Created by Markus Persson (the mind behind a certain popular crafting game featuring mines) Drop is a simple experimental typing game with a visual twist. To play, you just type the advancing letters before they reach the edge of the screen all while the fabric of reality bends and warps around you.

aniwey's Candy Box may seem simple, but this unexpectedly delightful webtoy packs way more surprises than you'd ever think. All you seem to have is a simple counter of candies that slowly accumulates with each second, and the option to gobble them all up, or throw them on the ground. But give it some time, and Candy Box! may just be one of the weirdest, most wonderful webtoys you've ever encountered.

Go to a forest, meet people, find items they want, give them the items, make them happy. Sounds easy? Not really, because you have no idea what the people are saying. They all speak in symbols, and it's up to you to figure out what they are talking about and how to help them. Vast is a simple, minimalistic game, but it's heartwarming and strangely rewarding.

Made in just 48 hours for the minimalist themed Ludum Dare, this itty-bitty adventure starts off as a quest to get a grisly trophy... and then to break a curse! The laws of the world might not make much sense to you anymore, but you won't let that stand in the way of a little destructionI MEAN heroism.

Beautiful music, moonlight reflected on the sea and birds gliding on the wind: things that are peaceful and relaxing and sweetly simple. Not your typical arcade avoidance game. Yet this is what Ferry Halim of Orisinal succeeds at best. Use your mouse to control your flight, gathering little blue birds and floating stars while avoidance hazards in this lovely, peaceful excursion that also happens to be a game.

Live Puzzle is a jigsaw game by Pipkin Games that presents players with a fun set of animated pictures to reconstruct, with subjects ranging from fish, to spirals, to planets, to cards. The animation is clearly a gimmick, but a cool one, and the developers definitely put thought into how different puzzles would be solved in different and interesting ways.

Laser Puzzle is just what it sounds like: A puzzle with lasers. You've got to redirect the colored beams to the receptors, but instead of freely dropping mirrors around the grid, a series of mirrors and filters on wheels must be turned until the beam finds its way. This clever take on an old chestnut is only five levels long and will leave you craving more, but it's the perfect length for a short coffee break.

Developed by AtomicCicada, this block-sliding puzzle game takes an old concept and turns it on its head with a simple tweak. Giving a much-appreciated twist to a familiar format, Push Me is a refreshing and unexpectedly original piece of logic puzzlery. And with 100 levels, it'll keep your brain occupied for a nice while.

If you always enjoyed Smart Code Games' superlatively fluid physics puzzle but felt it was a might tame, this poison pack of 30 additional levels gives you a potent new purpose to your plumbing job. Arrange the pipes, valves, bombs and teleporters then click the start switch to route the glowing green toxic liquid into its respective containers, measuring amounts properly to not waste or spill. With virtually no instructions, the puzzles won't hesitate to tease your brain with byzantine constructions, giving you plenty to scratch your head over for most the afternoon or evening.

You're bored kid with a box cutter in a room full of boxes. Ready for rainy day crafts time? Turn the boxes into shapes by clicking a point outside the box then drawing a line all the way across it to cut off that piece. You're limited to specific types of cuts and, as the shapes get much more complicated over 30 levels, creating them with 100% similarity becomes quite tough. Slice the Box is great way to while away time in a relaxing, creative endeavor.

RedWhite Slice is a short action puzzle that's a mix of Fat Slice and JezzBall, whose strength is in its level design and aesthetics. It's not very long or difficult, but at about ten minutes of tidy design, it's a great way to spend a coffee break.

It's a good-natured game of turf wars as you clear the board of all but the last monster standing. Simply roll an adjacent monster into another monster to push him off, continuing the process until all but one remains. Over time, the set-ups are more complicated requiring strategy and planning to complete.

Pink is nice, but spikes? Not so much. Paint all other colours pink in this gravity-defying platformer, but avoid getting impaled! A simple idea that will challenge your reflexes and brighten your day in the space of a coffee break with its bouncy design.

This party is hopping, but it's hard to enjoy it when someone wants you dead, and everyone is strange enough to be a suspect. Created in just seven days, this simple but uniquely stylish little puzzler has you asking questions of 24 monsters to figure out who's trying to kill you before they get to you first. That's... an extreme sort of party game. Couldn't you have just played charades?

Although you've been asked this question before, there are more ways to distinguish the differences between two seemingly alike spheres. That's why this pleasantly straight-forward puzzle game from Yoshio Ishii is so good to play. Throughout twenty levels, you'll decide which of the two circles before you has the requested quality. At times obvious, other times needing lateral conclusions or outside knowledge, More Which? is just challenging enough to be gratifying.

At first, it's rather easy. You have a game panel of a few colored squares and, using color affecting tiles, your objective is to change your panel to match that of the target. Then it gets progressively more difficult. Challenging puzzles plus chill music, though, always makes a good match for a game break anytime.

Give Up is a high-difficulty action-platformer by jmtb02 and Tasselfoot, that, little by little, will try to drive you to surrender, though a quite entertaining one. Give Up should appeal most to that strain of gamer who loves the thrill of balancing hundreds of failures against the thrill of a sudden success, but its humor should make everyone want to give it a try.

The way of the Samurai involves keen eyes, swiftness... and puzzles! Use your sword and a limited number of slices to cut down blocks until they fit in the shape provided. A simple idea that will provide more of a challenge than you'd think and require a lot of mental dexterity to win.

How you look at things makes all the difference in the world, and Tom Davies proves just that with this simple but masterfully executed twist on an arcade classic that turns it from friendly to sinister. Move through the silent corridors munching down dots, but beware... you're not alone, and you're vulnerable.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Bart Bonte delivers a deliciously swank yet simple sliding block puzzle with a holiday spin. Push, pull, stack, and stick using the incredible powers granted to you as a magnetic star in order to assemble the shape in each stage. A stylish exercise in clever, clean design and gameplay no matter what time of year it is.

Chain-reactions and arcade action get seasonal in this latest addictive title from SilenGames! Help break Santa from his icy underwater prison by dropping bombs (oh, he's Santa, he'll be fine), and grab coins and presents for upgrades. Simple, flashy, colourful fun that's just the right size for midday gaming!

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.

Smart Code Games is back with another puzzling brainteaser that will test your plumbing mettle. You can leave the overalls and the wrenches at home, however, because your tools here as you seek to fill up pots with just enough water are everything from magical mathematical multipliers to teleporters to freakin' bombs. Plumbers lead a much more interesting career than we ever imagined!

Yellow Bouncy Ball knows how badly you need something to release all that pent up stress that, if you were to hold it all in, might turn you into the Hulk. Or get you a nice white jacket along with a soothing white padded cell. Regardless, they're back with Pinata Hunter 2! With upgrades abound your only job is to beat the candied goodness out of some poor pinata who doesn't seem to be concerned with its ultimate demise. Take a break from the world and try your hand at a bat or a samurai sword while proving to your parents that you could have handled a pinata on your seventh birthday, if they had only listened!

Get the rabbit to the mushroom by only moving along the coloured path that matches it. Easy, right? Except this quirky little puzzler piles on new elements, like locks, moving platforms, freezing tiles, and much more, for a simple concept that still manages to remain challenging as you play.

Orisinal invites you to help a little giraffe with a noble goal... to get all the smoochin' he can from an endless parade of girl giraffes! This simple, bouncy arcade game offers little variety or depth, but Ferry Halim's signature rich warm design and inherently cheerful concepts make this the sort of game you'll want to turn to for an instant pick-me-up.

In this sliding block-style puzzler by Mibix, a flying squirrel faces off against the natural predator of all rodentia: zombies. The cartoony graphics don't quite mesh with the strategic gameplay, but the levels are well designed and the scream the squirrel makes as he flies off the screen is schadenfreudely hilarious.

It's Snake! It's Snazzy! It's Snazzle! A simple idea puzzle game by Amidos, Snazzle takes its inspiration from the classic formula of slithering reptiles extending themselves by chomping on fruit, and trying to avoid crashing into itself. However, by modifying the premise with a shiny coating of tile-based programming logic, it makes for a fresh and cleverly designed experience, though perhaps a little off-putting in its symbolic minimalism.

All you really, really want to do is find your car keys and get away from the lonely, isolated cabin in the woods... but with the hedge maze surrounding the property (because everyone has a hedge maze) filled with malicious, supernatural children who want to play with you, you'll need to move fast and carefully... until your flashlight's battery dies. More concept that full game, but beautifully designed for its 48 hour creation period.

Ozzie Mercado is certainly a one and only, and One Bubble is the latest in a string of quality simple idea puzzle games. Jumping and eliminating bubbles, with naturalistic backgrounds and soothing music makes for a zen office-toy feel, perfect for an afternoon de-stressing.

Ready... set... KABOOM! KragSoft delivers a lovely and engaging little chain-reaction arcade game that involves placing bombs to clear the screen. The catch? All those little icons you see drifting around explode in different ways, and figuring that out AND how best to use them is part of the strategy. A simple idea with a clean presentation that makes for an engaging little snack of a game rather than a main course.

Tick tock on the clock, but the party won't stop, because Ozzie Mercado has just released Twelve O, another wonderful, simple idea puzzle game! Thinking rotationally can be mind twisting, and while the mouse controls can take a little getting used to, Twelve O makes for a great time-waster.

An arcade avoidance game by Mortar Games that has you controlling a small. fragile virus, attacked on all sides by the defenses of the host body. The Fishy-styled gameplay little slow going at first, but the eerie atmosphere and a surprisingly affecting final level make Vivirion worth playing until the very end.

Developer Ozzie Mercado is on quite the roll with his simple idea puzzle games. His latest is a cool little sokoban-variant named Push3m, that shows that squares can still be hip. It takes a bit for the challenge to get going, but for the most part, it is a short, sweet, and very clever game.

Call it base sentimentality, but sometime what we need is a pinata racing through a magical candy kingdom, collecting gummi bears and dodging sugar-hungry bat-wielding toddlers. Gameshot apparently has recognized this Jungian urge and delivers with Pina Pony, a retro jump and run platformer. Like a bag of Skittles, Pina Pony may not fill you up, but it's fun and colorful, and definitely a sweet snack.

It's always interesting when a flash game comes along that makes you look at things in a whole different light. Who knew, for example, that the ordinary day-to-day activity of making breakfast was frought with so many pitfalls and hidden dangers? In Breakfast, a strangely compelling little onebutton cooking game by Gio-M, you awake after a one night stand and your chances of a second date will depend completely on your ability to make a high quality breakfast by pressing the spacebar at the precise moment necessary to chop, blend, and boil your ingredients in the best way possible to satisfy your lover-in-waiting.

Weird? Sure. Wonderful? Little bit. Hot Chick Games, creator of Kissma, deliver another bizarre arcade game about dressing up as a cat and batting at a toy dangling from the screen. Unlock strange bonus rounds full of surreal imagery for a simple, frantic, and fun experience that will raise an eyebrow but inject a little surreality into your day.

It's hard to be 2D in a 3D world, which you'll soon find out if you play this austere little platformer from Henning Steinbock. But don't let the minimalist atmosphere lull you into a false sense of security, because you'll need to do all your best wrist exercises from that mandatory carpal tunnel workshop your boss made you attend last spring if you're going to be limber enough to keep this line on track to ultimate victory. Jumping Line is a great example of a simple idea done well that will appeal to all the oldschool gamers out there who don't need a lot of bells and whistles to have a good time and break a satisfying gamer sweat.

Robot wants dots! Okay, the star of Robot Arm, a simple idea puzzle game by Amidos2006 might be missing his torso, head, and legs, but his desires are no less poignant. Robotic Arm offers a cunning test of spatial logic that should appeal to any fan of mechanical manipulation puzzles.

Do you like simple puzzles? As in... do you like them a whole lot? A hundred levels' worth? Then Blocks is the perfect straight-forward little match-3 puzzler for your coffee break. Slide and match coloured blocks to remove them from the screen in as few moves as possible. Simple, but cleanly designed and surprisingly addictive, Blocks is perfect for relaxing, thoughtful puzzle fun.

The surprise hit arcade launch game soars out of your browser and into your iOS in this polished little port. When a little girl wants to see her mother for Christmas, she sends the wish to the North Pole on a paper airplane, but doesn't suspect the many hands it will pass through along the way. Combining simple, addictive gameplay with a beautiful presentation, upgrades, and achievements, Flight is a perfect fit for the touchscreen and something everyone can enjoy.

The Happy Dead Friends are back with 60 new player made levels. In this puzzler, use your mouse to move zombies, skeletons and other creatures around until there are no free hands. Some creatures have unique abilities which can make them difficult to match up. See how many moves it takes you until everyone is holding hands. It's the only wat to make everyone happy!

It's always interesting when a developer takes a familiar mechanic, then remixes it to make a new kind of enjoyable puzzle. Case in point: Jump Me, a simple idea puzzle game by Ozzie Mercado. It's likely that the game would have never have been made if versions of checkers hadn't been kicking around since ancient times. But that allows Jump Me to be different enough to feel fresh, but familiar enough to easily learn.

This brief "game poem" is laden with sentimentality and moody brushstrokes. Play by using your mouse to guide a star as it falls from the sky. If you'd like, collect other stars, avoid the sides and make a wish along the way. But there's no actual winning or losing, even if your wish doesn't come true. Enjoyed best when you want a short respite to gaze upon something pretty while listening to a heartfelt melody.

Who knew that the Four Color Theorem would make for such a nice simple idea puzzle game? OneFifth's Flood Fill is a fun and colorful way to fill up a coffee break, even if its 20 levels are over way too quickly. But hey, the background music is catchy.

Being a llama does have its good points: you have a trampoline to bounce up and down on all day, your fur is soft and durable, and you can spit like it's nobody's business. Because it's not. You hate those intrusive zoo visitors who keep trying to get up into your face. So spit on them! Use your mouse to aim and then click to spit in this engrossing and fun shooter by Peter Sperl and Simon Parzer. Strategic use of upgrades is required as the later levels become quite difficult but the charm of the wooly jumper is also hard to resist. It begs the question, Which is worse: having a llama face or having llama in your face?

Bart Bonte is back with another sugary sweet installment in his popular particle physics puzzle. While adhering to the same basic concept and gameplay mechanics of the prior two Sugar, Sugar games, this sequel delivers 30 more clever levels of imaginative obstacles in a simple block design plus jazzy tunes.

Stick Figure Badminton 2 is a simple, yet satisfying badminton simulator with a great physics engine, featuring a good variety of AI opponents and some fun character choices (robots!). Regular badminton players will appreciate the smooth way the game handles smashes, drives and drops and non players will get a great introduction to the game that will make them want to go outside in the sunshine and play for real. How many other flash games can make the same claim?

When you're trapped in a world filled with nightmares made flesh and are out for YOUR blood, your best bet is to... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! Nightmare Runner puts you in the depths of hell in this run and jump shooting game built with a player level upgrade system and in-game pick ups to aid in your escape. With an ambient choir-meets-action movie soundtrack and an easy one button click interface, you get easily entranced into 2D world that flows smoothly with the music and the difficulty. You have an infinite clip of bullets and finite distance to travel for salvation so this evil can be trounced in a single, well-lit sitting.

Ever since Pac-Man first escaped off the right side of the screen to magically appear on the left, players have had a certain thing for games that skew traditional notions of spatiality. The Village Blacksmith offers another wonderful take on this kind of teleportation in Recursion, a cool little retro puzzle platformer. The series of single screen levels progresses nicely, even if the jumps require a bit too much precision. Still, Recursion worth playing over and over again.

Be afraid. Be very afraid of his scary love. In Bear of Love, a tongue-and-cheek action game from LeBrancher and rzafael, you play a bear who needs to hug people in order to breath, creating a form of photo-hug-synthesis that will have scientists baffled for decades. But there's a catch: you tend to come on too strong and end up killing those you hug when you don't pull away in time. Bear of Love features some great 8-bit pixel art and the funny upgrades and animations will have you chortling to yourself long after the five or ten minutes it takes to finish this game, making it a perfect antidote for the Monday morning blues.

It's always great when Japanese developer, Yoshio Ishii, gets experimental, and his RPG, Parameters, is certainly that. It looks like an Excel Spreadsheet, and plays like a computer hacking scene from a 1980s action movie. Abstract, but very addictive, Parameters won't be for everyone, but those looking for something a little different should find it quite compelling.

With gameplay inspired by the classic Rampage series, take control of a huge, angry dinosaur and smash your way through a fully destructive city. Punch through buildings and swat missiles out of the air as the army tries to stop you reuniting with your lost son in this epic 8bit arcade game.

Platform games commonly require a fair amount of jumping to move around, but the author of this unique platformer decided that jumping is the new walking. As the title implies, Momentum is your best friend and you can bound from platform to platform while dodging spikes and collecting colored candy orbs using that speed.

A one button journey from cradle to grave with a mouse driven twist and decent production values. NTFusion takes us on a Canabalt-esque adventure as you nab power-ups and meditate on what's really important in life... aside from high scores, of course.

This grid puzzle game from Gluk has forty levels of zombie networking challenges, plus a level editor, offering plenty of achievements and endless fun. Make every creature happy by arranging them along a grid so that each is holding hands with his friends. While not entirely original, Happy Dead Friends is well-made and has enough unique qualities to warrant praise and smiles.

Think fast! Actually, when you're a developing neural cell, you've got no choice but to think fast and make as many neural connections as you can. That's the basis behind Axon, a science-based fast-paced action game from Preloaded. Click to grab the protein targets and watch out for other neurons trying to invade your space!

A physics-arcade game from Pastel Games, Mission to Uranus plays like a mouse-driven, one-button version of Lunar Lander. Touchy controls test the patience, but Mission to Uranus is a beautiful game. Just be sure to stock up on fuel in early levels, so you don't crash down the line. Uranus has enough debris as it is.

Games don't get much simpler than this; just hit a key to jump over an obstacle. Easy, right? Well, Chris Jeffrey's reflex-demanding one-button arcade game might just prove you wrong across twenty sadistic levels. With its snappy presentation and straight-forward gameplay, Space is Key 2 is hardly innovative, but it is a well polished little torture device for your reflexes. More than anything, it's a great illustration of how hard you can force players to push themselves at a simple concept just by implying it should be easy.

A fun expansion of the original swinging Hanger 2 by A Small Game, this Endless Level Pack keeps the great physics action, while featuring a lot of cool new architecture, along with the anticipated Endless Mode. Go out on a limb and try it!

A high-difficulty minimalist platformer by Noxious Hamster, Spikes Tend To Kill You 2 makes no bones about its brutal difficulty. However tough it is though, the challenges are mostly fair, and clever level design and dialogue will keep players interested, even after the 500th impalement.

Somehow, we must have missed the episode of National Geographic where they explained how all fish float around frozen, just waiting for explosives to be dropped to free them, so they can then be gobbled up by an opportunistic octopus. It may sound grim, but this frantic, vivid, and colourful chain reaction arcade game packed with achievements and upgrades is anything but.

Scan each scene in this short but thoroughly interesting spot-the-difference game by FlashRomance, seeking the sometimes obvious and other times minute incongruities between the mirrored images, then set them right with a quick click. An aesthetically diverse array of inner city settings with atmospheric sound effects, music and animations add deeper dimensions to your exploratory fun. The eyes can be fooled and the mirror is deceiving, which is why finding the Errors of Reflection can be both challenging and gratifying. So use your powers of observation and take a poke at both sides of the looking glass—the beauty is in the details.

Centered on the mechanic of changing your color to interact with different objects, Coloraze, a puzzle platformer by Colin Brown, is a simple concept done well. It's one of those works where a string of gameplay elements are introduced in the beginning, then paid off in the long run with a string puzzles that force them to interact in interesting way. Each individual level won't take too much time to play, but with a good ninety included, plus a solid number of levels made by the community using Coloraze's solid level editor, you won't be running out of game any time soon.

MoonMana offers up simple but undeniably lovely arcade playing with this hypnotic game about catching stars and... no, that's about it, really. While there isn't much to them, both Stellar Hunter games are beautiful and satisfying in that way you sometimes just want that feels specifically designed to make you relax with a smile on your face.

Legend tells us of King Midas, granted a gift by Pan that all he would touch would turn to gold. The tale is the inspiration for Midas, a puzzle platform game by Wanderlands, and overall winner of the Ludum 22 Game Jam. In it, you must guide the king to his love, but not before you reach the river that will wash him of his "gift". The theme for the competition was "Alone", a word that's perfectly captured by this short, challenging, and even poignant game.

Should you have a yen for social studies trivia, Trip Alone The Globe, an arcade game by Symbio Digital, will more than satisfy that worldy desire. It's a simple challenge of collecting trivia questions, then driving a (somewhat difficult to maneuver) car to the proper location to score points. The graphics are pretty (if a little CPU-intensive), the questions are goofy, but clever, and while the game take only a couple of minutes to play, they'll be good minutes. All that's missing is Rockapella on the soundtrack.

Should you have a yen for social studies trivia, Trip Alone The Globe, an arcade game by Symbio Digital, will more than satisfy that worldy desire. It's a simple challenge of collecting trivia questions, then driving a (somewhat difficult to maneuver) car to the proper location to score points. The graphics are pretty (if a little CPU-intensive), the questions are goofy, but clever, and while the game take only a couple of minutes to play, they'll be good minutes. All that's missing is Rockapella on the soundtrack.

Interactive art has a reputation for being light on the challenge, but These Robotic Hearts of Mine, a puzzle game by Alan Hazelden definitely shows that it doesn't have to be. It's a simple game of gears and direction... one that I would love to see re-created in the physical space of a gallery. However, each solution presents another line in a story of technology, hearts and heartbreak. The puzzles alone would be fine, and the elegy is affecting. However, the combination fits like one hand into another.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... and snow... and then snow some more in Snow Tree, this charming little arcade physics game from Alexey Izvalov. Control the snowfall by clicking and dragging with the mouse to create invisible air currents, directing the flakes into a tidy pile to form a delicate, branching, and ever-growing tree (keeping the white stuff away from your front door and driveway in the process). Pile the snow as high and efficiently as you can to build your score, and snag some of those neatly wrapped presents floating high in the clouds to earn extra points and increase the maximum amount of snowflakes available to build with.

Gameplay in Pinata Hunter is simple and distinctive, as you swing your mouse Wii-mote style to bludgeon your quarry for tasty treats. After a few upgrades it's immensely satisfying (and addicting). Like squeezey stress toys, or inflatable punching bags, no one can accuse relentlessly beating on a colorful elephant sculpture for candy to be a deep experience, but you'll hardly care once you can fill the screen with flying candy.

Gameplay in Pinata Hunter is simple and distinctive, as you swing your mouse Wii-mote style to bludgeon your quarry for tasty treats. After a few upgrades it's immensely satisfying (and addicting). Like squeezey stress toys, or inflatable punching bags, no one can accuse relentlessly beating on a colorful elephant sculpture for candy to be a deep experience, but you'll hardly care once you can fill the screen with flying candy.

Alien war rages upon the surface of the moon. But would Santa dare forget those space marines that made it onto the "nice" list? By Kringle's beard, I say thee nay! Even it if means strapping a rocket to his back and launching himself to space, ol' Saint Nick will deliver those gifts if its the last thing he does! Berzerk Studios brings you Santa Rocket, and while not particularly innovative for the arcade launch genre, it is a solid holiday work.

An arcadey combination of mouse avoidance and WarioWare-style mini-games, Mouse Quest by Oilold takes two love-em-or-hate-em genres of casual gameplay and fuses them into something quite likeable. The plot is nothing too special: the mysterious Shapemaster has transported you to his dimension and presents your cursor with various fast-paced challenges so that you may prove your worth before facing him. Overall, the presentation has the minimalism of someone new to game development, but it's very enjoyable work all the same.

Sometimes receiving a message can be so exciting that the letters seem to jump off the page. Then those letters form into a giraffe, which will dart across the landscape pursued by snakes, sharks and Godzilla. Okay, that just might be the interactive music video for Japanese rock group Andop's song "Bell". With an amazing combination of typographic and charcoal art, the game so visually interesting that it makes up for the CPU-hogging and somewhat loose gameplay. There are probably easier ways to post a missive, but this is definitely one of the most fun.

Dim the lights, light the incense, and settle in for some relaxing puzzlement with Coins. Slide the coins around from starting position to goal position in forty soothing levels. Ahh. Sounds easy, right? In the first twenty levels, you can only move a coin to a place where it's touching two other coins. In the second twenty, it must be touching two coins of different colors.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the new Bart Bonte game, sugar's glistening. A beautiful sight, we're puzzling tonight, playing Sugar, Sugar: The Christmas Special. Guide particles of sugar to several cup targets, with some complications along the way such as color-changing dyes and gravity switching buttons, and all with a Christmas theme that's as sweet and cheery as a mug of hot cocoa. Like its predecessor, it requires a decent amount of patience, so consider this a warm-up for waiting to open your presents.

What time is it? Tasty Planet: Dinotime! Mathematical! The popular action series from Dingo Games is back, and this time things have gotten prehistoric. Like always, gameplay is one part Fishy and two parts Katamari as the ancient world faces the cutest darn grey goo scenario you ever did see, and you have the starring role as the goo! It's eat or be eaten as you grow from pebble-size to apatosaurus-size... and maybe just manage to do something about that huge asteroid in the sky.

Pixels! Love 'em or hate 'em? You might have no choice but to do the latter in this action-packed arcade shooter. Soak in the retro vibe as you blow apart incoming pixel enemies, raining laser fire down on the field to blast chunks off of them, and nabbing power-ups that drop to increase your strength.

If there's one thing all of us could use in life, it's a sense of perspective. At the very least, having one will certainly help you in Blueprint 3D, the new puzzle game from Zedarus . You must use the mouse to rotate an apparently incomprehensible mass of illustrations to find the point of view where the whole plan will come together. It's a game that certainly won't leave you blue.

It's always fascinating when a developer, having come up with an engaging idea for a puzzle game, tries to justify the premise after the fact with a storyline. Case in point: Mysterious Treasures by Sky Mill, which spins a simple grid-based strategy game of getting more coins than the CPU into a high-seas pirate adventure. It's a simple little game that makes for big fun.

Get your ommmm on with Hakim El Hattab's zen-like avoidance game that sends you soaring through a field of red dots to soothing ambient music, snagging power ups and soaking in the atmosphere as you pursue the high score.

It must be rough to be so fragile that even a bump against a ceiling will remove precious body parts. And yet that's the situation before you in Hanger 2, a small yet fun and addictive physics game. Swing from rope to rope, as with a grappling hook, to reach the exit of each level without losing too many body parts.

We hold a truth to be self-evident that all squishy bouncy blob thingies are born with certain inalienable rights, including those of life, liberty and the pursuit of hat-iness. The hero of Pursuit of Hat, a puzzle platformer from Anton Rogov, is willing to risk all manner of life and limb for his head-covering... mainly limb though, since his are detachable. Literally tearing ones self apart over a head-covering may seem a little extreme. In all fairness... it's a pretty sweet hat.

In this one-button, simple-idea, action game of skill, you control a sleepwalker moving from the left edge to the right edge of the screen. Your only recourse to help save him from an untimely death from spikes and moving platforms is to press either [space] or click the left mouse button to stop him in his tracks. Your decisions involve when to stop him and for how long, so it's key to observe the level and plan accordingly. The music and graphics create a fitting atmosphere, setting you in this dreamland that could be a nightmare.

Straight from the ghastly hallows of Nitrome comes the hobbling horror of a humdinger, Stumped! As a hopping foot that can only make right turns, can you bounce your way to the exit while dodging piercing spikes, frightening firepits, and eerie eyeballs?

Damian Sommer created this short, no-frills little puzzle platformer to throw the player into a series of one-screen, "extremely distilled metroidvanias." He accomplishes this by first teaching the player some rudimentary game mechanics and then builds upon those rules incrementally while increasing the difficulty and complexity of each level's design. And it works quite nicely for a game made in just a day and a half.

Think you can play platform games? Try this challenging game from Paradoxon Games and test your reflexes to the bitter edge... all so that Stu can get a night's sleep. Following in the tradition of VVVVVV and Gravinaytor is Sleepy Stu's Adventure, probably the hardest platform puzzler game you will play this year.

Flee Buster is a retro arcade game about a little human escaping abduction from an alien tractor beam. No wait, it's about a spaceship on the run from Pac-Man's violent quadrilateral cousins. No wait, actually it's about a frog trying to jump as far up as he can from some evil looking spike-water. A bit schizophrenic? Perhaps. But this action-arcade release from Chevy Ray that took first place overall in Ludlum Dare 21 makes one think of Neapolitan ice cream: it has three great tastes that taste great together