For millions of time management and simulation fans, the opening is unmistakable: a ragtag, desperate group of people fleeing the volcanic destruction of their home wash ashore on the mysterious island of Isola, a place of wonder and magic. With that prologue began one of the most popular and best-selling village sims of all time, Virtual Villagers. Now available for all iOS devices is that very first adventure, Virtual Villagers: Origins, lovingly designed by Last Day of Work.

A lively combination of beautiful scenery, strong puzzle design, and manipulative ability makes Kalaquli a fantastic escape-the-room game. Not too easy, not too difficult, easy on the eyes, and the added bonus of charming animations give this latest game from 58 Works must-play status for any escape game fanatic. Or anyone who just likes point-and-click adventures. Or anyone who just likes Ninjas. Okay, so it's fun for everyone!

Virtual Villagers is back, and we're so excited we couldn't wait until the weekend to tell you! With Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City, the surprisingly addictive real-time simulation game sticks with its proven formula and makes a few minor tweaks to freshen up gameplay. With new secrets to uncover, new technologies, real-time weather effects and a whole new island to explore, Virtual Villagers 3 has all the ingredients that made the first games so compelling, plus more.

Here is our massive walkthrough guide for Virtual Villagers 5: New Believers! Everything you need to get through the game is here, including a lot of spoilers, so proceed at your own risk.

In this atmospheric point-and-click adventure, your brother goes missing, and you start thinking maybe his ramblings about doors to other worlds weren't just crazy talk when you follow his trail to Tibet and stumble across some very strange places.

Egypt got you down? Zombies trashing your tulips in the Wild West? We've got some help for you in our strategy guide for Plants vs Zombies 2, Popcap's popular free-to-play tower defense game for iOS and Android!

Fresh from the bronze halls of Nitrome comes Steamlands, a game that mixes strategy, defense, and building genres with a steampunk exterior to make a final product that begs you to become addicted. A great war has left Europe in ruins. Even though the last of the machines have been disassembled, pirates still roam the land with their patchwork tanks built from scrap. As a lone mercenary commander, you must pick up a spanner and build your own war machine by scavenging parts from defeated pirates. Embark upon dozens of missions in this expertly-crafted game of combat, strategy, and on-the-fly steam tank construction!

Last Day of Work loves virtual sims. I mean seriously loves them, at least according to their lead designer. And, well, their product line, which includes the massively popular Virtual Villagers series. For those of us who love messing with the lives of little virtual people without all that faffing about on an island, Last Day of Work created Virtual Families, a game which featured the animated people without the exploding volcanoes. Now they've come out with the sequel to that fabulous game, Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House, which deepens the gameplay of the original in new and interesting ways, and all for your handy portable iOS device!

Summer is often a season of sequels, a season of unimaginative rehashings of proven hits, hoping that the sweaty populace will be too befuddled to notice that the movie or game they're consuming is exactly the same as its predecessor only with all the charm and surprise sucked out. That's why Learn 2 Fly is as refreshing as a blast of south pole air.

Most of us have been craving a game that pits skeletons against pizza. Obviously, pizza is going to be the winner, which is why this crazy hodgepodge sort of arcade game puts you in control of a giant, customizable pizza. Skeletons rise from the soil every thousand years, but a doughy arch nemesis arises this time around, and it's your job to roll, jump, and crush the boney bad guys with your supreme skills. Not only that, but you'll participate in over 100 neat-o levels with dozens of themes, including skiing down long snowy slopes, finding and rescuing puppies, balancing, swimming, taking out skulls in a very Crush the Castle sort of manner, and even customize your pizza with all sorts of accessories. You're a Renaissance pizza, that's for sure. A very creative game that's worth its weight in laughs and sheer awesomeness. Pizza vs. Skeletons Free is also available.

The Bonte family cat is at it again, and now all the Christmas ornaments have been scattered throughout the house. Track down all twenty of them, but beware... this clever feline has set up puzzles for you to contend with! Also free for iOS and Android bundled with Where is Cat?

The first in a creepy new point-and-click series set in a Wonderland a few degrees off from the one you may recall. A gruesome sight greets you when you open your eyes in this fractured fairytale... but just who are you, anyway? To find out, first you'll have to find your way out and dig a little deeper into the mystery. Provided you're prepared for what you may discover on the other side of the looking glass.

You've attracted the attention of a curious person calling themselves The Craftsman, and if you can prove yourself, you'll discover that there's far more to the world than meets the eye in this enormous, captivating puzzle adventure from Fireproof Games that will keep you hooked all the way through.

We have just finished a massive walkthrough guide for Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life. This guide will provide all you need to help you get the most from your experience with the latest Virtual Villagers game. Be warned: This guide does contain spoilers, so proceed with caution and as a last resort!

In the final chapter of the terrifying point-and-click adventure series, you've gone even deeper into your dreams to try to escape from them and the creatures holding you captive. Danger lurks around every corner in this game that will give you chills and make you jump.

From Amanita Design, creator of the famously brilliant Samorost series, comes Machinarium, a game so well-conceived and implemented it can confidently launch as one of the best point-and-click adventures of all time. Machinarium is nothing short of a playable piece of art. Similar to Samorost in style and gameplay, you play a lone robot thrown out of the city working his way through desolate mechanical slums. Solve puzzles, find and combine items, and encounter loads of creative characters in your quest. Machinarium is one of those rare games you can't praise enough.

From Homestar Runner comes this hilariously funny game that pokes fun at itself and the text-based adventures and 8-bit graphics of years gone by. Boasting “lush 16-color landscapes,” this game puts you in the shoes of a short-panted peasant named Rather Dashing who sets out on a quest of revenge against Trogdor the Burninator. A fun and quirky classic.

Adult Swim's wildly popular and profane adult cartoon series goes RPG in this free game for iOS and Android! Someone is separating Mortys from their Ricks all throughout the multiverse, and it's up to you to find out who, though you'll need to prove yourself to the Council of Ricks by earning badges from battling other Morty trainers. High on fantastic production value but unexpectedly drastically toned down in tone makes Pocket Mortys easily accessible to just about anyone.

The latest Grow game from On of Eyezmaze! Need we say more? This is without a doubt On's greatest work-to-date, and in it he embodies an optimistic philosophy. Following the correct order of things will lead to a society where men and women get along happily, the environment is protected and technology is harnessed to discover the secrets of the universe.

It's here! The next chapter in the captivating virtual island village sim is available to download. The follow-up to the monumentally successful Virtual Villagers game keeps the same formula as the original but adds all new puzzles, events, collectibles and more. It's the perfect follow-up to one of the most amazing casual games ever released.

On the surface, Paradise Beach resembles a casual building game like Coconut Queen. The gameplay, however, is more similar to the classic of the tycoon sim genre Rollercoaster Tycoon. Join Mr. Gates and his cute — and occasionally annoying — granddaughter as they develop beachfront property. Travel to six different islands and work with the pair to develop a fun beach experience, all the while helping endangered species, uncovering dinosaur skeletons, finding pirate treasure, and all the other fun things that happen to folks who create vacation beaches.

You're inside a tiny, one-room cabin with a ton of tools and items at your disposal. But instead of trying to escape like you'd expect, in this point-and-click puzzle game the object is to try to block off every possible avenue of egress. You're a werewolf, see, and you're determined to keep yourself trapped and the townsfolk safe at night. But it's harder than you might think...

The enemies are getting smarter and smarter these days. No longer are they following a set trail heading right for your kingdom. Oh no, this time they are coming from below. Thankfully your kingdom is even sneakier and has found out their plan ahead of time in this free defense game for Android and iOS!

Help Johnny through a level filled with hazards by buying upgrades for.... everything! From run speed to the game timer to double jumping, it's in the store. Collect coins, buy upgrades, and repeat until you're strong enough to take on the final boss. Simple but engaging, Johnny Upgrade is a little treat for platforming fans, or anyone who really likes upgrades.

Max and Anne are two very different young people, but they've both found themselves at the same college in the same student housing. Your choices will determine their lives, grades, and even their love-life in this funny, light-hearted, and addictive visual novel simulation!

Something has happened. You don't know exactly what, but you know that this place doesn't seem right. This place where the doors don't have hinges or knobs and passing through one feels like you're passing through space and time. No, it doesn't seem quite right, but some things seem...familiar. Such is the strange and wonderful world of Synapsis 2, the equally mind-bending sequel to the original Synapsis from early 2008.

You are trapped. In a room. A room that is almost completely empty. The smartest and most logical thing to do would be to use your phone and call someone to get out, but you have no phone. So, armed with nothing but your common sense and puzzle-solving prowess you must unravel the mysteries of the room to escape. Think you have the brains to do it?

Miss Libellule has faced angry giant octopi and vengeful serpentine deities... in this latest (and perhaps final) chapter of jo99's gorgeous point-and-click adventure series, our intrepid heroine delves into an avian temple in search of a great treasure.

What do you do when you find yourself the owner of a big empty valley? Well, you could call in a bunch of real estate developers, I suppose, and file all the necessary paperwork to have the land appropriately zoned before calling in all the inspectors for wiring and so forth... OR you could just hire a bunch of teeny-tiny people to do it for you! In this adorable follow-up to Grow Island from Eyezmaze, puzzle out the correct order of things to make your valley grow and thrive as big as possible.

Deep within the spaceship, a lowly garbage worker tosses clumps of trash into the incinerator. Outside, asteroids begin pelting the hull, eventually causing the ship to crash on an uncharted planet filled with strange creatures. And now you, lone survivor, must explore and fight your way through an intricate maze-like world as you gather power-ups, fight bosses, and collect every little green square you see. In Wade McGillis's downloadable and mobile game Astronot, you get a good strong dose of pure retro metroidvania-style platform adventuring, and you'll love every minute of stranded torture it brings you.

This is not a game. You won't find yourself playing a cleverly done point and click puzzler that will leave you chuckling and wishing more games were as innovated as this game. But it's not, because There Is No Game. (Especially not one made for the Deception Jam by Kamizoto!)

Also free for Android, in this twisted escape game, a demented version of the Zodiac isn't ready to give you up for the year, and to get out of its clutches, you'll need to solve some puzzles, plus take part in some Undertale-inspired boss battles!

RGB is another great-looking room escape game by Japanese developer neutral, author of the previously reviewed Sphere. Not only is this game great looking, it plays exceptionally well with several puzzles that will perplex and confound you, though it won't take you long to solve. There are two different ways to escape, can you find them?

Topsy Turvy is a game in the proud, recent tradition of platformers with a twist. Like others in the genre, Topsy Turvy is focused around simple, familiar mechanics like move left, right, and jump, avoid enemies and spikes, and get to the goal at the end. We all know how to play that game, right? Well, Topsy Turvy says, now gravity is relative. Chew on that.

In this addictive puzzle game from the creator of rymdkapsel, match lines of unbroken coloured tiles to fulfill batches of requests without running out of lives. Sound simple? Well, it may be easy to pick up, but this clever and stylish game for Android and iOS will satisfy any fan of strategic puzzles.

DayMare Town is a strange and oddly deserted town that gives the unsettling feeling that eyes are peering from around corners. It is drab and dreary, not a very pleasant place to be. But now you're stuck, and you'll do anything you can to leave.

A brand new point-and-click room escape game has just been released by Japanese developer neutral, creator of RGB and Sphere, titled Vision. For some unknown reason you're trapped in a room with no exit. Search the exquisitely rendered (and eerily silent) environment for items that can help you escape!

In Lost Pig, you are Grunk, a rather dim creature who works on a farm and who, evidently, loses a pig. Using your best typing skills, find your way through the forest and beyond and retrieve that darn swine. It won't be easy, since pigs in Grunk's world are not cooperative. Utilize your intuition (and maybe a little luck) and you'll find your way out of Grunk's mess in this hilarious interactive fiction.

Neutral brings out the big guns by delivering an escape game that's meatier and more complex than anything they've put out in recent years. With puzzles, clues, and items galore, it's a satisfyingly challenge experience that's a lot bigger than you might think...

One year after volcanoes simultaneously erupt all around the world, plunging it into a new age, a young boy who barely survived with his family suddenly finds them missing, seemingly plucked out of thin air, and only a mysterious phrase to go on. This massive free text-based RPG adventure for Android and iOS offers over 2000 pages of in-depth post-apocalyptic storytelling with optional combat, minigames, and more, though ends abruptly as the first installment in a planned trilogy.

It's time to pay a visit to a very special hotel, where the guests are strange, and the dinner menu changes every night... just make sure you're not on it. Rusty Lake delivers a gorgeously creepy and extremely morbid point-and-click puzzle game for desktop or Android and iOS, where every hotel guest has a different set of needs, and YOU have some very unique recipes.

Escape Series #1: The Car is a point-and-click room escape game that does everything it should do without venturing beyond the scope of the genre. Regardless of its normal appearance, The Car provides a great room escape experience that's both fulfilling and free from random pixel hunting. Short and sweet, and with more installments to come.

In Spin the Black Circle you must rotate the game field to move a ball to the goal in each stage. Gravity pulls it to the center, however, making physics and fast reflexes vitally important to your success. Avoid obstacles and enemies in this well-polished game of skill!

Rusty Lake takes you to a theater of the mind in their latest entry in their beautiful but bizarre and unsettling escape series, as a very special performance is about to begin, and a myriad of puzzles await. Also free for iOS and Android!

The two neighboring kingdoms are on the brink of war and one little frog has found himself stuck in the middle of all of it. However, Kerohiro isn't alone in this battle and with the help of his friends he might be able to save both kingdoms from starting a pointless fight. Kerhiro is ready with his sword held high, but his banner higher.

Roses are red, violets are blue, this little point-and-click adventure is just for you! Learn the language of love to help one confused fellow win back his sweetheart after taking her for granted. Short, sweet, and silly, Finding My Heart is a clever take on the genre where hunting for words and actions instead of objects is what you'll need to do to win the day.

Simulation hits home in this advergame meant to raise awareness about poverty. Even though you don't have a job, the bills keep piling up, and you have insurance, a student loan, and a child to think of. You're down to your last thousand dollars... can you make it through the month? A sobering if a little ham-handed look at the lives of some people who aren't quite as lucky.

John's got problems of his own, but those will have to wait while he tackles his job as a new 11th grade English Literature teacher at a school conducting a very unusual experiment. In this smart visual novel, you'll watch the lives of your students unfold through personal and private conversations you're not meant to see, and have to decide how to help them when they come to you for advice. A surprisingly fun, funny, and touching story that deals with everything from sex and sexuality to self-confidence, love, and, of course, privacy.

John Cooney and Jimp are here to give you all the puzzle platforming you love, all the surprises you'd never expect, and 400 achievements to earn in Achievement Unlocked 3. Exponentially vaster in scope than its predecessors, Achievement Unlocked 3 is a game that's packed, even crowded, with content. Its busyness may be unexpected compared to previous entries in the series, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun.

The world of creativity games continues to expand, but this time it's on mobile devices! Growtopia, a combined effort from Robot Wants developer Hamumu and Dungeon Scroll creator Robinson Technologies, strips out a lot of the complexities often found in creativity games like Minecraft or Terraria, allowing you to build and decorate your own little world that goes wherever your mobile device goes. Bored on the bus? Growtopia! Don't wanna listen to your boss droning on? Growtopia! Entire evening free? GROWTOPIA!

Just released from On at Eyezmaze, a new a very different type of GROW game. In Grow Cannon, the objective is figure out the correct sequence for firing each of the 10 cannonballs by selecting the fire power on the large meter provided. Warning: charming animations and situations ahead.

Explore deeply layered fantasy landscapes, encounter boss battles and intriguing characters, discover treasure chests and secret coves, upgrade armor and weapons, level up and and everything else you'd want to find in an epic RPG platforming adventure. The on screen controls make your journey all the more enjoyable for a classic gaming feel. Any nostalgic cravings you had for your favorite games of old will be satisfied as you are the hero and your quest is great. Keep that sword handy and your magic prepped; who knows what danger lurks beyond those gates? You'll soon find out!

Need a new merit badge to add to your collection? An alien has crash landed at Camp Pine, where your scout troop is on camp. Help the alien repair his ship and get home in this cute point-and-click adventure from Selfdefiant. It's a fun, coffee break sized distraction without the frustrations of illogical puzzles or hard to find items

Simple can be smart, and this indie puzzle game is simply gorgeous to boot. Play as a little monster who just wants to build bunches of snowmen (and snowwomen!) by solving clever, tightly designed levels with rich atmosphere that will suck you in no matter what the weather is like outside. Also for iOS and Android!

Waking up with a pounding headache stinks. Waking up with a pounding headache in a starship's airlock and discovering everyone else is dead? You must be in one of ScriptWelder's fantastically creepy anti-escape games! Investigate the ship and discover the truth, but you're working on borrowed time, and you may not be alone.

Voted Best of 2005 by the visitors of Jayisgames, the gameplay here is similar to the previous games in the series, Grow and Grow RPG. As with the others, the order in which you click the items determines the outcome of the game. Simple and delightful, these games are among the crown jewels of the Web. By Eyezmaze.

Stop Disasters is one of those games you could easily dismiss before even launching it. However, the ISDR group has not drenched their game in messages and important life lessons that we all should follow. Instead we get a game which is easy to pick up, figure out and get in to, but hard enough to challenge and reward not only planning but learning about successful planning.

We have just finished a massive walkthrough guide for Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City. This Hint-through guide will provide gentle nudges in the right direction to help you get the best from your experience with the latest Virtual Villagers game. Be warned: This guide does contain some spoilers, so proceed with caution and as a last resort!

Sentences is a word game by Pictogame that allows you to recreate famous sayings, combining familiar game elements into one fast-paced language-fest. Each of ten rounds tests your speed-typing, word-rearranging, or Hangman skills. There are 200 quotes to unlock, and each round has a bronze, silver, and gold medal score that require tremendous accuracy and speed. It's simple to play, tricky to master, and has a little bit of an educational edge. Give it a try.

Cleaning up is rarely fun to do. Unless you're cleaning someone else's mess, right? Hmm, no? How about if you're cleaning up someone else's mess in a casual game? That's the surprisingly successful recipe for fun in Nanny Mania 2 Goes to Hollywood. After helping Mayor Whitby and his family in the original Nanny Mania, Emma moves on to help Sophia Ashford, an incredibly wealthy woman who can't seem to keep her family affairs in order. It's your job to help raise the children, care for pets, and keep the house spotless as clueless teenagers leave unmade beds and babies create problems of their own.

The next chapter in Afroninja's long-delayed Escape Series is here! This time, you wake up in a bathroom with the exit blocked by a bank of lasers. Point and click your way out using common household items, as the timer in the corner reminds you once per second, how tragic your brain is.

Totem Tribe GOLD is a new and expanded follow-up to the original Totem Tribe, the series of simulation games sprinkled with real-time strategy and a hidden object elements. Not a proper sequel and more than an expansion, expect to find new challenges, ten new levels, different puzzles, and almost twice as much gameplay as the original Totem Tribe. Translation: say goodbye to the rest of your day.

A Dark Room will run quietly by itself in a tab in your browser with only minimal interaction at first. There's just you, the dark, dwindling wood, and a fire to stoke. But what might that light attract? What could you build if you dared venture the cold quiet outdoors? With gameplay that will remind you of Candy Box! but a decidedly creepier, more intriguing bent to go with simulation and adventure, A Dark Room is well worth checking out.

Let there be light! Figuring out how to make that happen is harder than it seems in this ridiculously adorable new point-and-click puzzle game from Ninjadoodle that has you figuring out how to illuminate a sad little light bulb across different levels.

Making games is hard. But playing a game about making games is anything but. Game Dev Story is a lighthearted sim that's lets you run your very own game development studio, doing everything from negotiating licensing deals with console makers to choosing the genre and theme of the games you're going to make. It's the type of game that you pick up to play for a few minutes before realizing that a few hours have already passed. Fixing bugs in a game has never been so fun.

You're captured by a witch and locked inside her treehouse. So what do you do? Look around, there's a large host of enchanted items and magic spells at your disposal, any number of which could be your key to freedom. The hard part is figuring out which is which and, being a nonmagical being, using it all properly in this whimsical point-and-click adventure from Barbara Jarosik of Pastel Games.

Every night, a young girl dreams of running from Death... and no matter how far she gets, she can never quite make it out of the forest. Still, she's determined to Fear Less!, get stronger, and fight her way through to her escape. Made by Innomin and Atpalicis, Fear Less! could have been expanded upon, but is a lovely, inspiring experience nevertheless.

In this sequel to the hit competition winning point-and-click horror adventure, driven by a desire to find out once and for all whether you're losing your mind, you head to the library to learn more about lucid dreaming and its roots. What you find is another nightmare you'll have to go deeper into than before if you want to escape... but you're being hunted.

Registration has been closed. This free online multiplayer RPG/sim may require an account (which isn't always available to register), but offers a remarkably robust system for you to breed different varieties of dragons, unlocking new genes and expanding your lair.

Mine ore. Turn it into weapons and armor. Sell it for a profit, then upgrade. AumGames delivers a simple but stylish clicker game with a medieval theme that's available in your browser, or free for iOS and Android.

A very impressive Shockwave 3D action puzzler that incorporates physics and a variety of compelling contraptions as the basis for its gameplay. What sets Impulse apart from others in its class is its exceptional presentation and the precision of its underlying physics engine. From Taparo of Munich, Germany.

Virtual Villagers is a downloadable real-time simulation game developed by Last Day of Work, the creators of Fish Tycoon and a number of other casual sim games. Take charge of a village of crash survivors and help them carve out a living on a jungle island. Teach them to farm, help them research scientific advancements and expand their population. It's a remarkably addictive game that's easy to play but impossible to stay away from!

The Phantom Mansion: Spectrum of Souls series puts you in control of Hector, a little spiky-haired dude whose mission is to rescue the many spirits trapped in a giant, foreboding mansion.You must guide Hector through rooms of increasing difficulty in order to save all the souls, collecting keys, dodging spooky-yet-adorable monsters and solving puzzles in order to make it through unscathed.

In My Tribe, you play as sort of a guardian angel for a tribe of island-dwellers, telling them what to do, dragging them from place to place, and occasionally sprinkling them with a (hopefully) beneficial potion. Harvest food, wood, and stone to build with. Your tribe continues to work even when your computer is off. It's remarkably similar to Virtual Villagers but better in a number of ways.

Go deeper into the rabbit hole and uncover darker secrets in this sequel to the original Alice is Dead. You wake up to find yourself the newest resident of Wonderland Jail, and while your newest cellmate isn't very talkative, the strange little man in the cell next door has entirely too much to say. Point-and-click your way to escape, if not all the answers you seek, in this high-quality game of fairy-tale gone wrong. Just make sure you play the original first!

The dungeon you're trapped in was designed by Eyezmaze, which means escape depends on combining items in the proper way. But only the toppest-notch puzzle solvers have even a chance of escaping the Grow Maze. The three-dimensional navigation gets a little getting used to, but this is definitely another classic installment of a classic series.

Don't ever upset the Mushroom King, or you'll wind up like Bad Viking, who will never know the joy of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich again unless he can figure out a way to lift the curse in this very silly point-and-click adventure, also free for iOS and Android.

Life is hard in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but as long as your rustbucket of a dog is by your side you know you'll make it through anything. In Raiders Took My Dog, life is good until the unthinkable happens or well really it's pretty thinkable as it's the title of the game. Fight back and save your dog in this action packed shooter.

As is easy to guess, the object of Filler is to fill the playing field with large white circles. Just click and hold the mouse to start a circle growing. It will stop growing either when you let go or when it collides with a circle already in play. If it collides with one of the small "atoms" bouncing around, not only will it stop growing, it will disappear completely and you'll lose a life!

Nearly a year after the first installment was released, the Gretel and Hansel trilogy continues in this twisted, dark and slightly comedic take on the classic fairytale from Mako Pudding. Separated from her brother in the forest, can Gretel outwit all manner of strange and scary fables to be reunited with Hansel? Of course she can, with your help! After all, girls rule, and boys drool... in Hansel's case, at least, that's literal, so you might want to get a move on.

Ninjadoodle is at it again! ClickPLAY is back with 20 new levels of ClickPLAY clickiness! It's more concerned with how quickly you think, relying less on reflexes and more on the little gray cells that occupy your noggin. Fans of the genre are sure to find lots of entertainment in this quick and amusing little distraction. Come on, click Play and begin! You know you want to...

You're spending the night at your best friend's house, and someone special is coming by at midnight. Michael Lutz, author of My Father's Long, Long Legs delivers an unsettling twist on familiar territory in this Choose Your Own Adventure Style interactive horror fiction.

ClickPLAY is back to test your reflexes and your cow-saving abilities in Ninjadoodle's latest addition to the ClickPLAY series of point-and-click puzzle minigames.

Always looking for the lighthouse to give him peace, our little hero is distraught one night to find the peaceful wave of light is gone. Then the next night shares the same darkness. Not only is this a death sentence to the ships sailing at night but the one who is supposed to keep the lighthouse running is his beloved grandfather. Sailing out to the island our hero finds two things, his grandfather's hat and a deep hole in the ground which he promptly falls into. When your head is bigger than your body and more round than a bowling ball there's more use to it than just making you look adorable and soon our hero is rolling around trying to find what is Beneath the Lighthouse, a free action/avoidance game for Android and iOS from Nitrome.

Nitrome takes a turn... for strategy! In this puzzle game that's free (with ads, with option to remove for a fee) for iOS and Android, you're a tiny knight moving turn by turn through dangerous and puzzling levels filled with monsters, traps, and more. With endless levels to test how far you can go and a winning design, Rust Bucket is a no-brainer puzzle game for your pocket.

A good salami is hard to find, and this finicky feline has been traveling the globe in search of the best. In this latest familiar but fun physics puzzle, your goal is once again to deliver the food in each stage to our hungry kitty by clicking the environment to change it.

The first in the series of Grow games to be created by On of Eyezmaze from Japan. Such attention to detail went into every aspect of the game, from its animation and sound, to its graphics and gameplay. Grow is a very simple game to play, and a delight to watch the magic within it unfold.

A wonderfully bizarre and strangely fun interactive narrative by Jakub Dvorský of Amanita Design. Samorost is the granddaddy of all Web Flash point-and-click adventure games. It is full of clicky puzzles and beautifully rendered scenes mixed with animations and various gadgetry. The number one game in the Best of 2004, and now it even has a sequel.

One day, I will release an iPhone game. It will be a game about writing articles about iPhone games. You'll have to play a ton of games, try to manage your rage when yet another burp/bikini/fart app appears, and cry tears of joy when something original appears. After selecting your games, you'll sit down and compose an article complete with gorgeous screenshots and flowery prose as an introduction paragraph. When you're finished, you can make a game about writing iPhone game articles in the game and start the process anew. It will be the greatest, most infinite iPhone game ever!

Prove you've got the best aim this side of anywhere in this realistic first-person rail-shooter that will challenge your eye and your reflexes. Take on a series of increasingly difficult missions as the seventh member of an elite group with special skills. Unlock new weapons, complete challenges, and complete objectives all over the world... just don't take any time to stop and smell the roses.

A trip to an art gallery takes an unsettling turn for nine year old Ib. When the lights go out, she suddenly finds herself alone, and something is begging her to journey deeper into the belly of the building. A free horror adventure game that delivers some fantastically freaky scenes and a ton of scares, both subtle and otherwise, for a memorable experience that's far more effective at times than its big budget peers.

They say it's all in how you look at things... and they might be right! Perspective, by the fine students of Digipen, is a unique game that combines two-dimensional platforming with three-dimensional worlds to explore. As you switch back and forth between the two modes, you'll see that there's more to this well-crafted challenge than first meets the eye.

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

Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst is a "hunt the item" game similar to Hidden Expedition: Titanic. The Queen of England (affectionately known as "Queenie") has sent you to investigate the mystery behind this creepy cluttered mansion. But beware. Not only is this house abandoned, and likely haunted, but it is also filled with strange twists, puzzling locks and hidden clues.

In Gateway 2 you again guide a robot, through a dream-like setting, in order to solve numerous and varied mini-puzzles for a seemingly unknown purpose (though a purpose there is, as you soon discover). Using well-placed musical cues and subtle environmental sound the author has created a virtual world that draws you in from the moment you launch the game. The setting and aesthetics are so enticing and mysterious, it doesn't matter at first that you don't know what your ultimate goal is (or indeed if you have one).

The main focus of Knytt Stories is atmosphere, environment and exploration, not complex gameplay and a barrage of media. With Knytt Stories you'll spend most of your time wandering around sparsely populated worlds looking for a few rare items, enjoying the beautiful visuals and ambient music the whole time. It's a unique experience in gaming and will pull you in from the moment you start playing.

John Cooney, author of TBA, TBA2, Grid16, and the Ball Revamped series, has unveiled his latest epic adventure. Along with timeless, classic platforming gameplay, Achievement Unlocked offers you the opportunity to earn no less than One. Hundred. Achievements. Holy bat farts on a bus.

What city dweller hasn't momentarily yearned for a little plot of land somewhere and a lovely green garden? A place to call your own, a place to breathe in nature, a place to make the neighbors, well, green with envy. This is the premise of Gardenscapes by Playrix Entertainment, a hidden object game with elements of time management and sim games thrown in to make a fun, exciting, and yet curiously relaxing experience.

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.

A top-down action shooter by Modern Boys Production, BLACK IV: Time for Revenge is basically just about a stickguy shooting a bunch of other stickguys, occasionally in slow motion. And that's more than fine! An unrepentantly goofy and escapist throwback, BLACK IV keeps the bullets flying and the trigger fingers itchy.