Bright copper kettles, warm woolen mittens, and quality works from the JayIsGames archives... These are a few of my favorite things! Not schnitzel with noodles though. Seriously, schnitzel goes much better with mashed potatoes. I don't know what that Von Trapp lady was trying to pull. This week the Vault has arcade, platforming, and escape titles to remind you of, and when you play them, well, then you won't feel so bad.

• Gimme Friction Baby - Some games grab you at an initial glance. Others seem a little simplistic on their surface as you play the first couple of rounds, and it's only when you're still trying to beat your high score six hours later do you realize that you are totally hooked. Gimme Friction Baby, a 2007 arcade game by Wouter Visser, is definitely the latter. The winner of the replay-themed 3rd Casual Gaming Design Competition Gimme Friction baby takes a simple abstract concept of bouncing marbles, and makes it into something intuitive and addictive, as should be evidenced by the fact that I have so far played roughly 300,000 rounds of it, even though my high score has never quite cracked the upper-teens.
• Take a Walk - I'd call Kevin MacLeod an unsung hero of game design, if it wasn't for how his high-quality royalty-free music is omnipresent across the world of browser gaming. I suppose it'd be more proper to call him a quite-often-sung hero of game design. His music is the star of the show in Dachuan Lu's 2010 rhythm platformer, Take a Walk. Seeing that little stick-guy hopping along to the tones and beats of MacLeod's excellent score make Talk a Walk a relaxing, almost zen experience: the gameplay equivalent of listening to a jazz pianist mess around on the keys. In other words, it's a game that's good for the soul.
• Vision - To those who love escape games, the appeal of neutral's 2008 work, Vision, is obvious. While neither the flashiest, nor twisted, nor hilarious, nor innovative work of the genre, it is not hyperbole to say that it is the platonic ideal of escape-gamedom: a solid collection of quirky but logical puzzles that builds to a satisfying endgame almost effortlessly. What more could one want? Vision was voted Best Escape Game in the 2008 Casual Gameplay Awards, and seeing that it still tops the rankings of our best games even five years later, it's still worth exploring every nook and cranny within it.

Happy 150 Vaults, JiG-Fans!

While we welcome any comments about this weekly feature here, we do ask that if you need any help with the individual games, please post your questions on that game's review page. Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there and rediscover some awesome!