Why can't villages just stay saved? You might have thought you deserved a break after your heroic efforts in the first Arcuz, but a vengeful demon lord and the greedy human who promised to free him in exchange for immortality prove otherwise... especially when there's a village blissfully parked right on top. Go on another top-down action RPG adventure in this simple but fun game packed with enemies, skills, weapons and more for the hack-and-slash fanatic in all of us.

Out of this World, developed by SeethingSwarm, is a short action game centered around shifting play mechanics. The game starts as two lovers leave a fancy restaurant. They aren't named in-game, but since they look British, let's call them Ron and Hermione. Anyways, Ron and Hermione decide to go for a ride on their rocket ship, but, son of a gun, wouldn't you know it, aliens decide to kidnap the fair maiden. So its up to you Ron, with your shock of red hair, your badass longcoat, your awesome umbrella, and your shooty-blasty space gun to rescue her from the extra-terrestrial's clutches.

From Nitrome, creator of Final Ninja, Test Subject Arena, and a few dozen other grand browser games, comes Mega Mash, a game that is sort of seven games but is really just one game (does that make it eight games?). The gist of it is all of these games are interwoven due to the buggy nature of the cartridge they're on. Instead of playing one or the other, you hop between them, using abilities from one to clear a path to progress in the other. Unusual? Yeah. But it works better than you might think!

Some might argue that life working on a conveyor belt is tedious work, but not if you're working for Bart Bonte Manufacturing. As white balls come rolling down the line, your job is to custom craft each ball to a specific order in Factory Balls 4, the latest in the series of Factory Balls puzzlers. You've got all the tools you need to fulfill each order... except the instruction manual.

You may have escaped Aurora before, but in Aurora 2, it's time for you to go after her in another point and click horror/Western from Pastel Games. Middle games in a series are tough to pull off, but this one lays the groundwork for what could be a seriously cool conclusion.

It's Friday, and JayisGames has got what you need; dinosaurs, butt-quakes, stickmen, flying fortresses, endless waves of monsters, racing, and more!

Even with the promise of super-abilities, volunteering to undergo tests performed by mysterious organizations is the kind of thing that seems like it could go either way. That said, it's already too late for the mild-mannered and slightly-jerkish Melex Archer: he's signed his name on the dotted line and, with the influence of radioactive Thelemite, he's been given a ton of power and no particular sense of responsibility. Sure, he'll spring into action and brawl his way through waves of mutants, but it's sure as heck not because mission control is telling him to. No sir. In this fun little retro fighting game from Sos, the hero is as much a danger to the town as the monsters he faces.

In Revenge of the Zombees, you control an undead swarm of killer bees with the goal of causing as much damage and destruction as possible across five retro-looking levels. Do more damage to get your zombees to catch on fire, causing even more mayhem. It's silly and simple fun, with excessive pixel gore.

Werewolves, dragons, and mermaids, oh my! LittleGiantWorld puts you in control of every monster ever, but the goal is less world domination and more sweet moolah. Gather new creature DNA to create and manage a zoo/expo hall/what could possibly go wrong facility for the customers to visit and bring in more money. Despite some repetition, it's a cartoony, appealing little time management simulation worth a look.

Raze 2 by AddisonR and Juice-Tin is the latest in a long line of action shooters with spacey-marines and/or one-word non-indicative titles. Let's count them off: Doom, Quake, Halo, Descent, Unreal, and, uh... Haze. It's surprising there are any alien-demon-zombie menaces left to battle considering how quickly we're able to deploy a near-endless supply of Master Chiefs. It's a good thing then that Raze 2 has the quality gameplay and presentation to distinguish itself from the competition.

A typical Kotoriscape consists of a handful of well-designed puzzles that follow a specific theme revealed by its title, and Device does not disappoint. There are all kinds of devices to fiddle with in the vaguely Oriental room: a smartphone with a dead battery, a mysteriously fast-running clock, a service robot with three cranks on its head, and many more. Logical puzzles, soft and pleasing gradient-filled graphics, and a save feature for when you need a break are also hallmarks of Kotorinosu that stay with us for Device.

Playing with your mouse, you have to kill all the monsters on-screen. To do so you have to remove blocks or pop bubbles by clicking on them, alternatively slashing through chains with a sweep movement. The point is to work out the sequence required to get all of the monsters. There is a difficulty curve, but it steeps slowly over the fifty levels. If you enjoyed the rest of the series, you'll be all over this. And if you haven't, but like the idea of some physics-puzzle fun, give it a play!

This gratifyingly fun action-platformer by Page52 departs from typical at its very start as your screen fills with intricately interesting sketches and then it continues into the extraordinary, stopping to command: "Draw your own..." weapon, hat, enemy. Although dotted lines suggest the shape of such invention, in your Sketch Quest notebook, you're limited only by imagination.

Guide a helpless, flightless, half-hatched baby bird from its nest to the safety of the ground below. Watch your step, slide down walls, and use powerups to avoid suffering too much falling damage in this simple, relaxing, vertical-scrolling platformer.

Get in mah bellay! That's what you'll be saying after you fire up this week's installment of the Vault, where we take a look at some of our favourite games dealing with food! After all, an army marches on its stomach, and when it comes to these great games so do we.

Marcy and Justine just want to do a good deed, handing out free personal safety alarms on campus. How dare those stupid students feel so safe that they refuse this offer? Clearly they don't understand the danger they're in. It's time to teach them, brawler style, in this former Ludum Dare action satire entry.

Evolution has you wandering a rocky underground base filled with mysteries and puzzles, your only company an egg-headed scientist who really likes bananas and seems to have lost his pet cat. As is the 58 Works custom, you'll pick up and use various items that come in handy here and there, and more uniquely acquire pieces of a rather cool bodysuit that gives you all sorts of new abilities. Everything that made Solitude great (an interesting environment, totally logical puzzles, simple but appropriate graphics and sound) is back in Evolution, and the new content (intermittent short cutscenes, a somewhat more artificial setting) is nothing to sneeze at either.

Leila is a toddler. She doesn't know much about platforming, and even less about physics. All she knows is that she wants her bottle, and there are all sorts of 2x4s and I-beams standing between in her way. Fortunately though, she has an ally: a ball that she can call to her hand; a ball that will smash against anything in its path and which is just perfect for bouncing off from. She's got a lot of places to explore, and a lot of bottles to collect, but she would have to do it alone. Leila and the Magic Ball, new from Paul Gene Thompson, is a cute little game that will keep you playing right up until nap time.

Physics puzzle Totems Awakening serves up ball passing and wacky Rube Goldberg-like contraptions with a refreshing tropical twist. With 30 levels that are easy to comprehend but difficult to master, the game will attract both veterans and dilettantes of the genre.

The hottest graphics of 1982 are back in Vector Stunt, a sequel to 2007's hit Vector Runner from DigYourOwnGrave. Pull off some tricks to get a high score while listening to a thumping electronic soundtrack in this arcade action driving game, or provide the MP3 of your choice.

You're in a cave full of monsters, which is bad. But you have a sentient gun to help you, which is good! But you seem to have run afoul of a mad scientist, which is bad. But Arkeus' newest action platform shooter is a ton of fun, which is good! Gather diamonds to upgrade yourself and your weapons, unlock new play modes, drink in the fantastic retro aesthetic, and discover the truth in this impressive reboot of a Ludum Dare entry!

It's been five long years. You're ready to play the newest action release by LostVectors. It's Bowmaster Winter Storm! For fans of the previous BowMaster Prelude, you'll see a lot of familiar aspects of the game was carried over. Those of you who loved the first Bowmaster will pluck at the upgrade to the graphics and music, and those of you who never experienced it will simply find a good defense game in Winter Storm.

Knock knock! "Who's there?" Link Dump! "Link Dump who?" ... what? No! Link Dump FRIDAY, obviously! Sheesh, you'd think you'd know that by now. Click on through for ninjas, speedboats, dinosaurs, ducks, guns, and much more!

Hoshi Saga Ringohime is the seventh installment of the popular and revered Hoshi Saga series by Yoshio Ishii, and it's in full, glorious full color as all the "Ringo" versions of the series have been. There are 25 new stages to clear, so don't just sit there, click and play! :)

Pedro and the Pearls of Peril is the kind of game that's likely to have appeal to multiple demographics. First of all, there will be those in the mood for a good action-shooter, with some shades of Metroidvania and a masochistic edge of difficulty. Then there will be those who'll be convinced once they see the name of Robot Wants retro-maven Hamumu on the title screen. There will be those Cub Scouts who just happened to stumble over the game on the Boys Life website, and are intrigued by what wacky new adventures Pedro the Mail Burro has gotten himself into this time. And last, but not least, there is the not insignificant group of gamers who have a thing for alliteration. Never count them out.

Think you can play platform games? Try this challenging game from Paradoxon Games and test your reflexes to the bitter edge... all so that Stu can get a night's sleep. Following in the tradition of VVVVVV and Gravinaytor is Sleepy Stu's Adventure, probably the hardest platform puzzler game you will play this year.

Alright, let's make sure we've got everything: Black and white stripped shirt? Check! Domino mask? Check! Lock picks? Check! Green toque? Check! Anti-heroic sense of morality that makes you more than happy to lift some cash from the unfriendly neighborhood mob boss? Oh, you'd better bet that's a check! It's Bob the Robber, new puzzle platformer from Flazm. All you footpads out should be prepared to burgle until the whole burg is burgled. Robble robble!

Sometimes, it's not that bad to be a little fish in a big pond. Or at least it isn't when Neutronized is the one at the helm of a new action-arcade game. Little Fins stars a goldfish who wants nothing more than to explore the ocean and clean up some of the soda cans laying about. Unfortunately, there's sharks and rays and groupers afoot... err, a-fin. So with heaven above and the sea below, it's up to you to help a little fishy on the go!

There's very little to complain about with Escape Hotel 4: the puzzles are logical and flow, the navigation is pretty intuitive (except in some hidden spaces), the translations are excellent, and the pixel hunting is at a minimum. This is Tesshi-e room escaping at its best!

Libra Horoscope: Today you are likely to play an escape game by Otousan, with puzzles themed around determining the weight of objects by various means. When Otousan picks a theme, they play with it in seemingly every way they can; Libra is no exception. It has all the hallmarks of an Otougame: a group of well-designed themed puzzles with some simple minor ones to tie them together, and a simplistic atmosphere that makes sure you know what you're messing with without being distracting.

People of Earth, beware, for the doughnuts are finally coming for us in Fodo!, an action arcade planet defense game. The game is pure fun, and charming to boot. It gets high marks for originality and has a decent replay value, and I know those dapper doughnuts in their fancy bowler hats and monocles don't stand a chance against you. Now get out there and save the planet!

Polished to a shine and featuring over 150 levels, the original release of Siege Hero (a spiritual companion to the browser game Sieger) for iOS devices has been an easy way to whittle the time away throwing rocks at conquering warriors. Now, browser-based fans of physics games can join in on the fun with the release of Siege Hero - Viking Vengeance, a port of the first few dozen levels from the iPhone/iPad release with one epically awesome bonus: a level editor and community-made content!

Simple is better, and that philosophy definitely extends to this week's edition of the Vault! We've cracked the seal to proudly showcase some of our favourite games that prove simplicity can make for some of the most addictive, engrossing gameplay around. Just don't let your boss catch you coming back to them again. And again. And again...

She's a witch! Or is she? The townsfolk in the sleepy, creepy little burg you're summoned to seem split on that, and it's clear something very strange is going on. Take a step towards finding out the truth in this short first installment of a new point-and-click adventure series from one of the co-creators of Alice is Dead. After all, fairytales were made to be twisted.

Lock, load and get ready to take out an unending horde of zombies in this action-packed game of survival from Ironzilla. Thank goodness for all those weapons that keep dropping from the sky. With a nifty upgrade system and achievements, just how long can you hold out?

Play as the lovable cast of Mercenary, Inc. as they do their best to defeat the Evil Witch of the Evil Cave in the solid, entertaining RPG Crystal Story by Emmanuel Salva Cruz. The controls of Crystal Story should be familiar to regular players of RPGs, where your mouse is used to navigate the various menus. Crystal Story isn't innovative, it's just a good RPG with anime style graphics, epic battle music and a story to put a smile on your face.

You're no ordinary criminal. Your name is Sidney and you have special powers worthy of the X-Men: you can make a clone (or two) of yourself. As Kevin Glass' pixelated puzzler entry for the recent Ludum Dare, The Cell takes you through ten levels of prison escaping. There to aid you are your trusty clones, who follow your every move, and wooden crates, which can be pushed around to do a plethora of things. How long will it take you to escape this puzzling prison?

So, there's this company named Google. You might have heard of them. One day this company decides to have a meeting. The big boss guy stands up at the front and says: "People, we are obviously crushing the competition in the fields of searching, mapping, translating, and plussing. What we need now is an html5 puzzle game based around our company's various and sundry products. Also, we need it to be completely friggin' insane, so we should probably outsource development to the Japanese puzzle-smiths at SCRAP." And so, from that simple brainstorming session has come great things: The Google Puzzle: coming soon to wreck a desktop near you.

Chess: Favorite pastime of Machiavellian rulers, rogue Artificial Intelligences and cool old guys in the park. The game that Goethe proclaimed as the touchstone of intellect. The sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe. The basis for programs as imposing as the human-crushing Deep Blue and as totally sweet as Interplay's Battle Chess. At JayIsGames, we're always on the lookout for quality casual versions of classic board games, and this release of Great Matemaster is just that. The focus here is on chess puzzles, and its huge wealth of content and polished presentation makes it something you should definitely check, mate.

Customize, train, and gear up your own fox-like creature to reclaim the fragments of the precious Star Stone and drive out the enemy monster invasion! What Vulpin Adventure may lack in depth is more than made up for in charm and a fair bit of nostalgia. You're bound to notice the nods made to beloved games of yore, and it's impressive how well this game manages to incorporate those features.

Boys and girls, it's Adult Swim time with a delightful yarn of sheep herding from Megadev, an action reflex game. Use your mouse to move the dinosaur (which in turn moves the herd) and click on things that need to be eaten. These do not include the sheep. You will try to eat the sheep, however... the temptation is just too big.

Wakey wakey, internet buddy! Your Fri-daily delivery of games is here! This week's Link Dump contains zombie mayhem, coworkers with no respect for personal space, the world's least cuddly fish, and more. It's everything you could possibly need to get prepared for your day! You know, except for sustenance, shelter, and the warmth and affection of another human soul. But almost everything!

There's only one way to win the hearts and minds of your people... by obtaining your rank as King by ousting the previous ruler in a violent battle. Kurechii Studios brings you an absolutely adorable little time management/strategy/fantasy action game about recruiting and training a group of heroes to participate in a seasonal tournament. If you win, you win the right to challenge the King for crown and country. If you lose, well... there's always next year. (Plus, you get a "I took part in violent ritualistic combat and all I got is this stupid t-shirt" shirt!)

What do you get when you cross a stegosaurus with a bear? You get the lovable creatures in Tamus and Mitta, a new sidescrolling platformer produced by Lartar Games. The sun has had all its toys stolen by evil bats, and it's your job to get all 120 of them back. Find the tools and collect the toys, jumping on enemies to stun them, but don't let your candlelight run out! If you're looking for a well made, challenging platformer, try out Tamus and Mitta. It's kid-friendly and adult-approved!

The Night Circus is a text-based advergame that requires Facebook or Twitter made by Failbetter Games in collaboration with the author of the book by the same title. By turns elegant, mystical, adorable, fantastic, ornate, and even delicious, it will pique your curiosity as effectively as it satisfies your craving for the most beautiful imagery of all: that which you see with your mind's eye.

What do you get when you mix the logic of sudoku with the clue-solving challenge of a crossword? Kakuro Light is Conceptis Puzzles' latest entry in their miniature puzzle series, but don't let the tiny package fool you. These puzzles really add up to a tricky challenge!

TeraLumina has created a short, but fantastic escape game with one of the best fake-out endings we've seen. You won't see puzzles with the complexity of, say, Neutral, but what is there is fun and involving and perfect for a quick escape. It's time to go treasure hunting!

It's another chilly day in the frigid mountainous north-lands. As seems to happen so often, an errant gust of wind has blown your family away from the safety of your cavern. With all the clanking machinery, dangerous lava pits, and mysterious ruins lying about, they could be just about anywhere. Yet... a chilly wind is blowing and the fire is never as warm when you sit by it alone. And so you tighten the hood of your parka and set out for adventure. After all, that's what a Brother is supposed to do. This quirky new point and click puzzle game from Luke Thompson may have an arctic aesthetic, but it certainly has quite the warm heart.

Flee Buster is a retro arcade game about a little human escaping abduction from an alien tractor beam. No wait, it's about a spaceship on the run from Pac-Man's violent quadrilateral cousins. No wait, actually it's about a frog trying to jump as far up as he can from some evil looking spike-water. A bit schizophrenic? Perhaps. But this action-arcade release from Chevy Ray that took first place overall in Ludlum Dare 21 makes one think of Neapolitan ice cream: it has three great tastes that taste great together

I can't get no.... satisfaction. I can't get no... gaming action. But I try! And I try! And I try! And I try!... and I realize that I can probably just look to the JiG archives for all the games I could ever want. Take that, double negative! This week in The Vault we've got three action games that are sure to fire your imagination.

Get ready for the ultimate hybrid of addictive genres in this new game from Arkeus! Originally created in just 48 hours for Ludum Dare but already being improved, Glissaria combines tile-matching, resource management, tower defense, and RPG elements with a vaguely retro flair for one impressive bit of gaming that has enormous potential.

Sing it with me! Jay Is Gamers sing this song! Doo-dah! Doo-dah! Online race-track nine miles long! Oh the doo-dah day!. Okay the track in The Race, a multiplayer action advergame developed by Akestam.Holst and Plan8 for Swedish horse-racing board ATG, measures only about eight inches and the horses are the size of a nickel. But the chance to feature to take on jockeys from all over the world should certainly the camp-town ladies singing.

It's a wacky, weird, and colourful Link Dump Friday this week, with several different types of sentient goop, angry aliens, painting best described as "experimental" (or maybe impressionist), toys, nightmares, and more!

Trapped in a cave! Gotta get out of there fast. There are flying jellyfish monsters, falling rocks, spikes, and other lovely bits of danger, but if you're fast enough, you can escape without harm. Connor Ullmann's Hollow is a platform game that's high on the challenge with a healthy injection of creative design on almost every level. You'll meet an untimely end dozens of times in this game, but you'll keep plugging away at it all the same. Practice leads to perfection!

As Dr. Wesley MacGregor, you've developed a poison that will kill an alien menace which you must deliver in Dustin Auxier's side-scrolling shooter, Parasite Strike. Your defeated enemies burst into different colored orbs which go toward the purchase of a staggering amount of options in the choice of your plane, weapons and gadgets. At a length of just six missions, Parasite Strike may feel short, but six additional secret missions, four ranks to achieve in each mission and four difficulty settings keep this game interesting enough to kill all the aliens again and again.

It's a memory matching game with a twist! In ShadeMemory's clever spin on an old style of gameplay, you've been invited to join the Pike Club where you test your memory for cash and upgrades. Sporting a gorgeous and slightly creepy illustrated style, it may wind up somewhat repetitive but is proof that a little ingenuity can go a long way.

Just because you have a smartphone doesn't mean you can't make dumb decisions. Nyan the cat forgets how sinister the porch is in its efforts to trap him (for the THIRD time), and gets locked out one day while playing with his new phone. It's up to you to reunite Nyan and his canine companion Wan in this absolutely adorable and charming escape game with two chapters and three different endings from Cogito Ergo Sum.

After a tough morning of crushing, it seems only fair that an Aztec-Warrior-Viking should be able to sit down and enjoy a comically large meat-leg. Sadly, it seems the fates have conspired to rob you of your spoils. Such a theft cannot go unpunished! It is your right, nay your duty as the strongest of your Viking-Aztec-Warrior clan to launch yourself into action and en-sword all who stand between you and your vengeance. It's Titan Lunch Retaliation by Berzerk Studios, and it's an action game that deserves a place on anyone's list of what is best in life.

In Cartoon Network's hit series Adventure Time, recurrent villain the Ice King has a bit of an obsession with kidnapping princesses. Now in the new point and click adventure Legends of Ooo, he's kidnapped three of them, and it's up to Finn and Jake to stop him.

It's a point-and-click-stravaganza on this week's edition of the Vault, as we pull back the ancient mists of time through the years all the way back to 2005 in search of some of our best adventure games. If you're a fan of the site, you're probably familiar with one of them in particular, but all three are fantastic little tales ripe for the picking. Or clicking. Whichever.

Taking its high production values and evident love for the medium toward a more comic, Monkey Island-esque direction with its new point-and-click adventure game, Nick Toldy and the Legend of Dragon Peninsula, Red Herring Labs gives those who yearn for the glory days of Sierra Entertainment a meaty afternoon's entertainment, and probably win some new fans to the genre as well.

This TomaTea escape has smooth, intuitive navigation and cohesive puzzles that rely in equal parts on your power of observation, your ability to make logical connections, and your ingenuity. The balmy August evening atmosphere is alluring and, as you search for clues in this three-room scene, cricket songs serenade you. Not so long or involved that it becomes more work than play, Summer Night Escape gives its players a bit of a challenge, a lot of fun, and a moment to gaze at a starry sky.

Riding Shotgun is a Western-themed, turn-based strategy game on an 8 x 8 board where you must win shootouts against different computer opponents. Move your wagon onto different icons to attack your enemy and defend against attacks. It's a nicely-stylized and unique take on a traditional style puzzle game.

A short-but-sweet platform puzzle adventure. Rather than raid the employee fridge, one behatted and unusually bouncy worker responds to his company's financial crisis by entering a puzzle filled dungeon to grab a treasure. Somewhat like I Don't Even Game, figuring out what to do in each stage is sometimes the only challenge. Once you know all the tricks, it'll take you only a few minutes, and even your first play-through probably won't take you longer than 10, unless you get really stuck.

You shouldn't trust any of the protagonists or scenarios in this week's Link Dump Friday since they'll probably get you killed in a variety of painful ways. Like growing a beanstalk in your chest. Or throwing you in acid. Or striking you dead just so they can squabble over your corpse. Games are harsh.

What's sadder than three unhappy monkeys? FOUR unhappy monkeys, and a basket full of kittens nobody wants abandoned in the rain! Lucky for you, you only have to deal with the simians in this latest installment of Pencilkids' popular point-and-click puzzle series. Do whatever it takes to manipulate your environment and bring a smile to the face of each sniffling little monkey across sixteen stages.

The hermit's son has been kidnapped by demons! Are you a good enough king to rescue him? And, while you're at it, could you do something about that advancing purple wall of doom? And, also, could you tell the peasants to knock it off with all the portentous statements concerning the upcoming apocalypse? Sigh... It seems that a monarch's work is never done. Though by the end of KingStory, the new adventure platformer from KintoGames, you'll at least have a pretty sweet crown on your head. That makes it all worthwhile.

The sky is full of adorable, aimless, harmless yellow birds who currently aren't covered in pink bubblegum! That simply will not do! In PhotonStorm's weird yet lovely and cheerful little chain-reaction game, make use of a limited amount of air to clear the sky of birds as their flight patterns get increasingly more complex.

It's been a rough day. You finally made it to London with visions of super-wealth in your head. Then your backpack was stolen. But, as you stand flummoxed in the rain, someone in a car driving by take pity on you and offers to give you a lift to the police station. That said person turns out to be local millionaire Mr. C, whose ailing health has left him in search for a young successor to his empire can only be described as an incredibly convenient coincidence. Still, now opportunity knocks, and if you make some smart choices, you just make make it to the penthouse at 56 Sage Street. A fine financial simulation advergame from Barclays, BBH London and B-Reel that hopes to introduce teens to the world of financial literacy.

MercX is a retro action adventure sidescroller where you control a pixelated hero on an epic mission to rescue a biologist's daughter and save the world. Take out numerous enemies and strong bosses across six missions in different environments. With its 1980s-style graphics, music, and controls, MercX is simple old-school shooting fun.

The Escape Hotel is back in The Escape Hotel 3, from Tesshi-e, and this time the fun begins before you ever make it to your room. How hard can it be to escape a hotel lobby, you might ask? Harder than you'd think, especially since you're not escaping to get out, but to get into your room. All you have to do is navigate around the spacious area, figure out your hotel room number, discover how to make the elevator work, and break into a few "employee only" areas.

Quick! You're trapped in an office with a violent little girl, a giant wall-mounted face, a despondent-looking mechanical spider dude and something weird in a box. What do you do? Well, if you ever want to find your way out of Detarou's latest surreal and silly escape game you'll need to think outside the box and pay attention to your surroundings... or YOU might be the next one to be planted in the floor!

General Zoi brings us an easy to use webtoy based on the show you love to watch when you think nopony is looking. Choose from a huge array of options to create and share your inner pony. Not included; premade denial and excuse in case any of your coworkers catch your designing your own custom cutiemark.

When you introduce a small and somewhat cute little green blob that has the power to take over people's bodies into your planetary conflict, expect things to get a little... squishy. Infestor is a new puzzle platformer featuring tight, responsive controls and clever, bite-sized levels, so crawl in the skull of someone with a computer and give it a play.

Some times while gazing up at the celestial firmament, I realize that, out there in this big world of ours, there are thousands of unlucky 8 month-olds who have never experienced a JiG Casual Game Design Competition. It's a tragedy really. And while those poor tots might not be required to wait too much longer, we can takes some comfort in the 9 previous CGDC iterations each provide more than the daily requirement of epic that growing children need. This week, the JiG Vault features some personal favorites from past competions. Future entrants take note: you've got some tough acts to follow.

The second chapter in the Arkandian Legends series, Revenant provides all the enjoyment and adventure of its predecessor plus more. There are endless possibilities for tailoring this rpg adventure to your playing style, including three races of hero: Arkandian, Necretian and even a Demon/Ascended once you've completed the previous chapter. Finding Wizard Tola's House to catch him dabbling in necromancy or rallying your defenses against an army of orcs on the battlefield are just a tiny part of the vast fun in Revenant. Just don your Bunny Slippers of Brutality, equip your Katana of Alacrity and battle your way to glory!

Ahoy ye barnacle-blistered land-lubbers, and welcome about the JayIsGames galleon! Today we be featurin' Frantic Frigates, a top-down action shooter from Berzerk Studio. Thar be rumors of sharks, pirates, and alien ghosts swarming the seas, and they've been leaving folk mighty groggy. Only ye and yer motley crew of constantly firin' cannon firers even stand hope to make the waters still. Those looking for a treasure chest of frenzied fun will find it here, I swear by my tattoo.

Look at that coinbox. All smug. Smiling. Withholding its shiny goodness. Teach it a lesson why don't you, in jmtb02's latest absurd arcade game chock-full of upgrades, coins, heavy weaponry, and polka music. Though fairly repetitive and slow to start, it's a silly, frantic game with a surprise ending that might just catch you off guard.

Let your fingers do the walking (and the clicking) in this latest installment of NinjaDoodle's popular point-and-click series, packed with puzzles, mini-games, monsters, sad pirates, and robot-waiters galore. In order to proceed, you'll have to find and click the play button hidden in each level, but since each stage has a different setting and different solution the answer is never the same twice!

Flush with the success of its recent movie adaptation, Minesweeper's star had never been higher in the eyes of the world. However, taking to heart the criticism that it's gameplay has been a little "flat" since the Windows 3.1 years, it began to seek a new dimension in its to hook the younger audience. One conference with foreign auteur Vjekoslav Krajacic later, and the result is Minesweeper 3D: Universe. No entry surcharge neccesary.

Zebras, girls who make poor decisions, hungry hungry hippos, and some colourful shapes make up this edition of Link Dump Friday! If what you want is to solve a bunch of different types of puzzles while speeding into a crumbling cavern with no end in sight, we've got you covered but, well... we want you to know we're a little concerned about your hobbies.

Once upon a time, there was a lonely little boy who lived deep in the woods with his parents... and that's about all we can tell you when it comes to Terry Cavanagh's very short but very odd retro RPG. It'll only take you about five minutes to play, but the heebie-jeebies may stay with you a bit longer than that.

Euclid taught us that spheres are masters of espionage. Tactical espionage, that is. One might even say tactical espionage action. Metal Sphere Solid is a short game that can be completed in five to ten minutes, but it's still an innovative take on the stealth genre. A longer game of this nature would be great, but everyone with a bit of time to spare should give Metal Sphere Solid a shot. It certainly beats geometry class!

Games can really bring people together... and colored nodes. Linx brings colored nodes together in a spatial logic puzzler, and even the colorblind can enjoy it. Now that's making a connection, so connect with your inner genius and play away.

A gorgeous spot-the-difference game that tells the touching tale of a young man and what he finds in the forest one night. Stephanie Herrera's beautiful artwork coupled with atmospheric music sets the mood for this compelling story where you may just find yourself emotionally connecting with the main characters.

It was a time of peace. The tribe was ruled by a fair and just leader named Bold, a ruler known across the plains for his fairness and generosity. However, trouble was brewing in the Mountains of Moira: Rangor the Terrible had raised a dread army of conquest, and sprung an attack in which no prisoner was taken. With his village decimated and his son kidnapped, Bold once again took up the garments of a warrior to lay siege to the hordes pillaging the land. Oh... and by the way, Bold is a Beaver. That would presumably explain why the name of Rob Almighty's new RPG-brawler is Battle Beavers. 'Twould only make sense.

We dig deep for an oldie but a goodie with Kotorinosu's Shape. Shape is logical, fun, challenging escaping awesomeness that depends mostly on spatial perception and the ability to observe and deduce using various shapes found around the room. Despite the paucity of furnishings or other decor there is a lot of puzzle-solving to be had in this amusing little room escape.

Minecraft creator Markus Persson's entry into Ludum Dare is a first-person dungeon crawling exploration adventure. Escape from your cell and explore a surprisingly large series of connected dungeons, discovering new items and abilities, and searching for valuable treasure. An unforgiving death system and lack of a map may prove too frustrating for some players, but for a game made in just 48 hours this is one surprisingly big and fun adventure.

In SilenGames' latest defense shooter Granny Strikes Back, you'll help the eponymous Granny as she fends off snowmen commanded by aliens who need her raspberry jam to fuel their spaceship. Yes, you read that right. Well... what else do you use jam for? If you're a fan of the genre, you'll be hard pressed not to like this one; it's silly, beautifully designed, fun, and just like Grandma used to make.

Ok, so what have we got here? A couch. A window. Some scissors suspended from the ceiling. A present with a lid that's firmly taped down. And The Boy with Tape on His Face in the middle of it all. From BBC Three comes a short, comedy-driven point and click game starring Sam Wills as his quiet little character with a slab of tape over his mouth. His goal is quite simple, and if you're going to help him get inside that box, you'll need to solve some pretty strange puzzles.

The visual technology of gaming is advancing at a pace like never before, reaching heights of graphical complexity never before seen. Developers no longer have to use programming "cheats" to create 3D effects... but still we respect the skill of those who wanted to and did. This week, the JiG Vault features three excellent pseudo-3D games from our archives. It may have been five years since their graphics were cutting-edge, but fun is timeless.

There's no place like home, but in this beautifully atmospheric little point-and-click escape, it's hard to say if the dingy little apartment you find yourself stuck in could be called home by anyone. A lack of changing cursor makes this game harder than it might normally be, but a cleverly handled narrative and twist on a familiar story make this one moody little gem fans of the genre will want to check out.

You've got your eye on the world... just the one, in this case, since you're a little blue cyclopean alien. But that's all about to change in this clever puzzle platformer; when your ship crashes on Earth and parts go missing, you'll need to hijack the sight of various characters in order to manipulate your surroundings and ultimately find your way back home. Repetition mars the execution, but Proxy By Sight is still a neat concept that deserves a look.

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.

Climbing through the trees, squishing fruit and shaking nasty critters out of the tree... it's a monkey... green... thing's life for me! And it will be for you too in Nitrome's latest quirky, creative action arcade game! Use the mouse to pull yourself through each level in a bizarre wonderland of strange flora and stranger fauna.

People love the Castaway series of action rpgs, and now tower defense fans can stand proud as well. Now you can enjoy the series' signature pets and protagonist while attacking waves of baddies. The makers clearly put some thought into making this its own game, and they understand what the genre's fans like. So you can stand proud, tower defense fans. You have a Castaway game of your very own!

We celebrate the spirit of Christmas a little early and have a bloody good time before sailing off to the moon with a bunch of mismatched robots and a dude in a rabbit leotard... yep, it's just another week here at Link Dump Friday.

Playing the role of an unfortunate hero who is cursed with the habit of sleepwalking, you awake to find yourself in an unfamiliar witch's hut. Since witches aren't exactly known for their hospitality, you're tasked with escaping the building before she returns, using only your wit and maybe a few handy magical resources.

Doors, doors, everywhere, and not a key to be found! Or so it seems in this tricky, sneaky point-and-click puzzle escape. Each room may look the same, but finding out how to open the doors to proceed is easier said than done. Pay attention to your surroundings and your inventory and you just might succeed at this rapid-fire escape game.

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.