't really need it. Overall, EfMSR is a game that's just difficult enough, and well worth the trip.

Uirdz isn't a word game, but you can use words to your advantage! In this high-difficulty puzzle platformer, you've not only got to find a way to reach the exit, but you've got to drop words in your path to make it possible. And some of those words come alive, so be careful how you wield them! No matter how you slice it, Uirdz is a tricky challenge that will give you plenty of opportunities to reunite with your favorite platforming nemesis, spikes.

Qoosh, like many protagonists before him (she? it?), is a lab experiment being guided through a series of tests by a narrator who seems less into actual science and more his own sadistic amusement. But despite the familiar premise, Qoosh wins with both charm and challenge to provide a fun and engaging experience that gives you a warm sense of satisfaction as you tackle its puzzles.

Go on a stunning retro action-adventure to uncover the identity of a murderer in this old-school styled Western tale. Do odd jobs and favours to learn clues to the identity of the villain, and travel all over the sun-soaked land. Though the controls and the lack of a save feature make this one a specific, and an acquired taste, Westerado is one of the most beautiful browser games to come down the line in a long time.

I can has cheezburger? How about sausage from Germany, cheese from Switzerland, and any and every food this kitty wants to sample in this easy-yet-thinky physics puzzle from the folks that brought us Cat Around the World. Just like last time, your goal is to send the round food to the hungry feline by removing blocks, pressing buttons and avoiding electrical hazards. It's 30 more levels of the same formula, but when same is so tasty, it's always a good thing.

How do you make a unique puzzle platformer? By breaking it! At least, that's what it looks like happened when you play this clever game. Your goal is to reunite the little boy with the probably-not-going-to-steal-his-soul pink ghost, but each level has been shattered and strewn about, so figuring out how to navigate your way through piece by piece is a trick for your hands and your eyes.

From the imagination of MyGames888, enter a dreamlike aquatic abode full of enigmas. If you want to escape—and avoid a permanent case of prune skin—you'll need to find the answer to many questions such what does that turtle have on its back and why is that fish behind bars? Put together clues and creative tools to solve puzzles and find your way out to one of the funnest "Congratulations!" screens in the genre.

While the surroundings may look dull in this escape game from new-to-the-scene designer, Indice, the beauty in its clean design and simple lay-out soon becomes clear. Just a bit of wit and logic is all that's needed to solve the puzzles before you, making for a brief but satisfying excursion that will leave you looking forward to the next sticky situation you can be trapped in.

A short and simple game of cards? Well, not THAT simple! In this clever strategy game, you're tasked with assembling a group of heroes, represented by cards, on the playing field before your opponent does. The catch? Each card has special abilities that can hinder or impact your enemy's progress, but they're also being used against you!

Not all fairy tales are made the same, and not all locked away princesses want to be saved. In Mad Princess, a defense strategy game, the goal is to help the princess destroy her would be "heroes," and ensure she gets to stay in her cozy castle filled with corpses. Armed with an assortment of traps, you will have to time and plan your attacks well to be effective against the attack.

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.

Here's a deceptively simple point-and-click puzzle game from Emiel de Graaf in which you determine just how to lay out a series of stepping stones to reach the goal. Each stone has a limited number of spaces in which it will move; select the stone and choose the direction you want it to go, using strategy to determine just how to connect pathways and successfully complete the sixteen levels. It's both easy and thoughtful, the perfect way to chill while still steppin' up those brain cells.

Unlike many similar platformers, Vex's goal isn't to frustrate the player. Checkpoints are liberally scattered throughout the levels, typically ensuring that you won't have to repeat tasks if you die. With a little patience and focus, anyone can get through Vex... and once they do, it's off to the Level Editor to see if you can throw together a stage to stump the world!

Poor Shawn had been planning for a nice night in watching horror movies. Alas, his wandering eye spotted a beautiful blonde that he simply had to convince to go out with him. The catch: She won't even speak with him and her friend is clearly blocking the opportunity. In this light hearted point-and-click adventure you'll journey through the town searching for the right incentive to make blondie want to spend some time with you.

The tired box is back in the fifth installment of the Wake Up The Box series. Once again use whatever means are at your disposal to prevent the little guy from getting his sleep. Get your physics puzzle fix as you draw various shapes to bounce, slide, or rocket the box out of dreamland.

Come build a snowman and enjoy the magic of a holiday night while treating yourself to one of TomaTea's most gorgeously atmospheric escape games to date. You will need to have a keen hidden object seeking eye to locate all essential parts but the neat design and helpful features will make puzzle solving much more pleasant. Anytime you're wistful for a wintery fiesta, ring in the season with this Golden Bell!

A lovingly detailed homage to classic platforming adventures, this retro-styled Metroidvania game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where your only reason for living is suddenly abducted from you by a mysterious stranger. While it could use some more to do, it's a beautifully made title fans of classic gaming will enjoy.

Escape from the same old habits and start a new resolution for wackiness with Detarou's discovery-filled escape game. This time you're locked inside a large, multi-roomed house with new things to discover around every corner. With so much to explore, and three endings to reach, the challenge lies in how to sort through the abundance of information to solve the puzzles that lead to your escape. So shape up those synapses, prepare for strangeness, and you're well on your way to a fresh new Detarou outlook.

The babies of fairyland have been nabbed! What kind of monster would do such a thing?!... well, um. You. Command a demon army trying to shepherd a group of babies back to their evil leader in this real-time strategy/tower defense hybrid. With upgrades, spells, fake demon babies, and more, it's a seriously cute, challenging, and quirky game where you get to be the bad guy.

Keep monsters from reaching the portal to our world, where they will presumably lurk under beds waiting to snap off toes, in this colourful tower-defense game. More an expansion and improved version of the original, it brings a new tower type, an expanded upgrade tree, and a creative level design that will up the challenge and keep you busy.

All you need is a sword on your back and revenge in your heart to be a hero in this combat-centric RPG from JIMP and Grindhead Games. Venturing outside the city walls in search of the monster that killed your father, you'll slice, dice, and magic-fisherize your way through a series of colourful battles in this simple but fun title.

Point-and-click your way to rescue your sister in this charming adventure game. You and your bee team together to get your sister back from the bad guys who whisked her away. Experiment on each level until you discover the secrets to continue on to the next. Short and sweet, Shapik: The Quest is a wonderful way to spend a little time.

Zap away colorful jewels to save the townsfolk in Jewelanche 2. In this beautiful match-3 game, draw lines to connect gems of the same shape and color to remove them from the board. Fight evil bosses and collect gold on your way. Beware obstacles, and spend your cash on the power-ups best suited for the level. Once again use your magic to save the day!

The next chapter in Sam Otero's fan-made spin on the popular Pokemon franchise has arrived! RPG meets tower-defense as you are free to manually explore the world, hunting for and capturing Pokemon in the field as a boy or girl, and ultimately discovering the truth behind the strange Shadow Pokemon while you save the world... again! Homage or imitation? That's up to you to decide.

Although Soom 2013 isn't long at all, particularly compared to Place of Light's earlier works like Loom Dawn and Room Marine, it's good while it lasts. The room and its puzzles are very well designed, and although the lack of any sound can be a little disconcerting, it doesn't really get in the way. As someone born in the year of the snake myself (...er, not this year of the snake, the one 24 years ago), I consider myself qualified to recommend Soom 2013, and I do so eagerly.

Nitrome's latest itty-bitty game puts you in charge of a bird with frost-spewing abilities who can freeze its enemies solid. But with one-hit KOs threatening you and a limited amount of icy power at your disposal, you'll have to think carefully and fly fast in order to make it through challenging gauntlets of foes, switches, doors, and more in this simple but clever little action game.

Escape from the Room with Three Keys 8 is less of a full room escape and more of a serial, one of those five to ten minute "to be continued" shorts shown before the main event. Here's a perfect way to take a short yet entertaining break that will leave you wanting more.

Opposites attract. And, you know, it ain't fiction, just a natural fact that Char Studio integrates into their puzzle game, Electric Joint. Click through the charged particles of each level to create a loop of alternating charges. Remember not to cross the streams while dealing with the challenge of moving particles, electric barriers and whatever else the game feels like throwing at you. It's a simple and easy-to-learn game that any puzzling enthusiast can enjoy (even without being a Paula Abdul fan).

Nitrome serves up a frosty sequel in this gorgeous, quirky game of arcade avoidance. Chow down on all the fruit to complete a stage while avoiding enemies by building or busting ice. But with smarter, faster baddies, tiles that can impact your own cone avatar, and even fruit that will flee, it's even harder than you thought to be a sentient cone of ice cream.

Mateusz Skutnik's dreamily surreal point-and-click treat will help you play your way into the new year. Feeling much like a mash-up of Garden Door, 10 Gnomes and Submachine, you're tasked with finding and replacing all the necessary objects to correct an electrical malfunction after a world-shattering crisis. It is up to you to restore the energy: are you up to the task?

This fourth installment of the alternative reality-bending series continues a milieu of pictorial parables set inside minutely detailed spot-the-difference scenes. Each level has two almost identical scenes side-by-side: your objective is to study both, looking for the subtle differences—such as a person's stance, a ruffle on a dress or the shape of a cloud—and clicking on them. As you search for differences, you're treated to entertaining and thought-inspiring artwork, making Music Box of Life 4 bound to please on multiple levels.

In this short text adventure from Hyptosis, lead a party of mercenaries from the esteemed guild, the Children of Brinn, on a job to solve the supernatural problems plaguing a tiny town. The choices you make determine who lives and dies and gets a face full of acid, and provides a brief but solid little diversion brimming with potential for future installments.

Created by Danny Yaroslavski, Cube Cube Cube is an entertaining 3D variation of Nurikabe that presents sets of mental blocks for you to quite satisfyingly smash. Though a way to access interior blocks would be appreciated, puzzle fans should be quite pleased to find this new Flash implementation of the popular logic brainteaser.

if you're still interested in taking out a little rage by using a cricket bat to launch a facsimile of a fellow internet user into the ionosphere, then Berzerk Studios has you covered: Berzerk Ball 2 is the latest in the series of action games which proves hitting-stuff-with-other-stuff will never get old. Packed with content, making for a bit of a crowded presentation, but, overall, a very addictive little game.

It's a good thing that TomaTea isn't changing because it's so nice to find all the characteristics you love a fine escape game: a welcoming, richly-decorated room in which clues are presented in a logical order, asking you to draw only a few lateral conclusions to be as free as a bird. No matter how easy or tricky, though, TomaTea always makes escaping feel as pleasant as an afternoon cup of tea and biscuits.

In this twisted, gleefully weird little action game, take on the role of a crushing spike trap in a video game. You love your job, mainly because you love crushing things, but also because it gives you a chance to see your beloved game mascot... right before you crush him. Can you reach your quota and maintain job security as the fireballs start flying?

Once in a blue moon Tesshi-e gets mischevious and builds an escape around finding not one, not two, but whole lot of lucky coins in a room. These escapes make Tesshi-e fans very happy, thus the title, The Happy Escape. The Fourth time's the charm in this escape where the only objective, besides finding Santa Claus' sack of presents is finding the ten Happy Coins hidden in the room. Another Holiday treat from the mind of Tesshi-e!

Nekonote's diminutive cherubs are extremely shy and they're hidden about this winter landscape for you to find. Search around, solving puzzles and performing certain actions needed to gain a key, a helping hand or otherwise uncover the hiding spots of each of the ten dwarfs. Like the chirpy pip-squeaks you're after, this point-and-click game is short and simple but big on cheerful cuteness.