October 2014 Archives

Nancy Drew isn't as well known or as popular these days as she's been in decades past, which is sort of a shame, since even though the gal is pushing ninety (the first books came out in the 1930s!), she's pretty rad. Nancy has solved hundreds of mysteries over the decades, from small town crime and murder to globe-trotting conspiracies, but there's always been one she's never solved... the death of her mother. In Her Interactive's point-and-click adventure game Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy, Nancy receives a letter telling her what she's always suspected all along... that her mother's fatal car accident eight years ago was no accident, and indeed that Kate Drew may have been killed by a group she was investigating. See, as it turns out, Kate helped thwart a biological terrorist attack nearly ten years ago, and while nobody knows what the ultimate goals of the group known as Revenant were, everyone in Glasgow is getting understandably nervous as the anniversary of the attack approaches. Now drawn in with the promise of finally finding out what happened to her mother, Nancy might get the answers she's always wanted... though figuring out who to trust, and how to stay alive, is another matter.

Short and sweet definitely describes Yonashi's escape game Yonashi Escape 12, that sees you locked in a room with a bunch of rat tchotchkes and seemingly little else. Click around to navigate your (tiny!) prison, and use the information you can find to crack codes in order to get out. Blink and you'll miss it, but if what you've been wanting is a light, tasty snack of a game, Yonashi Escape 12 has you covered.

Play Yonashi Escape 12

Some readers may remember the days when you'd once pay $50 USD to play a turn-based fantasy adventure RPG like King's Bounty on your computer at home, and with good reason. The unique creative concepts prompted a plethora of remakes, and even the occasional boardgame. Flash's Bounty is a streamlined, pared-down approach to what has now become a franchise of games derived from a single classic title, which only shows how much there is to be said for developing an original gaming formula. In Flash's Bounty you play a knight of King Maximus, keeping West Liberon safe from monsters and keeping the barbarian attacks at bay so the average peasant can go about their ordinary lives in peace. Maximus has promised to give the King's Bounty to whomever can retrieve the Unicorn Sword, which provides a convenient pretext to adventure through the landscape putting down surreal critters, restoring civilization, building forces and generally living it up with honor and valor.

Sometimes all you want to do is kick back and relax with a disembodied, bikini-wearing torso, and in times like these, Aries Escape has you covered with Aries Escape: Episode No. 15. You find yourself in a cozy little woodland cabin, perhaps ready for one last summer fling judging by your wardrobe and the seasonal decor. But who can really relax with all these puzzles around them? You literally can't sit down without coming across a coded lock box, and if you ever want to escape, you'll need to find and correctly interpret the clues needed to open them. Just click around to move and interact, using the white arrows that appear at the edges of the screen to navigate, and double-click an item in your inventory to view it up close. The text is all in Japanese, but none of it will prevent you from finishing the game. Watch for the cursor to change to indicate interactive zones, and keep your eyes peeled for clues and codes. So many clues and codes. But hey, that's all in a day's work for an escape veteran, right? Especially if you want to get the Happy End...

The great world is tearing itself apart. Every living inhabitant is doomed to die with the planet. A small group, however, realizes they must find The Maker, of whom no one knows if it truly exists or not to plead it to help save their planet. So off our heroes go to find help and information so they can beg The Maker to save the planet. You'd think everyone would be ready to be on board with this plan to save everyone's lives, but apparently talking is done through the sword and fist. Prepare for battle on your iOS and Android devices, with Mistwalkers new mobile battle game, Terra Battle. This tactical puzzle roleplaying game, lets you strategically plan your party and crush your foes, all while enjoying beautiful artwork and a deep in-depth poetic story. Mysteries unfold while you add more and more powerful members to your planet saving group.

It seems that a video game generation cannot be truly labeled as "retro" until it becomes possible to accurately re-create it in a browser window. And while games like Dino Run and Super Mario Bros. Crossover have kept the pixel-art flowing online, the gloriously chunky polygons of the Nintendo 64 remain in short supply. At least now, though, there's Kiwi 64 by Marcus Horn, a Unity 3D platform game inspired by those "collect everything in sight" games of yore, and a certain one about a bear named Banjo and a bird named Kazooie, in particular. In it, you play as Kiwi, a cute little flightless bird who just wants to enjoy the sunshine. Unfortunately, the evil King Melon is high atop his mountain, and ready to ruin your day with taunting pieces of verse. But legends have foretold of five magical lamps that, if collected, would unlock power unimaginable! Or at least enough to kick that melon off that mountain! Which is probably just as good!

It's alive! Aliiiiiiiiiiive! Which is a good thing because a game about a bunch of dead monkeys would probably be too weird, even for me. In Pencil Kids' latest Monkey GO Happy point-and-click puzzle game Monkey GO Happy Halloween, the monkeys decide the only thing that will cheer them up is to craft a hideous mockery of life using body parts they find strewn around. Hey, we've all been there. That's why I'm no longer allowed within fifty yards of a cemetery. Just click around to interact, and drag items from your inventory at the top of the screen to use them, keeping your eyes peeled for puzzle clues hidden in the scenery. Despite its aggressively ominous soundtrack and ghoulish premise, Monkey GO Happy Halloween is sweet, silly, and simple Halloween fun for all ages, and won't keep you wrapped up for so long that you'll miss trick-or-treating.

Play Monkey GO Happy Halloween

It was a dark and stormy Wednesday in October, wind rattling the shutters and the dilapidated boards of the ersatz roof which offered no shelter inside the JIG offices from the elements threatening to ruin it all. Flicking the light switch repeatedly had no effect—dark loomed on all sides. In the corner, I could see the opening of Selfdefiant's scary dungeon, but knew already of the trap that lie there in wait. Tired from my travails through a minimalist maze of Hottategoya's making, I just wanted some candy. Sure, FunkyLand promised that once more, but my brain was in no shape for solving puzzles. Instead, I felt my way through the darkness until my hands touched on exactly what I needed: the smooth feel of a platinum blonde wig and the cool chiffon of a long, sparkling ice blue dress. Maybe I can't sing, but I can try looking the part. By the way, happy Trick-or-Treating, my ghoulies! Here's a handful of escape games to get you started...

Selfdefiant's Sneaky House of Mystery is a rare escape game in that in addition to puzzles and codes, you're actually trapped somewhere with all the creature comforts. A big fluffy bed. Kitchen. Bathroom. TV and sound system with cutting edge games from just a few years after I was born. But alas, you can't stay, so it's time to figure a way out of here by exploring and hunting down items you can use to get past obstacles. Though the interface is a little clunky, it's a satisfying length with a decent amount of substance for a coffee break, and hey, who can fault its taste in games... or background music?

Play Sneaky House of Mystery

If you're a master of hell runs in Spelunky and you're getting tired of eggplant for supper every night, you might be looking for a new challenge to shake up your straight-down trips. In Puzzle to the Center of the Earth, available free for iOS and Android, that challenge comes in the form of a match-3 puzzle. The colored blocks you break apart also form the platforms you have to have to traverse in this clever mashup by Foursaken Media. It's a long way down, so watch where you swing your pickaxe!

What do you do when hordes of monsters come a-knocking at your door? If you're a hospital you bring them inside, give them medical treatment and pray you have enough facilities to heal them all! Developers Leon and Francois van Niekerk and Hilgard Bell over at Clockwork Acorn bring us Monsters & Medicine, a turn-based strategy title that reminds us that even monsters need a little care and attention sometimes. Each turn different types of colorful monsters will appear at your door needing urgent treatment. You'll be dragging rooms and hallways onto your building to increase your ability to accommodate them all. Each monster type will need their own type of ward, and they'll also need to be able to get to it. Fortunately for all concerned, monsters will wait patiently outside in an orderly line, no pushing or shoving — in addition to drastically reducing your insurance premiums, your Orderly Conduct Policy has been the secret of your hospitals' success and made your treatment facilities an industry leader and the place for recuperation and healing.

What do you really need out of life? Instant gratification? Money? Fast cars? UncleBig2D's March is a short but beautifully executed little interactive art piece that plays like an arcade game and takes you through one boy's life in a series of short stages. All you have to do to play is click, and while there isn't a whole lot of replay value after the few minutes it'll take to play, and some may find the representation of the message a little too cookie-cutter, the core of it is heartfelt and earnest, not to mention presented in a simple but evocative retro style. It's less a "you need this specific thing" thing, and more "you might miss other things if you only focus on the material things" thing... thingy.

Play March

Just Pine Games' latest escape game, Alexandria Escape, also free for iOS and Android, plops you straight into ancient antiquity and demands you find your way out. You've gotten yourself trapped in some dusty library in the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria and it's up to you to leap through a series of escape game puzzles to get free. The game's got an extremely attractive Greco-Roman style going on, with a fair amount of historical accuracy to boot. Sure, the game requires some suspension of disbelief through some of the wackier puzzles, but our hat's off to the art department for going the extra mile to give history buffs something to nod knowingly at. Click to navigate your way around the room, collecting the odd knickknacks that you'll combine and use in every possible way. Seriously, these Alexandrians had steam power, gears, and the written word, but they couldn't warp their brains around a Hide-A-Key?

It's the shooter series that turns "shock and awe!" into "shock and draw!" It's the arcade shoot-em-up where a lone pilot sets out to erase all of his foes... literally! It's Notebook Wars Saga, also available for Android and iOS, Francisco Ferreres' vertical-scrolling war game that shows us that the battlefield of the future will just as likely as not be some kid's fifth-period notebook (at least once he's finished covering it in ZOFOs and that Stussy S thing). After the conclusion of the Notebook Space Wars, we're back on terra firma, and while the engine is now Unity, the mission should be instantly familiar: shoot things and make them explode!

With the sages out of town for a convention, a little teleportation spell in their absence doesn't quite go as planned and now it's animals. Freaking. Everywhere. Chickens clucking in the castle hallways. Sheep on cliffs. Horses down wells, and cattle mooing in the throne room. Unless the last words you want to hear in your life are, "Why is animals?" from a council of outraged wizards, you'd better get everything sorted before their return. flapbat brings us this phenomenal free magickal animal rescue action puzzle adventure game that'll have you finding all the animals to bring them home. Farmyard Chronicle, Director's Cut is the beautifully-polished version of a game-in-a-week release centered on bouncing animals around the screen and into teleportation gates ("Fieeeld gooooal!") while getting bounced around yourself by sheep and kicked across pits by horses. No, really. It'll take plenty of artifacts to get everybody home, like rings that make you dash, teleportation wands to swap places with the critters, and even altering the flow of time itself.

We are living in the Age of Information. All the accumulated knowledge of the greatest minds of history are at your fingertips, any time of the day, instantaneously, for only the price of a Wifi connection. Sometimes this can be overwhelming. But developer Science Museum is here to teach us all a thing or two with Transmission, a game about the web of electronic synapses that makes our connected world possible, and also available free for iOS and Android. It's a puzzle game that has you connecting various receivers and transmitters with glistening streams of information via the mouse. Each circle can transmit and each square can only receive. It's up to you to juggle corrects amounts of information, represented with glowing cubes, between each circle and square. There are some optional objectives you can fulfill for some extra credit, like using the fewest connections possible or leaving info cubs on the right circle. All of it combines to create a brain teaser with a capital B.

Don't be afraid! Though we draw ever closer to that freakiest of holidays, Spoopy Saturday has three free indie horror games for everyone from the scaredy cats to those who giggle at even the goriest of ghosties. We've got a house you can't escape from (even though the developer is known for escapes... ), a disaster where a little girl goes missing and you seem to have some serious psychological trauma dogging your steps in addition to monsters, and finally, a masquerade party with a little bit of romance and a lot of really skimpy costumes.

Hotel Berkley is haunted, though I don't know what you'd expect from a place with more menacing statuary than rooms and peeling wallpaper, exposed wiring, and spiderwebs abound. While the guests have been fleeing in fear from apparitions and nightmares, including one woman whose husband is trapped inside when she bravely runs off to leave him to fend off the green ghostly stink fog himself, the hotel owner seems more mildly annoyed by it than anything else. Luckily, she's called you in, a journalist who knows that a leaf blower is the best answer to unruly spooks, and your uncanny ability to notice that the really obvious mechanisms around you might be worth fiddling with. Elefun Games' hidden-object adventure Fear for Sale: The 13 Keys might be more unintentionally funny than freaky as its characters react in really put-upon ways to the cosmic horrors after them, but is still a fun romp for fans of campy horror. As you soon discover, there's a reason for all the passive-aggressive haunting going on, and maybe that whiny hotel keeper knows a bit more than she's letting on. Maybe a good night's sleep will shed some light on things? Either that or pull you into a series of bizarre, distorted nightmares through the machinations of some creepy "hey gurl" looking specter who peeps in through windows at you wearing a top hat. Whichever.

When we last left our hero, the sole remaining practitioner of ninjitsu on a distant world, he had just finished annihilating an army of mutants in a mad scientist's lab in order to prevent them from overtaking the galaxy. Now all he wants to do is go home and kick up his footie pajamas for a while and unwind. But a ninja's work is never done, and in The Last Ninja From Another Planet 2, Dharmasta Adriwara Widhayaka's interstellar ninja finds himself in the depths of another puzzle adventure. This time, he's made a pit stop on his way to his home planet, in order to liberate another innocent world from the grasp of the mafia. (Seriously, ninjas vs. mafia. Why haven't MORE people jumped on this train?) Just like in his previous adventure, this anti-gravity assassin leaps from wall to wall with the [arrow] keys, moving straight forward until he hits something, much like in a sliding block game. He's out to exterminate every mafia goon he can, and while the minor minions provide no resistance to his blade, not all the mobsters will go down without a fight! It's a familiar formula for those who played the first game, but it's got plenty of new enemies, skills, and hazards to tempt them back for a second round.

Legends have told of the great warrior Kon, a cursed Enkian, who, with his strength and skill, saved the fair Princess Narya from the evil King Blazer, and saved the land of Naturia. Unfortunately for Kon, that life of ease he earned in the last game seems to have been revoked by the fates, as he has found himself shipwrecked on Drumdrum Island, where it just so happens that the evil ice witch Merody wishes to bring about an eternal winter, Kon is the only one who can stop her, and the local shopkeepers don't seem to be accepting his Hero of the Realm discount card. Isn't that always the case? But adventure calls, and there are baddies to fight, and treasure to swipe, so Kon had might as well enjoy himself. Land of Enki 2 is a retro-style action-platform game by VoidForce where players will travel to an engaging fantasy world, discover fascinating creatures, then slice them in half with a sword, because what else?

Being a ghost isn't half bad. Everything's comfortable when you can float just above it, the grocery bill is a lot smaller, it's always peaceful and quiet, and transportation goes a lot faster when you can just appear. Yep, life is easier as a phantom, until people start to invade your peace and quiet by moving into your homestead. Time to break out "Haunting for Dummies" and prep your hair-rising wails for Glitchy Pixels' new indie game, Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror. Henry B. Knight, now dead and transparent, is a little obsessive over his house and the new tenants need to go. Plan your scares to chase everyone out of the house, work around bosses, and gain back your peace and quiet in this puzzle game. Quite similar to Haunt the House, Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror has some of the charm and much more of the challenge to really test your strategic side.

Chances are you know Shimage from the addictive Megami Quest, in which case you may be interested in adorable simple strategy-lite RPG Village Guardians, also available free for Android. In it, your goal is to keep the town safe for thirty days by managing a party of heroes who automatically do battle with the monsters who show up. Heroes who take part in battle and live automatically gain experience and level up, though even if a party member gets trounced, they'll be revived the next day. Your involvement is mostly limited to Scouting, which tells you what monsters are coming next, and spending hard earned gold on new party members or equipment. Every few days, the things sold in shops change, so properly managing your cash in order to ensure your party is best equipped for the coming days is important. Do you buy up a bunch of low level warrior grunts? Save up for more powerful equipment even if it means struggling along with only a few heroes? Sadly, while the game will run in another tab or window, it only does so very slowly, so for the most part, you'll be better off watching the game run. (I know, I know... what is this, olden times?) Just save frequently and in different slots on different days, since if you fail a battle, it's game over.

Play Village Guardians

Village Guardians (Android, Android Tablet)

So apparently as of this writing it's Chemistry Week! Awesome! But no matter what week it is, what better way to brush up on all those chemicals and formulas you slept through in high school than with Test Tube Games' new title, Bond Breaker! It's a puzzle game with a healthy dose of educational material woven in, subtly enough that it doesn't lecture you yet deeply enough that's completely fascinating. Control your proton by clicking to guide it through each level, pressing switches, avoiding spikes, and bonding with other particles for a variety of scientifically-accurate effects. There's a wealth of humor on display as well... who knew video game spikes were the proton's natural foe? You won't even notice you're learning. Seriously, why can't textbooks be this fun?

Soothing pastel palette? Mellow soundtrack? "I have no clue how to solve this"? Awww yeah, it's TomaTea time with the escape game Salvadoor, which is... uh... gosh that's pink. Surrounded by painted eggs, flower arrangements, and puzzles aplenty, in order to get out of the locked door, you'll have to hunt for clues to decipher the combinations to TomaTea's customary code locks. Just click around to navigate and interact, watching the tip of your cursor for a glow when you're passing it over something you can click on, and click the little "i" on an item's portrait in your inventory to view it up close. Doing so can allow you to manipulate them into different things when possible, or even combine them with other things you're carrying.

Pegas Games' Tiny King is short on stature but big on d'awwwww in this point-and-click puzzle game where our miniscule monarch cruelly awakens from a snuggly dream to find his cake has been stolen. As he travels in search of it, through a magical fanged blue door because reasons, you have to figure out what to click or otherwise manipulate in each level in order to proceed, usually by finding the key and dragging it to open the door's maw. Of course, just because you can see the key doesn't always mean you can get to it, so you'll have to click around and experiment with everything in each stage, be it sentient bookshelf, pile of worms, cow shelf... whatever. Don't expect it to make sense, just expect it to be cute and weird. Each level, apart from the first, also has a secret golden piece hidden in it, and if you want to find out what's behind that door on the stage select screen, you should probably track them down!

A most auspicious Wednesday to you, dearest, prettiest, best-pony-est, best-smelling readers! It's time for another installment of Weekday Escape, and we have a batch of fine, fresh, and of course free escape games to tickle your fancy. Elle is off taking her annual amateur piggy-back sabbatical, or at least that's what she's doing as long as I'm the one writing this and nobody is around to stop me, so this week you're stuck with me again. And Neatescape. And Yomino Kagura. And no1game. So I hope one of you remembered to bring snacks and board games, because it's getting crowded in here.

After his debut in Sweet Revenge, Carmel Games' Crazy Dad continues to live up to his name in his latest point-and-click adventure A Day at the Library. See, he's just started working there, and he's decided his first task is to clear out the kids breaking the rules, the rude ones, the ones being nuisances... basically everyone who annoys him. To clear out all the kids, click around to explore and gather items, and prepare to use what you find in rather... uh, unorthodox ways. All of which beg the question... what sort of lunatic actually bore Crazy Dad two equally unhinged children?

Play A Day at the Library

Birthdays are always stressful, never more so than for the harried parent. You've got to make sure all the kids get the right presents and keep everyone safe and be extra careful no one gets a bigger slice of cake. It's especially stressful in Alexander Fedoseev's physics puzzle game Gift Rush 3, since you're a tiny spider-ball-thing with a mess of sleepy kids who need their cake. Luckily, they're heavy sleepers. In the latest entry in the Gift Rush series, you click to shoot strands of web to swing around each of the 20 levels, trying to get the cake to your kid or your kid to the cake, which ever is easiest. You can grab the sleepy toddlers by pulling them close and you can press the [spacebar] to drop them. Just make sure you don't grab the cake by mistake. Your harried little spider person just can't help himself when he's too close to cake, and he'll scarf it down.

SCFWorks' Exit Fate is a massive free indie RPG that's got a bit of a bad reputation. Originally released in 2009, it sported an enormous playtime with hand-drawn artwork, an epic story, a huge cast of recruitable characters, and a story a lot of people felt was a pretty clear rip-off of Konami's 1999 Playstation release Suikoden 2. And, y'know, for the first few hours, it's hard not to see a comparison. Stop me if you've heard this one. A group of friends who grew up together and now find themselves in the army get caught up in the conflict between two rival countries and ultimately fall in with a rag-tag faction of rebels they'll need to lead to victory, which pits them against former friends and allies as they make hard choices and lose people they care about along the way... oh, and, uh, there's a battle with a wind monster early on, too. Though the plot specifics are actually very different, Exit Fate's format, mechanics, and even graphics and sound are so clearly taken from or "inspired by" Suikoden that it had a lot of people crying foul. Despite this, however, there's an undeniable amount of work, passion, and talent behind Exit Fate that makes it an ambitious game that succeeds more often than it fails in saluting the genre and source material. With hand-drawn artwork for every character, a whopping 75 party members to recruit for your growing castle, challenging turn-based battles, and a complex story that blends fantasy with political turnabout, Exit Fate is a huge achievement from a single developer that will keep JRPG fans busy for a long, long time.

Note: At this time, Episode Two is available only as an in-app purchase after installing Episode One, which is free.

One of our favorite average Joe heroes is back in House on Fire's point-and-click adventure The Silent Age: Episode Two for iOS and Android. If you're like me you might need a little memory jog on what happened in Episode One, so let me sum it up. Joe is just your average guy working as a janitor in a government facility until he's tasked by a dying man to use a time traveling device to save humanity from extinction. When last we left Joe, he was on his way to find this time traveler as a young man, hopefully to get some answers, and Episode Two picks up right where we left off. Swipe your finger around the screen to see what you can interact with, then tap on the object you'd like to learn more about. Tap to make Joe walk, or double tap to make him run. Your inventory runs along the bottom of the screen, just tap an item once to pick up, and tap again to make the object interact with any item on the screen. And, when available, tap the time machine to travel in time, a fun mechanic which is again integral to the story line as well as to solving puzzles.

Sometimes all we need is a little follow-through in life. Aspiring developer Amidos found that out when he created a game called Random RPG for a bi-annual Arabian game jam. Convinced that it was a total wash, he stuck with it for another week of overhauling anyway and came up with The Rogue Puzzle Game, a puzzle game deftly shuffling together the feel of a Sokoban title, a look reminiscent of Legend of Zelda, and some utterly killer NES-type soundtrack music. Result? The Rogue Puzzle Game was picked as one of only three finalists in the Game Nomad competition and is set to be presented at Gamer's Day, Arabia's largest gaming event. More importantly, fans became fascinated by the game's unique play experience. Find your way out of fifteen dungeon levels by attacking monsters with swords laying conveniently strewn around the dungeon floor. The swords re-orient as you move so they're always hilt-towards-you, and need to be pushed into monsters. Each sword does one point of damage to whichever immediately-adjacent monster you push it into, but monsters could have more than one hit point. Fortunately, their hit points are visibly displayed clearly on each monster.

The original Sentry Knight was basically everything you want a defensive shooter to be... addictive, vibrant, simple to master, and totes adorable to boot. So with Sentry Knight 2 here from Justin Wolf, Tyler Myers, Jason Coates and tunes provided by Kat "Dloot" Angeloni, we had our fingers crossed for more of the same... and luckily, it delivers in spades. As before, you control a brave, cute little knight cloistered in a tower and armed with a bow and arrow, while goblins, skeletons, spiders, and all other manner of nasties will try to get close enough to attack, though some do ranged damage. If they topple your tower by destroying all your hit points, you're done for, so mouse over any red potions dropped to bolster your health. Your knight aims where you point your cursor, and will automatically fire. You'll also have several spells at your disposal, which, when activated using the [1] to [7] number keys, will be cast at your cursor's location, ranging from fireballs to pools of poison and more. Enemies destroyed drop gold that can be spent on upgrades to your knight or the tower itself, but also experience points, and whenever you level up, you can spend talent points on enhancing and unlocking new spells. Monsters eat your face off? Well, if you find yourself getting trounced, you might have to replay a few earlier stages to earn more experience points and gold, 'cause it's all about that grind, 'bout that grind, and levels.

Things get a little mad in Funkyland's latest escape game Alice House No. 6: A Mad Tea-Party, where to find your way out of this festooned room you'll need to find five Mad Hatter-themed items. As usual, there's no changing cursor to show you what you can interact with, so you'll have to poke and prod while you explore. Once again it's on the short side, with a nice balance of deciphering clues and using items to get you through the puzzles, but if you want an escape that a little bit weird and a lot bit festive, pull up a chair and enjoy. Just don't sit on the Dormouse.

Play Alice House No. 6: A Mad Tea-Party

By the pricking of my thumbs, a bunch of free indie horror games this way come... s? Okay, so I didn't think that one out very well. But hey! Welcome back to Spoopy Saturday, where we post three free super scary freeware games every Saturday leading up to Halloween. This week, a young girl moves into a dusty old house and gets more than she bargained for, a late shift at the office turns terrifying when you discover you're not alone and the doors are locked, and you wake up confused and disoriented in a strange house filled with secrets someone is trying to make you remember. Ghosts, cryptic messages, frantic chases, and of course jump scares await, so let's get started. Just remember not to look over your shoulder...

In Elephant Games' hidden-object adventure Riddles of Fate: Memento Mori, it turns out Death may be big and scary, but he also stinks at his job. There's a delicate balance between life and death, he tells you, and souls must die in order for the new ones to be born. Which, y'know, makes it sort of a big deal when a bunch of wicked souls decided to run from him rather than to go gently into that good night. Death claims he's afraid of accidentally punishing an innocent soul, so he needs your help as an expert detective to trot around the world and root out those who have gone to extremes to literally cheat Death. Not that that's apparently hard to do if running away takes you beyond the reach of his immortal powers. Using his magic ball (stop that snickering), you'll travel to different places around the world, each acting as its own contained story revolving around a different wayward soul. Periodically you'll also need to return to your home to make use of your tools to copy keys, decrypt writing, or develop photographs and so forth, but the bulk of your work is in solve puzzles, hidden-object scenes, and identifying suspects on the ground. The farther you go, the more it becomes apparent someone is actively meddling in Death's business, and yours.

Michael Brough's iOS action arcade game Helix is best described as Loop by way of Hotline Miami's brutal one-hit KO gameplay and all those really weird artsy sci-fi movies from the 70s. It may also be a conspiracy to get me to destroy my iPad in the most violent way possible, I haven't decided. In it, you control a flying... amoeba-looking thing whose only defense against the creatures who come after you is to encircle them, which destroys them, although some enemies need to be circled more than once, or in specific ways. Just put your finger on the screen, and the creature will follow your motions, though it won't stay "attached" to your fingertip. While you can encircle more than one enemy at once, backing off as you will often find yourself doing to avoid other foes will cause the line of your snare to "rewind" as it follows your movements. Since a single hit will end the game, it's all about seeing how long you can last, and in that regard Helix is a formidable challenge indeed.

With a title like Find the Escape-Men Part 121: Appetite for Fall Food, you might think no1game's latest escape game is all about Pumpkin Spice Lattes and roast turkey, but no, it's about someone getting trapped in a bathroom stall at a festival. To help them out, you need to click around, solve puzzles, and hunt for not only items, but the ten little green men hidden everywhere. As usual, the lack of changing cursor may trip you up a little if you're used to using it to spot interactive areas, but the festive theme (well, not so festive for your friend) and quirky puzzles make this one just the right size for you to escape from your day with.

Play Find the Escape-Men Part 121: Appetite for Fall Food

Smilegate's iOS RPG sim game Faraway Kingdom - Dragon Raiders may be free-to-play with in-app purchases and timers, but before you hiss and recoil, hear me out, because this is one seriously adorable and addictive little game that never pushes you for money and manages to be generous enough with its timers and currency that you'll never feel pressured to spend. Best described as a combination between Tiny Tower and a simplified fantasy kingdom simulation, Faraway Kingdom tasks you with rebuilding the land after a great dragon destroyed it, and training up an army of heroes tough enough to take it down. This essentially splits the gameplay into three parts... the town, the dungeons, and the portal. The town is where your heroes stay, and as it grows, you can hold more of them, who pay you taxes as long as they're living in the houses you build. Beneath the town are the unlockable dungeons where monsters roam, and you can send parties of heroes to each level to slay enemies and earn you cash and minerals used to upgrade equipment. The portal allows you to send raiding parties to different areas using energy (which refills at one point for every five minutes), and this is where you'll actually accompany your heroes to duke it out. They'll fight on their own, but you'll need to pick up the coins that appear and the class power-up icons... nab a warrior sphere, for instance, and you can tap the icon to use a powerful attack, or stack multiples to make your attack more powerful. After a few battles in a row, your heroes will go up against a boss, and unless they defeat it before the timer runs out, the boss will become enraged and its damage will jump. Survive and you'll level up your heroes, as well as earning valuable equipment and other treasure. It's a simple formula, designed for multiple quick bouts throughout the day rather than marathon sessions, but a gorgeous art style and unobtrusive in-app purchase options that are truly optional makes this one feel like it might just get free-to-play right.

I could complain that Andy Brown's puzzle game Assembots undoes all the important psychological work of that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Data was put on trial and we all learned a valuable lesson about humanity, but at the end of each level, the robots do a cute little dance where you live, and it turns out I'm just that shallow. The goal in each stage is to get the required number of factory made robots where you need them to be, and they require a lot of hand (metal appendage?) holding to make it happen, since on their own they'll just trundle forward until they hit an obstacle and then turn around and do it again. At the bottom of the screen you'll see a bank of commands that will affect a bot's behaviour. They can dig through blocks, climb walls, and more, but each command only has a limited amount available, so you need to think carefully about what bot you use them on, and when. Click a command's icon, then click the bot you want to apply it to onscreen. Some commands will last until you apply another, while others are only temporary, such as digging only lasting for a single obstacle. In the bottom left corner, you'll find buttons to speed things up or slow them down, as well as the button to restart the level without getting stuck. You might not need to use all the bots available to you to meet your goal, so try to finish the level using as little resources as possible, as fast as you can!

It's a crossover more exciting than the Flintstones meeting the Jetsons, or that one time Urkel showed up on Full House! The plots of two of Hyptosis' popular fantasy point-and-click adventure sagas join and continue in Kingdom of Liars: Stonepath, featuring characters from the Hood series. With plots and plans to unleash demon of all kind upon the mortal realm apace, a contingent of the Ashbane watch, joined by a group of allies (including a young witch in a familiar red cloak) has traveled to the ruins of Ardan to investigate the fiend activity in the area. Click the red navigation arrows to navigate yourself through ruins. Move the cursor onto items to get a description, or click to manipulate or add them to your inventory. Once in your inventory, items can be selected in order to "use" them on part of the scenery. If a character is present in an area, they will be listed in the upper left of the screen. Clicking their name will allow you to converse with them by asking various questions.

The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (hosted here with kind permission... visit the official site of the author!) is the newest piece of creepy interactive horror fiction from Michael Lutz, creator of the stellar My Father's Long, Long Legs. Taking more of a Choose Your Own Adventure route this time around, in the game you're spending the night at your best friend's house, something you do all the time. Tonight, though, things are a little different. A little strange, even. And when midnight rolls around, you're going to be getting a very special visitor. See, your friend's uncle works for Nintendo, and while many a playground kid may make claims like that to get attention, this time there's actually some truth to it. So you should be excited when he shows up... right? Just click the bolded red text to make your choices, and once the game moves to the den in your friend's house, the things you do will have an impact on time as it passes. There are five different endings to unlock, and make sure to play with your sound on for the full effect. Occasionally you may need to wait a little for text to appear, and... things... might happen to your browser, but all of this is perfectly normal. Ish.

Ah yes, October joy: the seasons are changing, the weather is what it is, and the sound of cheering fills the stadiums. In some parts of the world, this month also brings beer fests, grueling marathons, busy costume shops and the newest of flavor trends, gingerbread spice. For gamers, the horror genre is never in short supply this time of year but looking here on the Jigasphere, there's even more creepy, spooky titles populating the review lists. Sure there's plenty of scary escape games to be found as well but that can wait for now; instead, if we were to name a theme for this week's escaper's showcase, it'd have to be "S'mores"—a sticky sweet treat of marshmallows and chocolate melted over scorching heat...

Tia Orisney's text-based game Following Me represents a very real fear as it follows two sisters, Kat and Aria, who get lost in the frozen woods one night and wind up stumbling across something they were never meant to see. Overpowered and alone, their survival depends on your choices as they try to outwit their captors in this tense and disturbing thriller. Just click the text links at the bottom of each page to make your choices or continue the story to the next page. You can't go back, so think about your decisions before you make them, especially since unlike other interactive fiction stories, you typically don't get to exhaust all your options... you get one chance, one action, and that's it. Though well written, some players may find the ending, however you arrive at it and whatever your choices, still leaves far too many questions to be really satisfying, and the inability save and load means to see the consequences of a different decision requires playing the entire thing from the beginning. Still, if you're looking for a creepy "what would you do" type of Choose Your Own Adventure tale, this one is for you.

Play Following Me

Looking for a short and speedy point-and-click adventure with just a touch of spookiness? Self-Defiant's Alone on Raven Road may fit the bill, even if it's essentially an exercise in bad ideas. After all, when your car breaks down in the middle of the night on an abandoned road so deep into the woods the only the wolves and bats and a guy with a serious skin condition are around to keep you company, maybe strapping on a manky old pair of hiking boots and traipsing off into the wilderness isn't such a good idea. Just keep your eyes out for clues, use the green arrows to navigate, click when your cursor changes to interact, and click an item in your inventory to highlight it for use.

Play Alone on Raven Road

In short interactive movie/murder mystery Proxy by Sonoshee, eight people with seemingly nothing in common find themselves trapped on an elevator. Help can't come soon enough because when the lights go out, a being calling itself "Proxy" kills one of them, and will continue to do so unless they can figure out who Proxy really is... and kill them first. Made in a short period of time as an experiment to learn Unity, Proxy is extremely light on interaction and could use a bit of polish with the text, but offers a creepy-cool whodunit with two endings... though only one of them is good, and considered "true".

Play Proxy

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My experience playing Creative Assembly's survival horror adventure/nightmare simulation Alien: Isolation can probably be summed up in two simple words... "Absolutely nope". Or at least, that was my very calm yet emphatic reaction as I closed the game immediately after the first time I heard an unidentifiable scrape coming from somewhere ahead of Amanda Ripley in the dark and cramped ventilation shaft she'd just crawled into. In my defense, you have to understand Sevastopol ain't your friendly welcoming space station, and if the scrawled threats and pleas on the walls combined with the general destruction and disrepair of the place doesn't turn you away, the first time you come across those red drag marks on the floor you might feel differently. Amanda doesn't really have the option to leave, however. It's not just that she's braving the unknown out of a desperate desire to find out what happened to her mother Ellen Ripley (who you may have heard of) fifteen years ago after finding out the flight recorder from Ripley's doomed ship, the Nostromo, has been taken aboard Sevastopol. It's that Amanda literally can't leave, and she's not exactly alone on board, even if you don't count the straggled and desperate survivors or the malfunctioning droids. There's no heavy weaponry on your side this time... survival depends on stealth and smarts as you must scavenge for items to craft helpful items and rely on cunning to outwit deadly enemies. Despite some rough edges and a brutal difficulty, Alien: Isolation is menacing and ominous in all the right ways, and the tense, monstrous experience the franchise has always deserved.

Tototo Room's Button Escape 25 is a single-scene escape game, but there's a whole lot going on in it, with codes to crack and locks to open, not to mention the eleven buttons to find and click scattered throughout. There's no changing cursor, so you'll just have to click everywhere you think you can interact with, and even try using some objects in the scenery multiple times. To check something out in your inventory, simply click it once to highlight it as though you were going to try using it, then click it again. The trickiest part will probably come down to spotting codes and then deciphering them without also overthinking them, but if you want something equal parts weird and cute that won't take up a whole coffee (or cup of noodle) break, this is the game for you.

Play Button Escape 25

Dinosaurs, at least the living ones, usually aren't allowed in museums, but Little Rex just wanted to see his ancestors so bad, that he just had to sneak in! However, he's having a little trouble finding his way through all the different galleries. And they're filled with so much tasty looking art! Having never received the guidance Cookie Monster did, Rex has to admit it's pretty tempting. (Why did he forget to stop to munch on a hot dog or a toddler?) All he wants is a nibble or forty. He's sure the security guards won't mind... if they don't see him! In Rampage Rex, a puzzle platform game by Comic Book Cody developer Eric Bernier and Izzy Aminov you'll be guiding a very hungry dino as he spends an afternoon taking in a little culture.

Everyone knows the most important things you need for a zombie apocalypse are a zombie crushing tank, unlimited ammo, and a sweet, stylish hoody. Thankfully in Gamaga's UndeadRun, you have all three. Run down the street, avoiding the undead, and dodging out-of-control cars, while trying to scoop up coins and power-ups in this zombie shoot 'em up game that was originally featured in a Link Dump Friday. As previously mentioned, this game stands out from the normal genre of zombie games as it contains an amazingly zero amount of blood. It's just adorable, blocky zombies easing their way towards you only to be blown into bouncing little cubes. Oh and coins. Those are important as you'll need them for the upgrades that will help you achieve your goal of killing all three of the zombie bosses.

It's good to be the king. Issuing decrees, sitting on a throne, launching yourself on a dynamite-powered battering ram through miles of inclement terrain and worrisome foes so that you might bring swift justice to those who oppose you. You know, king stuff. That's the hook behind Smokoko's new game, King's Rush, which brings a regal air to the launch game formula. You use dynamite to blast your royal ram downhill, using [spacebar] to jump and [X] to fire cannonballs at obstacles and enemies. Each little impact saps some tiny amount of health, so keep your wits about you. Snow mounds and yetis won't do much damage on their own, but it adds up over time. The coins you collect in the field can be used to upgrade your battering ram in a variety of ways, increasing stats like ramming speed, armor and reload times. There are also gadgets you can buy that will even the odds in the field, and a few magic gems that are deployed at periodic intervals to give you the occasional boost.

Hello boils and ghouls and other netherlings. Since this is October, the spookiest of months, I thought we'd try something new with Spoopy Saturdays. Each Saturday in October (culminating in a Freaky Friday of our best horror games!), we'll be highlighting free and freaky indie horror games best played with the lights down and the sound up. This week, we serve up an otherworldly survival simulation where you really don't want to be caught out at night, a girl who goes in search of memories she probably should have left buried, and a seriously scary you guys I'm totally serious game where it's up to you to serve up the scares to unsuspecting dupes!

I don't know why everyone makes such a big deal over kids. They're loud and nonsensical, you have to share your toys, and their hands are usually disconcertingly sticky. But some people get pretty attached to the little anklebiters, so when the town in Mariaglorum's hidden-object adventure League of Light: Wicked Harvest sees two of the whippersnappers vanish, they call in a detective (you!) to help sort things out. It soon becomes clear that something wicked is afoot in the world's most sinister looking town, and you'll need to search for clues, solve puzzles and hidden-object scenes, and discover the truth behind the shadowy figure stalking the town's children. All with the help of gaming's most adorable sidekick (sorry Clementine). Seriously. Not even kidding. Stir it all up and you have one campy but immensely enjoyable game that features clever puzzles, an intriguing and even exciting plot, not one but two bonus chapters, and a widdle bitty scarecrow pal who tries so hard to be spooky and puts on widdle hats aaaaaaaAAAAAA-

It lurks in the shadows, always staying just in the corner of your eye, having you unaware as it sneaks up right behind you. Goblins be here, or really just one goblin, Styx. And there's no reason to worry about him. He'll just pickpocket you.... or slice your throat open, or snap your neck, or stab you in the kidneys. Hmm, on second thought, there is a lot to worry about, or would be if it wasn't this foulmouthed, toilet-humored, goblin you're helping through this action adventure stealth game aptly called, Styx: Master of Shadows, by Cyanide Studio. Steal, assassinate, set traps, cause diversions, but mostly sneaking around without being seen in this high difficultly roleplaying game. The whole reason for all the prowling and silent death dealing, is to get to the center of the World-Tree, in order to steal the heart of this great magical flora and possibly find out why there are so many voices in your head. Oh, and trying to remember what happened before you woke up. That may be a good goal too.

If you want cute and weird in your escape games, Yonashi is always a solid bet, and Fungi Escape fits the bill nicely as you find yourself standing in front of a cute little forest cottage surrounded by lots and lots of, well, fungi. And fungi-themed locks. And fungi-themed puzzles. In fact, there're so much fungi-themed things in this game that the word fungi has already lost meaning to me at this point and doesn't even look like a real word anymore. To play, just click to interact when the cursor changes, and use the transparent overlays that pop up to navigate to different areas. Click an item in your inventory to highlight it for use, or use the "about item" function to view it close up. Many areas will have multiple transitions for you to navigate to, so make sure you waggle yon cursor about everywhere just in case you missed something.

Imagine if mining in real life was more like it is in cartoons and video games. No cave-ins! No danger of black lung! Mine cart trails like roller-coasters and the caves littered with pre-cut jewels the size of fists! The promise of those gems alone would probably make it a more desirable career than "movie star" or "astronaut." Of course, cartoon-mining is still not without its hazards, as Minerics proves. This puzzle platformer shows us that even the jolliest and most primary-colored bands of cartoon miners still have to deal with stalagmites, dynamite, and even evil jackhammers. And in the vein of the Fireboy and Watergirl series, you'll be controlling them two at a time, one with the [arrow] keys and one with [WASD], as they explore caverns in search of bright, shiny, floating treasure. Or rather, you can control them two at a time. But Minerics encourages you to make it a two-player affair, with all of the bickering, shouting, and fistbumping that implies. And isn't everything better with friends?

A murder has happened. Yours. And with the storm, it could be days till the road is cleared enough to let the police in to investigate. So you're sure these fine people won't mind if your restless spirit possesses them for a little detective work... Sound familiar? It might be if you played the original Why Am I Dead? But with the sequel to the popular mystery adventure coming soon, Peltast Games has revisited where it all began, remaking it from the ground up to better coincide with the upcoming game's art style and plot. Why Am I Dead?: Rebirth features new sprites, new dialogue, new endings, and even a new character (...technically) to possess. Move your spirit with the WASD or [arrow keys], possessing the different characters at the hotel with [X] or [Spacebar]. When inhabiting a person, you can use [J] or [Z] to talk to others or interact with your surroundings. Characters will react differently to different guests talking to them, and discovering all of what happened will require quite the bit of body-hopping.

Consider the ninja. Stealthy, deadly, silent as a field mouse's ghost covering a sneeze during church. Unless you're in HeroPunch's Black Bit Ninja 2, however. Then you're more of the retro, puzzle, fly-through-the-air-dealing-swift-justice-with-your-katana variety. The game has you launching your legless, square ninja man against his red enemies by clicking and dragging with the mouse. You have a limited number of launches so aim and timing are key. Your ninja slices the bad guys up on his own, it's up to you to see he avoids the saws, pitfalls, and other such nonsense to see that all the right baddies get sliced.

Ever on the lookout for great new games, we just got back from a trip to the future in the Jay Is Games company time machine! Well, most of us... grinnyp was thrown into some kind of high-security holding facility and is just pleased as punch finding all the different ways to escape. She'll be along any minute, doubtless with a comprehensive walkthrough for it. Physics games are still big in the future, so we brought you back SharkStudio's little gem called Tech Orb, a sleek sci-fi themed physics puzzle that's all about orbs and platforms... with unique effects!

It's time again for Weekday Escape, and since I'm feeling a little bit adventuresome, let's take a look at three escape games that remind us that escape-the-room games are really a spinoff of the classic point-and-click adventure genre. Each of the following creations from Selfdefiant, Tototo Room and Esklavos—while distinctly different in their artistic renderings—are replete with rewards for those willing to explore and experiment. Best of all, you don't need to pack your bags, stand in airport security lines, or learn to talk like the locals. Just point and click...

Infinitap Games' Neverending Nightmares is a indie horror adventure game about a very troubled young man named Thomas who seems to have a complicated relationship with his sister and a slipping grasp on reality, but it's also about its creator's struggles with OCD and depression. Thomas explores a house that seems to have no end and decays around him the further he goes, and whenever he meets a violent end, he wakes up unharmed in his bed, though he'll have to press deeper to find out why he seems to be stuck in such a nightmarish loop that only gets more disturbing even when he makes his way out of the house itself. Use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move and hold [shift] to run, though not for long or very far since Thomas has apparently been neglecting his Spin classes and has the endurance of a pug puppy. For the most part, you'll be keeping an eye out for colour, since that denotes things you can interact with in this harsh black and white world, but each area is also usually being stalked by a specific sort of monster. Since Thomas is only wearing his -3 to constitution jammies, he'll die instantly if something gets a hold of him, so you'll have to figure out how to sneak by each new creature by making use of your environment. The game has multiple endings and even multiple paths to reach those endings, and with a unique and disturbing visual style, it takes a very personal tour through a different kind of horror... albeit in such a way that the gameplay might leave something to be desired for some.

Available for iOS, PlayTap's turn-based RPG/card game Card Dungeon is a weird little game, but a weird little game I liked a lot for all its quirks. You control a hero moving through a series of randomly generated dungeons, tapping on adjacent squares to move to them and attacking the enemies in your way. In addition to harmless wildlife and not-so-harmless monsters, most dungeons are made up of a mini-boss for the first few floors and a final boss for the last. You can, if you're lucky, find equipment like swords and armor that boost your statistics, but everything is done with cards. The catch is that instead of your standard attack/defend/bravely run away options, all your actions are dependent on whatever three cards you find and equip, and those cards also decay with use until they're completely destroyed. Run out of attack cards and, well, just don't, unless you have a working knowledge of where any traps might be hidden. See, you find cards in containers, which are squares that highlight as yellow nearby and can be anything from actual containers to chairs or puddles of water, and if you reject a card you find in one, it's gone forever. Cards can do anything from teleport or heal you to simply attacking or casting magic spells, and each card has a mana cost, so you'll want to keep an eye on the blue number below your Crusader hero's standee in addition to the red one... your health. Die, and you have to start from the beginning... the very beginning, as in, the very first dungeon.

Monster slaying platforming action goes turn-based in Nitrome's Turn-Undead, where you play a cloaked and fancy hat'd hero (... Mare-Do-Well?) out to slay Dracula, as one does. [WASD] and the [arrow] keys move and jump while [spacebar] fires wooden stakes, but the twist is that there's a pause after every action, and time won't move until you perform another action. Jump, for example, and you'll hang in the air for a single turn (before falling the rest of the way to the ground), and fired stakes will travel one space ahead of you at a time with each step or movement you take until they hit something. You can hit [R] or [Z] to undo your last move, but if you're touched once, it's a dirt-nap for you. While your cheerily skulking average vampire can be rather spectacularly dispatched with a stake to the face, other enemies aren't so easy, such as the zombie, who will instantly reanimate on your next turn. You don't actually need to slay them all, however, just get to the exit, and nab the glowing golden cross if you want double points for doing so.

How many blocks in Babylon? Three score blocks and ten... Well, OK, so maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but there's no doubt Nekval's stacking game has more different kinds of blocks in it than a three-year-old's bedroom. Much like that hypothetical three-year-old, your goal in this physics puzzle game is to build a blocky tower as high as you possibly can... or at least high enough to cross the green-and-white goal ribbon. And like that three-year-old, with her handful of hand-me-down Lincoln Logs and bin full of Duplo, those blocks don't always play nicely with one another. Cactus blocks have the unfortunate tendency to pop water balloon blocks. See-through glass blocks shatter against anything but sticky green blocks. And do we even need to explain what TNT blocks do if you nudge them too hard? Balancing your tower is only half the battle here. The other half lies in carefully positioning and allocating the different kinds of bricks, making sure that friendly blocks get together while unfriendly blocks stay far, far away. It's quite a refreshing twist, in fact, to see a stacking-based puzzle game that utilizes physics, but doesn't have physics puzzles as the main point!

In Hidden Layer Games' arcade action jump-and-run game Back to Zombieland, you're a peace loving zombie with an appreciation for skateboards and stopping to smell the roses... too bad that angry mob wants to tear you to pieces and put you back in the ground as violently as possible! Launch your zombie when the power is maxed, then use the mouse to direct him as he runs, clicking to jump over obstacles or on top of rats for a bit of extra cash to spend on upgrades. When humans appear, tapping the [spacebar] will activate your weapon to blast them away, but when your stamina runs out you'll be overwhelmed, so you'll definitely need to grind for more upgrades. It's silly and whimsical, with a light-hearted tone and enough variation to the obstacles and landscape to keep you coming back for more... maybe even from beyond the grave!

Play Back to Zombieland

In 7 Days Without Rain, a point-and-click puzzle game by ReFall, you're a thief who's putting your sticky fingers to the greater good. Which... sounds gross when I say it, but trust me, it's a good thing. Click to interact with people and objects when icons pop up as you explore, and pull off acts of altruism without getting caught. It's a neat idea that could serve to be fleshed out a bit, as its short length and repetitive minigames will show, and things get a little, um, weird towards the end, but if you always thought you'd make a good thief-with-a-heart-of-gold, it's worth checking out.

Play 7 Days Without Rain

Being an archer in a group of adventurers is sort of like being a bassist in a rock band. You get zero recognition, no matter how hard you try. But the good thing about archers is that, unlike bassists, they can go solo. The hero of the action-packed Barons Gate 2 by Dragosha Games decided to do just that. When his queen gets kidnapped by a dragon, he bravely sets out on an epic quest all on his own, Eye of the Tiger playing in his mind as he dreams of the glory he won't have to share with paladins and mages and the whole ungrateful crew. Shooting is as easy as clicking, and the position of the cursor determines the power and direction of your shots. Arrows alone won't be enough, though; defeating demons calls for good armor, which you can buy by visiting the camp, or find it in treasure chests. For the most part, Barons Gate 2 follows the formula established by its predecessor. Many elements are completely unchanged: the levels are short, your enemies range from sword-wielding knuckleheads to flying fire mages, and the gameplay is stopped every now and then for a visit to the camp.

In Brutal Studio's cinematic sniping physics puzzle-y shooter Stick Squad, the world is relying on two, uh, "heroes" to complete missions and stop the villains. In over sixty levels, you'll need to carefully aim and take out the enemies as quickly and as discreetly as you can to earn the best rating, and then spend the cash you earned on buying and upgrading new equipment. It may be a little bit rude and crude, but it's ambitious and well put together... especially now that it has a skip button for the well executed but long, long, long, long opening cutscene!

Play Stick Squad

Stick Squad (Android, Android Tablet)

Through rain or snow or bandits and magical grass ogress, the mail will get through in Adventure Xpress, a free match-3 turn-based puzzle game with light RPG elements from Adult Swim and PikPok. You play a brave courier tasked with delivering mail across the kingdom, which is more hazardous than it sounds with brigands and monsters lurking absolutely everywhere and waiting to beat you up for it. As you traipse across the map, at each location you'll have to handle a series of battles before you move on. You fight your opponent by matching coloured runes on the grid between you, and you deal damage when you make matches of three or more, though you can move runes without making matches. The colours represent corresponding elements, and as you might expect, enemies can be weak or strong against elements of different types. If a location has more than one battle, you won't be healed between fights, so you'll need to make sure you're maximizing your attacks by making combos whenever possible! As you fight, you'll gain experience and level up, which unlocks new equipment like weapons and armor for you to buy with the gold you earn, as well as spells that can be powered up when matching the appropriate runes during battles.

Sk-yyyyyy-yyyy Queeeeeessst! Berzerk Studio went out to make a Sky Quest! Don't care how many flying critters have to die just as long as you win the game!... Sorry, when a side-scrolling shoot-em-up comes along featuring an angelic hero named Conquest soaring and defending his airship from the creepy forces of the evil Wartrake, while an epic score blares in the background, it just makes me think of a certain White Stripes single. But after spending some time with it, it makes me think much more of fast-paced shooter fun. Control Conquest with the mouse, automatically firing your weapons against the creatures attacking your sky-fortress. Your hitbox is your head, and slamming yourself into either the creatures or the red ammo they fire will drain your health bar. While the red ammo the creatures fire won't hurt your ship, watch out for when they decide to go kamikaze. If either you or your ship run out of health, the level is failed.

Mad Head Games' stunning hidden-object fantasy adventure Dark Realm: Queen of Flames begins with a village siege that would make Alduin proud, when you're awoken in the middle of the night by your father, the blacksmith, and told to take your mother's belongings and flee before the shadowy creatures outside break down the door. You have no chance but to flee the city as it burns, but there's no running from destiny, and go figure... turns out the magical boots and mysterious brooch your mother left behind hint at a pretty big destiny for you indeed. One involving the fire banshees stalking your family, and a dragon so nasty he literally busts up your user interface. You'll need to solve magical puzzles and hidden-object scenes, uncover family secrets, unlock spells and enchanted items to help you, and more if you want to save your father as well as the kingdom. With a remarkably well told story with its share of twists and memorable scenes and visuals that might just set a new standard for casual games, this is one adventure any fan should feel proud to add to their library.

Funkyland's cute and mildly fantastical Alice House escape games have quickly become something many of us look forward to when you want something fast and fun, and Alice House: No 5. House of the Duchess might be one of the fastest yet. This time, you're trying to find six cat-related objects in this curiously understated little kitchen, so click around to search and interact. Clues to solve the few puzzles you're encountered are scattered around amidst the baguettes and the silverware, and items in your inventory can be used once you've clicked them. But whatever you do, don't blink... not because of any demonic statuary, but because if you do, you might just miss this one completely!

Play Alice House: No 5. House of the Duchess

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We all float down here.... wait a minute, get out of here, Tim Curry! JakTube's horror text-based adventure game It has less to do with Stephen King than it does you being kidnapped and left trapped in a facility with a creature that's being tested for its ability to hunt and kill. Type commands such as "go north", "pick up", and "look at" and hit enter to execute them. You'll need to find food and items to solve puzzles, but It is never that far behind you. Light on story and more a straight-up blend of survival horror and escape, It is a game for people who enjoy being torn to shreds while they wear leather jackets, drink coffee, and argue with text parsers.

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Holmes and Watson are back for more, and things are going to get messy in Frogwares' mystery adventure game Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments as you take on the role of the legendary and borderline insufferable detective solving a series of challenging (and sometimes gruesome) cases. Six cases, to be exact, each centering on a very different crime. A violent murder, a baffling disappearance, a daring theft and more... all of them will require Sherlock's unique mind and talents to solve. With the help of his own unique and formidable brain that will allow him to see things others don't as well as perform a variety of other useful abilities, you'll guide Holmes to uncover not just the truth behind the crimes committed by interrogating witnesses, solving puzzles, and tracking down evidence, but you'll also decide what, ultimately, you'll do with the perpetrator... as long as you can figure out who it is, since it's perfectly possible to accuse the wrong individual. While unfortunately Creepy Watson is a thing of the past, Crimes and Punishments still manages to deliver an engaging, carefully crafted adventure game with high production values and an immersive atmosphere.

Quang H. Tran's Phoenotopia is the kind of game that comes along once in a very long while. While occasionally simple, it's still a better adventure game than most of the full price offerings you can pick up at your local retailer, in terms of art, story, gameplay and heart. The game is set on a post-Earth colony, an idyllic world full of gorgeous retro landscapes straight out of the best of the SNES generation. You play as Gale, a pink-haired everywoman whose simple life as a farm girl is interrupted one day when strange alien ships come and abduct everyone in your village, leaving just you and a couple dozen children left to fend for yourselves. It's your duty to head out into the world and find out what happened to your friends and family, braving myriad enemies and interacting with dozens of colorful characters along the way. In case you have noticed, the writing is far above standard for a game like this. The abduction establishes some real emotional stakes early on, and the wealth of characters you discover in your travels manage to be funny and interesting without being verbose. What's more, the brief nods at a deeper backstory regarding the fate of the old Earth offer some tantalizing hints at a vast and rich universe. Seriously, can you say franchise?

Mateusz Skutnik and Jacek Witczynski's point-and-click puzzle adventure Eien is the sort of game that doesn't so much drop you in as plant its foot firmly on your bottom and shove, then lean back and fold its arms expectantly while you're left staring around in confusion. You find yourself standing in front of a towering blue... maze... thing... on a plain bridge floating in the middle of darkness. Which, the intro informs you, is all you can really remember before a pulse of light. To play, all you need to do is click to move around and interact when the cursor changes. Items will appear in your inventory at the bottom of the screen, and when you click one, you can then try to use it wherever you like. Your progress is saved automatically for you to come back to if you like, but don't expect any real help beyond that. If you want to progress and find Eien's secrets, you'll need to look everywhere and try everything. Clues (and viewpoints) are hidden where you least expect them. Hope you have your hmmmmm warmed up and ready to go.

Remember the good times with Phantom Mansion: Spectrum of Souls? All the puzzles, the cleverness, the colors? If only there was a new game with all that unique wonderful gumption. Maybe with a touch of a few other classic puzzle games, like Reflections or Together Alone: Love in Limbo, that we have a dear love for. What a shame there isn't. Wait, what's that, nonexistent-voice-I'm-making-up? There is? Yes, it's true! Pixelelephant heard our silent cries and delivered their grand game, Rainbow Hero! It's the indie puzzle game we've all been waiting for. 100 levels of tile based puzzles where you must make your way to the open doors to find the colors that were stolen from your lands. Each level is a new trick to figure out and a new way to discover, and a new way to think outside the box.

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Why pilot any old ship when you can make your own? Vasili Kostin serves up a sequel to the original upgrade-packed action game with Galaxy Siege 2. Use [A] and [D] to pilot your ship left and right to avoid enemies and automatically gather supplies while your weapons shoot down any nearby enemies. The catch? When your fuel runs out you'll need to return to base, where you can use what you've gathered to buy new modules to build up your ship to be bigger and better. From lasers, rocket launchers, and rifles, to shields, harvesters, and more, if it can be welded haphazardly onto your ship by a sketchy space mechanic, you can use it.

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Are you too happy? When friends describe you, do they use such phrases as, "The life of the party," "a real ray of sunshine," or "an absolute treat?" Do you need more UNBRIDLED RAGE in your life? Then have we got the platform game for you! Geote is a game that wants to break you down and drink you sweet, sweet tears, but the hurt is so good. Like most brutally difficult games, it sounds simple enough on the surface. Heck, it even LOOKS simple, thanks to its minimalist aesthetic. You're a blue rectangle, controlled with [WASD], who absolutely cannot stand red squares. Aim with your mouse cursor and click to shoot and destroy all the red squares on the screen. And at first, that's all there is to it. But then the red rectangles start to get scared, and start to hide. And then they call on their friends, the spinning black triangles, for backup... Soon you're pulling off mid-air dodges around flying spikes, firing rapidly into the air, and pogo-ing on top of conveyor belts like a caffeinated kangaroo. It isn't for the faint of heart, but if you're looking for that special brand of delicious anger only a maddening platforming game can cause, Geote welcomes all challengers!

I envy you if you lead a quiet homebody sort of life where your interactions with strangers are kept to a bare minimum; I mean like, maybe once every other week or so you see a person you don't know pass by on the street. That's the way to live. But meet, exchange howdoyoudos, make small talk? This isn't fun. Conversations are highly overrated things. Especially if I'm the one who has to do the, um, conversating. Sometimes I just want get in real close and demand: "Why do you look at me to fill your day with entertainment? I won't regale you with stories of my 'big weekend plans'. Just hand me my groceries, please, and we'll call it a good day." But I suppose some people might call that "rude". I can't help it if I'm in a hurry to get home and play more awesome escape games. Maybe if more people spent their time here at JIG, they wouldn't be anxiously asking perfect strangers, "Looks like rain, eh?" At least there's this week's grab bag of Weekday Escape goodness, just the thing to tune out the nosy world and unwind with—because games like FunkyLand's girly candies, Flash512's dreamy garden sojourns and Yomino Kagura's big picture can help anyone feel a little more sociable...