We here at Jay is Games know you're a deep person with deep thoughts. We also suspect you secretly have to stifle your giggles each time someone trips on a banana peel. But that's okay! We can't be serious intellectuals all the time or we'd wear our brains out. So here's a selection of some of the silliest and the most thoughtful games around. Go ahead. Solve some physics puzzles, and then set your head on fire for a while. We won't tell. You're cool with us.
Time Donkey - [Note: Click "Maybe later, play web version" below the price to play once the game has loaded.] Crikey! It's the rare South American time donkey! What a beaut! Whoooaaaa, lookit the little blighter, trackin' down tacos, launchin' off pads... oh! Watch as he reverses time to make additional copies of 'imself! Clever li'l fella. 'Course, he has to watch out for his natural predators... Poor Camera Mobility and Clunky Controls. Life in the taco fields is brutal, folks.
Ergon/Logos - This is... uh. Hm. This.... iiiissss.... hold on, hold on. I don't think I'm dressed for this. *puts on beret, holds pinky in air* Ah. Much better. Another entry into EGP's "Minimalist" theme for the month of August, this is either an extremely abstract interpretation of narrative-as-gameplay, or a fever dream from Hunter S Thompson following a bout with indigestion. One is as likely as the other.
Dadgame - Have you ever wanted to light your head on fire? How about fend off helicopters with an enormous neon letter? Or maybe regurgitate a sword? If you thought, "Why would I ever want to light my head on fire?" this probably isn't the game for you. Smash, bash, and ROCK your way to maximum destruction and achievements. Warning: contains massive property damage and unrepentant silliness.
Saunavihta Yetis - If you played the original Saunavihta and found yourself thinking, "This doesn't have enough yetis. It could be yeti-er." Rejoice! Featuring the same queerly unsettling design and the familiar physics puzzle action you know and love, but now with 60% more abominable death. Huzzah! 
Run - What does this rotund little alien run from? Or is he running towards something? Well, he's not going to be running for very long if you don't help him navigate all the pitfalls in this addictive little test of reflexes. Run, jump, and rotate the walls across multiple levels. Or you can make your own levels to help him realize his destiny. Godspeed, little grey dude! Godspeed. *sniff!*
Hmm, Ergon/Logos immediatly caught my attention, as I'm just that kind of "Games can be art" gamer, but I'm just having too much trouble with the control scheme to justify it. Does ANYONE know how to control that game?
You mouse over the words you want to follow.
But I'm having trouble with the pace -- I can't read and play. For a words game, I much prefer Silent Conversation.
Also, the graphics and music give me a headache, so I'm going to stop playing it for now. But I'll certainly credit it some design points.
Watch out for that E/L game. One of the endings seems to purposefully slow down your computer while it flashes "die" at you and plays some angry piano, until you close or refresh. I assume the slowdown was either a glitch or intended to heighten the "emotional impact" of the scene, but all it did is make me decide to stop playing.
On the other hand, "Run" is incredibly addicting. I played through all 50 levels of the adventure mode in one sitting, and it wasn't easy. The graphics and music could use some more variety, but the level design is fantastic.
In my mind Ergon/Logos was a nice parody of a particularly dreadful style of writing. Nicely overwrought. It made me laugh.
Now I'm wondering if it's meant to be serious and/or artistic. That would make me sad and undo all the chuckles.
Phew. The fact that the list of other games by the E/L creator contains something called "Operation: Pedopriest" means I'm reverting to my first assumption.
old game... was it here even? hmmm
"Run" that is.
Dadgame was a bit of wild fun. It's kind of impossible to lose - well I never died, and I'm a pretty bad gamer - but it was some good, hilarious rampaging.
How many endings does Ergon/Logos have? I got
"99 ways to misspell 'dyslexia'"
I've tried playing Dadgame, but I gave up, it is very hard on QWERTZ keyboards.
Why do people make fun games but put horrible music on it and no mute button?
Really liked Run and Dadgame. Pointless silliness is always great.
Does anyone know where the ninja in dadgame is at?
I can't seem to control Ergon/Logos - mashing the up or down arrow seems to work sometimes. Mousing over the words never worked at all.
The ending I got was...
something about god being a parentheses. And then it filled the screen with one big ( ) that bounced around until I reloaded.
I'd be willing to try it again if someone could tell me how to control it. Do I have to start holding up or down before the words even come on the screen?
It's like... either Dadgame is where an unassuming guy goes insane at work and starts destroying everything he can (reminding me of Karoshi), or a satire of the 2D beat-em-up, with the basis of your object, benign objects, moving objects and lots of violence. Maybe both.
I ended up ruining the game for myself by expecting it to turn frightening or sad at any moment.
Morigale:
For E/L, simply mouse over (don't click) one branch when you hit a fork in the road. That's it. The letters are usually red when you have this option. You don't actually control much; most of the time you're just watching.
Dora, it does seem like you're the only one reviewing worthwhile games these days!
Hmm...Time Donkey was cool. Wish it had better controls/camera though!
I think it's all a matter of personal taste, RedRevolver. Everything is worthwhile to someone, and one man's "OMG" is another man's "meh". We try to cater to a variety of tastes.
WHERE IS THAT NINJA!
I find it interesting how there are 2 ways to kill the final boss in dadgame.
Gar:
Actually, this game is a sequel to two movies titled "Dad's Home" and "Dad's at Work". They are really quite hilarious
So the first time I tried Ergon/Logos, I had no idea I was controlling the path with my mouse, and I got the ending where
the adventurer lets a monster rape him/her?
Now I feel dirty. But then I managed to get a rather better ending on the white side. Cool little experiment, hilariously dramatic writing.
Ergo egos creeps me out.....I got the dyslexia ending....
Oh, I should probably give a more specific warning, though:
If, in E/L, you're reading the words "I hope your technology fails you," you might want to close out of that tab FAST.
But yeah, other than that ending, I found it pretty entertaining. I explored and found about 6 endings for each side before that one, but the DIE ending just turned me off the whole thing.
For those who don't get where "Dadgame" comes from, allow me to redirect you here:
Dad's Home:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/195918
Dad's at Work:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/386773
Brilliant little cartoons, glad there was a followup.
E/L was... eeh. First time around it was quite interesting. But playing again I managed somehow to get the "DIE" ending, and it pretty much crashed my PC. No joke; I had to open up task manager (which was going pretty slow anyway because of this) and physically end the process. Bad design choice IMO - if you're trying to be artistic don't trap people into it, they will resent you for it. Give them the option to get out when they want to. Otherwise you're no better than the shock sites of yore, which blocked your use of the close button or the F4 key.
@Stephen: I fully agree with you on the "turning me off the whole thing" bit.
The Ninja in Dadgame:
First, you have to be playing on Normal or Hard. In the last stage before Prez. Boss (the construction yard), there are several half-built towers. The second-to-last one is really tall; it's the tower with the face at the top. You may have explored it and found the 1-up; but to get to the Ninja, you have to stand on the roof. Then a giant eagle comes and takes you to the Ninja's forest (no I am not making this up).
Warning: The Ninja is TOUGH. And I played it on Normal, I can't imagine trying it on Hard. Tips:
Keep your distance, throw your weapon as much as possible, and learn the warnings for the Ninja's attacks. When he starts crackling with yellow electricity, get off the ground; he's about to do a ground smash. When he starts glowing with white swirls of energy, try to get directly above him or below him. If he hits you, it is this energy-dragon piledriver that is awesome but will probably kill you (I think it does 50% damage). As he can only move horizontally after that charge, if you're directly above or below him it's a joke to avoid, but otherwise it's nearly impossible.
Besides throwing my weapon, I also found the somersault and cannonball moves (run+Z while unarmed) to be effective, because it allows you to close distance quickly and not be vulnerable. Engaging the Ninja in meelee can be risky even with a weapon, and without a weapon it's really hard to hit him before he starts pummeling you.
I barely made it out with two lives-and be warned, after the Ninja you have to fight an even more powerful Prez. Boss machine, so try to save as many lives as possible. I barely beat Prez. Boss with my two remaining lives.
And yeah, for Prez. Boss, I never managed to ever get a single bomb into the machine's mouth. I relied on climbing up on the construction stacks (in Easy) and trees (in Normal) and then attacking Prez. Boss in the cockpit. In Normal, after you get a few hits off the machine blows you back for a lot of damage. So either have a lot of lives, or run and heal a lot between assaults.
Has anybody got a clue about the codes for Dadgame? I've done everything I can up to Normal difficulty (story on Normal + unlocked challenges 1 and 3 and beat them up to Normal). Since I barely managed things on Normal, so I doubt I'll get far on Hard, but I'm curious to know what gets unlocked.
AWESOME GAME.
From the looks of things, I'm apparently one of the few who played Saunavihta: Yetis. I enjoyed the first game (its creepy background music and even creepier whispering voice of the character), and while I'm disappointed that the background music is a lot -less- creepy, the hypothermic protagonist is still his usual self, so that's awesome.
Plus, there's yetis now! Big, angry, character-hurling yetis, even!
Am I loving this game? *drops voice to a creepy whisper* YYYESSSSSS....
Dadgame on Easy is, well... easy. :P But it's fun. Haven't played its predecessors.
ERGON / LOGOS is trippy and makes my brain hurt. Doesn't help that I'm already sorta sick >.
E/L is pretty much brilliant, but it made my head and eyes hurt too much to play for long.
I was disappointed with Time Donkey, mostly because Blurst has set the bar so high for themselves with the jaw dropping visuals of Velociraptor Safari, Jetpack Brontosaurus and Blush. This looked like, well, a lot of three D games out there. It was fun, but a bit clunky. Donkeys seemed to hover in mid air at times, and jumping onto their backs was quirky.
I wish Blurst had spent the time to make Time Donkey on par with their other releases.
Run was simple, yet fun for a time.
I'm glad to see more Saunavihta! Yesss!
Does anyone have any tips for Phantom in Dadgeme?
They would help a lot
I can't get Ergon/Logos to load at all.
Run makes me want to play the old Stun Runner. I totally miss that game.
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