It's been a long, strange year, hasn't it? First your great uncle passed away, then you had to move to the odd little town of Queensbury to help your grandmother run the family soup stall, then a curse hits the town and suddenly the only thing standing between the townsfolk and complete chaos is your great-uncle's magical spirit soup recipe. Wait, wha? Seriously, that's the premise behind newcomer Twilight Games' fabulously goofy new adventure. Play Spirit Soup: The Queensbury Curse and travel back to a simpler time when adventure games were goofy and magical soup could save the day!

In this platform adventure game that spans multiple dimensions, help the robotic hero complete his quest and return home. Anyone who's played the classic SNES game Earthbound will feel right at home with TransDimensional. There's a certain air of irreverent weirdness about the proceedings that makes TransDimensional feel like something special. At around 20 minutes long, it doesn't require much of a time investment and fans of platformers are bound to have a good time hopping between dimensions.

Waking up in a hospital is never comforting, and it's even less so for Angel, whose hysterics about monsters ever since she was discovered wandering on the beach have convinced the hospital staff she's a danger to herself and others. In this sequel to the hidden-object adventure Shadow Town, help Angel escape from the hospital and the strange other world known as the Twisted Lands, uncovering a dark secret in the process.

Developed for Something Awful's GameDev VI Challenge, the retro metroidvania platformer Psychopomps puts you in the shoes of Anubis, who has overslept. In his absence, his fellow soul ushers have gone missing and evil spirits have grown powerful. Explore your environment and shoot down your enemies as you rescue your friends and right the matter of directing souls.

They called your grandpa a crazy inventor, and looking at his house, so chock full of tricks and puzzles, you might be inclined to agree. He might have gone missing, but he somehow still manages to send you a letter asking you to come visit... as long as you can uncover the Secret of Grisly Manor, of course! A simple but fun little point-and-click adventure players of all ages will enjoy, and packed with just the right amount of puzzles for a short break of mystery.

Scuba is a 2D, side-scrolling game of exploration, diving, mining, and crafting in the tradition of Minecraft and Terraria. Control your diver-character as you collect 10 types of resources above ground and underwater. Combine items in your inventory to craft parts that will eventually help you make an engine to get home. Scuba's random world generation gives you a different game environment each time you play.

The long-awaited sequel to Hidden Expedition: The Devil's Triangle has finally arrived! H.E.A.T. (that's the Hidden Expedition Adventure Team) is back and is finally going to rescue the pilot! So was the nearly two year wait for Hidden Expedition: The Uncharted Islands worth it? Without hesitation, a resounding: YES! The Uncharted Islands is fun for everyone, from newbies to the most hard-core adventure addicts. Most definitely worth the wait!

Tanooky Tracks is more or less a point-and-click adventure game with a pinch of hidden object seasoning and a surreal twist. Pick up or manipulate objects by clicking on them; a changing cursor alerts you of when you can do so. Click the top and bottom edges of the screen to explore all four levels of the slightly unusual house in search of useful items and clues. Solve the riddles in the hint book to find out what to use where; find and lure out all twelve tanookys and the game's won!

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Raven Locks Smith. She lived in the city of Dull, and although she loved her motivational-speaker parents, she wished for something more. One night, as she considered her boredom, a dream came to her and told her of a life changing tome that could be found near the Mountains of Oddness. Soon she walked there, and found it to be a most interesting place... And so, in this new point and click adventure game by Jonas and Verena Kyratzes, set in the same universe as their earlier The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge, you help Raven search through the quite unusual Land of Dreams in search of The Book of Living Magic, a point and click adventure. Highly recommended to all lovers of classic adventure games or fantasy worlds in general.

Do you ever think about death? Not just about dying, but about everything connected to it... the emotions, the concepts, the way people from all over the world look at it in vastly different ways? The End from Preloaded and Channel 4 is a bizarre puzzle platforming adventure through a series of realms that ask questions designed to make you think about life and what comes after.

Kids get the weirdest toys. Dinosaurs with wheels. Monster trucks that roar and eat cavemen. Toy robot bears with color-coded buttons that correspond to wallpaper trim with arms that can be positioned to write encoded messages to other playmates. You know, the usual stuff. Playroom, a brand new room escape game from Imagia creator Kayzerfish, takes place in just such a location, and in order to escape from this abode, you'll need to do some serious code breaking, map drawing, and item hunting in this colorful and challenging game.

Several years in the making, the darkly atmospheric (and strangely realistic) platform game LIMBO has finally migrated from console download to the PC ecosphere.Crafted by Danish studio Playdead, LIMBO drops you in a shadowy world filled with dangers, immensely difficult puzzles, and more ways to die than you would really want to count. It's an incredibly stylistic and engaging game, one that just about any player can pick up and enjoy from beginning to end.

A nightmarish wreck at sea one evening should have left you and your father dead, but instead you find yourself a lost soul stranded at the bottom of the briny deep, trapped somewhere between life and death by none other than Davy Jones himself. In this creative, cheesy-good hidden-object adventure, you'll have to play the malevolent sea-spectre's games if you want to win your freedom, but with so many other listless spirits trapped below the waves for who knows how long it looks like the odds aren't in your favour. Will you be able to rescue your father and the oddball assortment of other beings who lost themselves to Davy Jones' tricks, or are you doomed to an eternity underwater?

You haven't seen your twin sister Luisa since you were children, and when you receive word that she was pushed off a bridge in a wedding gown by a shadowy figure it seems you might never get the chance to reconnect... but a dark offer from a mysterious being may just grant you the ability to uncover the mysteries and set things right if you're willing to put your soul on the line. Travel back in Luisa's life in this dark, beautiful hidden-object adventure full of tragedy, mystery, and family secrets best left undisturbed.

In 1899 Steam & Spirit, you play a young Winston Churchill on a secret mission while traveling on a steamship in the Mediterranean. This episodic, old-school point-and-click adventure will have you solving puzzles and interacting with pixelated characters as you try to accomplish your mission. The game is written in DHTML (HTML + Javascript), so it may be played on some mobile devices.

Cairn, the new point and click puzzle adventure by Aaron Price, takes place in a land that is cursed. For centuries, countless have tried to explore it. To discover its secrets. None have returned. Some claim it's coincidence. Others say something keeps them from leaving, but you've never been one to take them at their word... The intro goes on like this for a while, but let's speed ahead to the point: You're in a meadow. It's eerie. There are puzzles. Get to it, dude.

This is one of the best, most elaborate adventure hybrids to come out this year. With the emphasis squarely on the point-and-click adventuring, Sacra Terra: Angelic Night is a mind-blowing throwback to the days of yore in adventure gaming with its engrossing story, stunning visuals, and, most importantly, depth of gameplay. Alawar has created a world which is fascinating to explore and difficult to leave, and the combination of beautiful, otherworldly scenes juxtaposed with the grim, haunting asylum proper makes the entire experience surreal.

Unsolved Mystery Club: Ancient Astronauts can be quite a challenge for the advanced gamer while still being easy enough for the beginner. With its fantastic visuals and engrossing story Unsolved Mystery Club: Ancient Astronauts is not to be missed, even if you are more skeptical than Scully about the whole aliens-interacting-with-ancient-peoples thing.

Blue Tea Games, a studio that knows its hidden object adventure genre better than a chef knows how to boil water, is at it again. Following series such as Enlightenus, Dark Parables, and Forgotten Riddles is a tough job, but Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale definitely holds its own, crafting an environment filled with intrigue, danger, mystery, and loads of shiny objects to find. It's a hidden object/casual adventure game for the most discriminating fans, and it never fails to impress from beginning to end.

Twenty years after nuclear confrontation wiped out the planet known as Earth, Cosmonaut Laika receives a distress bark from the ruined surface. Armed with your trusty swap-gun, a rainbow shooting device that lets you switch places with pieces of the world around you, you land upon the planet to locate your companions. Every dog has its day, and today is the day you... Escape from the Puppy Death Factory! Brought to you by Arthur Lee and the fine people at Adult Swim. A fun, if deceptively challenging, puzzle platformer.

When a car accident on a lonely road strands you on the outskirts on thriving metropolis Union City all you can think about is getting home to your significant other. You quickly discover, unfortunately, that the metropolis isn't so thriving after all, but is is practically heaving with zombies. Will you be able to survive the outbreak and find your beloved? Scavenge for food, weapons, ammunition, and more while trying to stave off endless hordes of flesh-hungry monsters in this enormous side-scrolling action RPG.

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

Your life takes a drastic change when you discover that you're no ordinary teenage girl; you're a witch, and there's a place at the secretive Iris Academy waiting for you! Will you bury your nose in your schoolbooks and become the next great magical prodigy? Develop friendships (and rivalries) to last a lifetime? Or maybe you'll find... someone special? This latest visual novel RPG simulation from Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar is not only tremendously addictive and engrossing, it's packed full of charm, replay value, and a magic all its own.

It's Mardi Gras, home of costumed pedestrians, masked partiers, parades, dancing, food, and more crazy things than you can imagine. What could possibly go wrong with everyone in the throes of celebration? Try murder. Murder, and a number of occult happenings shortly thereafter. As you arrive on the scene of the crime, you learn something very strange has been going on in Louisiana, and judging by the glowing tattoo on the dead body, you know it's not going to be an ordinary case. Pick up your fingerprint kit and brush up on your voodoo knowledge, as in the new adventure/hidden object game Paranormal Crime Investigations: Brotherhood of the Crescent Snake, you're going to do some investigating of the supernatural kind!

It has had its ups and downs, but the entire first season of Back To The Future The Game is now out and doing the time warp. Can Marty save the past, present and future in this epic adventure series? It looks like he just might...

Gorgeous, entertaining, and fit for both the noob and the advanced adventure gamer, Timeless: The Forgotten Town is a feast of astounding visuals and amusing gameplay. Do not, however, expect an exciting roller-coaster ride of adventure in game form. Instead, enjoy a quiet and meditative stroll down avenues of the past, probably a lot more entertaining than actually being there.

From the horror-themed hidden object masters at Vogat Interactive comes F.A.C.E.S., another casual adventure tale filled with mystery, occult occurrences, and plenty of strange human abilities. You play a young woman who can travel into photographs and carry things back to the real world. She's trapped in an asylum at the game's outset, however, and knows she's about to endure the scientists' final experiment. Not good! To escape, she'll need to find the right photographs and scurry her way out into the world beyond!

An excellent metroidvania style puzzle platformer that's easy enough to jump straight in, but has a ton of hidden secrets for experts to find (especially if you want the best ending)... along with a few locked doors that just beg for further expansion. Legend of Kalevala has that perfect mix of old and new, alien and human, story and action.

Breaking Banks can be nice, and Escaping from Prison can be satisfying, but diamonds are a stickman's best friend. And, wouldn't ya know it, the Tunisian Diamond is on display at Stickville Museum. It's night, so the usual rabble has gone home. So it's just a couple of guards standing in your way. With all your technology on-hand, they should prove no problem... Right? Ha. Ha. WRONG! Puffballs is back with Stealing the Diamond. And remember, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

The business of fixing dreams is a delicate one. It requires a lot of time and energy, the clients are few, and let's face it, the pay probably isn't that great. That doesn't stop a young woman from helping out her tormented friend, Victor, from sussing out the source of his nightmares by traveling within his world of dreams. Foreign Dreams is a visually stylish hidden object adventure game that lays on imagery and mystery in its unusually-crafted world. As you follow a frightening young girl through Victor's dreams, you begin to piece together a bit of the puzzle surrounding the source of his nightmares.

The Mission: A Search and Rescue Mystery is still a blast to play if only for those puzzles. For those who miss the days of classic point-and-click adventuring this is a game that, while not completely resurrecting the old days, certainly comes closer than most on the market.

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, what will today's adventure be? Well, in Friendship is Magic: The Story of the Blanks, a retro-NES experience by Donitz, it seems that Applebloom is going with Twilight Sparkle to deliver a package to the magician that lives deep in the woods. But the woods are dark and scary, and you'll never know what you will find... Flowers? Friendship? Magic? Love? Diamonds? Candy? Who knows? You'll need a beautiful heart, faithful and strong, to make it to the end, but a little bit of magic should make it all complete.

FBI Agent Nelson Tethers works for the Department of Puzzle Research... yes, that's a thing, and he's quite happy with his job, until the day he's assigned to Scoggins, Minnesota, to find out why the local eraser factory has stopped working. What starts out as a simple missing persons case takes a drastic turn for the bizarre, and soon Nelson finds himself wrapped up in the weirdest, creepiest small town mystery he's ever seen. Take a trip to Scoggins in this clever duo of point-and-click adventure game that doesn't skip on the charm, the creeps, or the chuckles.

From Intenium, the makers of the equally awesome Insider Tales: The Stolen Venus 2 and Tulula: Legend Of A Volcano, comes Sandra Fleming Chronicles: Crystal Skulls, a hidden object adventure with heavy emphasis on the latter. Sandra Fleming cuts out most of the casual stuff we see in modern games, leaving you alone with a strange world with nothing but your wits to get you out. It's a challenging and intriguing game that goes to greater lengths to satisfy your puzzle solving itch than most other games of its species!

You want action? We got that. You want cheesy storylines with French villains obsessed about obtaining immortality, kidnapped scientists, plane crashes and giant spiders? Got that, too. Hide and Secret: The Lost World from Anarchy Enterprises is the fourth game in the hidden object adventure series, featuring a classic-styled plot ripped out of your favorite dime novel from a century ago.

When young Emily goes missing moments before midnight on the day before her seventh birthday, her mother Kathleen and uncle Peter have no choice but to follow her otherworldly abductor to a strange and dangerous realm typically hidden from human eyes. Who are the Extractors, and what is their interest in the mysterious "bridge of seven"? Find out in this fantastic hidden-object adventure!

About as epic as any game about snails can be, Snailiad will take hours from you, and you'll be glad to see them gone. It's action-packed and adventure-filled, completely unlike the lives of real snails, who mostly sit around hoping they don't become escargot.

Kayzerfish's latest epsiode in the point-and-click trilogy appears unrelated to the first two chapters apart from the glorious graphics and secrets to be found. The beauty of Imagia is immediately obvious with gorgeously crisp imagery that is somehow congruent with the natural world. Imagia 3: The Quarry may just be another tidbit to tantalise a gamer's tastebuds, but I seriously get the feeling that there will be more delightful and sweetly intriguing Imagia to come...

Rosslyn: The Templar Mystery is a captivating first person adventure game that is packed so densely with riddles, a dozen of them are staring you in the face from the very beginning and you'll barely even realize it. Taking place inside the Rosslyn Chapel (made popular by The Da Vinci Code), you have nothing but your grandfather's cryptic notes to leaf through as you wander around the chamber looking for clues. It's a challenging experience perfect for anyone who likes a good riddle!

From ERS Game Studios, creator of Haunted Halls: Green Hills Sanitarium, PuppetShow: Lost Town, Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven, and a number of other games, comes a hidden object adventure that takes place in old Italy. Grim Facade: Mystery of Venice is a dark, atmospheric game populated by empty streets and moonlit statues, strongly punctuating the shaded character you're chasing after: the man in the mask.

What's more important... the truth or happiness? Sometimes you can't have both. In Thomas Brush's latest platformer adventure, you play a robot named Skinny, woken up from a pleasant dream by his Mama, who insists she's being terrorized by a little boy named Felix who only wants to steal from your friends and hurt the ones you love.

Is it art or is it murder? In Pastel Games' mystery point-and-click adventure made for TNT, it's both! As a brand new gumshoe, you aren't expecting much from your first day on the job, but quickly discover the murder case you've just been given is anything but routine. Scour the city for clues and make all the right connections if you want to crack this case wide open.

For everyone who enjoys Pencilkids games or point-and-click adventures Little Samurai is well worth the time, especially for the kicking animations at the end as our intrepid hero and the evil Emperor get their kung-fu on in a fight that spans several scenes. So travel back to an ancient Japan that exists only in fantasies and daydreams and help wipe out evil from the land

Beautiful, engaging, lengthy, difficult, Dreamland is everything that you could want in a hidden object/adventure hybrid and more. A feast for the eyes, ears, and brains, evoking that long ago distrust of the traveling carnival and showing the evil that can lurk beneath the surface of any childhood fantasy. Take the time to enjoy the experience and the thrills of Dreamland.

From Orneon Games, crafters of The Agency of Anomalies: Mystic Hospital, comes Secrets of the Dark: Temple of Night, a hidden object/casual adventure game steeped in legends, demons, and a town that's a little on the strange side. The game uses a creative light/dark mechanism that allows you to peer into the demon world simply by turning off or blocking the lights in a room. This morphs the scene and opens up new passageways, reveals new items and objects to explore, and disseminates new bits of story that you'll gobble up like delicious popcorn.

Everybody's favourite emotionally tortured little robot is back in this sequel to 2010's K.O.L.M., a Metroidvania style platformer about a lonely little robot with one very dysfunctional family. Picking up right where the original left off, having escaped the claws of his Mother, will our hero finally find out where he belongs, or will he be unable to escape his family ties?

Vampires are the new "it" thing, for reasons we shall not name, and recently they've become quite the item in casual games. Dracula: Love Kills goes back to the roots of the legends and casts you in the role of the non-sparkling Count Dracula, the original vampire that no teenage girl would ever want to date. It's a hidden object adventure from Waterlily Games that's heavy on story, atmosphere, and puzzles, and there are plenty of unlockables to get your cold, vampiric hands on, too!

Tearstone is a fantastic first effort by a new designer on the scene. DragonsEye Studio has come up with a fantastic, challenging, fun, and entertaining point and click adventure of the old school, with a few hidden object conventions thrown in.

Serve the Pact, serve Avadon, serve Redbeard. So it goes for you, a new recruit to the fabled Black Fortress, eager to make a name for yourself and help uphold the ideals of your land. But all is not as it seems; Redbeard, Avadon's commander, seems to inspire as much fear as he does loyalty in his followers, and murmurs of dissent ripple through the ranks while rumours of traitors both unnerve and intrigue you. Decide for yourself what path you will follow in this massive, engrossing turn-based fantasy RPG from Spiderweb Software. Just remember to watch your back so someone doesn't stick a dagger into it. Who can you trust?

Love Chronicles: The Sword and the Rose, a new casual adventure game from Vendel Games, creator of the Magic Encyclopedia series, flings you into a gloomy world of alchemy, spells, sleeping trees, frozen puddles and glowing rose petals. As a prince who is on his way home from an adventure, you encounter a strange island filled with mystery. And ice. Lots and lots of ice. Your boat becomes trapped on the shore, so you set foot to sand and investigate the island's strange sights.

The pen is mightier than the sword and it won't give you any time to rest. Mark Twain's soul is uneasy, and he seeks you out to help him try to make sense of a premonition he can't remember from his youth, and to help save him from the strange beast that seems to be hunting him through time. Solve a centuries old mystery and conspiracy in the third installment of Mumbo Jumbo's popular hidden-object adventure series!

Well it finally happened. After years of cheating, fighting and swirlying, you've been expelled, and your parents aren't happy. The only thing standing between you and juvenile detention is St. Frost's School for Slackers, Troublemakers and Idiots. The students are a mixed bag of violent sadists and amiable dunces, the teachers aren't much better, and the last new student had a nervous breakdown after two months. But hey, you ruled one school before didn't you? How different can this one be? It's all about doing the right things for the right people... So is the premise of Wasted Youth, the new open world adventure-RPG from GPStudios.

Created by five-year-old Cassie and her father, Ryan, Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure is a stupendously silly and wonderful short little adventure game about a little girl able to travel through rainbows, who desperately wants a collection of ponycorns in jars. (Don't we all?) Short and easy but nevertheless cheerful and fun, this little game will put a smile on your face for the duration.

Katharine Neil brings us a quirky, cheeky adventure about what it takes you get you up off your butt and enjoying the great outdoors. Provided your idea of "enjoyment" is trekking all over the wilderness, being outwitted by devious animals, set to work by devilish children, and tracking down a truly unreasonable amount of teddy-bear eyeballs. An entertaining, bawdy adventure game with a ton of sass and creativity.

Emma and the Inventor is a wonder-filled adventure/hidden object game from Tricky Software. A relative newcomer to the casual downloads scene, the studio makes a great impression with a game that is not only easy and inviting to play, but one that has been carefully put together with attention to the small details. The end result doesn't shatter records or break the genre's mold too fiercely, but instead delivers a supremely satisfying game with good puzzles, excellent artwork and music, and frustration-free gameplay scene after glorious scene.

With its darker and more powerful storyline and haunting music Princess Isabella: Return of the Curse still delivers the goods of involving, entertaining, challenging gameplay. The ability to chose two different modes of play makes Princess Isabella fun for both beginners to the field and seasoned adventurers looking for a challenge. Beautiful beyond belief and exciting to play Princess Isabella: Return of the Curse is a definite hit.

Fans of the original Castaway will find much they like from the first game, plus many improvements. Castaway 2 isn't the deepest RPG around, but it's perfect for casual fans of the genre. The Isle of the Titans has a lot to do and a lot to see, and will keep casual RPG players well occupied. Just don't let it suck you in too much, or you might find that you suffer some light amnesia of your own.

With smooth, easy to use controls, sumptuous detail and pop-culture style humour, A Knight's Quest is a lovely diversion that won't necessarily extend your cerebral capacities, but rather will entertain, amuse and remind you of the importance of respecting your mother and helping others, even if it's simply in the pursuit of milk... that costs well over $650.00. And that's the low-fat variety. Without diamonds in it.

With its cute, cartoony visuals, throbbing music track, fast-paced action, and Super Mario-like platforming City Siege 2: Resort Siege is a wild ride through the world of special ops and hostage rescue. So you can't be a member of Seal Team 6 (which doesn't actually exist, anyway), try City Siege 2: Resort Siege and live out your wildest commando team fantasies of saving the day, killing the bad guys, and reducing some random unnamed resort to complete rubble.

Lume is a new puzzle adventure game from State of Play, creators of a few browser games you might know, such as A Short History of the World and A Break in the Road. The visual style is by far the game's most standout feature, as everything you see was created out of paper and cardboard before getting filmed in high definition. The awesomeness doesn't end with the graphics, though. Lume features some solidly challenging point-and-click puzzles that will cause even seasoned room escape veterans to stop and think on more than one occasion.

From crooked law agents to psychic detectives to run-of-the-mill agents who find themselves in tough situations, most of us feel like we've got a good grip on the fictional portrayal of the justice system at this point in time. Dark Ritual plays with this familiarity a bit, introducing two FBI agents at the very beginning of the game, one of whom has a sister that has mysteriously vanished. The pair sets out to locate her, uncovering top secret plots, a mad scientist with an Incan mind control concoction, and plenty of mysticism along the way. It's a stunning hidden object thriller from Vogat Interactive (Shades of Death: Royal Blood, Gravely Silent: House of Deadlock), and you won't be able to pause until you've ran through to the end!

Tragedy rocks an isolated town, but nobody wants to talk about it... mainly because they've all vanished. Over a century later you find yourself at the gates, drawn there by an obsession from your own tragedies and a mysterious letter, and wind up embroiled in a plot of love, hate, and murder in a place that straddles the line between nightmare and reality. A creepy and captivating hidden-object adventure with quality and good times to go around.

Welcome to Snark Busters 2: All Revved Up, a bizarre, colorful, steampunk-ish world of broken hidden objects, magical mirrors, and mischievous chandelier-breaking cats! As Jack Blair, famous Formula 0 racer, you follow in the footsteps of your grandfather who was not only a better driver, but a better Snark Buster as well! The sequel is every bit as whimsical and engaging as the original game, Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club, and it's a treasure of an experience from beginning to end!

Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love tells a tale of love, obsession, and murder which unfolds alongside the dazzling scenery with each clue you uncover and each vista you explore. Will you find out what happened to the countess? You will indeed, and have a great deal of fun along the way.

Mystery is afoot in the snow-logged town of Raincliff! When a busload of university students goes missing nearby, the locals aren't talking... mainly because there aren't any. The town has been deserted for years and nobody knows why, and when you go looking for answers, it's clear that something doesn't want you around and will go to any lengths to keep you from playing the hero. Uncover a bizarre secret, stay one step ahead of a murderous unseen force, and search for clues in this exciting, imaginative installment in the fantastic Mystery Trackers hidden-object adventure series!

Some things in life are purely about experience, like bungee-jumping and rollercoaster rides. And there are games with no apparent meaning, that draw you in simply to enjoy something different, like Deliza. This point-and-click curiosity is essentially an advergame without the hard-sell elements, diffcult to define yet an experience in its own right.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery is, in one sentence, a gorgeous piece of playable, explorable art with a phenomenal soundtrack and overall design that begs to be experienced. We'll call it a point-and-click adventure (a touch and touch again adventure?), but really Sword & Sworcery is all about satisfying your curiosity in a visually striking world and doing one-on-one battles with a few discontented beings. It's a game so stepped in atmosphere and setting you'll feel like it's as epic as The Lord of the Rings, all compactified into your mobile device.

A space ship. An explosion. An escape pod. A crash. It's just you and an alien planet replete with jungle creatures who aggressively attack you, lone guy in a well-equipped spacesuit. Capsized drops you in an unfamiliar world and gives you just a few tools to survive. Fortunately, a grappling hook and a number of guns happens to be amongst these tools, the former of which is handy not only for swinging around and pulling yourself up ledges, but for grabbing and moving obstacles. Other than that, you really have to rely on your wits in this gorgeously-illustrated but challenging physics/action game.

Amanda Rose: The Game of Time, developed by Renergy, takes the idea of hurtling through a time-space continuum one step further by way of a small stone in an unfolding cube found by our heroine, Amanda, at the site of a plane crash. It's not an easy ride though and after several days of unconsciousness, she awakes to an adventure that will take her through the wild west of America to the amazing lost city of Atlantis. Of course there are multiple hidden objects to be found to help her on her way.

Note to wizards tinkering with space and time: if you're going to build a magical portal, be sure to calibrate it for humans before unleashing its unstoppable power on the universe! In the far away land of Sefirem, one such wizard failed to do this, and the high-tech portal he was working on went all wacky and trapped him inside. Now, an elfin girl and her rodent pal need a human — namely, you — to collect crystals and find the wizard, else the entire land will fall to ruin! So begins Allora and the Broken Portal, a gorgeously-drawn fantasy hidden object adventure from the folks at AZ Art development studio.

Voodoo Whisperer: Curse of a Legend is a hidden object adventure hybrid that brings the atmosphere and mystery of New Orleans to you in the comfort and safety of your own home. A moody soundtrack accentuates the gorgeous and stunning visuals in the game, as well as the brilliantly detailed and almost photo-realistic hidden object scenes. What Voodoo Whisperer brings to the table is a twist on the usual gameplay along with fantastic atmosphere and a gripping story that keeps the player engaged while sending shivers down the spine.

Anbot 2 is short and sweet, but so totally jam-packed with action and excitment that it's much more than just a mouthful of gaming goodness. It might not take long to help Anbot through his second adventure, but you'll definitely feel like he owes you one for helping him out this time.

Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water is virtually a pure point-and-click adventure experience of the old Myst school of gameplay, with some minor hidden object elements mixed in. Book of Water picks up where Book of Air left off, with the heroine Lyra making her way back home to the land of Wish after her adventures with the Clockmaker. Stunning to look at, a joy to listen to (the soundtrack is lovely as always), challenging, entertaining, and downright fun, Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water is a worthy successor to the previous games in the series, while setting the stage for the (hopefully) big wrap up that is to come.

Spirits of Mystery: Amber Maiden offers a lot of fantastic adventuring and hidden object gameplay. The beautiful scenery, the competent voice acting, the amusing animations and the fine interface guarantee lots of fun for fans of the genre. So take some time and explore this gorgeous world while saving the kingdom from a fate that is, while visually very pretty, in reality not all that pretty.

Christine Love's Lake City Rumble II is not your run-of-the-mill fighting game, but instead offers an experience where choice and interpretation is everything if you want to pack a real punch into your attacks. Will you beat Qaisar, or accept defeat? Time to enter the arena.

Edutainment!... Commence eye-rolling, people. For some reason many are skeptical of any game that claims to "make learning fun". Perhaps it is the feeling that, since most believe learning (if not necessarily schooling) to be naturally fun, any subject that has to be made fun must be really dry. That said, while Mission US: For Crown or Colony is unlikely to redeem the genre for everyone, the tale of a teenager coming of age in Colonial America makes for a solid adventure, whose gentle challenge is balanced by excellent production values and historical detail.

As the name would suggest, Digital: A Love Story by Don't Take it Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story author Christine Love, is a downloadable romance/mystery set against the backdrop of 1980s online technology. Part interactive fiction, part Uplink-style hacker game, and part nostalgic pastiche of a time of low-res graphics and crackling dial-ups that many current gamers never got to experience (which, for the record, this includes me, and, presumably, the author herself!). Digital: A Love Story offers a short, sweet and occasionally heart-wrenching trip back in time.

A government experiment gone wrong... an isolated ruin of a hospital... a madman who refuses to stop his work... and a host of angry beings with deadly powers. That should be a walk in the park for you, right? Save the world and track down five experimental super soldiers gone rogue in Orneon's hidden-object adventure! For hidden-object adventure fans who prefer their experiences just a little bit creepy, Agency of Anomalies: Mystic Hospital is the perfect choice, with an emphasis on adventure and puzzle solving to balance out hidden-object scenes.

Blood and Ruby, from Hitpoint Studios, features both traditional bloodsucking vampire villains and the new heartthrob type (he even has a cuddly scarf!) in its new adventure, but thankfully it doesn't take itself too seriously!

You've been knocked on the head and placed into a prison cell, and there's some kind of coronation going on in a little less than 24 hours. Your first priority is going to be figuring out who you are, why you are where you are, and what to do about it. Then you need to figure out what you need to get in order to do it, and finally, you have to figure out how to get it all done in the time period you have.

A distraught phone call from your sister informing you of your father's death is the least of your worries. When you show up at the family castle to settle some familial matters, you find that things are going from bad to worse as a malevolent force appears to be working against you and following your every move. Will you be able to save your sister and, ultimately, the world from the darkness? Find out in this short but engrossing hidden-object adventure from Vogat Interactive!

Bela Kovacs may wear his sunglasses at night and waterfall exhale like a total bad ass (not that you should imitate him, smoking is bad, kids, don't do it), but for some reason the Budapest police department doesn't want him as a detective anymore. When his niece is viciously murdered, however, he's not going to let any power on earth stop him from catching her killer. Not even preternatural powers. It's easy to get engrossed in this fascinating tale of darkness, serial killing, revenge, curses, and the Old World.

Go underwater in Lucas Paahk's stunning new exploration-centric sandbox game about one lovely fish and one big, beautiful ocean. Collect tokens, run races, perform acrobatic tricks and uncover secrets in a truly stunning oceanic environment. Though lacking any sort of story or overarching goal, Azurefish provides a relaxing, atmospheric experience that you can really sink yourself into.

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

Discover why a small tropical island has been over-run by the spirits of a sunken luxury liner in this captivating, beautiful and thoroughly fun adventure game. It is one of the best adventure games we've seen this year. Sometimes I struggle through these types of games, mostly the result of boredom. This title? I played it twice — in a row.

Ready for an adventure game that will engladden you with every puzzle? Or maybe you're in the mood for a little princess saving, dragon slaying, ghost-costume-wearing fun? Either way, The Fool has got you covered. And then some! The Fool is a perfect example of what a casual adventure game should be: smart, funny, filled with puzzles, and just the right number of diversions to keep things from going too silent. All wrapped in a deliciously tongue-in-cheek fantasy setting.

If you're looking for a fantastic point-and-click adventure that combines mystery, suspense, pharmaceuticals, science fiction, and an extremely goofy English translation, then look no further. Take two shots of Dr. Stanley's House 2 and call me in the morning. Presuming, of course, that you ever find your way out of the air ducts.

Vogat Interactive presents a tale of magic, murder, menace, and uncooperative talking pianos in this hidden-object adventure. You awake one evening from a nightmare to find that it's come true; your brother-in-law has called to inform you that your sister has died. Suspicious of his evasive behaviour, you arrive at his eccentric estate unannounced and set about uncovering a truth that may be more fantastical than you'd expect... and offer a shot at saving your sister from a very bleak eternity.

Her parents spent their time searching for an artifact called the Severed Heart. Now, Edwina Margrave is driving through the dark woods to a remote village where her mother and father were last seen. Probably not the brightest idea she's ever had, but Ed knows a thing or two about the supernatural realm. The hidden object adventure Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart opens up with our heroine arriving at a dimly-lit cottage in the woods. She is seeking answers, but naturally she'll find many more questions as things begin to unravel in a most peculiar way. Ghostly animals haunting the realm of the living, anyone?

You might think that if a large, priceless statue is stolen in a cruise ship the police would simply prevent the ship from docking and conduct a thorough search until they find it. But where would be the fun in that? Where would be the opportunity for hidden object searching for clues in tourist locations across the Mediterranean? Maybe Italian police really do handle things differently. In Insider Tales 2: The Stolen Venus, a new adventure game from Intenium, Detective di Porta indulges in a little pizza making and even surreptitiously enters a Greek archaeological site on her leisurely course towards nabbing the culprit.

Empress of the Deep 2: Song of the Blue Whale is a brand new adventure game from Silverback Productions, creator of the original Empress of the Deep game. The sequel picks up where the first game left off, dropping you in a lushly-rendered world filled with mythological entities, puzzling pieces of machinery, and just a dab or two of fantasy magic.

When the Sun and the Sea have a falling out, it's up to you to dive into the ocean and retrieve the Idols hidden beneath the waves, carrying them all to the mountaintops where they rightfully belong... or so you think. Gregory Weir's latest experimental platformer is short, dreamlike, and surreal, and worth a play despite suffering from some tedious avoidance/platforming sequences.

New from Hitpoint Studios comes Guardians of Magic: Amanda's Awakening, a casual adventure game that focuses on inventory puzzles, exploration, and a lush fantasy setting. You take on the role of Amanda, a young girl who discovers some secrets about her late grandfather's life, including his feud with her mentor, Dr. Magus. It's technology versus magic in this well-spun game, and you'll get to explore a heap of scenes as you search for items to help you solve puzzles.

Something unusual is going down at the Cornwall Celtic Festival. And we're not just talking about the Gaelic language workshop. Your ex-fiance Robert called you out of nowhere. Then, a scream. Static. And the phone goes dead. You know Robert has a habit of investigating supernatural occurences, but this seems... different. Naturally, you set out to investigate, beginning the new hidden object adventure release from Elephant Games, Hallowed Legends: Samhain.

One passenger on a lonely road in the middle of the night is about to change your life forever. When a mysterious girl who you give a lift to a small town in the middle of nowhere leaves a relic from your childhood in the backseat, you go looking for answers, but might not make it back home safely. Artogon Games delivers a flawed but ultimately genuinely scary title that horror adventure fans will want to check out.

The aliens are coming! The aliens are coming! But you can't worry about that right now, not when your promotion hangs in the balance on the success of the party you're throwing! Help Zee keep his guests happy, but keep an eye out for extraterrestrial interfereance in this silly, fun little point-and-click adventure from Zeebarf and Steve Castro.

You're not sure who you are. You don't know where you are. And a mysterious dark shadow is following you around, clouding your memory. It's shaping up to be quite a bad day as Echoes of Sorrow, a new casual adventure game from BlitPop, begins. This title drops a few hidden object scenes to flavor an otherwise straight-up free roaming adventure game that emphasizes exploration and inventory puzzles. Not only do you have to gather items from various parts of the game, but you're usually not sure what to do until the very last moment. It's a smartly paced game that hits all the sweet spots for casual adventure fans.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye... or their daughter. When a little girl runs afoul of a mechanical monstrosity inside the newly excavated caves outside a remote town, you find yourself called in to rescue her in this stunning continuation of the popular hidden-object adventure series of PuppetShow titles.

Point-and-click your way through the third installment in Pastel Games' Sneak Thief series! A brisk fifteen minute-ish diversion, this game will send you off into the weekend whistling. The titular thief finds himself in some kind of underground lair with a number of code pads and a safe. Will it turn out to be his downfall?

Go deep underground in this "What if?" approach to history from Pastel Games. In this short, easy point-and-click adventure, you play as a spy sent to infiltrate a laboratory in the Owl mountains. At first glance, it looks like you've broken into any other office, but pry around a bit and you'll soon find that there are a lot of secrets to uncover.