Well 2009 is almost over and we are firmly in the grasp of the seasonal gaming drought called 'Winter'. Some of us would have called an end to gaming for the year, some maybe playing the last remnants of stockpiled autumn games, some of us may have even begun "replaying" old games. Either way there is little else to do for gamers wanting the next gaming fix but to wait for Q1 2010.
Fear not though, with my help you may be able to avoid needlessly going outside and acquiring delightful hypothermia or having yellow snow hurled at you by half pints in ski masks. My intentions are to wade through the positive plethora of mediocre flash games, to find the rare gems that shine through them all and share it with you, although I will be sharing some of the crappy ones as well. Why am I doing this?. Well, it's because we all love games and we all love free things. Combine the two and you get:
a) A robbery at Gamestop
b) Flash games
So without further ado, here's a quick glimpse into some of the best and some of the "meh" free flash games available out there to date.
[HEADING=2]Little Wheel[/HEADING]
[small]Look at that cute bugger![/small]
This very artsy game is one of the reasons why I love the flash game community. It's simple, elegant and most of all..fun. Taking place in a world of living robots,
Little Wheel begins in a stricken city. The introductory story tells us that there was an unfortunate accident involving the main generator that powers the entire city and it's robot citizens. With the generator offline the city plunges into 10,000 years of darkness and the robots, unable to power themselves fall dormant. That is until a well placed bolt of lighting charges up a single patrol robot. You the player, takes control of this lone robot and quest to restore power to the world and your fellow comrades. The game has a distinct
WALL-E vibe to it but set in a steampunk-ish universe without the the humans and spaceships.
To accomplish the task of restoring the city and your friends, you have to solve point-and-click style puzzles in order to progress in the map. The puzzles are hardly challenging and considering the fact that you are given animated circle hints to aid you, as opposed to hours of pixel hunting, the whole affair is as easy as breathing. The down side is that while it makes the game easy it also makes it fast. The game can be completed in under half hour, at most, which makes it my only gripe. It's a beautiful, funny and relaxing game..but it's also too short. I wanted more from it. Some might say it's a good thing that it left me wanting more but it's also slightly annoying because it feels like a mini-game from a particularly long loading screen
To
Little Wheel's credit it also sports a cool jazzy soundtrack that compliments its innocent charm and works well to give a playful depth to the whimsical bumbelings of the lone hero. Combined with the stunning animations and scenery which appear as 3D but clearly is not,
Little Wheel will be the game to put a smile on your face on a lazy weekend.
In essence, the game while short, is brilliant and definatly worth playing.
[HEADING=2]Multi-task[/HEADING]
[small]Sometimes less is more or more or less[/small]
Now, this title has really charmed me, as it has the brilliant strengths of being incredibly simple, yet ludicrously hard. The game requires you to manage four mini games simultaneously, taking intense amounts of concentration and coordination. You begin by balancing a ball on a board which you control with the left and right arrow keys, which in itself is pretty easy. Before too long a second mini game is introduced where you have to move a block of colour out of the way of incoming arrows with the up and down arrow keys; still pretty simple. Now things start to get a little tricky. The third mini game requires you to move a green square around between different blocks (which are counting down from ten) with the W,A,S,D keys. I found that at this point I had to swap my hands around to counter cognitive dissonance. Then the fourth and final game is introduced. This last game requires you to pilot a ship out of the way of incoming blocks (pressing the space bar to ascend and releasing to descend). At this point the game is pretty devilishly hard, but it?s still doable. However the game doesn?t end with the fourth mini game, the longer you play, the faster it gets it eventually becomes next to impossible to progress without losing one of the mini games. This is a brilliant little game and deserves two thumbs up, for taking a simple little idea and delivering with grace and style.
[HEADING=2]Daytraders of the Dead[/HEADING]
[small]The cause of the G.R.E.E.D virus has been traced back to the eighties[/small]
The eighties have a lot to answer for, first they gave synth pop, Margaret Thatcher and Reagan, but now it turns out they gave us corporate banker zombies as well. Daytraders of the Dead is a neat little top down shooter where you take on the role of a vigilante, fighting off G.R.E.E.D zombies that have taken over our financial establishments. Apart from being a very funny concept, it is also a rather stunningly good flash game. As you progress through each level, you?ll find yourself blessed with a steadily improving arsenal of weapons and power ups, which never leave you overpowered, but give you a pleasing edge over the horde. I played through the title on the normal difficulty and found it incredibly hard, so there?s definitely plenty of challenge available here, with a hard difficulty and survival mode on offer as well. The controls are seamless, with you moving the character around with either the W,A,S,D or the arrow keys and aiming and shooting with the mouse. Furthermore the action never lets up making it an incredibly intense, exhilarating title which is relentlessly fun. Can?t recommend it enough. Two thumbs up!.
[HEADING=2]Cyclomaniacs[/HEADING]
[small]No, your eyes do not deceive you. That is indeed Mr. T doing a back flip, on a push bike, on the surface of an asteroid[/small]
This is another game that I?ve found myself strangely enamoured by. I never really expect much depth in flash games, yet twice during these reviews I?ve found myself absolutely stunned by the amount on offer. Cyclomaniacs is a 2D bike race/stunt game which includes a large number of challenges, characters and backdrops. There are 20 available characters, 26 levels spanning across six zones with each level containing three challenges. That?s quite a lot considering you?re getting this all for free (you cheap bastard).
The aim of the game is to race through levels performing stunts to gain boost, collecting items and beating opponent racers (yeah original, I know). Each of the levels and characters is charmingly designed and well presented with decent background music implemented as well. The stages themselves are all pretty fun, with different tasks available allowing for plenty of variety. As you do better in the races you can purchase upgrades to your cyclist (such as horns, hats, glasses and better bikes), gradually making you better at tricks and much faster. Everything flows wonderfully and there?s a lot of challenge on offer making this an entirely worthwhile game.
Another surprisingly good title. Two thumbs up!.
[HEADING=2]Sonny[/HEADING]
[small]Zombies with massive swords![/small]
Sonny is an interesting zombie game with a twist. You wake up on a boat (don't you dare sing that song to me) dazed and confused and find yourself pitted against a horde of zombies. Same old, same old you say?. Nay!. It turns out that you were killed on board the ship hours or maybe days before but somehow you are brought back to life as a reanimated corpse, minus all your memories, by a blind man named Louis. That's right, you are a zombie yourself.
The tagline goes as follows:
Dear Human,
Zombies. You?ve shot them, stabbed them, sliced and diced them. Today I put you in the shoes of a Zombie. Fight for your life in this crazy and twisted world.
Straight off you get thrust into a tutorial battle to get accustomed to the controls, which is niftily restricted to the mouse. Depending on the class you play you get to click on either spells, direct attacks or both from a battle menu to charge an attack and then click on a target to execute. Follow the tutorial and it soon becomes clear how to work things. The entire game is spent fighting a series of turn-based, Final Fantasy-style battles which eventually lead to various boss-battles. You can recover and upgrade equipment in between battles, and if you gain a level, you will have a point or two to spend upping your stats and progressing through a detailed skill tree. Other than this, there's very little to do outside of combat.
Sonny is perhaps the most famous of Flash games made to date, it's so famous that the developers made a sequel, called
Sonny 2
Personally I wouldn't call it an awesome game but it is mindless fun (oh the pun!). It's a zombie hack-n-slash game a la Final Fantasy mechanics. If you get into it, you'll eat up the hours leveling up and branching out your skill tree, if not you'll still end up spending some time outwitting the enemy AI. It's slightly repetitive but for a flash game it's pretty good.
So all things considered
Sonny gets a thumbs up from me.
[HEADING=2]The Competitor[/HEADING]
[small]the aesthetic is simple, yet quite sleek![/small]
This is a classic example of brilliant concept meets mediocre execution.
The Competitor sees you taking on the challenge of defending your base from a lone ship, by placing units across the battlefield. Not an entirely original concept, but the main kick for this title is that you draw a line where you want your units to assemble. Definitely a very interesting idea; unfortunately on delivery it turns out to be quite weak. The problem is that you can spam the front end of the area with attack units, defeating the enemy before they have the chance to touch you at all. The designers have clearly tried to combat this by limiting the amount of units you can place using an ink gauge; unfortunately this isn?t enough to add any actual challenge. It also has the unfortunate result of making the whole experience feel pretty passive. Furthermore the game is criminally short? you?ll have finished with the title within 5-10 minutes. Despite all these quibbles though, it is well presented and quite interesting as a concept. For a good effort (if not great result) I award
The Competitor one thumb up.
[HEADING=2]Kongai[/HEADING]
[small]It's like Pokemon. Only it's the trainers who are doing the fighting![/small]
Who doesn't love collectible cards?. Who doesn't love online games?. Put those together and you get
Kongai; a multiplayer collectible card game developed by the good people at Kongregate. Featuring many characters, items and moves,
Kongai is a tense game of skill requiring you to get inside your opponent's mind, and think like them.
Each character has their own skill set and in the actual battle, you are given a deck of 3 or 5 cards depending on what arena you choose. The person who gets rid of all his opponent?s cards is the winner, and to do just that, you have to battle each of your character cards, and try to deplete the characters? life points to 0. Planning your moves is essential in
Kongai, and you?ll just love all the RPG elements and strategy combined with such beautiful artwork in the game.
And for those of you who haven?t been collecting cards, it?s still nice to know that you are given 3 free cards to start with when you first log into the game. From there on out you have the chance to win additional character cards and item cards when you play on the three-card ranked server.
There are a few flaws in the game; namely bugs and animation glitches. The movement of the characters are a bit stiff and the background music is repetitive so it will get on your nerves after a while (you can mute it though) but asides all that, it is a solid game and because you're playing against human players the experience will never get mundane.
The game may appear overwhelming at first but there is a training arena with bots and a tutorial (make sure the 'hints' option is on) that will quickly put you at ease when it comes to fighting your mortal opponennts.
The game gets a thumbs up from me.
[HEADING=2]This is the Only Level[/HEADING]
[small]The wise man knows that there are many ways to play one level[/small]
This is the only level is very true to its name, there is indeed only one level. However, there are many ways one level can be played. As you?ll have noticed from the screenshot, the art style of this game is incredibly crude, but that?s the way it?s meant to be. The game is meant to exist as a simple thought experiment, so complex graphics or area designs would over elaborate the experience. Unsurprisingly, the game does only have one terrain, but there are
30 different ways in which to traverse the level. Each time you make it through it posts you back at the start and leaves you to work out what to do next. The puzzles are all wonderfully imagined and it?s entirely satisfying reaching the end. It?s only a very short game but it packs a trunk full of punch. As such I give this game two thumbs up
[HEADING=2]Bubble Spinner[/HEADING]
[small]Don't look at it directly![/small]
Do remember having a life? I had one once, right up until the moment I received a link to this game from a friend (thanks dickhead!). Now I know I can never leave the house again,
Bubble spinner knows if I leave the house, it?s important that I don?t upset
Bubble spinner.
Bubble spinner wants your love too.
Bubble spinner has bubbles for you to pop and soothing music that plays repeatedly in your head while you?re not playing
Bubble spinner, just to remind you that you could be playing
Bubble spinner.
Bubble spinner wants to be your friend.
Bubble spinner is very similar to
Super bubble pop and a number of other franchises, but unlike those games,
Bubble spinner has bubbles that spin.
Bubble spinner will consume us all.
Bubble spinner is a highly addictive high score chasing game, but don?t let that put you off,
Bubble spinner always gives.
Bubble spinner deserves more than Two thumbs up but unfortunately, I only have two thumbs to give.
Surrender yourself to
Bubble spinner!
[HEADING=2]Last Stand 2[/HEADING]
[small]There?s nothing more terrifying than an army of obese zombies![/small]
As some of you might know, a group of scientists based in Africa recently tried to mathematically model the outcome of a zombie apocalypse... their findings? Well it turns out the only way that we can realistically survive such a scenario, is apparently to arm ourselves with combat shotguns and pray to Zeus (or any other historical God figure) for mercy... and preferably lots of ammunition. That being the case, you can consider this training for that inevitable day in the future when McDonalds infuse their burgers with the T-Virus (We all know it?s coming).
Last Stand 2 finds your character desperately trying to move towards Union City (I know, towards the city, what a tit!), where he has heard tell of a rescue plan. In order to do so however, you?ll need to cover a long distance. This requires supplies, people to act as firepower (not as bait..you disgust me!), traps and mostly importantly, lots and lots of weapons. On each of the 40 nights you?ll find yourself having to fend off gigantic hordes of zombies with whatever weapons you happen to have sourced during the day. Throughout these onslaughts you?ll find yourself restricted to move around behind barricades on the far right of the screen (also limiting the zombie?s easy access to your brains). You repel the armies of the undead by aiming and shooting with the mouse (an often imprecise art), trying to score headshots to increase efficiency. Unfortunately the aiming is a bit hit and miss (pun intended) and you?ll often find that you get swamped because of the slightly dodgy system that is used. Thankfully most of the time you?ll have fellow survivors helping you, stopping this becoming too much of an issue most of the time. Furthermore, you?ll often find traps which can be employed to help with your quest to quell the quasi cadaverous masses, easing the struggle. At the end of each night you?re given twelve hours in which to search for supplies, survivors, traps and musty old pornography (what? there?s no one around to judge you!) and to repair your barricades. You?ll have to manage your time wisely in order to get the right balance of searching, traveling and repairing and successfully making your way through the campaign.
Overall
Last Stand 2 is an incredibly deep flash game with good (read: dark and gloomy) graphics, good cinematics (a rarity in flash gaming) and fairly solid game play. The one thing holding it back is the shooting mechanic, but it?s unfair to mark it down too much because of that and on those grounds I grant it a strangely appropriate One and a half thumbs.
[HEADING=2]Multiplayer Jelly Battle [/HEADING]
[small]This is what happens when gelatine based confectioneries are introduced to communism
[/small]
I?m not quite sure where the concept for this game could have come from, what I do know is that I like it regardless.
Multiplayer Jelly Battle is a game of light tactics which can either be played by yourself, against AI opponents or as a multiplayer against fellow internet goons. The game itself has you playing as one of four sadistic jelly babies, who?s only goal is to massacre one another (yeah, you read that right!)
Each match pits you and your wits against three other players (all jelly, all pissed!) in a four way battle to the death. The best way I can describe the game play is as an action-y, turn based grid type thing. You attack other players by jumping to a different square with a power assigned to it. Once all the players have moved, each of them uses whatever power is assigned to the square that they?re inhabiting. It?s an interesting play style that nicely balances quick thinking, luck and skill together in a strong well presented package. The single player isn?t exactly stellar, but then one assumes that it only exists to allow for practice and to grant you the ability to play when no one else is on the servers. When I tried out the multiplayer myself I found that the match started almost immediately (meaning there?s still plenty of people playing this, so now is definitely the time to try it) and remained seamless throughout. It probably won?t keep you captivated too long (mostly due to the lack of challenging opponents) but it?s definitely worth giving it a shot while people are still playing it. MJB receives Two thumbs up as a brief bit of multiplayer goodness.
[HEADING=2]Death versus Monstars[/HEADING]
[small]This is about as calm as the action gets[/small]
I really can?t believe how good some of these flash titles are; this is one of many examples of a title that could happily co-exist with professional pay for play titles (with a little bit of extra polish). I?m not sure what the story behind the game is (frankly it doesn?t matter), but what I do know is that this is an example of how flash games should aspire to be.
In
Death versus Monstars you play as death (or at least his disambiguated head), fighting off hundreds of colourful enemies with your heavily upgradeable cannon. The control scheme is quite different to the majority of things you?re likely to have come across before. Death is controlled by moving the mouse in the direction you wish to travel, with the cannon swinging round to fire in the other direction. The cannon can be locked in position at any time by clicking down the left mouse button, meaning you don?t have to be constantly changing directions to target enemies. You also have the option of slowing down time at any point (trust me, you?ll be using this a lot) in order to outmaneuver enemies, by pressing down on the space bar. Obviously you can?t do this all the time as that would be daft, so you?re limited to a fairly generous amount of bullet time measured by a gauge at the bottom of the screen. There is another gauge to be found as well, the berserk gauge. Once the berserk gauge fills you can activate the berserk power by double clicking, granting a few moments of invulnerability and firing bullets from all angles, annihilating enemies, allowing much needed respite and massively increasing your score. As you play the game felled enemies will drop coinage which can be used to purchase upgrades of your cannon, your health and your berserk abilities; this adds a welcome extra layer of depth and gives the game extra longevity.
The game contains ten main campaign levels and an extra endless level where you can fight for score supremacy. Each of the levels has one of two objectives, either kill X number of enemies or last n seconds. All of the levels are challenging and interesting in their own right, with a prevalent strong difficulty curve. Everything from the characters to the backgrounds is simple, stylish, slick and lots of other words beginning with s (except that one). This has quickly become one of my favorite flash games and truly deserves my two thumbs up.
[HEADING=2]Tetris Friends[/HEADING]
[small]At this early stage you?re opponents appear to be comprised of stray keyboard hamsters and nodding birds[/small]
Tetris friends is a website for Tetris lovers everywhere. There is a wealth of games available to be played on the site, but the specific game I intend to review today is
6P battle.
6P is another multiplayer battle game, but this time it?s a game that we all already know and love. The game pits you against five human opponents over a two minute period, during which your goal is to rack up as many points as possible, and make life difficult for other players. I?m going to make an assumption here and guess that you all know how to play Tetris and stick to describing what makes this game different.
What really makes this game different from previous iterations is the targeted attack system. Every second line of blocks that you make disappear causes two layers of blocks to form on another players screen, until they can get a line themselves. As you play a targeting reticule moves over each of the individual players screens, showing you which player will suffer if you perform an attack. This adds an interesting tactical element, as you score extra points for KO?ing other players. You have the option of either coordinating attacks on the weakest player, or simply scoring as many lines as possible and avoiding unnecessary delays.
It seems to be that, at any time you want to play the server can instantly connect you with five other players (I?ve never had any delay) meaning that switching between matches is seamless and carefree throughout. Each player is given the option of creating their own profile, which is kind of an aside, but a pleasant feature all the same. Success in battles levels up your rank, moving you towards battles against more experienced/competent players. This is definitely a good thing as you?ll spend the first few matches playing against, what I can only assume are simple trained monkeys, leaving you somewhat miffed by the lack of challenge. It?s not long though before you?ll find yourself playing against more advanced opponents who will challenge you to your fullest as you quest for victory. Once you get into the flow of it, chances are good that you?ll really enjoy what?s on offer here.
6P battle is quite clearly a fairly high budget title as everything about it is seamless and well presented , but it?s not the budget that wins out here... it?s the strength of concept and quality of delivery that takes the finish. This is another absolutely fantastic flash title and is one hundred percent deserving of a two thumbs up.
___________________________________________________
There are tons and tons of Flash games circling the internet and while this isn't a "Flash game of the decade" thread I like to think of it as a "Best of" dedication. Let me make it clear that the games above you by no means are the ultimate in Flash titles, there are probably better ones out there that I have missed or didn't add because I was tired, but they do come pretty close for giving you the best bang for your free buck. So I hope you enjoy the games and the read. Alternatively if you do have a favorite flash title that you want mini-reviewed and added, let me know.
Aaand that?s it for this installment. I?ll most probably be back with one of these at some point in the future, but until then big thanks to you all for reading and commenting.
