I told you! I told you not to trust clowns! And now the kingdom is in peril AGAIN because one seriously creepy jester has kidnapped the royal family! In this simple but gorgeously made realtime strategy game, you'll travel across the land besting and recruiting a roster of heroes with unique abilities to defeat your foes in defensive combat and eventually bring peace to the kingdom once more.

Grab your grandfather clock and go back to the future with Adam, a short puzzle platformer made in just 48 hours. In order to charge up your time machine, you've got to place your clock in the heat zones to gather energy. But with every time you make a collection, time resets, and you've got to dodge your previous self in order to avoid a chronological conundrum!

Full of questions about who he is and how he came to be, the little who knows a few things already: the world is dangerous, so move blocks to mitigate that danger and use the [arrow] keys to move around it. The world is also lonely, until the moment he meets "her" and, together, they make their way toward the light, seeking answers in this atmospheric puzzle platform game with as much emphasis on story as on the puzzles it contains.

A great calamity is approaching, and you're the only one who can stop it. Unfortunately, you're a sentient stone idol who can do little more than use your patience and timelessness to let the world and time pass around you, watching the landscape change with time and the seasons (or your own actions) until a solution presents itself. Scriptwelder delivers a slow but beautiful bit of interactive art married with clever puzzling for a zen-like experience.

Pull up a seat beneath the Japanese quilted Kotatsu and enjoy this delightful little gem based on the traditional heated table frame. If there is any downside it is the lack of a changing cursor which might lead to some minor pixel hunting, a small complaint considering the entertainment this little gem brings. Sit down, power up, and let the warmth of Kotatsu Escape sooth away the stressful day.

Happy birthday to you, haaa-ppy birthday tooo you! Well, it's somebody's birthday here in LiberTechno's festively decorated escape-the-room game, and this somebody thinks it's great fun to rig up the room with an abundance of challenging puzzles. This equals a hefty amount of content while the large banquet table in the center of the room will also challenge your navigational skills, which is especially happy for anyone who'd much rather sleuth his or her way through clues than fill up on frosting-laden cake.

Strange things are happening in the town of Vortex Point, and a pair of ghostly burglaries are just the start of it. Head up a paranormal investigation in this fun and freak point-and-click adventure from Carmel Games. Don't worry if you don't feel like you have the brains to tackle it. This one features two just laying around.

Can you handle the demand for split-second timing and reflexes while constantly being vaporized? If so, this challenging yet simple little stylish platformer is calling out for you to conquer it as you run, leap, and dodge across a cityscape full of hazards and portals.

What's rad? Puzzles! Also British inventor enthusiasts and beleaguered dogs. And snarky, sadistic anagrams. And blobby heroes who can grow and shrink at a command. All those things are great, which is why this week's Vault focuses on puzzles with twists.

Calling all heroes! It's up to you to defend the castles of the kingdom in Wild Heroes. In this tower defense game you must place your heroes wisely to keep the enemy at bay. Upgrade them to wild status to really do some damage. Show the monsters what a hero is really capable of!

You are Edwin, an ordinary kid, ready to beat your favorite game "The Legend of Hooligan" when, before you know it, you're lying unconscious on your bedroom floor. Paying homage to and parodying your favorite RPGs of old, this point-and-click adventure is a deep pool of satisfaction for those who love racking up awards for every success as well as failure, who delight in discovering the many ways to kill—or die—in an oozing, bloody chaos of body parts. It's not a game for everyone: painstakingly precise timing and the patience to restart after multiple deaths is requisite. While it's surprisingly short, Elf story overflows with engaging graphics, narration and action.

Remember when? Nicolas Cannesse's short action-adventure/interactive art piece will have you asking yourself that as you go on a journey through the evolution of games. Made in just 48 hours for Ludum Dare, it'll remind you that there was a time when polygons didn't exist, save points were a myth, and just how far we've come over all.

Many people have issues with their childhood, but Adam doesn't even remember his deceased parents. Now a thirteen floor apartment building slowly reveals the horrors of his past in Tempa Labs' point-and-click adventure game, Traumata. Puzzle your way through each of the floors as you avoid an evil, lurking presence. What awaits you on Floor 13?

Underneath that rainbow of squares lies demons galore! Cool demons, though! Mamano Digger is a simple idea puzzler by Hojokama Games that makes the SameGame formula feel a little different. A minimalist gaming experience that probably won't have much replay value once you've beaten it, but you probably won't be able to stop playing until you do.

Quick, the patient needs a heart transplant, and a doctor! Too bad all they have is you in this hysterical, gory, and very challenging simulation where you control each finger of your hand individually as you attempt to perform life-saving surgery... without dropping a bonesaw into his chest cavity!

There's nothing unfamiliar about the setup of Find the Escape-Men 49: In a Hut. Since this is a Find the Escape-Men game, you have to find 10 green men before you can pull off your great escape. However, it shouldn't take long to realize that something is a little... off... about our protagonist. I feel we could feature more work from No1Game, since what they do, they do well. Their puzzles are original and logical yet not too frustrating, there's no tear-your-hair-out pixel-hunting, and there's just the right amount of whimsy holding it all together.

This third installment of Mike Morin's surreally noir point-and-click adventure, continues to chronicle Rick plight to save his wife, Lily. Taking a turn that is strange dream slash time melding, Rick feels like someone's playing a cruel game with him. Propel him further through the story and solve a series of puzzles to unlock the final door to find a new destiny...or another beginning?

This sub mission was a fiasco from the start, but if you could have said no to your Nazi commanders you wouldn't be spending December 1941 in the depths of the Atlantic. And there are... things out there. Subbania is a metroidvania-style action-adventure by ektomarch, where cosmic horrors lurk in the depths. Quite unsettling and atmospheric, if a little stingy on save points.

Hexaganator is a soothing point-and-click puzzler from Char Studio that's perfect for those brief snatches of free-time that present themselves throughout the day. Just click and drag your hexagons to their proper slots so that the colors match to create a perfect pathway to harness the power that is the hexagon. Get them all in the proper order on the first try to receive all three stars at level's end.

Jumping and sword-swinging are small-time mechanics. Warping the lay of the land or the very reality around you? Now we're talking! Here are three very different games that let you control the world around you in some seriously cool and unexpected ways.

Spin had a girlfriend, but he fell down a hole! What else do you need to know? Spin Spin: Chapter 1 and Spin Spin: Chapter 2 are a pair of puzzle platformers by Chris Hughes that take the simple ideas of world-spinning and spike-avoiding, strip them down to its minimalist essence, and the result is truly something special. Presentation is a little no-frills, but these are very cleverly designed games.

Ready, set, fold! In this simple to learn origami puzzle game, your folding skills will be tested like never before. Enjoy a relaxing atmosphere as you try to create various shapes with your paper with a limited number of moves. Origami has never been so much fun!

Polymer Rabbit kicks it up a notch with the next entry in their top-down shooters with Frantic 3. More levels, more bullets (and let's not forget bigger bullets too)... they're just gonna throw everything they can at you. But you can take it cause you're a lean, mean, projectile-avoiding, shooting machine. Seriously, your ship's set to auto-fire. At least that's one less thing to worry about as you weave your way through 15 stages (plus 15 more bonus stages) of bullet hell.

Stupid heroes! Always looting your randomly scattered GPs, knocking down your doors and whacking that stupid sword of theirs against your orbs of true evilness. Well, this one picked the wrong dungeon to vandalize, because you're the Atomic Creep Spawner and you've got a whole mess of atomic creeps just waiting to be spawned.

So, you were cursed by a witch to be a human magnet, and all for collecting cans. Figure out how to use your newfound powers to save your sister in the action adventure game Cantrip. In this twisted take on the Hansel and Gretel tale, wend your way through the scrapyard, fight off guard dogs and more as you cleverly use your magnet powers to find the witch and get your sister back.

You need to be playing with a full deck to take down the Four Horsemen and ultimately The Beast in this real-time strategy game from Nerdook. Summon powerful warriors to the battlefield from cards you earn and unleash spells to drive the enemy back before they do the same thing to you. A simplified game, but an enjoyable one, and good for letting your inner warrior out on a coffee break.

Join Yepi on Yepi planet as he attempts to rescue his Yepi girl from hostile aliens in BeGamers' delightful and whimsical point and click adventure. You just need to find the right combination of actions to get Yepi across the scene and on to the next. This is a short and sweet little time waster, packed with tons of personality, quirky characters and backgrounds, and more than a little rude humor.

Everything wants to kill or trap you in Nitrome's newest arcade game, where you control a cheerful little block that travels along poles it shoots out of itself as you move. Get to and connect the nodes on each level to win, but when figuring out the deadly properties of your environment is part of the fun, it's harder than it looks.

A charming, sea-side salon seems (try saying that 5 times fast) like the kind of place you'd never want to leave... only this time you don't seem to have much of a choice! Libertechno returns with the seventh episode of Aries Escape, along with a whole new batch of dastardly puzzles to keep you locked inside. Navigate the room and explore your hint-laden surroundings by clicking key areas indicated by a changing cursor. Can you solve the hair-pullingly difficult riddles before you ruin your brand new 'do?

In this short, logical escape from GamezHero, you wake to find yourself trapped in a room with only a few poor, departed souls for company. You'll need to click around to find a way out, and with some superbly creepy atmosphere and straight-forward puzzling, this is a simple but tidy little escape to keep you entertained. Also available free on iOS and Android!

Lost and alone, the little gray pegasus stranded in the Everfree Forest doesn't seem to have a hope to safely navigate the hazards... until an expected friend shows her the way. Though the controls might be too frustrating for some, Derpy's Story features superb atmosphere, some lovely animated cutscenes, and unexpected heart.

What's in a shooter? A bullet by any other game is just the same... right? Wrong! This week on the Vault, we look at three games that turn the genre you think you know upside down, from multiplayer madness set in a blink-and-you're-dead fantasy world, to hilariously entertaining zombie destructive physics environments, and even a visual novel/horizontal shooter hybrid that will keep you involved for hours and hours...

In order to repay a massive debt to the notorious Pike Club, you're given a chance to earn cash by competing in a series of matching games. Just clear the board by making pairs from memory, and you're golden. But with various beneficial and harmful effects, talent and skill cards to add to your debt, and the strange members themselves to deal with, that's easier said than done. A clever twist on a simple concept with a very unique style.

Technology has advanced all walks of life but every now and then I'm sure the primitive colonial side of you craves a chance to go back to a more simple time. A time when warfare was fought with rowboats and planes that needed a passenger to fly itself. Well today is your lucky day for Colonial Wars is available for you to sink your teeth into. Break out your maps and strategy books because you'll be the guiding force behind entire fleets and it's up to you to take ownership of every island you see!

Getting into a science laboratory is much easier than it looks; just ask Dee Dee. Getting out of one, however, is another story. espcgm's clever little escaper drops you into what appears to be a chemistry lab, and tasks you with puzzling your way out. Don't let the MS Paint graphics throw you off; Escape from Mystery Science Room is not a bad game. The meat of an escaper is its gameplay, and this is a game that has it; the puzzles are logical and flow well, and although there's no changing cursor, the lack of pixel-hunting means you don't really need it. Overall, EfMSR is a game that's just difficult enough, and well worth the trip.

Uirdz isn't a word game, but you can use words to your advantage! In this high-difficulty puzzle platformer, you've not only got to find a way to reach the exit, but you've got to drop words in your path to make it possible. And some of those words come alive, so be careful how you wield them! No matter how you slice it, Uirdz is a tricky challenge that will give you plenty of opportunities to reunite with your favorite platforming nemesis, spikes.

Qoosh, like many protagonists before him (she? it?), is a lab experiment being guided through a series of tests by a narrator who seems less into actual science and more his own sadistic amusement. But despite the familiar premise, Qoosh wins with both charm and challenge to provide a fun and engaging experience that gives you a warm sense of satisfaction as you tackle its puzzles.

Go on a stunning retro action-adventure to uncover the identity of a murderer in this old-school styled Western tale. Do odd jobs and favours to learn clues to the identity of the villain, and travel all over the sun-soaked land. Though the controls and the lack of a save feature make this one a specific, and an acquired taste, Westerado is one of the most beautiful browser games to come down the line in a long time.

I can has cheezburger? How about sausage from Germany, cheese from Switzerland, and any and every food this kitty wants to sample in this easy-yet-thinky physics puzzle from the folks that brought us Cat Around the World. Just like last time, your goal is to send the round food to the hungry feline by removing blocks, pressing buttons and avoiding electrical hazards. It's 30 more levels of the same formula, but when same is so tasty, it's always a good thing.

How do you make a unique puzzle platformer? By breaking it! At least, that's what it looks like happened when you play this clever game. Your goal is to reunite the little boy with the probably-not-going-to-steal-his-soul pink ghost, but each level has been shattered and strewn about, so figuring out how to navigate your way through piece by piece is a trick for your hands and your eyes.

From the imagination of MyGames888, enter a dreamlike aquatic abode full of enigmas. If you want to escape—and avoid a permanent case of prune skin—you'll need to find the answer to many questions such what does that turtle have on its back and why is that fish behind bars? Put together clues and creative tools to solve puzzles and find your way out to one of the funnest "Congratulations!" screens in the genre.

While the surroundings may look dull in this escape game from new-to-the-scene designer, Indice, the beauty in its clean design and simple lay-out soon becomes clear. Just a bit of wit and logic is all that's needed to solve the puzzles before you, making for a brief but satisfying excursion that will leave you looking forward to the next sticky situation you can be trapped in.

A short and simple game of cards? Well, not THAT simple! In this clever strategy game, you're tasked with assembling a group of heroes, represented by cards, on the playing field before your opponent does. The catch? Each card has special abilities that can hinder or impact your enemy's progress, but they're also being used against you!

What freaks you out? Blood and guts? Mystery? Ambiguity? This week's Vault looks at three games that have sparked some of the best debate about what makes something unsettling, and highlights how very different that can be from person to person.

Not all fairy tales are made the same, and not all locked away princesses want to be saved. In Mad Princess, a defense strategy game, the goal is to help the princess destroy her would be "heroes," and ensure she gets to stay in her cozy castle filled with corpses. Armed with an assortment of traps, you will have to time and plan your attacks well to be effective against the attack.

There's a new robot on the gaming scene! Help Sparkman navigate to the exit portal in this clever puzzle platformer. Use Sparkman's special ability to stop the screen from scrolling allowing you to maneuver through the sides of the screen to reach areas that you wouldn't be able to get to otherwise. Beware hazards and collect discs to get a perfect score in this creative twist of the platforming genre.

Here's a deceptively simple point-and-click puzzle game from Emiel de Graaf in which you determine just how to lay out a series of stepping stones to reach the goal. Each stone has a limited number of spaces in which it will move; select the stone and choose the direction you want it to go, using strategy to determine just how to connect pathways and successfully complete the sixteen levels. It's both easy and thoughtful, the perfect way to chill while still steppin' up those brain cells.

Unlike many similar platformers, Vex's goal isn't to frustrate the player. Checkpoints are liberally scattered throughout the levels, typically ensuring that you won't have to repeat tasks if you die. With a little patience and focus, anyone can get through Vex... and once they do, it's off to the Level Editor to see if you can throw together a stage to stump the world!

Poor Shawn had been planning for a nice night in watching horror movies. Alas, his wandering eye spotted a beautiful blonde that he simply had to convince to go out with him. The catch: She won't even speak with him and her friend is clearly blocking the opportunity. In this light hearted point-and-click adventure you'll journey through the town searching for the right incentive to make blondie want to spend some time with you.

The tired box is back in the fifth installment of the Wake Up The Box series. Once again use whatever means are at your disposal to prevent the little guy from getting his sleep. Get your physics puzzle fix as you draw various shapes to bounce, slide, or rocket the box out of dreamland.

Come build a snowman and enjoy the magic of a holiday night while treating yourself to one of TomaTea's most gorgeously atmospheric escape games to date. You will need to have a keen hidden object seeking eye to locate all essential parts but the neat design and helpful features will make puzzle solving much more pleasant. Anytime you're wistful for a wintery fiesta, ring in the season with this Golden Bell!

A lovingly detailed homage to classic platforming adventures, this retro-styled Metroidvania game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where your only reason for living is suddenly abducted from you by a mysterious stranger. While it could use some more to do, it's a beautifully made title fans of classic gaming will enjoy.

Escape from the same old habits and start a new resolution for wackiness with Detarou's discovery-filled escape game. This time you're locked inside a large, multi-roomed house with new things to discover around every corner. With so much to explore, and three endings to reach, the challenge lies in how to sort through the abundance of information to solve the puzzles that lead to your escape. So shape up those synapses, prepare for strangeness, and you're well on your way to a fresh new Detarou outlook.

The babies of fairyland have been nabbed! What kind of monster would do such a thing?!... well, um. You. Command a demon army trying to shepherd a group of babies back to their evil leader in this real-time strategy/tower defense hybrid. With upgrades, spells, fake demon babies, and more, it's a seriously cute, challenging, and quirky game where you get to be the bad guy.

Keep monsters from reaching the portal to our world, where they will presumably lurk under beds waiting to snap off toes, in this colourful tower-defense game. More an expansion and improved version of the original, it brings a new tower type, an expanded upgrade tree, and a creative level design that will up the challenge and keep you busy.

We always try to feature only games we think you'll love, but sometimes a game surprises even us by how much you want to love it and pet it and call it George. Here are three games that were unexpected hits, varying from naked tricycling to simply sweet interactive art.

All you need is a sword on your back and revenge in your heart to be a hero in this combat-centric RPG from JIMP and Grindhead Games. Venturing outside the city walls in search of the monster that killed your father, you'll slice, dice, and magic-fisherize your way through a series of colourful battles in this simple but fun title.

Point-and-click your way to rescue your sister in this charming adventure game. You and your bee team together to get your sister back from the bad guys who whisked her away. Experiment on each level until you discover the secrets to continue on to the next. Short and sweet, Shapik: The Quest is a wonderful way to spend a little time.

Zap away colorful jewels to save the townsfolk in Jewelanche 2. In this beautiful match-3 game, draw lines to connect gems of the same shape and color to remove them from the board. Fight evil bosses and collect gold on your way. Beware obstacles, and spend your cash on the power-ups best suited for the level. Once again use your magic to save the day!

The next chapter in Sam Otero's fan-made spin on the popular Pokemon franchise has arrived! RPG meets tower-defense as you are free to manually explore the world, hunting for and capturing Pokemon in the field as a boy or girl, and ultimately discovering the truth behind the strange Shadow Pokemon while you save the world... again! Homage or imitation? That's up to you to decide.

Although Soom 2013 isn't long at all, particularly compared to Place of Light's earlier works like Loom Dawn and Room Marine, it's good while it lasts. The room and its puzzles are very well designed, and although the lack of any sound can be a little disconcerting, it doesn't really get in the way. As someone born in the year of the snake myself (...er, not this year of the snake, the one 24 years ago), I consider myself qualified to recommend Soom 2013, and I do so eagerly.

Nitrome's latest itty-bitty game puts you in charge of a bird with frost-spewing abilities who can freeze its enemies solid. But with one-hit KOs threatening you and a limited amount of icy power at your disposal, you'll have to think carefully and fly fast in order to make it through challenging gauntlets of foes, switches, doors, and more in this simple but clever little action game.

Escape from the Room with Three Keys 8 is less of a full room escape and more of a serial, one of those five to ten minute "to be continued" shorts shown before the main event. Here's a perfect way to take a short yet entertaining break that will leave you wanting more.

Opposites attract. And, you know, it ain't fiction, just a natural fact that Char Studio integrates into their puzzle game, Electric Joint. Click through the charged particles of each level to create a loop of alternating charges. Remember not to cross the streams while dealing with the challenge of moving particles, electric barriers and whatever else the game feels like throwing at you. It's a simple and easy-to-learn game that any puzzling enthusiast can enjoy (even without being a Paula Abdul fan).

Beep! The year is now 2013, so by now you have all been assimilated into robots. But don't be sad! Anticipating this, we've written this week's Vault as a series of robot-themed games to gently lower you into your new life as a cold, unfeeling mechanical monster. Hooray!

Nitrome serves up a frosty sequel in this gorgeous, quirky game of arcade avoidance. Chow down on all the fruit to complete a stage while avoiding enemies by building or busting ice. But with smarter, faster baddies, tiles that can impact your own cone avatar, and even fruit that will flee, it's even harder than you thought to be a sentient cone of ice cream.

Mateusz Skutnik's dreamily surreal point-and-click treat will help you play your way into the new year. Feeling much like a mash-up of Garden Door, 10 Gnomes and Submachine, you're tasked with finding and replacing all the necessary objects to correct an electrical malfunction after a world-shattering crisis. It is up to you to restore the energy: are you up to the task?

This fourth installment of the alternative reality-bending series continues a milieu of pictorial parables set inside minutely detailed spot-the-difference scenes. Each level has two almost identical scenes side-by-side: your objective is to study both, looking for the subtle differences—such as a person's stance, a ruffle on a dress or the shape of a cloud—and clicking on them. As you search for differences, you're treated to entertaining and thought-inspiring artwork, making Music Box of Life 4 bound to please on multiple levels.

In this short text adventure from Hyptosis, lead a party of mercenaries from the esteemed guild, the Children of Brinn, on a job to solve the supernatural problems plaguing a tiny town. The choices you make determine who lives and dies and gets a face full of acid, and provides a brief but solid little diversion brimming with potential for future installments.

Created by Danny Yaroslavski, Cube Cube Cube is an entertaining 3D variation of Nurikabe that presents sets of mental blocks for you to quite satisfyingly smash. Though a way to access interior blocks would be appreciated, puzzle fans should be quite pleased to find this new Flash implementation of the popular logic brainteaser.

if you're still interested in taking out a little rage by using a cricket bat to launch a facsimile of a fellow internet user into the ionosphere, then Berzerk Studios has you covered: Berzerk Ball 2 is the latest in the series of action games which proves hitting-stuff-with-other-stuff will never get old. Packed with content, making for a bit of a crowded presentation, but, overall, a very addictive little game.

It's a good thing that TomaTea isn't changing because it's so nice to find all the characteristics you love a fine escape game: a welcoming, richly-decorated room in which clues are presented in a logical order, asking you to draw only a few lateral conclusions to be as free as a bird. No matter how easy or tricky, though, TomaTea always makes escaping feel as pleasant as an afternoon cup of tea and biscuits.

In this twisted, gleefully weird little action game, take on the role of a crushing spike trap in a video game. You love your job, mainly because you love crushing things, but also because it gives you a chance to see your beloved game mascot... right before you crush him. Can you reach your quota and maintain job security as the fireballs start flying?

Once in a blue moon Tesshi-e gets mischevious and builds an escape around finding not one, not two, but whole lot of lucky coins in a room. These escapes make Tesshi-e fans very happy, thus the title, The Happy Escape. The Fourth time's the charm in this escape where the only objective, besides finding Santa Claus' sack of presents is finding the ten Happy Coins hidden in the room. Another Holiday treat from the mind of Tesshi-e!

Nekonote's diminutive cherubs are extremely shy and they're hidden about this winter landscape for you to find. Search around, solving puzzles and performing certain actions needed to gain a key, a helping hand or otherwise uncover the hiding spots of each of the ten dwarfs. Like the chirpy pip-squeaks you're after, this point-and-click game is short and simple but big on cheerful cuteness.

Help Santa save Christmas, one present at a time. In this launch sequel from Berserk Studios, once again blast the jolly fellow to great heights. Collect coins to upgrade your rockets. Grab power-ups and maybe you'll be able to save the presents that were blasted into the sky.

Happy Holidays from the Vault! As it swings open this Christmas day, we take a look at four different wintry and seasonal games that range from Christmas-heavy to Santa-lite for anyone to enjoy, regardless of what you are or aren't celebrating!

Enjoy the anticipation of Christmas Eve year-round with this amusing room escape packed with an astonishing number of puzzles for such a small room. The basic premise of the game is simple: it is Christmas Eve, your boyfriend is on his way over, the tree is not decorated, and you can't remember where you stored the ornaments. Can you decorate before your date arrives? Better hope so!

'Tis the season for pixels in this holly jolly twisted simple hidden-object game starring roughly every character ever from all of pop culture. From video game heroes to 80s cartoon stars, they're all here participating in some winter wonderland carnage, and it's up to you to track them down in the chaotic scene... all 173 of them.

Hottategoya presents a math lover's dream escape: a room full of ten safes, nine of which remain locked until you arrange the proper algebraic equation to get them open. One by one, you'll gain the buttons needed to solve each numbers puzzle until, likely in a matter of mere minutes, you've earned the key to the exit door. Whatever your attitude toward algebra, you should feel happily liberated once you succeed.

Short but sweet, this point-and-click puzzle departs from the original Monkey GO Happy formula by providing a brief diversion as you scour the countryside for all the decorations our sad simian needs to make his Christmas complete. Don't expect much of a challenge, but DO expect some Christmas cheer!

A platform game that presents a world where the Yeti spends his days outrunning an angry anthropomorphic snowball. One of the few platform games where action and puzzle elements are split right down the middle, Oh Snow can be occasionally frustrating, but always fun.

Get ready for a gruesome discovery or two in the latest freaky escape game from horror master Psionic. Waking up in a basement cell is bad enough, but when you find out you've become imprisoned by one seriously twisted killer, all you have to escape are the clues left behind by the victims who came before you.

Tumble Towers 2 is a fun and engaging physics puzzle by Team Omni, in which you must keep totems from tumbling and dropping from wobbly towers of blocks. It doesn't really try to hide the elements it swipes from the Totem Destroyer games, but, even if a clone, it's made with a lot of love for the concept.

Choice of Games and Alana Joli Abbott deliver a gorgeously detailed and immersive text adventure for iOS and Android set against the backdrop of mystical ancient China. Outwit or succumb to mischievous fox spirits, challenge or support the emperor, become a student or one day a teacher of an ancient art, and craft a legacy that will stand the test of time.

If lil' SkullFace is going to make it through the Greg Sergeant-developed action platform game that bears his name, he's going to have to run, jump and duck like a mad-skull, since spikes, enemies and magic portals abound! SkullFace is an engaging, if unforgiving platform with tight controls and that parkour-perfect sense of flow.

This sleepless young prince is a puckish, mischievous sort who wants to play pranks on everyone in the castle. You can join in by exploring every room using keyboard commands, to find and use objects until you've racked up every trophy and achievement to be had in this point-and-click puzzle adventure from Black Square. What to do and where can be arbitrary at times, but for those who love the artwork and the searching about, The Prince Edwards proves to be charming and handsome indeed.

In this adorable little multidirectional shooter, Alone in the Park, you play John the Cook, who after a long day at work, closes down his restaurant and decides to take a shortcut through the park. Big mistake. Because, as we all know, walking alone at night in the park is just asking for a purple multidimensional portal to open up and suck you into a parallel universe controlled by evil mushrooms. In more conventional shooters, you'd have your pick of shotguns, ninja stars, or BFGs. But you're just a cook afterall, so you'll have to make due with thrown cigarettes and pizza cutters, at least until you've earned enough points to upgrade your weapons

It's a snowy December evening and these landlocked pirates need your help! In as few moves as possible, remove blocks to send them a flood of water so they can be happily at sea—yet don't drown the village elves while you're at it! Earn extra points by figuring out how to get ice to Christmas trees without turning people into frozen chunks, in this eighteen-level holiday-themed expansion pack of Staal Media's original puzzle game.

Take a break to enjoy Tesshi-e's very unseasonal Christmas present to all room escape fans! Featuring some familiar things (it just wouldn't be Tesshi-e without Mr. Birdy and a wobbly picture puzzle, would it?) and some new, Tesshi-e is in fine form with a host of amusing and challenging puzzles dealing with logic, math, color, and a little intuition. With its lush tropical backgrounds (time for a beach vacation!), zippy music, and thought-provoking puzzles, Santa in the Southern Islands is a welcome room escape any time of the year.

October 25, 1888. The Wyoming Territories. The scientist has returned from his first excursion through the Worldgate, and brought with him a strange hexagonal component. But there are still worlds to explore and answers to be found. Worldgate 2: Contact continues the story of William Buchanan's well-received point-and-click adventure. Its puzzles are satisfying and its twists are proving ever more intriguing.

When an evil businessman wants to take possession of a forest that's beloved by the town, it's up to you to stop him... by training up a horrifying beast of mass destruction in this bizarre but addictive training/combat simulation with a fantastic visual style and a surreal premise.

What's better than seeing something chilly while you're all warm and safe? This week's Vault features two games with frosty themes, from a platforming adventure to a classic maze arcade game, and one that will make you feel all warm and toasty inside as you bring colour and seasonal cheer back to a bleak world.

Bart Bonte delivers a deliciously swank yet simple sliding block puzzle with a holiday spin. Push, pull, stack, and stick using the incredible powers granted to you as a magnetic star in order to assemble the shape in each stage. A stylish exercise in clever, clean design and gameplay no matter what time of year it is.

An HTML5 retro puzzle game in which golf plays in reverse as you put together the friendliest fairways possible. With puzzles that effectively mix programming and physics, FLOG captures the feel of an 8-bit classic that never was, and its high-but-not-frustrating challenge level is just par for the course.

It's hide-and-puzzle time with Ubooly and Friends! All twelve of Ubooly's friends are hiding somewhere on the nine-screen map, and the only way to reveal them is to point and click around and solve puzzles relating the the clues they give. If this premise sounds familiar, it should— its author, BenRadish of BeardShaker Games, was also the one behind Tanooky Tracks, which is very similar both in art style and in gameplay, and there's no reason to complain about that. The puzzles are logical and well-designed, the tropical environment is well implemented, and the graphics and audio have a charm all their own.

Choose your hero and embark upon a dungeon crawl in Dungelot. In this roguelike you'll face a myriad of monsters as you fight your way deeper into the dungeon. Collect items to increase your stats as you find the key needed to exit each level. How deep can you delve?

Neutral's latest holiday gift is a charming and challenging mini escape set in a child's room full of toys, decorations and presents. Explore everywhere and make connections between the clues you find to solve puzzles and make your way out. Either because of or despite a cute platform style minigame obstacle, Christmas Escape Toy presents a rewarding experience for your escaping merriment—and it's all wrapped up with that special Neutral touch.

It's important to realize that aliens doesn't necessarily equal a creature that will be faced down by Will Smith. It's also important to know that Will Smith may not be the one who can fight off an alien invasion, even if he is looking sharp in a nice suit. In Symbiosis this possibility has come real and the defenders of the world are none other than plants that need you to properly position them so they can attack crystal aliens bent on the destruction of our world. Peppered with plenty of upgrades to take advantage of those aliens will be poorly prepared for the fight the plants are going to bring.

Santa Claus is stuck in a precarious position. Fortunately, he has some pointy-toed shoe-wearing back-up to assist him, as Santa's Rescue Elf is comes to the rescue. A point-and-click puzzle game by The Gamer Stop, Santa's Rescue Elf is a holly-jolly bit of Christmas fun, albeit with a few obtuse solutions.