Nobuyuki Forces 3 - Japanese Style Shooter

Nobuyuki Forces 3 is a fine action shooter, borrowing it's gameplay and style from Sega's famous Virtua Cop series of games. The character moves through the game's areas in a predefined way, and all of the shooting action have to be performed by the player. I always liked this type of games, because of fast gameplay that keeps you in alert all the time.

The game's story is common. A super agent girl has to attack the enemy's headquarters, kill everyone in her way and take out the boss. Reminds me of many titles, with the first coming to my mind being Metal Gear Solid. Well, this one doesn't even touch Metal Gear's greatness, but it follows its path anyway.

Controls couldn't be simpler: press the space key to get in shooting position, aim with your mouse and press the left mouse button to shoot. When you run out of bullets you have to reload and you do so by pressing the left mouse button while in hiding position. Under certain circumstances you'll be awarded with various power ups like infinite bullets, shotguns and rifles. And be sure to check the area when the character moves from place to place. There's power ups spread around that you can pick up by clicking on them.

In total, the game performs very good and will keep you occupied for a while, especially if you like this type of games. Cool graphics and good sound effects tie together with fast gameplay to form an addictive game. In game music could be better though.

Note: The game could take a bit to load, be patient..
Link: Nobuyuki Forces 3

PaintBall - Tricky Puzzle Game

Paintball is a title that make most of us to thing of the game we play in the woods, using custom rifles with colors instead of real bullets. Well, this is not the case with "Paintball - the game". It's a catchy title though to receive more attention on your game. No mater what you first thought by reading the title, as soon as you start playing you will realize it's about a puzzle game.

A very simple puzzle game where your task is to make the small red ball hit the red rectangle. And to do this you have to draw lines. The ball follows the laws of gravity in a very basic way, always trying to move lower. By drawing lines on the ball's way, you can control it's path and make it find the way to the rectangle. It is not so easy as it sounds though. Some levels are very tricky, requiring you to predict the ball's path as it bounces on the lines. On other levels, your patience is the key of progress.

The game's visual performance is very basic. That's acceptable for a game of this kind, but I believe Claxor could had spent more time to make it look a bit better than a raw blue background, black outlined white lines and a red ball. At sound level, the game's features are very basic also. There's only one sound effect: the one that is triggered when the ball bounces on the lines. And there's a single track playing as background music, witch becomes boring after a few levels. Luckily, you can mute everything by accessing the game's options.

Not to forget, the game comes with a level editor also. Give it a try if the game's numerous levels are not enough for you.

Link: PaintBall - the game @ Insane Central Arcade

Johnny Rocketfingers 2 - Exceptionally Unique

Ryan Khatam, owner of CrackedAnimations.com has created this awesome point click adventure game. It's a sequel to the original Johnny Rocketfingers, go ahead and check it out if you like to have a better image of this extreme character before driving him in his new adventure.

The game reminded me of the time way back when I was playing the old classic Monkey Island. It's the same, good and tested gameplay of adventure games where you can click here and there to move the character, interact with other persons in the game, examine objects, collect, use and so on.

The best part of adventure games is their riddles. The harder they are, the greater the filling of satisfaction when you solve them. You'll have to search every corner and check twice if you've missed something, because this something is probably what you need to get the story go on. When all of the above of this is mixed with a good story about underground life and spiced up with the proper dose of humor, Johnny Rocketfingers 2 is what comes out.

Not to forget the wonderful artwork and the excellent in game music, given that this is a flash game. My only complain is about the game's length. When I reached the end and watched the ending scene, I got a strong feeling of incompleteness. Maybe I have to wait for the next sequel now..

Note: This game includes a lot of content inappropriate for youth audience.
Link: Johnny Rocketfingers 2

Guffy the Ghost: So Bite Me

You are Guffy the Ghost and you have some serious trouble! Pumpkin-headed juice-thirsty vampires are coming against you to suck your juice. Kick and punch as many of them as you can before they drain you empty.. For each vampire you take out, the Guffy meter on the right goes up a bit. When there is enough Guffy power, you can release Guffy's special power and take out every vampire around you, by pressing the space keyboard button. The higher the level of the meter, the more point you'll get for each vampire taken out with this special move.

So Bite Me is a good way to keep yourself occupied for a while, being enjoyable, fast and simple. It features nice flash graphics, satisfactory sound effects and raw background music. It is hosted at Big, Flat and Twisted website, where you can find more funny games in the same style, all sponsored by Capri-Sun.

Link: Guffy the Ghost: So Bite Me

Physics Centered Games

No time to blog at all! So just to say I posted something here, I recommend you to take a look at this post from Soldat Movies: Physics Centered Games. It's a list of links to games somehow related with physics. A lot of games to waste your time!

I'll come back with more game reviews as soon as I manage to finish all the pending tasks that are hunting me right now :)
Cheers..

Pixel Blaster - Intense Flash Shooter

Tom Thornton, author of ThorGaming.com and flash game programmer, has just released his latest creation. It's a shooter game named Pixel Blaster. Like in many other shooters, you take control of a ship and try to shoot down all the enemy ships coming against you in waves.

The most interesting thing about Pixel Blaster is it's extra fast gameplay. The enemy ships just keep coming, leaving you no time to rest at all. To survive you have to be on the alert constantly, shooting and collecting power ups left by destroyed enemy ships. There's two types of power ups in the game. One to replenish your health and one for your energy. Energy is used to shoot heavier blasts from your cannon and make more damage.

Move your ship around using W, S, A and D keys or the arrow keys of your keyboard. Aim your cannon using the mouse and fire by clicking the mouse button. To charge your cannon hold the mouse button for a while. The longer you hold it down, the more energy will be charged and the heavier your shots will be.

Conclusion: Pixel Blaster is an awesome flash shooter and the most of it comes out of the fast gameplay. Graphics are good enough for a game of this kind, sound effects blend good with every game event and there's cool Drum n' Base background music to get you in the mood.

Link: Pixel Blaster @ Thorgaming

SWFRoads - SkyRoads Remake in flash

It looks like game programmers who make games using Macromedia's Flash platform like to create remakes of classic games. You can verify this statement by simply performing a search on Google for the keywords "flash remake". I've just tried it and got around 36.000 links on result. Maybe a remake is the easiest way to start programming, because you don't have to invent a game yourself. Or you like the original so much and you want to recreate it in flash.

Anyway, SwfRoads is another flash game of the previously discussed category, being a remake of SkyRoads, a racing game released back in 1993. Your target is to lead your spaceship on the game's "roads" without falling into outer space, or crashing onto walls. The control of the spaceship is accomplished through the use of your keyboard's arrow keys. Up arrow to accelerate, down to decelerate, left and right to move towards the equivalent direction. You can also jump using the space bar or the shift key.

SwfRoads features very simple, yet enough addictive gameplay. Try a level and you'll realise that driving a spaceship on sky roads can be a very enjoying way to waste your time. On the graphics side, don't expect anything flashy. As for the music, thing aren't the same. The game has a nice techno soundtrack creating a "need for speed" feeling to the player.

Link: SwfRoads

Twin Spin III - Nice minigame

Twin Spin III is a simple and addictive minigame coming from GlobZ, a french game production company. Your aim is to pop all of the balloons on each of the game's 24 levels.

The interesting part is the way you move in the game. You control two smileys connected through an axon between them. To understand this better take a look of the picture on the left. At any time, one of the smileys is settled to the ground and the other one is rotating. Once you click, you make them switch roles. And this is the way you move around.

To pop a balloon, one of the smileys has to touch them. Some of the balloons can only be popped by the red smiley and others only by the yellow one. My description may be confusing but I'm sure you'll understand everything as soon as you start playing.

The TwinSpin III performs pretty good for a minigame, featuring nice graphics and addicting gameplay. I have to mention though that there's no in-game music or sound effects at all.

Link: TwinSpin III @ GlobZ

Chaos Faction - Senseless Beating

Dissolute Productions has created this extra-enjoying, crazy beat 'em up game bearing the name Chaos Faction. Those two words are enough to fully describe the game's theme. It's about beating up your opponents until only one remains standing on the arena.

If you're familiar with beat 'em up games, like Street Fighter, Mortal Combat or their younger cousin Tekken, then you'll find out that Chaos Faction's gameplay is in the same style. Choose a character, choose an arena, then start beating! Graphics are simple, colorful and funny. The game has good animation and is very fast. This is the reason why it won't let you let it so easy. Nice in game music will accompany your efforts to make your opponents rest in peace and clean, accurate sound effects will be there triggered by every game event.

You can try one of the game's three modes in total: Campaign mode, where you try to beat every enemy on all levels available, unlocking new characters and weapons on your success. Deathmatch mode, where you can set up a game with many opponents and on any level. The players that scores the most kills is the winner. The last mode is Survival, where you try to beat as many opponents as possible, before they beat you up. In this mode you are able to submit your score to the online highscore list hosted on the game's server.

In total I can say that this is the best flash game in this category I've ever played. Although, I have to warn you: before you start playing think twice if you have anything else to get done, Chaos Faction is going to reduce your productivity time considerably. At least for today...
Note: The game's size is about 6.5 MB, so take this in count if your internet connection is slow. It'll take over 10 minutes to load on a 56k modem. You can download it on your PC if you like, by following the second link below.

Link: Chaos Faction @ CrazyMonkeyGames.com
Download Link: Chaos Faction Download

Cluedo Cop Star- Investigate online

Hasbro is hosting an online version of it's popular crime fiction board game, Cluedo. This version is named Cluedo Cop Star and it went online on 22nd September. To play you'll have to register for an account, a process very easy and non time-consuming. The game is a kind of online contest, with big prices to be won from the top players. Check out the web page for information on this.

The game is very similar to the original board game, with the difference that the online version is divided into four episodes. There was one episode available to play at the start. One episode is added each week for the following three weeks. Once you reach the end of an episode, you'll have to make an accusation and you'll progress to the next one if it's available.You'll keep all the Inventory items and casebook notes you've collected from previous episodes.

The game in general is very good looking and professionally made. I got stuck playing it for about 2 hours before writing this review, when I finished the first two episodes that are available until now. At the end of the second one, after I made my accusation, a message box shown up saying that I will be informed by email when the next episode will be available to play. I can't wait for it! It's too cool, really. Well, maybe because I love Cluedo soooo much :)

Cluedo Cop Star's gameplay is in the style of point-and-click adventures, spiced up with the board game's storyline and special elements. Use the map to move around the mansion's rooms. There you can collect items to your inventory, ask suspects questions about the murder or about the items you collected or combine items in your inventory with other items in the room to find new clues. Everything you find is recorded to your casebook and you'll have to examine this information in the end of the chapter to make your accusation.

The only thing the game misses is in-game music and more sound effects. But I'm sure you'll enjoy it even like that. Follow the link bellow.

Link: Cluedo Cop Star

Online Games Directory has a new header!

I've just finished editing the blog's template and you can see the results above, at the blog's header. Actually, this is the only part of the template I've changed today, but it took me a lot of editing in Photoshop and Illustrator to make it the way I wanted. I'm satisfied and I can say I like it much more than the previous, lame header that I had.

This is the first blog I've ever created and the first site I've ever run. I have many other things in my mind about the site's future that I'm looking forward to carry into effect one by one. I've been pretty busy lately studying for the exams at the university, so I couldn't do many posts or anything else here. My last class exams are on next Friday. After this I will spend more time to bring you fresh game news and make this blog better!

Back to the header now. As I said, I'm satisfied of the result. But I don't know what my visitors think and I'm pretty curious about the answer. Please leave a comment and tell me, I'll appreciate your opinion.

Click Drag Type 3 - Brain teasers

A young computer science student at South Dakota State University, Andrew VanHeuklon, has made this wonderful collection of puzzles and collected them all in one release. If you like solving riddles, this is the case for you.
Click Drag Type 3 has 15 puzzles, each one entirely stand-alone and independent of the others. The release contain 10 puzzles from the previous 2 games with the rest being the new ones. There's no clues about what to do or where to start from, it's all up to you to determine the way of solving them. All you know is that you can click or drag items with your mouse and type with your keyboard.
Andrew also added a "Behind the Scenes" feature, with is enabled after you finish a puzzle and lets you know more about the game's creation. And there's a timer to count your total playing time. What I most liked in this game is the felling of self-confidence that you get after solving a puzzle. This is what made me go ahead and try the next one and then the next one and so on, until I solved them all! :) So there's a lot addictiveness involved in playing Click Drag Type and this adds a lot to the game's total value.
Nice work Andrew! Keep on providing the world with whatever else you have in your head, I'm sure it's going to be awesome!
Link: Click Drag Type 3
The game is hosted by HybridArcade.com

Panic! Coin-op arcade style shooter

Got yourself too lazy and need a game to waste your time? Panic is what you're looking for. With it's simple coin-op arcade style, it's a good way to have some fun. The game's idea is very close to Astro-Panic, a game released for Commodore 64 back in 1984.
Your objective is to shoot down all the flying saucers in the screen before one of them hits your space ship. For every wave of saucers you clear, another saucer is added on the next level, faster and though harder to eliminate. The higher you hit a saucer and the faster it is, the more points you get. Panic features a highscore list also, a fact that could make you go for another game after you loose.
The game's visuals are following the arcade theme, so everything you see is made of back, grey and white lines, spiced up with red coloured particle effects to animate the destruction of a saucer. Background music is in the same style and so are the sound effects. Plain sounds combined, bringing a good result in sum. An option to disable music could be useful though, in case the player is bored to hear the same track repeatedly. There's an option to disable sound completely, but this way you will not hear the sound effects.
Panic has pretty easy gameplay and you'll get in the mood as soon as you start playing. To move around use your mouse. Click the left mouse button to shoot. And that's all.
A good game coming from Coin-Op Interactive, created by Sander van der Vegte.
Link: Panic!
Historical information: Astro-Panic 1984 review page A and page B.

What's wrong with my feed?

It started yesterday, and continues until now.. I don't know what's the reason, but from yesterday the blog's feed is down. If you try to visit my Atom feed on your browser you'll get an error page containing the text "Invalid request URI". And my Feedburner version shows up an error page saying that my feed is making a "clunking" sound. That's normal of course, if we consider that Feedburner generates the burned version from blogger's original Atom feed.
I've searched Blogger Help to see if I can find a workaround to the problem, with no results. So I sended them an email and now wait patiently.. :(
If you had or are having the same problem, I'd like to hear from you. Especially if you know how to fix it ;)

Zwok - Multiplayer madness!

Have you ever played Worms? The funny turn-based game where you control a group of worms armed with crazy fire-power and battle against another group of worms? Well, Zwok is very similar to it. Except that you don't control worms but only one funny guy, you don't have so many weapons to choose from and you can only play in multiplayer. The game has two teams, the Blooz and the Grienz. When you enter the game for the first time, you can easily create a new account for free, customize your character appearance and join one of the game's teams.
And then the action begins! You are randomly placed in a game with two members of your team and battle against three opponents of the other team. Gameplay is very simple: On each round you have ten seconds to move, choose your weapon, aim and fire. To move use the left and right arrow keys of your keyboard. Everything else is done with your mouse. The team that takes out every member of the opposite team wins. Zwok also features a ranking system where your rank is determined by the points you score during the games and by your shot accuracy.
Go ahead and try it out, it's totally enjoying! If you're bored to create an account, you can choose the available "I'm Lazy" option to check if you like it or not.
Link: Zwok game.

Final Fortress - Flash Strategy

Final Fortress is a "defend your base" flash strategy and shooting game. Like in most of games of this style you control a cannon and have the option to buy various upgrades and weapons to enhance your base's defence against the waves of enemy troops coming to take you down. At the end of each level, you are awarded with money depending on the results of your defending and shooting accuracy. You can spend the money to upgrade your base and repair your units. This is the strategic part of the game. If you want to survive you have to deploy new units in the right place and the same time save money for repairing them.
The visuals are good, with nice sprites used for the units, realistic images for the battle field and cool explosion animations. The sound is good also, every event of the game is accompanied by a proper sound effect and there's battly music in the title screen to get you in to the mood.
If you like this kind of games you'll enjoy playing Final Fortress and probably will finish the demo levels, but I personally wouldn't spend 14.95$ to buy the full version.
Click the image above to play the game in it's own window. If you're reading this post through an aggregator this will not work.
External link: Final Fortress

Samorost 1&2 - Weird Adventure games

Samorost is a point and click adventure game with the story going on at a strange meteor-sized planet. You control a funny guy who's the habitant of this tiny planet and help him to get past his troubles. The game in overall is very clever, demanding from the player to solve various riddles. You cannot distinguish those riddles for their complexity or difficulty, but you can certainly do for the smart way they affect the story's progress.
The game's graphics consist of very good looking artwork spiced up with fine animation. I really like the extraordinary theme used to compose the game's world. And there's cool background music helping you to get in Samorost's atmosphere. Of course, the game is armed with the necessary sound effects to accompany every event.
Everything in the game is done by pointing your mouse clicking over the items on the screen. That's why it's called "point and click". So, to progress you'll have to find where to click next in order to activate the next event in the story. Some times you'll have to click at certain time periods or in synchronisation with other events. Experiment a bit and you'll find the way.
First I found and played Samorost 2, after finishing it I wanted more so I tried the original. Both of them are pretty cool, but the second one is a demo version where you can only complete the first chapter of the game's two in total.
Links:
Samorost
Samorost 2
Game created by Amanita Design.

Tontie ver.1 - Crazy "Hit the Mole" game

Tontie is a game coming from Eyezmaze, a talented Japanese game designer who has created a series of beautiful games like GROW and Vanilla. Check his site and you'll understand what I'm talking about. All of his games have a special Japanese style, from graphics to level up features.
This one, named Tontie, is in the style of those "Hit the Mole" games. But, while the majority of those games are mouse controlled, Tontie utilizes your numeric keyboard to achieve the same goal. All of the game's controls are done using the numpad and you'll realize that as soon as you start the game.
Eyezmaze injected his level-up system in Tontie by using coins. When you hit one of those "moles" sometimes they'll leave a coin or more behind them. Hit the coins to collect them. When you have enough, hit the store(witch appears in the same way the "moles" do) and a menu will become available for you to spend your coins. You can by health, new hammers and power-ups to make your life easier.
I really liked playing this game because of the variety of "moles", the previous mentioned level-up system, the funny in game music and sound effects and it's fast gameplay. In total, the game can stand as a complete flash game and I believe it worth a try. Possibly you'll get addicted for a while.
Here's the original page. Click the image above to play Tontie in it's own window.

Sycolux - Innovative block clustering game

Block clustering games are very popular and fun to play, with the category counting numerous titles. Bright examples are Tetris and Puzzle Bobble(or Bust-a-Move). In this kind of games the player's target is to cluster blocks of the same color, or create lines of blocks or various other combinations in order to clear the games panel. New blocks are falling from the panel's top and the game continues until the panel fills with blocks. There's no more space left so the player looses.
The innovation in Sycolux is that the panel will randomly spin and flip, or even zoom in or out. This makes the game more challenging, because the player have to focus on the new state of the panel each time flipping occurs. Another feature of the game is it's splitted game panel, with blocks coming from each side and the ability to transfer a block between them. And there's a Laser Gun mode where instead of clustering the blocks, you simply shoot them. This mode is unlocked if you manage to cluster three "special" blocks of the same color.
The game's graphics are alright, but the sprites have a blurry look and could be better. At sound level the game performs pretty good, having clear sound effects and cool background music.
Here's the link: Sycolux @ Gameshot.org.

Smashing - Arkanoid Flash Variant

Arkanoid is an arcade game with a great history and since it's first release at 1986 by Taito, it was ported on many platforms, including gaming consoles and personal computers. A lot of other games are inspired by Arkanoid and Smashing is another one. Of course Smashing is not the first flash game based on Arkanoid's idea. I've seen other games in the same style and I believe this is the best.
The game's rules are as follows: You have to break all the bricks on each level to move on to the next one. To do so, target the little ball on them by using the pad at the bottom of the screen, witch is under your control to move sideways. If you miss to bounce the ball on the pad, the ball will get out of the game's screen and you'll loose a pad. When you run out of pads, it's game over.
Various power ups are hidden inside the bricks and when the ball hits them, you can pick them up and make your task easier. Beware though, because some of them are not power ups and have negative effects, like reducing the pad's length.
To conclude, this game is a good variant of Arkanoid but I believe it could be better. Sometimes you can't predict the ball's direction after it bounces on the pad. In other games the ball's direction depends on the point of the pad it bounces on. That's an issue reducing the game's overall gameplay value.
To try it out yourself, click the image above(game will open in it's own window) or follow this link to Totebo Online Games. To learn more about Arkanoid's history, you can read this article from Wikipedia.

Lost Picture by Tonypa

To continue on games following a simplistic design, today I post about Lost Picture. It's a puzzle game coming from Tonypa, an inspired games designer having a pack of quality games in his portfolio, all being very simple in both graphical and sound related aspects.
In Lost Picture your target is to reveal the hidden line-drawn picture, using a sonar scan mechanism. Using the mouse, you send sound waves in vertical and horizontal directions scanning the game screen for the connection points between the lines that shape the lost picture. The closer you get to those points, the brighter red circles will appear on the screen to indicate it.
Play around a bit and you'll understand it, personal experience is better than reading plain text ;)
Note: Once you click the game link, you'll land on the homepage of Tonypa. All games are listed there in a strange way. Highlight LOSTPICTURE and click it.

Drag The Dot - Don't touch anything!

Use your mouse to drag the dot from the starting point to the exit. Be cautious though, if you touch anything in your way, you'll have to start over. The obstacles consist of boxes and lines, usually moving around, rotating, varying scale and in some cases are invisible when the mouse cursor is not hovered around them. In later levels you'll have to use one-way portals to get to the level's exit.
This game is based on a very simple idea, yet it's so enjoying to play. It's a proof of the fact that a game doesn't have to be fancy in order to be good.
Check it out yourself here: Drag the dot. Or click the image to play the game in it's own window.

Trials Mountain Heights

Even though this game is featured on Miniclip.com for a long time and I run on it about a year ago, I believe it's worth posting. It's a Java based trials bike simulator and if you like this kind of motor sports you'll be excited playing it. Your task is to get through the levels as fast as you can without falling. So it's about maintaining your balance while passing of the obstacles in your way. To do so, lean the rider's body to the front or to the back to change the center of gravity of the bike and the rider. Enough with physics, you'll get the point when you start playing :)
The game's graphics are pretty good, even in this reduced-resolution online version. At sound level, you'll hear realistic sound effects but no in-game music. The game's best part is it's awesome physics model, witch makes it so fun to play. Nice work by the programmers.
This is a demo online version and it's a pity that you can only play 2 levels. The full version features 12 levels and full screen support with high resolution graphics. You have two options if you want to play the full version. Either buy the game, or search the web and download it for free, if you understand what I mean.. Probably somebody else have uploaded the game somewhere(Rapidshare, ghouh ghouh!). Of course if you like it you have to support it's creators and pay for their efforts.
Controls: up arrow key to accelerate, down arrow key to brake, left arrow key to lean backwards and right arrow key to lean forward.
The game is hosted at miniclip, click here to play it on the original page. If you don't have Java installed on your machine, follow the link on the sidebar to download and install the latest version.

Classic Snake remix in flash

Remember playing the classic snake game on your Nokia? Or, your friend's Nokia, or any of those variants spread around the world. Well, this one is far beyond of it's old fellow. It's packed with a lot of features, like choosing your snake's skin from a collection counting 90 skins in total and an option to change the skin randomly each time you start a level.
Another major feature is the way you control the snake and the snake's movement in general. Block by block movement is replaced by free 360 degrees movement, with the snake following your cursor.
Good graphics with lively colors, nice in-game music witch can be deactivated if you're bored hearing, cool levels and save/load option if you want to quit and continue later. A pause option could be useful though... Time to get addicted again!
Click the image above to start the game in it's own window, or go here to play in the original page.

Soap Bubble - Help the bubble escape

Take the role of a little soap bubble that was playing peacefully with it's friends and got in trouble driven by it's curiosity. A hole behind a bush is where it all started: The bubble wanted to know what's inside and got trapped inside a strange tunnel. As the bubble, you have to guide yourself through the tunnel, hoping there's a way out at the end..
The game is pretty good, well coded and addictive. The graphics are very simple, but someone have to be enough talented to make a picture look so cool as this game's designer did. And there's an atmospheric background sound to enforce your feeling of being in a wet dark tunnel, along with various other sound effects.
To control the bubble use your keyboard's arrow keys. Even though the game is not very hard, you'll have to practice and get comfortable with the bubble's movement if you want to finish the game. Every time you pass a level a password will be shown so you can continue the game from this level is you loose. The problem is that the password is shown for a small period of time, so pause the game and note it somewhere before you forget it :)
The game is coming from Anders Gustafsson. Check out Strumaland, where he hosts his other creations.

Traffic Jammer JX - Cool Java Puzzle Game

This is the first time I write about a Java based game and the reason is that Flash and Shockwave games available online are numerous and better in quality than their competitors made in Java. So it's easier to find a good game written using one of Adobe's(and former Macromedia's) platforms. Today I decided to give Java a try and see if I can find something.
And so I found Traffic Jammer JX, witch is a well made Java Applet. It's a puzzle game and the story is about traffic control. Different coloured cars get on the road and have to be routed to the appropriate exit locations. To achieve this, coloured arrows are at your disposal to be placed on the cross roads and junctions.
The levels are of variable difficulty, starting from totally easy to get to very very hard ones that demand a lot of brain-squishing to solve. By the way, after you spend a minute on a level, a hint button is activated at the bottom toolbar. You can click that button to get some help.
The game's graphics are moderate for a game of this type. Nicely coloured objects with funny shapes and that's all. At the sound level things are very simplistic again, with no in-game music at all and a few sound effects that are disabled by default. To enable them, click the mute-unmute button located at the bottom right corner of the game screen.
Try playing the tutorial levels first, they will help get started.
To play it is required to have installed the Java Runtime Environment. Follow the link on the sidebar to get the latest release from Sun Microsystems.
The applet is coming from Crystal Squid.

Domino Pressure

When I was a child, dominoes was one of my favorite games. Playing with my friends or stand them on edge in long lines, then topple the first and watch them fall serially.
This game is about the second use of dominoes mentioned above. The bones are on place and you have to find witch one to topple first in order to make all others fall. The last one will squash the tomato and the stage will end. If you click the right one additional time will be awarded, else you'll loose as many seconds as the sum of remaining bones.
Some stages are very hard to beat, especially when you're running out of time. For those stages you have three tomatoes(at the bottom right of the game screen) that can be used to instantly pass the stage.
A very addictive and challenging game, coming from Gamedesign.
The game's original page: Domino Pressure.
Information about dominoes on wikipedia.

Find Mulch - Match the pairs

Bored of playing concentration games that require you to find differences in pictures and want to try something else? Then this is for you. Try to identify those dwarfs by their noise. Your target is to find Mulch, a criminal dwarf. The problem is that all dwarfs look the same and the only way to go over this is the so-called "Gas Test". Every dwarf in front of you has an identical one that makes the same noise when you click his nose. Except of Mulch.
Take everybody else away and you win. Before you start I have to warn you: There's a lot of farting and burping separating you and Mulch!
Note: the game features a funny option with the name "Gas Bomb". Set the timer, turn on your speakers, and have fun amusing your friends or co-workers!
The original page is located here: Find Mulch.

Bowmaster - Defend your castle game

Another defend-your-something shooting game, well made and addictive. In this one you have to defend your castle and the theme is medieval.
Your weapon is a bow bound on top of your castle. Using it against the hordes of enemy troops coming to take you down you gain XP(experience) points that you can use at the end of each level to upgrade your arrows, buy archers to fight with you, increase the range of your arrows and many other options.
The visuals are moderate and similar to most of the flash games one can encounter on the web. I like the enemy soldiers that look like the Uruk-Hai from Lord of the Rings. Probably the designer is inspired from the movie.
The game doesn't feature in-game music, but the sound effects are cool. You can hear the bow hiss as it travels through the air, the enemies moan with a funny way when they get hit, the bomb arrows exploding and so on.
To aim, drag the transparent-green circle from your bow and release it at the desired position to shoot. A mark will show you where you left the circle the last time so you can adjust your next shot better.
And there's a lot of things that you will figure out while playing the game. I absolutely recommend it, but be cautious because there's a great chance that you will be playing for a long time. So be sure you don't have anything get done before you start.
The game is coming from Jason Reinsvold. Here's the original page: Jason Reinsvold's Bowmaster.
Note: Bowmaster 2 is coming soon. Check out this link for up-to-date information.

Grain Strain - Collect the grain!

This game is a combination of Lemmings and The Incredible Machine. Grain falls from the air and you have to use various machines combinations to collect as much grain as you can in a bucket on the floor. If you manage to collect enough before the timer runs out, you move to the next level. And that's all about the gameplay.
Graphics have not anything special, just simple shaped objects of pour quality. This will not make you enjoy the game less, but I think the designer could make it better. There's no sound effects, only a repeating music track that is a little boring. This is not a big problem though, because you're pretty busy to complete the level and so you don't notice the music. Again, the designer could provide us an option to mute.
To play, press the button labeled "Start Game" and begin putting machines into place by dragging them from the toolbar on the bottom of the game screen to the main game area. When placed, the machines can be drug again and be placed somewhere else.
To start the game in it's own window click on the image above. Or click here visit the page the game is hosted on.

Tilt - Funny balance game

A small game where you try to balance a weight bound on a rod using your fingertip. It's easy when you begin, but as the time passes and your score goes up, the rod gets shorter and it becomes harder to balance the weight.
I personally made it up to level 14 with 2858 points. Click the the image above to test your balance skills!
Or you can go to the original page I found this game on:
Tilt @ GameArmy.net

Incredible Machine Flash Variant

If you ever played one of "The Incredible Machine" games from Sierra, you'll notice the similarities of this one with the original. Your purpose is to use various parts available in your invertory to make the small box go from the begining point to the room's exit.
It's a puzzle game, so you have to be creative and find the right parts combination and positioning in order to success.
The game have a lot of rooms to challenge your brains, all having an icy look. That's the reason of the game being named "CCL Winter Game". It's coming from CCL, an online computers trading company, so it is created for promoting their site. When you move from a room to the next one, a splash screen appears asking you to select a part for what they call "your Virtual PC".
Despite those advertizing screens, it is enjoying and you will have a good time playing. If something is missing from the game, that is a larger inventory of parts. This could make the rooms more challenging. The original Incredible Machine had a LOT parts to choose from to make your way through the levels and that was what I liked the most.
The gameplay is simple: Drag items from the inventory and place them in the room wherever you want and press the button labeled "GO" to see the results. Press the "STOP" button to make changes and the "CLEAR" button to clear the room and start over.
You find information on the original Incredible Machine games in this article from Wikipedia.
CCL Winter Game is hosted here.

Cannon Fodder

The first game that lunched with the "Cannon Fodder" name was a real-time strategy and action game combination, very popular on the Amiga platform around 1993 and many others later on.
This one has nothing to do with the gameplay of the original game. It's a cannon shooting action game, where you try to destroy your enemy's cannon before he does. An interesting game detail is the way that wind affects your shots. To see witch way the wind is blowing and at witch speed, you have to notice the clouds. They're moving towards the winds direction.
Use left and right arrow keys to setup the angle of your cannon, hold the space bar and release when the power meter is at the desired position. If you miss the shot try again, a marker will be showing where you release the space bar on your previews shot so you can adjust the power better this time.
A cool game feature is multiplayer support. So you can challenge other players and show them your skills! By the time I was playing, there was no other players online so I can't say anything on how the game is performing in multiplayer.
A link to the original page: Cannon Fodder.

Switcheroo - Concentration test

A game for the eyes: This is a test of your concentration skills. There are three cups turned upside-down on the table, one of them hiding a coin. When the game begin you are shown witch cup has the coin under it and then the cups start sliding around each other switching positions to make you loose the coin. If you manage to stick on the right cup you win one point, else you have to start over.
The game is designed and hosted by Makai Media.

Moover - A Nice Sokoban Variant

Sokoban is a classic puzzle game first released to the public on 1982 and it is well known to players worldwide as Tetris is. The game's subject is about moving all boxes to specified areas on each level and to do so, you have to calculate your moves. You have to be careful because some moves will result in a box not being movable anymore, and you will not be able to complete the level.
Moover is a Sokoban variant written completely in Javascript and PHP and can be played in any Javascript enabled browser. You control a funny cow trying to move all wooden boxes to the areas of the level marked with a red "X" sign. The levels are well designed and the difficulty is increasing normally as you move on. Also, if you have cookies enabled on your browser's settings, the game will automatically save your progress and you'll be able to continue from that level later. See the game's instructions for detailed information on saving and loading.
There's a settings page where you're able to configure the game's screen size and control keys. The default are as follows: Arrow keys to move around, U key to undo a move, O key to redo and Escape key to reset the level.
Click here to go to the original page.
If you want to have extended info on Sokoban History, check out this Wikipedia entry.

Uniroyal Fun Cup - Race with a turbo-charged VW Beetle

From all the flash racing games I've played till today (and there's a lot out there) this is the best. It is well implemented and realistic, fun to play and challenging. You drive the old Volkswagen Beetle customized as a race car and try to beat your opponents on track, while making the best lap times.
What I like in this game is it's very good pseudo-3d graphics engine. The game is 2d in reallity, but the designers made it look so good that you think you're playing a 3d game. There's four different tracks on witch you can try your skills: Belgium, Italy, Great Britain and Germany. All of them are looking good, each one with it's own difficulties and tricky spots.
At sound level, the game is doing good also. You can hear the car's engine roar as you drive faster and the tires scream as you slip on tight turns. It's a pity that there's no in-game music though, it could be a good addition.
You control your car with the same way you do on most racing games: up arrow key to accelerate, down arrow key to break and reverse, left and right arrow keys to steer.
The original page: Uniroyal Fun Cup.

Kung Fu flash remake

To continue on classic games remakes on flash, I post about this remake of Kung Fu Master, a coin-op back from the 80's. The remake looks like the original, but it's funnier. Take a look at the screenshot above, I removed the opponent's head with an air-kick!
The creator had the idea to remove the second boss and put in his place Megaman.. :D
I enjoyed playing this game a lot. It reminded me of the time ten years back, when I was spending hours and hours playing in coin-op rooms...
Here's the controls:
Right and left arrows to move, up arrow to jump, down arrow to duck, z key to punch and x key to kick. Oh, and p key to pause the game.
That's all, have fun!
Original page: Kung Fu remake.

Prince of Persia - Flash remake

The all time classic game from Ubisoft - Prince of Persia. No need to say much about it. The name is well known and most of us have played of heard of the original game or a sequel. This one is the original ported to flash, so you can play it on the web. Help the prince find his way through the dungeon to the vezier's throne room and prevent him from unleashing the Sands of Time.
Use the arrow keys to move, jump and duck. Press the shift key to walk and interact with objects. You can also use the space bar to make a forward jump instead of up and left or right arrow key combination.
The game is difficult as the original was, but it's addictive and pretty enjoying to play. Experiment with the controls for a while and soon you'll get used to it.
The original page: Prince of Persia.

Dropkick The Faint!

This is another game following the style of many flash games on net. The ones that your objective is to throw something as far as you can. In this one you control the members of a punk-rock band, named The Faint. There's five band members and you have to make them run and kick a person from the crowd, who's standing on the stage, waiting to be thrown away from you :)
To start, first adjust the speed indicator on the top left corner of the game screen. The faster the speed the stronger the dropkick. Next, press the space bar to make the strength meter stop as close to the center as possible (it's moving periodically around the center, next to the speed indicator). At last, press the space bar again when you're close to the stage, and enjoy the results! The crowd member will fly away and finally hit the ground, leaving a blood line as he slides on the cement...
When the drop ends, information is show about your accuracy and the length of the drop. The points from each drop is summarized when you finish the fifth kickdrop to the total points that you scored. You can then submit your score and see the top-100 list of highscores.
This game is violent, but it's close to the punk music mood and after all, it's very funny. There's three songs of the band playing on the backround, witch can be swithed using the control buttons on the top-right corner of the game screen.
Click here to see the original page this game is coming from.

Bang The Drum

Have you ever wished to be a member of a famous rock band? I have no music education at all, but if I had, it would be probably on drums..
The game's name is Bang the Drum, and it's exactly what the title says: about drum banging!
It's coming from inxs.com, the website of the famous rock band INXS. Your objective is to bang the drums following the rhythm of the beat in one of the band's most popular songs. You bang the drums by clicking on them.
The more precise your bang, the more points you will get. The drum witch have to be banged next is highlighted and you have to catch up if you want to keep playing, because if you miss a drum or bang it out of time you'll get a "Strike". And if you get three strikes, it's game over...
In general, the game is pretty easy. All you have to do is to catch the rhythm and follow on. I stuck playing for a while because I wanted to hear the whole song till the end.
Here's the original page.

GROW nano vol.1 - A new addition to the series

Hello again to all of you! I'm back, refreshed and fully rejuvenated, ready to provide you new game links and reviews!
This time it's about the last addiction to the popular GROW series. The name is GROW nano vol.1, witch obviously follows GROW nano vol.0. The concept is almost the same in all the games coming from the designer at Eyezmaze. Click here and there in order to make things grow, usually with different outcome depending on your actions.
In this one, you start with a little stone on the bottom of the screen and try to find points highlighted with a dashed circle when the cursor is above them. If you click those points, the stone will grow and become something bigger, starting to take shape. The difference with the previous volume of this game is that you have all the time you want to search and find where to click until you finish the game (took me about 5 minutes) and see your creation fully functioning. The previous volume has a timer clocking and you have to click all the spots in fixed order and on time if you want to see the ending.
It's very small, indeed. But it's funny and enjoying and leaves you with curiosity to see what the next volume will look like.
When you're done playing, take a visit to the creator's home page by clicking this link. There, you can find all the games published and check the ones you've missed.
Oh, and here's the original page: GROW nano vol.1
Note: this game is played in 500x800 resolution, so if your screen height is not bigger than 800 pixels, the you're probably going to have problems playing it. In this case you can go to the original page. You will be able then to scroll and see the entire picture.

Out for vacations

I will be out on vacations for a week, so no posting for a while.. I'm going to venture on the fine Greek beaches and do some skin tanning :)
At least I had the time to find a flash game before I leave, it's name is Puff Ball but I have no more time to write a review. In short: it is similar to ping pong. Hit the little ball-shaped fish with your crab and try to get it past the opponent crab. Hold the left mouse button to make a stronger shot. And that's all. As soon as you score 5 points, you win and progress to the next level.
Simple and fun to play. The decoration reminds me of my destination on the trip I'll have tomorrow.. ;)

The original page: Puff Ball Game

flOw - Flash Excellence

Well, this flash game is beyond comparison. It is totally unique and atmospheric, having a very beautiful theme. The scene is underwater, with you controlling a strange creature with main subject to feed it so it can grow larger and stronger while evolving. There is a variety of other creatures around, all of them being feed targets for you. Some are harmless and easy to consume, while others are dangerous, trying to consume you!
To dive deeper underwater or to return, there are two special creatures on each level of depth (except the first and the last level). Eat the one having a red dot in the center to go a level deeper, or the other with the blue dot to go upper.
The visuals are excellent for a flash game. Even though everything you see in the game consist of simple geometric shapes, with the right effects applied all becomes a beauty for the eye. The same pattern is used for the sound: simple but absolutely effective. The ambience music is so environmental that I actually started to feel that I was being underwater in reality!
To move point the mouse towards the desired direction. Press the left mouse button to accelerate.

The original page: Flow in Games

Highscores Competition - 3 Flash Games

Yesterday I came up with an idea: Find 3 nice flash games, put the links under the same post and invite players to submit their highscores as comments... And today I decided to make it!
So here you go:

Game #1 - Red Bull Flugtag
	RedBull Flugtag Flash Game. Make this thing fly as far as you can!
Game #2 - Puzzle Bobble
	The old time classic puzzle game, ported to flash. No need to say anything else about it.
Game #3 - RumbleBall 4
	An inspired one. Hit all objects in the level with your ball, so you can proceed to the next one. Note: When you aim the triangle you control and the ball must be connected with a dotted line. Else you can't make the ball rumble..

To play a game, click on the game's image. After you have played each one of them, come back and leave a comment with your highscores. Here's mine:

Game #1: 110.124 ft
Game #2: 129010 Points, Round 8
Game #3: 34800 Points

Imminent - Defend Your Tower Game

Mike Mass from Games on the Web posted about this cool game named Imminent. It's a defend-your-tower game like many other on the web, except this one got me stuck playing it for hours!
As Mike already noted, the game's pros are the numerous different enemies, the upgrades you can make to you tower and the music.
There's a con I have to mention though: No sound effects at all! You release so much fire-power from your tower, but there's not a single "bang" or something coming out from your speakers. Too bad...
Click here to read Mike's post.

Another Paper Toss Game

There's another post with the same subject on my blog. But I think this is a lot better than the other one and slightly different. This time a co-worker passes you the paper balls and you have to catch them on the air. After that you shoot the balls in the basket with no fan to change the ball's direction and it depends on how good your shot is to get the target.
Using your mouse you control the player's hand. By pressing and holding the left button you catch the balls on air. Then you move the hand towards the basket and release the button to fire a shot.
The funniest part is the comments you get from your co-worker who's reacting to your actions!
It's a great time-waster. Play it here: Cyrkam Airtos
Oh, and if you're bored to check my previous post, here's a link to the other paper ball throwing game: Paper Toss

Galactic Gravity Golf - Play with gravity!

There's a lot golf games with many play styles, but this one is the most original I've ever seen. The difference is that you play golf on space, with planets affecting the ball's path because of planetary gravity. The bigger and heavier a planet is, the more gravity force will apply on the ball. Your aim is to put the ball in one of the black holes on the level, shooting every time from a fixed position. If the ball hits a planet it explodes and you have to try again.
There's no limit for the shots you have, but each one above the level's par will decrease your points for that level. There's various gems spread on the levels witch you can collect to increase your total points.
To control the shot's direction you use the left and right arrow keys, you set the power with up and down keys and you fire using the space bar. There's detailed instructions accessible through a main menu option if you want to have any additional information about the game.
To conclude, the game features good sound effects and cool drum&base music while you play. There's two songs to choose from and the ability to switch music off if you get bored hearing.
Here's the link: Galactic Gravity Golf

Wings 1915 - Planes arcade game

I've been out for a while with no posts for some days, but I came back with a new template for my blog and a new game I found today. It's called Wings 1915 and it's an arcade game with planes. Actually, very old planes.. You move around using your mouse and fire your guns by pressing the left button. On the way you have to collect ammunition, fuel and repair keys in order to survive while trying to take down your enemies. Simple implementation and fun to play.
Click the following link to give it a try: Wings 1915
Come back with your comments, I'll appreciate it a lot!

Stretchy Monkey Game - Orangutwang

Help this funny monkey(to be correct, orangut - by the way, what is an orangut?) to collect bananas by dragging it's extra-flexible limbs from ring to ring. You have to be careful though, don't touch the spiders and the wasps in your way because you'll loose a life..
The game is fun to play, but it lacks of sound and this is something that must be mentioned. Anyway, if you play this game at office you don't want to be noticed and without sound you attract less attention ;)
Of course you can achieve the same result in a game with sound effects by switching them off or simply mute your speakers, so this is not an excuse for a game not to feature sound effects or even simple background music.
Enough brainstorming about game design, if you want to give it a try follow the link below:
Orangutwang Game

Play Sudoku Online

Sudoku fans around the globe is a crowd continuously growing since the game became popular worldwide 2 years ago. The concept is very simple: fill the boxes on the 9x9 grid with numbers from 1 to 9, with no row or 3x3 box containing same numbers. You begin with some clue-numbers and have to fill the others.
Enough with the explanations, probably you already know how the game goes and my aim here is to provide you some cool game links.
So I found Sudoku Craving, a site where a new sudoku puzzle is available every day. And if you create an account you can track your progress and get more statistics.
I also found this article about the history of Sudoku witch includes plenty of knowledge about the roots of this popular mind-breaking game..