Pod Panic is a gorgeous little arcade Flash shooter that is simple to play and terribly addictive. Each level presents you with an increasing number of pods, round bumper-like objects that tend to gravitate towards your ship, and a string-creature that is rather hypnotizing to watch. Great old-school arcade fun in a tight little package.
Rubicon is an amazing machine-building puzzle game, level editor, and sandbox toy. Gameplay consists of moving crates to one or more targets for each level. Each crate must come to rest on its corresponding target for a green light to appear. Use the component materials provided to construct any machine that will succeed at the task.
Adobe made available a beta version of FP9 for Linux systems a few days ago. It works pretty well with most of the flash games reviewed at your site (which often did not work with the highest version available for Linux - 7). I don't know how many of your visitors are using Linux OS but even if it is 1 out of 100 it could be nice to give them that info.
It isn't often that I come across an addictive browser-based Flash game with which you can play against a friend over the Web. I was pleasantly surprised to find the latest game from Gamesheep is just that kind of game. Crystal Clear is a simple casual game with gameplay similar to the classic game of Lines, and yet with some subtle differences that turn the classic into a compelling two-player battle.
Submitted to our game design competition in August, Free the Bird is a simple puzzle game that offers a satisfying reward if you solve it by yourself. The game features the same pleasing minimalism artistic style that is Bart is noted for, and it is of clever design, too. Just enough for a midday break.
TinyGrow is a captivating flash toy that lets you create a surreal garden scene by finding and dropping different types of seeds. Thick black trees sprout at random from the bottom of the screen, each with a rotating icon in the center. Click the icon to activate one of several events to discover seeds and grow more foliage.
Eight Days is the latest point-and-click adventure from that fabulous French duo, Anode & Cathode. The 4-part episodic game is scheduled to "go live" today (October 19th) at 10:30PM GMT. And judging from their past successes with The Museum, The Casino, and L'expresso Empoisonné, we are likely in store for another excellent adventure.
In this charming little game, you play the role of a bored tire manufacturing worker named Dink. Dink's tired of his pathetic day to day existence doing the same old thing. In fact, he'd quit his job were it not for his eight starving children and warehouse load of credit card debt. Today though, things are going to turn around for poor Dink as he discovers his inborn talent to make music from old factory machinery.
Nimian Flyer Legends is a 3D action adventure game by Protopop Games. You play the role of a young dragon named Salamond on a quest to defeat seven legendary beasts. Armed with fire-breath and the ability to pick up many objects, you'll have to use your speed and wits to battle each unique foe. Nimian Flyer Legends has a remarkably full 3D world to explore coupled with a grand soundtrack. It's a surprisingly lengthy game that feels more like an epic journey than a pick-up-and-play flash title.
Personal Universe is a puzzle game that lets you play with physics. Using sets of colored blocks you must build moving machines that help you complete tasks. Just as the name implies, Personal Universe gives you the materials to let you build a living universe all your own. It's filled with possibilities and offers a surprising amount of freedom to explore and experiment at your leisure.
Draw Play is a game by "Eggy" and hosted on Gamegecko. It plays like a standard platformer, but the catch is that there are no platforms; you use the mouse to draw in the platforms for the character to walk on, and then use the arrow keys to move the player over the drawn platforms to the flag for each level.
A Break in the Road is a unique game that puts you in the role of a DJ recording sounds throughout the city to mix into a one minute song. An amazingly well-produced cut scene, complete with top-notch voice acting talent, introduces the back story and drops you right into it.
Frets on Fire is an open source clone of the ever-popular PlayStation 2 music/rhythm game, Guitar Hero. And just like Guitar Hero, Frets on Fire features a handful of songs and allows you to play the guitar sections by pressing just a few keys. Instead of using a separate controller to mimic the guitar, Frets on Fire lets you pick up the keyboard and jam in right front of your desk. Best of all, a built-in editor lets you tab any song, spawning a growing community of music-modders on the web.
For those of you who have never been drunk in your entire life, the Game of Disorientation will serve as a suitable trainer in case you drink from the wrong plastic cup at the next party you're dragged to. It's when the walls start pulsing and the room starts rotating that things really get confusing.
Created as an entry for our recent game design competition, Quadra Pair 42 is an innocent looking puzzle that will quickly have you in tears. Frustratingly difficult to figure out, the puzzle can be completed in just 21 moves. But the trick is in figuring out the rules first.
Spheres of Chaos is gorgeous in motion, with extremely smooth animation amid literally hundreds of enemies and explosions (and up to 8 simultaneous players!). Far more than just a nostalgic tribute to Asteroids, SoC is a fascinating, unique and memorable classic in its own right.
Grow Tribute is, exactly as the name implies, a tribute to the Grow series of games. For those familiar with Grow games, this one will feel like putting on an old favorite shoe or shirt again. The gameplay is exactly the same and the animations are rewarding, though without some of the charm that On of Eyezmaze is famous for.
Somewhat because I feel compelled to, but also because I do so enjoy the music that I just want to share it with the world. Mixed Tape 14 is out, and just in time to help make the weekend that much cozier.
Geosense is a multiplayer geography game, created using DHTML and Ajax, that can also be played alone. The game itself is all about location and consists of 10 or 20 rounds, each of which involves clicking on the map where you think the given city is located. You receive points for speed and accuracy, although the latter is given more weight. Be careful, you just may learn something.
Featuring a couple of new and more difficult enemies, and controls that allow for more variation in gameplay, Neon 2 succeeds in taking this very enjoyable idea to the next level. Ali has done a fine job at updating an already excellent shooter and making it not only better than the original, but also into a somewhat different experience. Sure it looks similar, and yet it feels different.
Weight is a game of puzzle solving and light mathematics created by Sean for our first Game Design Competition. "Please calibrate scale 2..." is the only instruction you have at first. It might take a little clicking, but soon you'll discover you can add or subtract weights from each scale in order to match pairs of numbers on the left. The first few are easy, but as you get more scales to balance, your life gets complex.
Inspired by the Experimental Gameplay project, a game design student in Sweden has just finished a rapid prototyping project in which he built several games. Each of them incorporates self-imposed constraints and took just a couple of days to develop. The results are creative, impressive, and some are even fun to play.
Sudoku Craving is a great resource for sudoku addicts looking for their daily logic fix. The interface is clean and elegant and, in addition to keeping track of your personal performance on each puzzle, comment boards and high score charts encourage community participation and competition.
Red offers up a brand new take on a classic gameplay mechanic in this simple and new, stylish arcade shooter that plays a little like Missile Command. Some of the most enjoyable games with addictive gameplay are based on very simple ideas, and Red is no different in this regard.
Seen on Screen uses a computer monitor theme to present a variety of puzzles that you must solve by figuring out what to do for each. Sometimes the solution is straightforward, and others you will have to apply a little logic to derive the answer; and yet none of them are very difficult at all.
Liquid Colors is a brilliant idea for a puzzle game and one that works exceptionally well in Flash. It is another creative and original puzzle game entry to our recent game design competition. It was created by DDams of France.
Run n' Roll is an online multiplayer flash game that lets you play chase with people from around the world. Your character runs on his or her own, all you have to do is jump over or roll under objects. You stay ahead by, well, not falling behind. Grab a few fun power-ups to stall your opponent as you race around a giant sphere in the sky.
A brand new game from Tonypa, this one called Keyway and it is a variation on Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) designed for playing with fingers, instead of legs, and using a computer keyboard for input instead of a dance pad.
Often the best things come in the simplest packages, and the idea behind Tanked Up is a simple one: race a tank through eight tracks of varying terrains while trying to blast your opponents to smithereens. You must win each race in order to unlock the next track, and the difficulty increases the farther along you go.
The computer game is not the strongest medium for word games. The crossword puzzle and word jumble dominate the papers; Boggle is the board game master. Computer games are often overlooked by the linguistically minded. But then, Text Twist changes all that. I'm tempted to call it the best word game I've ever played.
wOne and wOne 2 are fun little arcade-style Flash games in which the object is to maneuver a wheel around each level and clear all barrels to advance. And while there isn't anything all that innovative about either game, the excecution is what makes these games special and fun to play.
If someone were to have told me that I'd be spending the next several hours flinging, flicking, snapping, bouncing, dropping and shooting a green gob of gooey slime around 50 levels of a unique new Flash platform puzzle game, I'd probably have expected to see an exceptional piece of work. Well, Sling is exactly that: an amazing new physics-based platform game and I have been playing and enjoying it for hours.
Ah, the rural life. Nothing but vast expanses of farmland, the occasional sounds of the barnyard animals, and life-shortening, back-breaking manual labor. But Funny Farm, by Igor Naverniouk, is distinctly different than the farmer lifestyle. This word association game starts on the farm, but quickly branches out into greener pastures.
This simple and strangely compelling toy was just released onto Web featuring a primitive drawing interface with which to create a track for a little character to slide upon. Save and load tracks and even try to attain objectives to increase the enjoyment from this creative little sandbox webtoy.
Just launched by the BBC History team along with the design and technical prowess of those amazing Preloaded folks (wasn't I just pining for something new from them?), CDX is a brand new multi-episode adventure game that uses real actors and video segments to spin a tale of mystery and intrigue around an ancient Roman sacrificial blade.
Cyptograma has to be the most appealing interface to a cryptographic puzzle that I have ever seen. The game features quotes and phrases to decrypt from famous people, and are available in either English or Español. Each puzzle is in the form of a simple substitution cipher in which each letter of the phrase is substituted with a symbol. It is up to you to figure out the letter that each symbol corresponds to.
TG Motocross 2 is the sequel to another fine game of the same name, TG Motocross, which we haven't covered before. Both games actually appear to be quite the same except for different courses. This is not such a bad thing, however, as both are excellent games in the motocross genre.
The Jackson Pollock emulator is a simple flash toy that simulates the drip style of painting popularized by Jackson Pollock. The entire browser window is a blank white canvas and your mouse becomes the paintbrush. Move the cursor over the surface to pour paint, changing colors with the left mouse button. Linger over one area for some time to leave large blotches or shake the mouse back and forth for light streams of paint. You may not create a masterpiece, but it's an engaging way to let your creativity flow.
Panic is a simple and stylish arcade game made in homage to a classic on the Commodore 64, Astro Panic. Made in Flash and sporting an impressive new soundtrack as well as eye-pleasing particle effects, Panic plays like a cross between Space Invaders and Pang.
In this entertaining puzzle game You are the alchemist's apprentice left in charge of the alchemy shop while the master is away (probably away on business, but we don't really know for sure; details are sketchy, you see, and therefore we shouldn't jump to any conclusions.) In any event, she left some instructions behind: you must conjure three (3) items before the master returns.
Out 2: Out of File is the sequel to the room escape game Out File #01 by Isomura Kai of Tonakai Interactive. The story picks up after escaping the room in the first game and walking through a long winding cave. Now you find yourself in an underground complex filled with computers and machinery with no way to make it to the surface.
Despite being short, uncomplicated and an absolute breeze for anyone already familiar with the world of letters, Orgdot's beautiful illustrations and animation make The ABC Game a must-see.
Tribal Trouble is a downloadable real-time strategy game for Windows or Mac. Compared to most RTS games, Tribal Trouble is easy to learn and to pick-up and play, yet it still offers a deep strategy that takes time to master. The game has earned many words of praise, including being a finalist for an IGF award, a spot on Game Tunnel's Indie Games of the Year list, and some impressive sales and downloads statistics.
Colour Connect has many qualities of a classic casual game: it is easy to understand, simple to pick-up and play, and the randomly generated puzzles present a challenge that is difficult to master. Created by Matthew Dirks of British Columbia, Canada, for our recent game design competition, this puzzle game not only plays great it could also pass as an abstract work of art.
Classic style arcade gameplay recreated in Flash, SwfRoads is an absolutely brilliant fast action driving game with simple controls, great minimalist visuals and an energizing soundtrack. Take to the sky in your spacecraft and navigate the geometric terrain of each of the game's 18 selectable roads.
Sigil of Binding is a simple puzzle game submitted to our recent game design competition by John-Paul Walton of Ohio, USA. It is based on the familiar 'flip the squares to turn them all the same' concept of puzzles, and yet John-Paul's impressive audio and visual production skills turn this version into one all his own.
The problem with jigsaw puzzles is that they engage two conflicting parts of my brain: my hatred of disorder, and my utter lack of desire to do anything about it. You open the box and there they are, laughing at you, hundreds (thousands, maybe?) of oddly-shaped bits of cardboard. Some of them are even upside-down! White Jigsaw, by gamedesign, solves a lot of those problems: there's no picture, the pieces can't be rotated or flipped over, and it starts out small.
Drag the Dot is a simple Flash game, created by Oliver Castañeda of Scarsdale, New York, in which the objective is literally self-explanatory. Just drag the dot to the goal in each of the game's 16 levels, and a final boss level that is "better than doom" (whatever that means.)
An updated version of the original Reverse game (previously reviewed on JIG), Reverse 2 is a very simple point-to-move-the-block game where the basic rule is that the mouse input directions have been reversed, so pushing the mouse up pulls you down, and so forth.
Gear Puzzle is a simple puzzle game featured in our recent game design competition. As the game begins, a small blue character with big puppy-dog eyes catches sight of a pink character locked in a cage. The cage is chained to a gear suspended from the top of the screen. Pegs line the wall and various sized gears are scattered around. Helpless but heroic, the blue guy does the only thing he can to help: jumps on the gear across the room and starts spinning it. Your job is to arrange gears on the pegs to transfer the motion across the room to lower the cage.
Submachine Zero: Ancient Adventure is a spectacularly detailed Flash point-and-click puzzle game from one of the leading designers of the genre, Mateusz Skutnik. This competition entry also placed within a tight group of puzzles that resembled a photo-finish at the horse races. In other words, it was difficult to pass this entry by as a prize winner.
You've managed to make it to lunchtime. It's been a rough day but you are free for an hour and you'd love to spend it laying the smack down on some monsters RPG-style. However, it's going to be hard to install World of Warcraft on your puny work PC, and besides, you simply don't have time. What do you do? Fire up a game of DragonFable.
Monkey Kick Off is a stylish flash arcade game created by Niclas Åberg of Totebo Interactive. A monkey juggles a ball with his feet on the side of the screen. Wait for the right moment, then click the mouse to punt the ball as far as you can, sending it flying through forests, deserts, a Monkey Village and beyond. It's a classic game idea made fresh by creative design and a sharing feature that allow you to challenge your friends to beat your top score.
Another competition entry that was only narrowly edged out of an award, Jewel Drop by Nick Redmond consistently received high marks from each of the four reviewers. This ear-training, color-layering game features a clean and appealing interface and a luxuriously rich soundtrack that together create a unique and original game play experience.
Dona Room 2 is the second room escape game from Japanese flash designer Noaki Nakashima. The game is every bit as quirky and amusing as the original Dona Room and offers more great point-and-click gameplay. The entire game takes place in your kitchen where a note from your mother says you must find a snack before you can leave. Unfortunately the potato chips and cake are locked away, so you must find items and solve puzzles in order to get to them. The game has a little Japanese text but is completely playable without knowledge of the language.
Keys very nearly placed among the winners in our game design competition, and if we had but one additional prize, it would have. This mysterious and charming little puzzle game fit the theme perfectly by closely resembling a puzzle you might find in Click Drag Type. In fact, there weren't many other games that came this close to exactly what we were looking for.
Gateway is an impressive and delightful 3D puzzle game from Anders Gustafsson, awarded Honorable Mention and the coveted Audience Award in our first game design competition. The game has a very simple premise: guide a robot through a series of rooms; but you will have to solve a mini-puzzle within each room to advance.
Right on the heels of our first game design competition, the impetus for which was Simple Andy's brilliant collection of simple puzzle games known simply as Click Drag Type, comes another installment of the series that includes five (5) brand new puzzles!
Cyberpunk is a simple Flash puzzle game disguised as an arresting and involving hacking simulation. Armed with four programs and some intuition, you'll have to sneak into a remote computer guarded by obscure (and not-so-obscure) passwords, as well as by some nasty puzzles.
A flash design project by Phillip Reagan of Texas, USA, Thief weaves a cryptic atmosphere with captivating puzzles to pull you into a story you didn't even realize you were participating in. Thief is a well-deserving runner-up in our very first Casual Gameplay Design Competition.
At first glance the game appears to be a layout from a schematic diagram, which might easily scare you away if you're a non-technical type. And it will likely have you scratching your head wondering just what to do with it even if you are an electrical engineer. However, those adventurous souls that persevere, by poking around the surface to learn what is hiding underneath, will be nicely rewarded by what they find.
Liquid Webtoy is a Java-based application very similar to the Falling Sand games we're all so fond of. Rather than playing with solid elements, however, this game is focused on two things: liquid and color. Fill the screen with water, slosh it around with your mouse and add different shades to the mix. It can be as relaxing or chaotic as you like and is a great time-waster.
Mark Arenz has been designing games over at Ridiculopathy for years now and he has amassed an impressive selection with creative and original gameplay. He has recently released a sequel of sorts to a unique game concept he created about a year ago, and this one succeeds in improving the idea and taking it to the next level.
You know that dream, the one where you're walking down the streets of London listening to the frantic sounds of Gogol Bordello, when homicidal cartoons start spilling out of the scenery? Me neither, but thanks to Toon Crisis I know how to handle myself in just such a situation.
Skatefall is John Freeborn's tribute to one of the earliest platformers, the Atari 2600's Pitfall! With a bodacious new skateboard, online scoreboard, bonus items and powerups, 2D platforming has a new name: Skatefall Harry. As a homage, Skatefall is extremely effective and faithful; the graphics and sound are perfect and the difficulty, while formidable, is appropriate.
Three Degrees is a variation on a classic casual game, and it is played by clicking on groups of the same color to eliminate them from play. Of course, the larger the group the more points awarded. It is a very simple game to pick-up and play, a nice variation on a classic, and one that you will likely find yourself playing again and again.
Kodama is a quirky little ball-toss game that had me quickly hooked, and it wouldn't let me go until I had conquered its final challenge... with extreme prejudice. The gameplay is simple: you toss a little metal coin into a red or blue scoring area, while avoiding the black areas that will cost you one of your four lives.
An adventure game in the classic sense of the genre, as well as in a more low-tech DHTML implementation, the Mystery of Castle Wildenburg combines original photography of Germany's deep woods with the cartoon drawings of artist Aurèle Mechler, which together produces a unique visual appeal to this engaging and compelling Web-based game by Jörg Jochims.
Ever watched Flipper and were jealous about all the tricks he could do? Now you, too, can have the charm of a sea-based mammal with Dolphin Olympics. This flash game by Alan Rawkins puts you in the role of a dolphin in an infinite blue ocean. Build speed, leap from the water and perform tricks to rack up a high score and boost your speed for the next jump. It's a surprisingly simple idea that borrows elements from a number of games yet feels fresh each time you play.
Created by Robert Kabwe of Montreal, Nimian Hunter makes use of an engine that creates the illusion of 3D in Flash, and it's very, very good. Play as a hunter on a mission to feed the beast that commands you. There is a narrative that unfolds as you play, with at least two different endings. Altogether a unique and unusual game.
A big warm shout-out to the folks over at Indie Superstar, a Web-based indie videocast all about indie games and the studios that create them, including in-person interviews with developers. Jayisgames is prominently featured in their latest episode, number 4, so be sure to pay them a visit and check it out!
Bullet Bill is a fan-made side-scrolling action game that borrows a couple of characters from the Super Mario Bros. games. The gameplay is pretty standard for a side-scroller. Use the arrow keys to navigate while trying to hit the breakable blocks, Goombas, and even occasional Mario or Luigi. The challenge is to avoid the green platforms that you may remember jumping on from the original SMB games.
Four Second Fury has been around a few months, and now a sequel to that game has just been released, called Four Second Frenzy. While both games feature the same fast-paced action and gameplay, the sequel offers even more mini-games than the original (50 total).
Lacking any sort of plot, Four Second Fury launches the player into a series of 20 randomly selected, four-second mini-games ranging from simple dodging games to "Simon says" type games. It doesn't try to be anything more than that: just a simple, quick Flash game when you have a few minutes to kill. And don't expect it to last longer than that.
Egg Way is another great release from Dofi Blog, creator of the World of Sand games (Hell of Sand, Sand Sand Sand) and the unique New Rolling Omusubi game. The goal is to guide a freshly liberated egg yolk down to a waiting frying pan. Gravity is not your friend in this game, and if the yolk takes too much punishment you'll have to start over. Using a pen that draws temporary platforms you must guide the delicate yolk to the goal as gently as possible. And then... breakfast time!
An action puzzle sorting game filled with bugs and grubs and leafy plants, Ant Tracks puts you in control of an army of ants on their way back to the nest after a successful foraging. This magnificently beautiful and enjoyable game is extremely well-polished from its photo-realistic graphics to its tranquilizing, almost Pikmin-like, soundtrack. Wonderful.
Added to the mysteriously vacant Flash flight sim category, Goggles Flight Sim dares to let you go places where you may only have heard about. Using information collected from Google's mapping service, Mark Caswell-Daniels has created this Flash application that allows you to fly around the world to destinations of your choosing. Casual fun.
One step beyond Shaolin Soccer, Lucky Eights throws poker into the already freaky mix of martial arts and organized sports. This Flash-based card game requires instantaneous reflexes and precision mouse clickage.
Tringo is an addictive puzzle game concocted by Nathan Keir in the beautiful bizzaro-world Second Life. The rules are a mixture of Tetris and Bingo. Arrange a series of shapes on a 5x5 grid and earn points by constructing blocks of 2x2 or greater, which are then eliminated.
We hosted our first Flash game design competition, and what an amazing event it was! 21 creative and original puzzle games were submitted from all over the world, and just about any one of them could have walked away with one of the prizes. You simply must play every one of these games and experience the amazing quality present in each of the entries. Cheers to everyone that participated, either by submitting an entry or by playing the games submitted!
Submachine 3 is a point-and-click game of exploration and puzzle solving created by Mateusz Skutnik. As the intro so cleverly notes, there are no items to collect, no diary to keep, no trash bin to check, and no spoon to, er, bend. It's just you, the machine, and an infinite metallic world to explore one screen at a time.
Horse Racing is the latest gameSheep effort, a Flash racing game that puts the player in control of one of three (3) different horses on a race to the finish line. Use the mouse for control in this easy-to-play game, running and jumping over hurdles and catching power-ups for some crazy horse shenanigans.
The summer of surreal surprises continues with this Flash adventure game from Slovakia. Haluz is a game of the point-and-click variety that contains several scenes and a variety of simple puzzles that must be solved to advance. What do you do when a very large bird makes off with your rooftop satellite dish? Well, use the resources around you to your best advantage and get it back.
Far, far from Skid Row, in a make-believe land (somewhere that's green,) lives a meat-eating plant in a terra-cotta pot. Now this plant is no ordinary meat-eating plant, for it can use its powerful jaws to grab ahold of ceiling or floor and pull itself along. Use the mouse to move the plant through 15 unique levels in Feed Me, a new platform game by Nitrome.
Hunt the Wumpus, by Gregory Yob, was one of the very first ever computer games back in the days of mainframes and punched cards. This version was created by Rod McFarland in Javascript and is based on Yob's original BASIC source. So it's time to relive this bit of early computer game history and play the classic, Hunt the Wumpus.
Timed Climb is yet another simple idea made into a unique and challenging Flash game. Using only a single button for platform jumping, the objective is to reach higher platforms to 'conquer' them. Timing is everything in this game, as the name suggests, with one bad jump often ending it all. An addictive game with a novel high score system.
Jussi and Marko, Flash game developers at OOPixel, borrow a little gameplay from several classics and wrap them all together into one nicely polished and addictive game. Asteroid Adventure is an arcade action game that will be both familiar and new to anyone that has played Asteroids before.
Geartaker is an arcade action game of skill in which the player jumps from wheel to wheel by clicking the mouse precisely. The author borrows the gameplay from another of his games, High Wheels, but strips it down to just jumping, plain and simple. A charming game with addictive gameplay from one of the best casual game designers there is, Tonypa.
Sand Sand Sand is another entry in the Falling Sand games from Dofi-Blog. This installment incorporates some of the best elements of World of Sand and Hell of Sand into one, allowing you to play with a variety of elements in even more ways than before.
Billed as a "candle-lit rendezvous between Erno Rubik, Dorothy Parker, and Milton Bradley," RSVP puts you in charge of arranging guests around a table such that each is surrounded by compatible people on either side.
A rather ominous and forboding title for a mysterious game that just popped up a few days ago. Tag this one under "riddle" as it is an HTML-based puzzle game for which answers to on-screen riddles are entered as URLs into the address bar of your browser to advance. But time is ticking.
Although you may have played similar games recently, such as Geometry Wars, Grid Wars, Rainbow Wars, and the like, this next one was very nicely done in Flash and requires no download other than the usual loading within a browser. Engaging from the second it starts, Neon is one of those rare games that just feels great to play.
Up next is a great pair of Java shmups (shoot-em-ups). Both are simple and small, and yet each offers an unusual idea; there are no run-of-the-mill 1942 or Gradius clones here. The miniscule Fuzetsu was Jos Hirth's entry in the Java 4k competition, and HIZ's Lash is a shmup with a defensive twist.
Gwen is a surprisingly gorgeous surrealistic adventure composed of richly detailed scenes filled with art, animation, sound and interactivity. With an over-arching narrative that borrows from the teachings and beliefs of Buddahism, this point-and-click game has more soul to reveal than most other games of its type. From Taiwan.
Just in case you were not already aware... 13 is out, and just in time to help make for a lovely weekend(!) Listen online, or download for later. Either way, it's always nice to get something for free. =)
One-Off is the latest escape-the-room creation by the Gotmail team. This time your task is to get a beautiful blue motorcycle out from the garage where it's kept. The motorcycle is locked, and so is the door to the garage. In order to open them, you'll have to search the garage for gadgets and clues and combine those with the environment at the appropiate places.
Another Web jewel from Australia's Game On initiative, Chiko: Accidental Alien is an exceptionally gorgeous and well-produced Flash adventure game that will keep you busy for hours. Help Chiko return to Earth after being swept away on a stray rocket shuttle found in a museum's basement. From there Chiko is taken to Squerx, the biggest fun park in the galaxy, where he embarks on a journey that spans three (3) delightful episodes.
Grow Nano is another fantastic release from On at Eyezmaze, creator of the unforgettable Grow series of flash games. Each installment uses a common theme of placing objects in a certain order to allow a sequence of events to play out. Grow Nano tweaks this idea and introduces timed gameplay. Instead of moving and placing items, all you have to do is click on certain hotspots as quickly as you can. It's a lot more difficult than it may sound, but strangely enough, almost as rewarding.
Cubic Exploding Goro is nearly as strange as the name suggests. This 3D action game from Japan puts you in the shoes of Goro, a grim angular anti-hero in a violent, polygonal Shockwave-powered world. Weird, fun and, with over 24 levels and a wide variety of enemies, quite challenging.
Developer Code is a series of six (6) point-and-click games of the escape-the-room variety, brought to us by IBM in China. The gameplay is the usual for this kind of game: For a reason unknown to you, you find yourself in a locked room with no apparent way out.
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