May 2017 Archives

It's the middle of the week. We've climbed the hill and it's all downhill from here. Before we hit the slope to Friday, let's do some escaping!

This is a week of things going wrong. A supposedly safe fire exit turns out to be not so safe, and a skydiving trip turns sour when the plane door can't be opened. And then you can't microwave your meal. Oh, the humanity!!

You've probably heard the siren call of a midnight snack or had a thirst for water at least once. But in Atelier Sentô's point-and-click adventure Yûrei Station, something deeper and darker is at play. You play as a girl who sneaks out at the crack of dawn, careful not to disturb her parents, who wouldn't know what is going on anyway. Sitting in a train compartment in the pre-dawn hours, a heavy presence abruptly sits beside you, sending shivers up your spine. Not daring to get up, your phone suddenly receives a message. "I see you..."

Isn't it an amazing feeling when you go to a concert and the drum beat matches your heart beat? Music has been shown to have restorative powers, and that concept is taken to the extreme in Rhythm Doctor, a one-button game in which you rely on the power of rhythm to save lives.

Rhythm Doctor puts you, a trainee doctor, into the emergency room with a room full of sick and dying patients. In order to save the lives of your 8-bit patients, you need to watch their ECG and hit the spacebar on the seventh beat. The funky background music gives you the tempo and keeps you on track. You start nice and easy with one patient and one heartbeat, but don't get cocky - things quickly get complicated when multiple patients present at the same time, and their heartbeats are all on different rhythms.

Even a mad scientist is not immune to the siren call of cravings for caffeine and sugar. In Mad Head, you play as Keithan, a school kid who probably has wiser things to do in the middle of a school night, you must supply an unnamed scientist with coffee and a chocolate chip cookie before he will show you his latest invention. Collecting this midnight snack may seem a simple endeavor, but don't be fooled - coded messages, rigged slot machines, vending machines, and more await in your path.

We humans are unfortunately not equipped for flight, though it doesn't necessarily mean this experience is beyond us thanks to a delightful, lovingly designed bird simulator called Fruits of a Feather. Developed by the brilliant team behind Screencheat known as Samurai Punk, players take control of a bird, similar to a hawk or eagle, and can freely fly around a self-contained, low-poly rendered island. The island is devoid of other animal or human life but densely lush; great trees rise along the banks of a river that cuts through the island, lily pads floating lazily in its gentle current. Grasses line the shores and coastlines, magnificent mountains stand proudly capped white with snow. Dotted around the map are fruits of varying shapes, growing on the ground, in caves, and on trees. There are 192 in all, and they stand as your only objective. Fruits can be collected by simply flying into them. Sounds pretty easy, right?

Hi! Welcome to the new Weekday Escape, the firm spot in the middle of a week!

This Weekday Escape at first takes you to the art museum with no1game, not to admire modern art, but to find ten little green men there. After the museum you can play for a while with Amajeto, and finally, with Miyabure>, you visit a truly magic place!

Have a good time and enjoy!

When you receive a note from an old friend Joey from decades past asking you to help investigate something, you naturally agree to come stop by. Even if that something is in a house possessed with a feeling of melancholy. And spooky objects scattered throughout the compound, along with a creepy picture of some sort of doll, haunt you. Not to mention, the aforementioned friend is nowhere to be seen at the moment. No, none of those are red flags, because you are a good longtime friend, and you are here to investigate this wonder.

It´s a good day for all escapers today, we´ve got a new charming game from Tesshi-e!

With Tesshi-e, we visit a small café in the suburbs and suddenly find out that we are locked inside. It is time to escape! Pleasant vivid jazzy music sounds around, lights are on, everything is cleaned and prepared for visitors, but nobody´s around. Before we can open the door, we are supposed to make a cup of coffee....and find or arrange everything for coffee preparation. From finding a cup, through lightening a fireplace to grinding roasted coffee beans.

Assemble, escapers! Stand in line. You are all here because you are the cream of the crop. The escap-iest of escapers. You are the best. So don't let me down!

This week, Vitamin Hana has locked us up with some little piggies, whose only crime was cuteness. Primera has a tasty 'deconstructed' burger on the menu. And Amajeto thinks that you need some alone time - so much so that they are going to force it upon you by locking you away at Hotel Solitude.

Hello, dear reader! Do you need a bright orange diversion from another drowsy weekday afternoon? If you answered yes then fear not - PencilKids has you covered with his latest adventure! After choosing the monkey and hat of your choice, you'll discover that your monkey is alone in a very strange world. An alien sells t-shirts in exchange for credits, a strange device is missing its laser, and underground puzzles are just some of the puzzles you will encounter.

Where are you, and where are you running to? There's no time for questions like these as Run 3 throws you straight in with The Runner, your first adorable character. You traverse a world of oddly shaped pipes and crumbling tiles, jumping and moving around to try and stay out of the abyss beneath it and complete each level. Gravity shifts if you climb either side and the world tilts, a feature you will find necessary to negotiate the many levels. As you progress and gather batteries (or as the game affectionately refers to them, power cells), you will be able to unlock more characters including The Gentleman, The Lizard, The Skater, and more!

Life can be tough sometimes. Life can be great sometimes. Everyone's experience of life is different, but you could argue that we are all searching and pursuing the same thing in the end - happiness and contentment.

The pursuit of happiness through life's obstacles is explored in Me, a short platformer from Jack the Creative. You play as yourself, using the arrows to control your 'Me' character as you jump and duck through hindrances that represent the various stages and experiences of life. The game has just one level and won't take longer than five minutes or so to complete, but the simple idea behind the game is very well executed. The experience is reflective and you may find yourself contemplating Me long after the game is finished. The soundtrack is beautiful and provides a gorgeous moody atmosphere to this introspective platformer.

Play Me

Hello! The second Weekday Escape Retro is here, bringing fun and relaxation! For some players, memories too...
And if you don´t get enough, there is always the JIG archive, where you can find much more!

The first game is from Hottategoya and you are escaping from one of their brutal concrete constructions, followed by escape from Nekonote (suprisingly without any dwarfs or chickens). The last game is by Leonard 2:50, and it´s a long one, and definitely not easy!

Have a good time and enjoy!

What's orange, irresistibly cute, and has a face filled with tears and large puppy-dog eyes? If your guess was another installment of Pencilkids' Monkey GO Happy games, you were correct! This Easter-themed stage will have you wondering how many places you can hide a choco-button in your whimsical search to...find a princess? And what does that treasure chest beside her hold? Power? Wealth? The key to her heart? Or something sweeter?

It's halfway through the week! Wonderful! Wednesday means escaping, so let's get to it!

This week, Vitamin Hana has us stuck in the middle of nowhere at an abandoned gas station. Funkyland's excellent travel agency have taken us on a journey to the far north of the world, and MayMay is slightly overexcited about light bulbs (for reasons that escape me).

Imagine yourself having the ability to transform, to shapeshift. Imagine being able to turn into a fish, a bird or a beast. Doesn't that sound great? And isn't it equally overwhelming, maybe even terrifying?