Games Featured:
- • Proximity
- • Climate Challenge
- • StarShine
Things have been pretty tough this spring on Tricky Farm in JayIsGamesVille. First, I wasn't able to get enough invite responses to save ol' Bessie. Then, after forgetting to check in every seventeen minutes, the whole sorghum crop dried out. At least, I know I can always look to the JIG Archives for a bumper harvest of fun. This week, we have some gateway strategy games that are sure to take your mind off any agricultural trouble.
In this cute physics puzzle game from Rigolab, feel free to put your feet up and hang your thinking cap loose on your head as you avoid dinosaurs, spiky tacks and use gravity to safely propel your prince and princess home. Castle Tales is not a hard game with a capital "H," but it does have its own set of increasingly challenging scenarios that will have you clicking the retry button more than once.
See the icon next to this text? That's exactly the size of Nitrome's newest puzzle platformer, Gunbrick. You've got to roll, slide, and shoot your way to the exit in this compact 50x50 pixel game. It may be tiny, but Gunbrick is a big puzzle adventure. (Unless if you cheat and play the game in the larger frame... but what's the fun in that?)
Mateusz Skutnik's picturesque point-and-click escape is much like 10 Gnomes infused with vivid spring colors and sounds then crossed with an escape game. Use your mouse to scan for interactive areas, look for clues and intriguingly useful items. Solve the mystery of the garden door.
The kingdom is under attack!... not that Questy cares, of course. At least... not until his funds run out and he can't keep himself in the fat and complacent lifestyle he's become accustomed to. In this gorgeous upgrade of Sean Gailey's quirky, colourful fantasy puzzler, place loot bags and other helpful items to guide Our Hero Questy away from hazards and through mazes to ultimately defeat the evil wizard Boneyard.
You'll have to battle it out against spiders, scorpions, beetles, and all manner of creepy crawlies if you are going to survive this action-packed new tower defense game by Tofee Games. It pushes the limits of both casual and flash gaming in creating a stylish and professionally made free game that will have you playing and strategizing for days beyond that initial lunch break session.
When you're in the cold limbo between winter and spring, there's nothing better than an escape game to cheer you up. Thank goodness TomaTea's here to save the day with their title, Waiting for the Sun. A shorter experience with simple and logical puzzles, it's here to keep you happy until you can enjoy the sun for real... assuming there aren't new escape games to keep you glued to your computer.
Getting married has never been so hard! In physics puzzle Romeo GOGO!, you must navigate Romeo through 32 separate stages filled with evil palace guards, pesky ladies-in-waiting, and ugly green ogres before you can finally put that diamond ring on your Juliet's finger.
Switch, a puzzle platformer by Scott Addelsee, Jemma Barnard, Kate Fierek, and Tom Saunders, is like Sonic CD, if it were designed by the team that made LIMBO. You'll be switching between the past, present, and future to collect keys. Moody atmosphere and clever puzzles are hampered by wonky jump physics and unnecessary "switch" limits, but Switch is a game well worth your time.
John Cooney and Jimp are here to give you all the puzzle platforming you love, all the surprises you'd never expect, and 400 achievements to earn in Achievement Unlocked 3. Exponentially vaster in scope than its predecessors, Achievement Unlocked 3 is a game that's packed, even crowded, with content. Its busyness may be unexpected compared to previous entries in the series, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun.
Platform games commonly require a fair amount of jumping to move around, but the author of this unique platformer decided that jumping is the new walking. As the title implies, Momentum is your best friend and you can bound from platform to platform while dodging spikes and collecting colored candy orbs using that speed.
The intro of Golem, an atmospheric little escape by OK Interactive, gives you the details straight: you're locked in a museum in Prague, and if you want out you'll have to bring to life the remains of the famous Golem of Prague that's on display somewhere within. To do so you'll have to solve some puzzles throughout the museum, gather some clues about the magic of kabbalah, and put everything together.
Have you got picture logic puzzling needs? Well, Beardshaker Games has come along to help you satisfy them with their title, NoNoSparks Genesis. Solve picross (also called nonograms) puzzles to help create new elements in a world, giving a Doodle God-esque feel to it. Sprinkled with a bit of innuendo and amusement, this game will have you puzzle solving with a smile.
A wonderful room escape game with puzzles and solutions that are quiet, elegant, and echo the theme, thus creating a massively entertaining experience that is so much more than "throw a bunch of random puzzles into a four-wall room" that permeates so much room escape design. The delicate balance of theme, puzzle, solution, and space gives Kotorinosu games a unique feel that makes them so popular and so fun to play.
Who says robots never get to go on adventures? In this short but addictive little casual mining simulation, you play a small robot with a big drill who is out to rebuild the city by bringing in ore to sell. While not as complex as other mining titles, Utopian Mining is cute, accessible, and a lot of fun for an afternoon.
Help the charismatic and musically-talented Triton in his search for the legendary magic of the ancients in this surreal point-and-click adventure by Jacek Szleszyński. Very similar in concept to Samorost and Hapland, although unique in its artistic style, there's much here to explore, discover and delight in. Gazing at the fantastic art as enjoyable as the gameplay itself. Some will find Kveendolnitza their first time through, some may need to try again. Either way, the journey is the best part of the adventure!
It's tough going when the love of your life is a ravenous member of the walking dead. Clearly the two of you want to be together but for that to happen you'll have run, jump, shoot, and dodge your way around angry zombies as you help guide your zombie lover to her cage in this endearing storybook love story of a platformer.
Games Featured:
- • Robot Wants Kitty
- • Sushi Cat
- • Space Kitteh
- • Copy Cat
- • Flash Cat
We're pulling out the whole kittenkaboodle for this week's supersized Vault, celebrating all things fantastically feline in our favourite games. They're cute, they're cuddly, they're destructive, but we love them anyway, whether we're chasing after them, stuffing them with fish, or piloting them through space.
Need a zen break for your tired brain cells? Always wanted to create pixel art of Che Guevara or a man on a palm tree, but lacked the artistic skills? Now by solving some simple mazes in Maze-a-Pix Light, you can draw and relax at the same time! It's all part of the magic of Conceptis Light.
To have loved and lost is better than never to have loved at all. Or so the saying goes. But what if some loss is simply too unbearable? Would you go to Hell and back to return the one you love to the world of the living? You may not but the character you play in My Life is Yours does. Try it out and see if you'd ever willingly go toe to toe with the Underworld.
In this exciting installment of the Choice series by Choice of Games you're plunged into a world on the brink of destruction. Nuclear missiles? Widespread famine? Nope, it's the age old killer: Zombies! Pick your course of survival in this gripping narrative that propels you toward what could be your salvation or your untimely demise!
In a land that doesn't seem to mind sending innocent people to hang it's up to you and your trusty archery skills to save lives. No, you won't be getting any fanfare or damsels tossing you their kerchiefs but who really needs that anyway? You've got justice and freedom on your side, and I'm not just saying the names you gave your biceps. In this delightful physics shooter kick back and prepare to let loose your arrows!
A one button journey from cradle to grave with a mouse driven twist and decent production values. NTFusion takes us on a Canabalt-esque adventure as you nab power-ups and meditate on what's really important in life... aside from high scores, of course.
The end of the world or apocalypse scenarios are something you see played out a lot in video games, but a classic spin like this is refreshing. With a hint of Orson Wells's War of the Worlds, Tripod Attack puts you in control of the invading alien machines as it tears through the human resistance. The human race will throw everything its got at you so your mouse hand better be ready to wipe them out.
This springtime-themed puzzle platform game from Airomagic has twenty-four levels of a bonkers bunny in pursuit of one thing: a perfectly delectable green cabbage. Ingest carrots only to spit them out on buttons, lowering gates, while helicopter ears allow flight around deadly hazards. There's much enjoyment in reaching that goal in each of the twenty-four levels but...those poor panicky cabbages!
In Super Villainy, the mightiest villains have grown bored after destroying the earth, and decide to have one final battle royale, arena shooter style, to determine who is the baddest. A solid release by Rob Almighty, with a little more freedom than what is usually seen in the genre.
Ronnie Pence delivers a stunning and surreal spot-the-difference game that blends otherworldly artwork with an atmospheric soundtrack to deliver a strange experience for the genre. Evoke is a perfect dream and casual gameplay with a capital "C".
Eating blocks, swapping colors, puzzle platforming... it's a dinosaur's life for you in this too cute to be believed little gem. Eat the requisite number of blocks to pass each level while avoiding the hazards, and don't let the relatively light level of difficulty fool you... there's some real challenge waiting inside this vibrant little game.
Cogito Ergo Sum's hapless dog and cat, Wan and Nyan, are back with another escape adventure, perhaps the easiest yet most charming of all. Poor Nyan is locked out on the balcony and needs to be rescued, and there's more than one way to do it meaning multiple endings: easy, normal and happy. Here is a feel good game, like a daily affirmation on life—the simplest things can bring the most joy!
Billy is the last man left on the earth after super-evolved apes have taken over, and to defend himself against the hordes of flying monkeys and angry gorillas, he has to spawn children and turn them into defense units, apparently without the aid of a single female. Makes no sense? It doesn't matter, because the game features some great twists on the tower defense genre.
In Louissi's latest action simulation game, it's a farmer's life for you. But, when the sun goes down, the nasties come out and you'll need to trade your shovel for a shotgun or other heavy weapon to stay alive, picking up coins from your fallen enemies as you go.
Games Featured:
- • Questionaut
- • The Blue Beanie
- • Pieces
Kids just wanna have fun, and there are a lot of games our there that are tyke-accessible without being too silly or insipid for us big kids to boot. This week's Vault looks at three kid friendly games we love, and love to enjoy even if we've long grown out of mandatory bed times and superhero undies ourselves.
Colgate, the fan-named background pony with a passion for fresh breath, takes center stage in this colourful and surprisingly robust platform adventure from Mark Sprague. Dissatisfied with her Cutie Mark and determined to embrace her true love, dentistry, the little blue unicorn sets out to gather an ingredient for a magical potion in the mouth of a dangerous beast deep in the Everfree Forest. Packed with surprises, secrets, and even extra endings, it's a brony dream come true that even non-fans can enjoy as they dispatch numerous foes and challenges with their magical toothbrush!
The third installment in Brad Borne's Fancy Pants Adventure series is here! Do gravity-defying wall runs, jump off some walls, and even cut up some enemies with your fancy new weapon! The fancy pants man has come along way since World 1 and he has definitely added some sweet, new tricks to his repertoire. The Fancy Pants Adventure series features some of the best platforming action you can have in a browser.
Magic Safari, a physics puzzler by ConmerGameStudios, is based around driving through levels that you affect with a variety of commands, and it has some unique and original level design. Most importantly though, it stars an ape in an umbrella hat that drives a tiny car.
This grid puzzle game from Gluk has forty levels of zombie networking challenges, plus a level editor, offering plenty of achievements and endless fun. Make every creature happy by arranging them along a grid so that each is holding hands with his friends. While not entirely original, Happy Dead Friends is well-made and has enough unique qualities to warrant praise and smiles.
Attention all bibliophiles: One of your worst fears is coming true! There's an attack being staged on books by some brainless dope who left an ink bottle open in the library and now the long prophesied war between books and ink has arrived! Hah, kidding! Well, only slightly kidding. Sinister ink blots are on a single minded mission to destroy any and all books in this typing tower defense game mash-up. It's up to you to use those years of typing skills you've amassed to stave off this most horrifying battle.
The little buggers from Bloopers now have a colorful sequel that drops the dark, brooding look while retaining the fun. This physics, projectile game improves on its predecessor's gameplay in all the right areas. User interface, player controls, and art style are some that come to mind. The product is a clean and casual experience that is a nice foot-in-the-door for those unfamiliar to the physics-based puzzle genre.
Games Featured:
- • On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3
- • Stasis
- • Botanicula
- • Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery
- • Shadowrun Returns
Get ready to adventure with Tycho and Gabe again, or find yourself stranded in somewhere cold and hostile, or maybe just save your home from a dark and deadly infestation! There's a whole lot of gaming going on!
ErlinE is a puzzle-platform adventure game from FedeehSevenfold that features a bewitching ingénue trying to save her home, Aurla. With the help of her ever present companion, who could easily be mistaken for a bulldozer in disguise with all the pushing and shoving he provides, she must brave a terrain filled with spikes and lasers to save her world from evil that has seeped through portals that were supposed to keep that stuff gone for good. In this besieged magical world waiting for a hero, it's up to you to throw caution to the wind and charge headfirst into danger. After all, who else but you could possibly save such a gorgeous landscape that has no other champions to defend it?
Ominous music and well crafted visuals set the stage for this surprisingly engrossing stealth action title. You play as an unnamed agent that has tracked stolen nuclear materials to a heavily armed fortress. If you're hungering for the feel of creeping past trained arm guards and dodging the watchful eye of security cameras from the comfort of your own browser, Stealth Hunter 2 is definitely something you'll want to check out.
Come to Siquijor, Philippines, and stay at our lovely inn! Yes, we have a bit of a reputation for aswangs, a kind of vampiric beastie, but who would go to Loch Ness without Nessie, right? Besides, no one seems to stay here at night, anyway... A delightful tropical hotel simulation sprinkled with creepiness, Innkeeper balances local color and global appeal.
Fire and ice don't usually go together, but the wildly popular Fireboy and Watergirl games are the exception! Delve into a frosty temple and control two different elemental heroes at the same time, with new hazards, puzzles, and challenges in the beloved puzzle platform series!
The long-nosed thief gets out of high-flying situation and falls, rather glides, into the fifth and final installment of the Sneak Thief series. The man's adventures got him stuck inside a mechanical fish, packed in a horde of his clones, and dodging robot laser attacks on a hot air balloon! As the persistent pilferer finally arrives at Prof. Belamy's doorstep via his handy-dandy glider, he is probably looking forward to getting this job over with. With the final invention waiting inside the compound, you know Pastel Game's cunning and comically ingenious criminal will stop at nothing to finish the figh... I mean job.
From the bizarre and intriguing world of Detarou, this escape-the-room game manages to balance between offensively outlandish and laugh-out-loud wacky. Easier than most of Detarou's offerings, Gatiko's puzzles offer the perfect level of challenge. There's multiple endings, as well. If you have shied away from Detarou before, here's your chance to dip your toes into a cult favorite and find out what all the fuss is about.
With it's lush backgrounds, complex puzzles, and amusing fake-out ending Fake proves to be one of Robamimi's better room escape efforts. Best of all is the ending, which is much funnier than expected and makes all of the effort worthwhile. For those who've had a tough week and even for those who haven't, here's a perfect way to celebrate the day, and what could be better than that?
The macabre adventure tale of a wolf battling demons, witches and at times villagers' enigmatic remarks continues with all the rich atmosphere and saturated plot lines that you expect from Hyptosis. This third installment is probably the best yet in terms of style and riddling puzzles. It still has a few drawbacks yet they're not enough to diminish the overall enjoyment of immersing yourself in this strange and twisted story.
Pull on your jeans and work boots, it's time to go digging for gold! In The Podge's simulation game, Boom Town, you'll have to carry out every aspect of creating a bustling town from a mining operation. Place buildings to attract new residents, plant explosives to blast the gold out of your land, drive the truck that picks it all up... you do it all! It's a rootin-tootin good time as you play the life of a frontiersman.
Eggstinction, an action run-and-gun shooter by Michael Chen, stars a proto-dinosaur fighting back against the laser-happy aliens who wish to poach him. Quality visuals, hardcore survival gameplay and aggressively silliness make for a game quite reminiscent of the Heli Attack series. Except, you know. With dinosaurs fighting aliens.
Games Featured:
- • Aunts and Butlers
- • Violet
- • Suveh Nux
When you play games, do you carefully read and pay attention to every bit of dialogue on the screen, or do you just start mashing buttons to get to the good stuff? In the case of this week's Vault, the words are the good stuff as we shine a spotlight on three of our favourite games in the underutilized genre of interactive fiction.
Remember Pipe Dream (or Pipe Mania)? That old game where you put the pieces of pipe in the grid to make a really long chain? In Slipe, the pipework has already been put down for you, you've just got to slide it all into place. Unlike most sliding puzzles where you're just sliding one tile at a time. Slipe forces you to slide entire rows and columns, putting a tricky spin on an old classic.
It's a dark and stormy night. Wait, no, it's pretty sunny outside, so neither of those. You take the leaflet from the mailbox... gahh, no, not that, either. You know what? It doesn't matter. It's time to play. Time to play JayIsPonies, an "epic" choose your own adventure sort of game where you collect pizza and probably do a bunch of other halfway crazy stuff!
Jasper Byrne ventures into the realm of psychological horror in his surreal and disturbing commercial adventure debut. You are the last man alive, it seems, after a horrific virus sweeps through the world and transforms every other human being into a shambling monstrosity. You don't want to die alone, so you venture out of your apartment each night for supplies and to look for other survivors, but are you prepared for what else you might find when you're forced to confront yourself? When the world around you collapses, how long will you last before you begin to unravel and you can't trust yourself either?
It might be a bit out of season to be topical, but Pixeljam's Snowball is a mammoth pinball game to behold. With well over a hundred targets to collect and multiple flippers and springs to control, this seasonal table has a lot of fun bells and whistles to keep you entertained until the next cold front sweeps through.
"Take down the good guys!" That's what the title tells you in Nerdook's tower defense venture, Kill the Heroes. Place your tower units along or around the path as the little soldiers cycle around the level, taking their shots at you when they can. Earn cash for purchasing units and upgrades (why do heroes carry so much on them anyway?). It's not everyday you get to be a sinister, big-brained alien, so take what satisfaction you can from it before you take over the world and life becomes too easy.
Theo's been working in the slave mines for years, and has finally saved up enough to buy a cruiser. Now, if he can just shoot his way through this orbiting traffic, he'll be ready to start his new life. Originally conceived by Christopher T. Rock, with later additional development by Bryson Whiteman, Rush Hour Plus is a short but solid arcade game. It's bifurcated development is apparent in the differing styles of cut-scenes and game action, but it has a nice dose of humor and is the perfect length for a coffee break.
Developed by Jonathan Whiting for Ludum Dare 22, Craequ throws players into a puzzling pixelated world of corridors, pushable blocks and crystal balls. It's up to the player to discover the logic behind it, but if you do, you'll feel really smart.
Games Featured:
- • The Sea Will Claim Everything
- • Closure
- • Baldur's Gate
Jonas Kyratzes, Baldur's Gate, and Closure? Good news, or GREAT news? This week's Link Dump Friday is drowning in a sea of radness. You wouldn't think rad could be liquefied, but then, not everyone can be a scienmatist like me.
This western-themed cut-the-rope style physics puzzle is cute and polished and has all the elements we fans of the genre like in a game of this type. Rustle up bristly round creatures into their correct boxes by removing obstacles and using fans and force fields. While Bristlies doesn't become very challenging until the later levels (there are 30 in all), it does make for a fun diversion if you have a hankering for some amusement.
The number of defense games out there is as massive as the hordes of enemies you fight in them, but Bright Sight Team's side view strategy game stands out in the horde's ranks. Epic Stand pins you down at your castle and magic is your only weapon. To defend your castle walls, click on the screen to where you want the spell to be cast and let it work its magic. The level is over when there are no enemies left standing and none of them reach your wizard's final floor.
More arcade avoidance action to be enjoyed in this sequel to the 2009 cat nomming adventure original. Considering how simple yet lovely the original was, it's impressive that Time 4 More Cat manages to improve on it without piling on so much that you lose the addictive ease and simplicity that made it popular to begin with. The art is beautiful, soft, and surreal, while the soundtrack only adds to the dreamlike atmosphere.
In this enigmatic point-and-click adventure from "Something Amiss" author, Tucker, Sara sees weird creatures wherever she looks. Also, her cat can talk. It was her cat, in fact, who told her to board the midnight express to complete some secret mission. Playing much like an escape-the-room game, your goal is to find those answers by interacting with oddball characters and piecing together clues to earn the five train tickets needed to reach the end car. It's all very mysterious but even more curious: if Wasabi could talk all this time, why didn't he say something sooner?
Gotta catch defend 'em all? Sam and Dan have spent a year taking their much loved Pokémon fan game to impressive heights, and the result is a surprisingly impressive and complex tower defense game packed with all the strategy, challenge, colour, and even all 151 original Pokémon to catch. It's silly, addictive, and still tons of fun for fans and newcomers alike.
A dear old friend, Mr. Y, has invited you to his newly remodeled study just to trap you inside. Now you must put together clues and figure out how to manipulate these wacky devices before you can sit down to lunch and do a bit of catching up. All the trademark qualities that make Tesshi-e escape-the-room games so enjoyable are here, there's nothing to displease but you will have to work hard for your final reward: a visit with Mr. Y. Aw yes, there's nothing like a chance to reconnect with old friends who know your love of puzzles.
The decisions you make in this YouTube interactive fan fiction game (based on the AMC television show) not only determine the fate of one Madison Avenue advertising agency, they might just save the world. Help Don Draper regain his confidence, inner peace and good ideas while preventing his untimely death. Although it's disappointing this isn't a true platform game since your involvement doesn't extend beyond clicking an occasional option, Mad Men: The Game is an entertaining and enjoyable parody of 1960s culture and the show that has everyone talking about it.
Sometimes a game doesn't need to reinvent a genre to be just as fun, addictive, and riddled with bullets as we want it to be. In this classic-styled top-down sci-fi shooter, pilot a tiny spaceship against increasingly impossible odds, bigger bosses, and catch coins to purchase upgrades to help your chances. It's familiar, but well polished, and just the right size for some explosive coffee-break arcade carnage.
Games Featured:
- • Amorphous+
- • Cursor*10
- • Bubble Islands
Journal Entry 77 - It will soon be over. The monsters are at the door. So before I recklessly solve that final puzzle, and inevitably turn into a zombie, I leave to you another collection of classic games from the JayIsGames Vault. This week we have astonishing arena action, a peculiarly player-propelled pointer puzzler, and adorably addictive arcade awesomeness.
Massagames brings a calm launch experience in I am Flying to the Moon. Control a little wooden spaceship (upgrades available, of course) as it makes attempt after attempt to propel itself beyond the wild blue yonder. Avoid other flying objects and collect the floating bonuses to most profit from each launch. It's not a game to get your blood pumping, but it'll sure entertain you for awhile.
It's not every day you get to see a nearly-forgotten ten year old puzzle game return from the dusty video game archives! The puzzle game Denki Blocks was originally released on Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance back in 2001. Other ports followed soon after, but it wasn't until the digital download ecosystems of the mobile scene really got going that it resurfaced to stay. Now, with both regular and HD versions on most of the major app stores, Denki Blocks is here to stay, complete with over 100 levels of delightfully difficult puzzles to solve!
Think fast! Actually, when you're a developing neural cell, you've got no choice but to think fast and make as many neural connections as you can. That's the basis behind Axon, a science-based fast-paced action game from Preloaded. Click to grab the protein targets and watch out for other neurons trying to invade your space!
NinjaDoodle brightens your day with more weird but wonderful puzzling mini-games in this latest installment in the ClickPLAY series. Try to find and click the play button on each level by figuring out what you need to do in order to reveal it. Monkeys? Pirates? BOOGERS? Sounds like your typical set of problems to me!
Jonas Kyratzes has brought us many enjoyable, thoughtful games in bizarre, surreal settings. Well, now he's developed a top-down space shooter, Traitor. Don't get scared, he's still able to cast his powers of storytelling, it's just in a different yummy, gooey, science fiction package. Take on missions to earn credits for upgrades as well as the trust of the rebels. Your ultimate goal: to take down the Augustan Hegemony. Viva la People's Council!
This be the tale of Captain James T. Stinkbeard, and as a pirate, plundering of booty is what he does. Pirates of the Stupid Seas is a simple projectile physics game, but it's enhanced by some gorgeous visual and a decidedly surreal sense of humor. Put some shiver-repellant on yer timbers and check it out.
A physics-arcade game from Pastel Games, Mission to Uranus plays like a mouse-driven, one-button version of Lunar Lander. Touchy controls test the patience, but Mission to Uranus is a beautiful game. Just be sure to stock up on fuel in early levels, so you don't crash down the line. Uranus has enough debris as it is.
With a hint of Greek mythology in the title, Cyclop Physics gets you rolling and sliding with these little, one eyed creatures to solve fun physics based tumbledrop puzzles. You must balance between the physics of a nice circle and a diabolical square if you ever want to finish the puzzle and please the gods.
Guide a laying hen around her running eggs until there's enough of them to set off a chain reaction hatching explosion! If that idea doesn't brighten your mood by itself, we'll sweeten the deal by telling you it features zany kazoo music and the cheerful art of master developer Orisinal. Now you're ready to get cracking!
Games Featured:
- • Hot Air Jr.
- • Defender's Quest
- • Project Zomboid
- • The Walking Dead
- • Baldur's Gate
Look at you. Sitting there. All zombie-less. Balloon-less. SLAK-less. It's a real sorry sight. Fortunately, Link Dump Friday is here to solve all that by forcing you to be interested in the same things we're interested in. Yaaaay!
Crime never sleeps, and Harry Quantum, the star of TurboNUKE's point-and-click sleuthing adventure series is back on the case! This time he's trying to clear the name of a pro-wrestler who was wrongfully implicated in a museum heist. With FBI agents, ancient artifacts, dinosaurs, and poo-mints aplenty, it's a quirky little title packed with puns and goofy humour.
Starfish light, starfish bright, first starfish I see tonight, launch jellyfish I may, launch jellyfish I might, to get the high score I want tonight. The whimsical games of Orisinal should inspire poetry better than this, but we're just too relaxed after playing his latest arcade game, Constellations.
Control an army of monsters and overthrow the evil King in this action strategy game by NTFusion. Discover up to 28 creature evolutions, each with their own unique stats and abilities, and build a squad tailored to your fighting style in order to conquer your way across the map. With a steady difficulty curve and a brutal bonus gauntlet round, Pocket Creature delivers your daily dose of addictive challenge and spooky quirkiness in one tidy package.
This escape-the-room game from Robamimi takes place from a singular point of view: one wall that is filled with interesting fixtures to explore and manipulate simply by clicking about, following the changing cursor for useful objects, clues to deconstruct and codes to crack. There's a lot happening along in this one beautiful scene but your main objective is plain: get out. You'll find yourself out before you know it, probably sooner than you wish, but you'll have fun while it lasts.
A subtle sense of humor, a lot of great Claymation, and a salami-coveting tentacle await you in the short but sweet point-and-clicker Fairy Clay. If you're looking for a lovely, simple yet surreal break of claymation in your day, then look no further.
In this mellow, relaxing physics puzzle game, the goal is simply to get stars (it is always stars) and get to the flag in each level. Chart a course for the intrepid red ball by placing down tokens that change its movement (or even its size and density) in order to navigate your way through the course. With a friendly difficulty curve and the ability to skip levels, it's a laid-back little game that's perfect for a break in your crazy day.
For those who love GUMP's planetary room escape exploration, Jupiter is a welcome addition to the set, much more challenging than the ones that came before, and even more unsettling as the player is drawn even further into this odd, sterile, mechanical house.
Kathryn is a woman who has issues... or at least, she must if her friends are pressuring her to see a psychologist. But while she's unwilling to confront her own problems and habits, she discovers that you can't (or maybe shouldn't) always avoid the things about yourself and others that bother you. A devious puzzle-platformer with a sleek style that serves as a prequel to 2009's The Company of Myself.
Games don't get much simpler than this; just hit a key to jump over an obstacle. Easy, right? Well, Chris Jeffrey's reflex-demanding one-button arcade game might just prove you wrong across twenty sadistic levels. With its snappy presentation and straight-forward gameplay, Space is Key 2 is hardly innovative, but it is a well polished little torture device for your reflexes. More than anything, it's a great illustration of how hard you can force players to push themselves at a simple concept just by implying it should be easy.
Games Featured:
- • MoneySeize
- • Don't Look Back
- • Dino Run
Retro doesn't have to mean old and boring! This week's Vault proves that it's more than just a series of blocky pixels that make retro-styled games fun and involving, with three picks from our archives with three very different gameplay styles.
An entertainingly spacey physics arcade golf game from Krang Games, with the distinguishing gimmick being that you can hit the ball again once it's in motion. Not quite a revolution, but a lot of fun.
Decision is a polished zombie action-defense hybrid from Fly Anvil, and it's a bloody good time. A cool, if slightly repetitive, mixture of serious horror, logistical strategy, frenetic action, and low-key parody, Decision shows that the undead can still pack serious punch.
It's so frustrating when you sit down to a board game and you realize that some pieces are missing. Even worse is when all the pieces are missing, and you're trapped inside a locked room. But if you love when that happens, then you must be an escape fan and Tomatea's new Ludo Room Escape is just what you need.
Anaksha, the butt-kicking heroine from the sniping simulation adventure Dark Angel, goes a different route in this collection of quirky old-school style adventures with a sense of humour. Solve problems for people, come up with creative solutions to obstacles, and a lot more in Arif Majothi's trio of games set in Anaksha's world. Originally conceived as a simple experiment with a new game engine, they show the evolution of talent and determination all the way up to "A New Threat", which boasts a ton of replay value for one very odd but entertaining adventure.
Dodge bombs, grab balloons and keep the city safe in this multifaceted arcade shooter. Any of this game's three phases wouldn't be all that great individually. Putting them together, though, makes for a fantastic mix. You're not stuck doing one thing for long enough that it becomes stale. Variety is the spice of life, and Bomb Diver just might be your paprika, so all you daredevils out there owe it to yourselves to give it a shot!
A quirky off-kilter adventure puzzle platformer from PixelWelders, starring a Killbot who isn't too sold on the whole "killing" thing. Interesting Gravity Gun telekinesis mechanics and snarky writing is weakened by glitches and loose controls, but there are a lot of cool ideas displayed in this debut release.
Ever wanted to run rampant through hordes of squishy spider bots, monsters, and malevolent steampunk beasties? This simple but chaotic top-down shooter provides some truly frantic action that, while repetitive, delivers a nice dose of KAPOW KAPOW KAPOW to your day.
Games Featured:
- • Lone Survivor
- • Onimusha Soul
- • Ms. Particle Man
- • Closure
- • Fixation
- • Pony Kart
Monsters? Apocalypse? Psychological trauma? Ponies? I don't know about you, but those sound like the makings of a great weekend to me! March is turning into a month jam-packed with big releases for both the casual browser and indie community, and this week's Link Dump Friday features just a few of them we're excited about in addition to an update or two.
A fun expansion of the original swinging Hanger 2 by A Small Game, this Endless Level Pack keeps the great physics action, while featuring a lot of cool new architecture, along with the anticipated Endless Mode. Go out on a limb and try it!
Dys4ia is a retro arcade-y piece of interactive art by transsexual author Anna Anthropy about her six-month experience with hormonal therapy. Raw and emotional, but surprisingly humorous, for good or for bad, this is the kind of game that will get people thinking and talking.
Remarkable as the first collaboration between fans and game developer, Nitrome, this pop culture trivia games delivers clues via cable car in the form of teeny tiny, yet surprisingly detailed, characters. Hangman-style letter blanks also help out as you attempt to name, and correctly spell, the famous figures from fiction, movies, music, television and more. When you think you know it, use your keyboard to type it in and bask in the fanfare while the next VIP is delivered to the stage via cable car. Fanboys and fangirls, rejoice!
A sad little diving helmet-faced robot charmed many fans back in 2007 in his game Automaton, but things didn't pan out as the developer expected for making sequels. This new point-and-click adventure doesn't provide plot closure and it's on the short side, but it does provide fans with a last round of puzzle solving and lovely animated cutscenes.
In this surreal and visually stunning game that showcases just what Unity can do, you play a moth trapped inside an attic who wants to escape and be with its true love... the moon. Resurrect other moths to help you move obstacles and eventually find your way out in this short but lovely game that marries exploration with simple physics puzzling.
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