Pew pew pew! You’re in outer space! You have to take over stars! You get to build bases and upgrade sciences!
Gameplay
If you are in the market for some fast paced space blasting action, then this is not the game for you. If you want to test your notions of strategy, diplomacy and space battles, then definitely check this game out. It takes place in a galaxy, and it is your job to take over half of the stars.
It is supposedly takes place in real time, but it takes around 16 hours to get to the closest star, so you have that to worry about. It all takes place in a browser window, so you can check in several times a day and see how things are going.
NO ONE CAN WITHSTAND MY FLEETS!
Like with most of these things, you have several options to upgrade: Technology, Economy and Industry. Obviously the lower the level, the cheaper it is.
You move fleets to different planets. If there is an opposing fleet there, a battle ensues. Battles are heavily weighted towards defense. Keep that in mind.
That’s pretty much it.
Technical
There are a lot of these browser space adventure games out there, but this one is way better for a number of reasons. First, the graphics are awesome. It’s all point and click, and it looks great. Second, it’s easy to join. In the others, there’s a universe that has been around for like 10 years, and if you join the party late, well, you’d better hope you can find a good alliance.
Each game is played until the universe is over. This is great because you have something to work for.
Not only is this game technically flawless, it is constantly updated. I’ve only been playing it for about a week, but according to old people it is a completely different game since the beginning.
Multiplayer
Seriously, this game is all about the diplomacy. You have to be a good negotiator to win this game. Message frequently. Message often. That, in my opinion, makes for a great multiplayer game.
Final Verdict
Awesome, awesome game. It will take over your life though. So be careful.
Ever felt like being the bartender, but aren’t suave enough or you don’t have enough piercings? Well this game lets you experience it without the sticky floors but with all the angry patrons.
Gameplay
You will only need your mouse for this one. When you start, all you will see is the front of a bar. If this is your first time playing, some dude will help you out. Do not skip his advice. Also, major props to the guys who created the walkthrough because it is very difficult to skip over the necessary information, something I am very good at doing.
The crux of the game is that someone comes up to the bar and orders a drink. Then you have a limited amount of time to prepare the drink. You’ll know how much time you have because there’s a red bar. If you don’t get them the drink in time, you’ll have to comp them a VIP pass, of which you have two per round.
Love the clientele.
So how to prepare a drink? Well, you drag the constituent ingredients together. So, if someone orders a beer, you drag a beer into their hands. If someone orders a screwdriver, you have to drag orange juice and vodka together and then put it into the arms of your customer.
If you thought that this sounds like it could get very complicated, very quickly, you are correct. It taxes the mind and the body.
Technical
This game chews hardware. If you have a slower computer, you may have trouble. But, luck is on your side, because you can slow down the requirements. If your computer can handle it, man this is a smooth game. I mean any game that has intense mouse-only interface is going to be. There are lots of babes that want drinks, and you have to keep track of all the different types of booze.
Placing a formation. How do you think this will work?
Battle Formation
Taking place in the medieval times, it is up to you to raise an army and out-manoeuvre your opponent. This is a game where how you place your armies matters just as much as how many you have, and of what quality they are.
Gameplay
You start on the battlefield. Your opponents formation is already revealed. Then you place your guys. Your main piece is the pikeman, who is very stabby. Your guys move directly forward if there is an available space. Then, they attack the weakest adjacent enemy. It’s as simple as that.
Trust me, the devil is in the formation. You can get as many of the strongest guys as you want, but it doesn’t matter unless you set them up in the correct formation.
There is an upgrade system, and you get new units as the storyline progresses. Also, the narrator is pretty sassy, so that livens things up a bit. It really is kind of harrowing, not knowing what the enemy is going to play next. I can honestly say that before this there has not been a game I have played recently where I did not know from stage to stage what things were going to be like.
Technical
Yes, I'd say it would.
There are some definite weaknesses in the interface. For example, placing the units is extremely counter-intuitive. You have to click on the space where you want units, click some arrows until the correct unit comes up, and then you have to click the number it wants.
On top of this, the mouse pointer is a sword, and is very laggy.
Then, during the actual battles, if you want to have the characters animated, it takes forever. If you turn the animations off, you can’t really tell what’s going. So, some middle ground would be pleasant. However, the effect of all these problems is that it causes you to slow down and think about the moves you are making. So, the problem is kind a solution to itself.
Final Verdict
Great, great game. It is you outthinking the creater of the game. Seriously, he throws everything he can at you, and really it is just you and your wits verse him.
Battle Formation
Gameplay:
Technical:
This is one of those games where the title kind of explains itself.
I can’t believe I haven’t written about this yet. Insaniquarium is one of my favorite flash games of all time. It’s like Fish Store Tycoon or whatever, without being stupid.
Gameplay
You own a fish tank and you start off with two guppies. You feed them by clicking food particles into the tank. If they are hungry, they eat. If they are really hungry, they’ll turn yellow and if you don’t feed them then, well, they die. Also, when they eat, they grow. When they grow, they poop coins that you can use to buy upgrades.
That's not a turd, it's a food nugget.
One of the upgrades that you can buy is a piece of an egg. Once you have all 3 pieces, then you get a full egg. Inside this egg is a creature that helps you in one way or another. Some of them pick up dropped coins. Others drop pieces of food. Still others defend against enemies.
Oh yeah. Every once and a while your tank gets invaded by something that looks like the alien from the eponymous movie series. You have to click on it until it goes away. If it touches any of your guppies (or Piranhas, another animal you can buy) then you lose it.
Technical
A lot of clicking in this game. Although it is possible to play with a trackpad, I wouldn’t suggest it. Seriously, I don’t know why I have so much fun with this game. It is kind of tedious, but I like playing with animals, and electronic ones don’t smell as bad.
Part of the fun comes from choosing the right combination of ’special animals’ to have in your tank. Every couple ‘levels’ or so you’ll get to step back and choose which ones you want. You can only have 3. I won’t tell you my secret combo, because I don’t want you to steal it.
Final Verdict
Great game. It’s like real life but with invading aliens, poop coins and fake friends!
Something happened. The dead are rising and joining the living. You and the survivors must move from island to island by building sniper towers and barricades. You are humanity’s only hope.
Gameplay
You start on an island with the threat of zombies coming from anywhere. You have 4 different buildings you can construct. You have the sniper tower, which is what kills zombies. Then you have barricades, which hold off zombies. Then finally there are workshops, which help you to extract resources from buildings and trash heaps. All of these must be built within 7 squares of a depot, your final building.
On top of this, you have resources to worry about: Ammo, which you use for shooting zombies, Boards, which you use for building things, and survivors, which are used for transporting supplies and building things. Ammo and Boards can be extracted from old buildings and things that you abandoned.
I haven’t quite figured out survivors yet. Do you only have as many as you start with? Do you get these from abandoned houses? These are questions for philosophers or more discriminating players.
Technical
Terrible, terrible victory.
If you have read any of my other articles, you’ll know that I am not so much a fan of defend your castle type games. However, I really like this game. You have to plan out where your guys are going to be. You have to worry about supply lines, and you also have to worry about where your next bullet is going to come from. You cannot waste a thing.
Luckily there is a pause button, so you can slow down and plan your moves. Oh yeah, and every two and a half minutes you have to deal with a wave of zombies that want to eat you in the face.
One thing that really helps is the mini map. You will rely on this. It won’t be your best friend, but it will be the guy that you call like twice a week to hang out and play video games and that you know will give you a ride to the airport if you really need it.
Final Verdict
Awesome game. Save humanity from zombies. Use your brain for once.
I have not gotten any reasonable amount of work done in the past 48 hours. Why? There was a ‘free-to-play’ weekend on the minecraft servers. So, I spent my weekend/Monday building a dome, not getting killed by zombies and mining until I reached bedrock and then trying to to die in lava.
Gameplay
I’m going to get it out up front, this game will only scratch the surface of Minecraft. The premise is simple, you start off on an island, infinitely rendered with square blocks, and you have to make your own tools and not die. It seems like a lot of fun until nighttime comes (yes, there is an intricate system for day and night. You can literally watch the sun and the moon move across the sky).
Then the bad guys come out. They spawn wherever there is darkness, so you’d better hope that you have built yourself a rudimentary shelter. Oh and you need torches because if you don’t have light in you shelter, monsters will literally spawn while you back is turned.
Well gosh and golly! How do I get the tools I need to succeed? Crafting my friend. One of the central themes of Minecraft is that you MINE the materials you need and then CRAFT them into tools on your workbench. So, to dig, you need to chop down a tree, convert the wood into sticks and then make yourself a pickaxe. With that pickaxe you then harvest coal which you combine with sticks to make torches.
Awesome.
Technical
Technically, this game is a marvel. Let’s start with the map. It is procedurally generated. This means that the game makes it up as you go along. The maximum size for a map is 8 times the surface of the earth. Yeah, there are limits up and down, but I have dug to the very bottom. It is crazy.
The interface is very straightforward. You have an inventory and you aim with the mouse and move with the keyboard. If you die, you drop your items and go to your original spawn point.
A lot of people have issue with the graphics, but man, I don’t mind. The game comes up with some seriously beautiful stuff. You have to see it to believe it.
Multiplayer
Yes, there is a multiplayer. It is stupid how easy it is to make a multiplayer server. If it takes you more than 5 minutes, you are doing something wrong.
Multiplayer is a blast. The better part of this game is spent thinking of awesome things to build, and with friends it becomes double the fun.
Final Verdict
If there is one game that you buy this year (okay, after Civ V, which was released the weekend before I wrote this) make it Minecraft. Seriously it’s $13.00 and you will get endless hours of fun out of it. Stop what you are doing, and pick this up. I’m going to put all the pictures at the end of the post because there is just so much awesome. Also I’m starting with a fanmade video that you should seriously check out.
This took a lot of time.
Okay, definitely watch this video to get an idea of how beautiful these blocks can be:
Minecraft.
Gameplay:
Technical:
Multiplayer:
Mine. Craft. No, seriously. Craft some things. Then mine.
Gravity is a fickle mistress. The game Gravity Pods knows this. Your job is to blast a particle and get pods that change gravity to smash it into a rotating purple sphere.
Gameplay
You have two things to worry about in this game:
1) The aim of your cannon
2) The position of the gravity pods
During the first 15 or so levels, you only have control over the first variable. You have 180 degrees of freedom, and trust me when I say that every tenth of a degree is going to be important. The gravity pods are placed and all you have to do is worry about placing the shot that will lead your particle on a path blasting the purple rotating sphere. The gun is controlled by the arrow keys btw.
I placed that pod all by myself!
Then, you have to start placing the gravity pods yourself. This is where things get devilish. You drag these potent mysteries of physics into your sandbox and blast away.
If you take too many shots, it makes you ’start over’ the level. What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. All the parameters are kept, except you have to replace the gravity pods. And you don’t lose any points or have to go back or anything like that.
Technical
Very smooth game. It has the look of a very old game, but has very complicated physics. One of my favorite things is when you shoot your particle at just the right angle, and it gets sucked into a loop around the gravity pod.
You don’t have to worry about upgrades or anything like that. Your task is simple, yet devilish. Having the throwback graphics really makes this game, as it helps you focus on the task at hand.
Final Verdict
Fun background game. It’s level based so play a bit, do some work and then play another level. This can be frustrating at times, but each level is very solvable and never ‘gimmicky.’
Elements is a fantasy card playing/collecting game. If you have played Magic, the Gathering, then you will be very much at home with this game.
Gameplay
As the title suggests, this is a game where the different ‘elements’ come into play. You have different sorts of quanta (like ‘mana’ from magic). You build your deck around 1 or two elements (your deck can be between 30 and 60 cards) and then you battle.
Battle is like most collectible card games. You play the cards that build up your quanta, and then you use the ensuing quanta to play creatures and spells. On top of this you have slots for shields and weapons that deal automatic damage to your opponent. Game ends when someone’s HP is reduced to zero.
Technical
HQ
Technically a very well balanced game. There are means for trading, buying and leveling up your deck. You can choose what level you want to play at. You can play PVP against others (this is tough, be careful). Usually these card playing games are pretty clunky. Or, at the very least, are not user friendly.
This is very smooth and has a very helpful introduction system. The only thing I could go without is that every time your mouse rolls over something, it makes a sound. However, that’s really just my beef with the interface.
The other thing, and this could just be my lack of experience, is that it is rather tough to break into another element. You are given a full deck to start with, but it’s pretty tough to develop from there. Meaning that there’s a steep learning curve after the first couple minutes or so.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer is really what takes this up a level. Long story short, you can pay fake money to play people on the internet. You, again, can choose who to fight based off of their level. Meaning you won’t get TOO smashed up.
Final Verdict
Fun, addicting game. Glad you can play vs the computer as well as ‘people’ online. I don’t know why I put people in quotes. It’s not like you’re fighting robots. Or ARE you?
John Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ was a critical point in the interpretation of video games. Fungus is a re-interpretation of the game, adding in sounds, graphics, and the ability to move your life form around.
Gameplay
You start with a fungus inoculation. Each dot is a fungus ‘cell’ and each cell has links to other cells. Here’s what happens to each cell based on the number of links to cells.
1 or fewer – Dies of loneliness
2-3 – Stays alive
4 – Grows and gives birth
5 or more – Dies of overcrowding
You can control click a fungus to kill it. And you can move each fungus around. The idea is to get as much biomass as possible in two minutes.
Technical
A very fluid game. I like the idea of a time limit. I used to get very bored with ‘The game of life’, but when you add a benchmark to the game, and a limit, well then it gets interesting. I suppose that you could hack this so that it goes on forever, which would be kind of cool, but adding numbers to it makes it an actual game, which is fun.
I was also pretty impressed by the color choices. White on purple is a very elegant choice, and makes it very impossible to lose your fungi in the background.
Honestly, not much more I can add to this review, except that it has kept me entertained.
Not the best game.
Final Verdict
Good background game. You won’t have much of a vested interest in it, but it is a blast.
Okay so it seems like I’m on a multiplayer card game streak as of late. In this one you battle another castle. You either build yours up to 100 levels, or you burn his to the ground. Your choice.
Gameplay
You have 3 different types of ‘points’ you can aquire. You have builders that produce bricks, recruits that produce weapons and mages that produce magic. Each turn, you build up those commodities. Those commodities allow you to play cards that do any number of things.
You can build up your castle, and you can also build up the wall in front of it. The wall is kind of an insurance policy. If you get attacked, the attack hits your wall before it hits your castle (in most cases).
It’s a real back and forth, and you can manage your deck of cards also, which makes this pretty complex. I’ve never actually pvp’d someone, so I have no idea what that adds to the whole game.
Gameplay is so simple a chimp could do it. You click on the card you want to play. If you can’t play anything, you can burn your turn and then discard up to 3 cards. Good times.
Technical
Kill people that are in the areas with the white circles.
Very smooth game. I played the first Castle Wars, and, although this is basically the same game, this version is definitely an upgrade from the last one. For example I don’t recall there being different levels of difficulty in the earlier one, but that was like 2 years ago.
It could use some better animation. But really there’s not much to it. The one real beef I have, as usual, is that it is hard to turn the normal music off. Nine times out of ten I don’t like the music that comes standard with the game (sorry), and this is not an exception.
Multiplayer
Once you get moving, you can play against other real people. I never actually tried this because I am too much of a wimp. But, that might be enough for you.
Final Verdict
Surprisingly fun game. I am challenged by the medium setting, but I suck. All told, it’s a pretty well balanced game. So, go for it.
GB is a great example of a video game that takes a simple concept and turns it into something. GB is a pretty straightforward space-blaster game that uses the entire playing field. Yes, I’ll explain.
Gameplay
You and your bro each have a spaceship. Like asteroids, you fly around the screen using your arrow keys. Unlike asteroids, you can use fire in all directions with the WASD buttons. Cool eh? You have a decent amount of health, and, just like in real life, you lose a little of it when you smack into things.
Fortunately, when you kill things, they drop coins and other things. One aspect of this game that is not that helpful is that I don’t really know what the different items are. For one, there are glowing test tubes. If you figure them out, please let me know.
In the beginning, all you have to do is blast aliens and collect coins. Later on the game introduces other aliens and you have to dodge asteroids. You know what’s cool? If an alien hits an asteroid it blows up and you get a lot of coins.
Yeah, you need to blast those guys NOW!
Also, I have no idea what the coins are used for. It could be a scorekeeping thing. Or, more likely, I never truly made it past the first level and I never got to exchange them for goods/services.
Technical
Visually, I found this to be very appealing. It’s 8 bit, but in the grand scheme of space-blaster games, simplicity is the name of the game. It’s very smooth. I could have used an upgrade system, but whatever.
I am usually not a fan of games that are 100% reflex based, but this one really got a hold of me. I liked the pacing. I liked the innovative shooting methods. There’s a short opening when you get into your space ships, and then you’re off, defending the universe.
Final Verdict
Fun game. Easy to pause, but this is one of those games where ‘getting into the zone is crucial’. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much fun you have.
You are in charge of a turret. There are grey things that want to get to you. You have to blow them up so that they don’t. Oh, did I mention that you have to defend yourself from 360 degrees? Yeah.
Gameplay
This one is mouse only. Good news for you pirates! It is simple, you point the crosshairs towards the thing that is coming after you and press the mouse button. Just like in real life, when you kill one of them, you get money. This money, as in most of these games, can be spent to upgrade your turret.
Rounds last one day (in computer time) which is pretty nice. When the screen starts to go dark, you know that you are about to be saved by the bell. One thing that is weird is that when you start the next round, the guys that were on screen before the round was over are still coming at you. Weird.
I am not a huge fan of ‘defend your tower’ games. However I do like games where you are forced to defend yourself against wave after wave of bad guys. This one is one of those and it is stressful. Nearly every level means a new bad guy with his own sets of attributes. First you get slower and stronger. Then you get faster ones. The trouble is they’re all grey so you have to be extremely discriminating.
Technical
Upgrade Screen. Yeah, I can't read them either.
This game is very simple, as I mentioned. One area where the simplicity is rather interesting is the graphics. The characters are rather small and uncomplicated. But there is also a really cool fractal background.
This is a little bigger than ’spray and pray’. You have crosshairs, but this means that there is a margin of error. So while you may blast off 5 rounds while pointing exactly at the bad guy, you may not kill him. This can get frusrating, but to the point that you have to focus better.
What’s even better is that there are a great number of ways that you can beat this. You can play a 40 level challenge, an 80 level challenge or an endless version. I never want to play the endless version. You can also customize all of the graphics.
Final Verdict
A lot of fun. I like how un-complicated it is. Usually that’s not really a compliment, but in this situation, it allows you to focus on blasting bad guys. This is a great third person shooter where you don’t have to make many decisions during the actual shooting. Also, you’re on defense, which makes this a whole different game.
ElecroCity is a game in the same vein of Simcity, where you have 150 turns to build a metropolis. The trick is to balance the electrical use of your municipality with the environmental impact of your creation. Also, you need to raise money.
Gameplay
You have limited space, a 5×5 grid. In the middle is your town, and then around it is a river, a coastline and some trees, hills and forests. You start with a wind turbine, which will not last you very long.
Click on each square to see each option for it. There are also sliders to monitor the electricity being created and the environmental damage being done. You’re best if you keep those as far to the right as possible.
You can build things like farms, amusement parks and national parks. You also have a great deal of options in terms of how to create electricity for your little town. Each choice has its drawbacks. The idea is to decide how much you are going to damage the environment.
Technical
Beat THAT readers!
This is a marvellously complex game. Seriously, there is a marketplace for coal and gas units, so you can trade commodities. The first time I played, I went bankrupt. The second time, I made it a city. The third time I went bankrupt, despite the fact that you have essentially the same map every time.
All told, this is a very user friendly game to play. There is a lot of menu navigating, but that is a good thing. Complex games in the flash format are far and few between. Yes, this one is limited in its time frame (I could have played forever). But, this means you have multiple tries at it.
It’s also very pleasing visually. It’s not quite 8-bit, just a step above. On top of that, the tiles change depending on the things that you throw on top of them, and even those change. I suppose that it would be a pretty bad thing if this wasn’t the case, but whatever.
Final Verdict
I predict you will go into this game just thinking that you will do really well, and will come out in 4 hours a titan of industry. Great game, overwhelmingly addictive. Approachable to SimCity n00bz and vets alike.
I suppose there’s an environmental message here somewhere, but I’m not getting it.
ElectroCity
Gameplay:
Technical:
Build a town. Make electricity, don’t kill the environment.
This game is not for the weak of heart. You are going to launch a defenseless kitten out of cannon, and hope that the greatest amount of damage is done to them. If you like watching those videos of guys who try to grind on railings, but instead land on their nut sack, then this is the game for you. Morbid curiosity will really be the only thing that keeps you at it.
Gameplay
Playing this game is stupidly simple. Quite honestly it is probably the most brain dead game that I have ever played. You aim a cannon with the up and down button. In the cannon there is a quickly sliding red bar that indicates how hard the cannon will blast. I like this to be as hard as possible, but this is not always the name of the game.
Press spacebar and then sit back for the ride. The cat will go far up into the air, and if it is unlucky, will smack onto the ground with a sickening smack. If you are lucky, you will hit something else, like a trampoline, dynamite or any sort of nefarious things.
Kitten Blaster
Your score gets higher the farther that your cat travels. So, obviously you want to try to hit as many trampolines as possible. If you hit a venus fly trap it’s all over. It’s also over when your bloody cat cat skids to a halt. Gross.
Technical
Honestly, what am I supposed to do here? It’s a basic concept that works. This game probably took about an hour to create. There’s a notable lack of anything that would keep anyone sane playing this game. No upgrades, just the same thing over and over.
Final Verdict
This is probably one of the only games that is exclusively written for the clinically insane. Worth it for about 5 tries, I doubt you will make it any farther than that. Kudos to you if you make it farther than that, but that’s really not something I would brag about.
You are in charge of a gun thingy. There are advancing tanks. You cannot let them advance past your position. That is Momentum Missile Mayhem.
Gameplay
This week’s alliteration special will tax the part of your brain that handles coordination and strategy. See, shooting a missile isn’t just about pointing and pressing a button, at least, not in this universe. No, you have to slingshot your balls of energy at your opponents.
You click on the glowing ball, then you drag away from the advancing hordes to indicate velocity. Then, you aim at the bad guys and you let go. Simple as that. When the glowing ball hits a tank or whatever, hopefully it will explode. If not, the tank will go careening off and your glowing ball will continue on its path, hopefully damaging more people.
Boom.
That’s pretty much the premise. If a tank hits you, or gets past you, you lose a life. You start with 40, and that’s all you get. Bad guys come in all sorts of shapes, but you really only have to worry about them getting to you.
There are several factors that come into play when launching a glowing ball. First, your shots are limited by energy. Each shot you take takes up energy. If you don’t have enough energy to take a shot, you have to wait for it to reload. Second, and more interestingly, is stability. There are different types of glowing balls that you can fire, and each does different things. Some of them are unstable. For example, ball 3 has a 60% stability. Meaning that there is a 40% chance that your shot will fail and you will lose that energy. Cool, eh?
Technical
The upgrade system is pretty cool actually. You get points for killing guys which leads you to level up. Each level up, you get 5 skill points, which you can spend on a number of things. You can up the amount of energy or stability you have. You can buy different types of shots. Or you can spend the money purchasing super awesome special shots.
On top of this, there are different types of ways you can play. The beginner way is to face the tanks wave by wave. The awesome way is to play against a constant stream of tanks. It sounds easy, but it is truly the stuff of nightmares.
Final Verdict
Great game. Fun and challenging in a surprisingly complex way.
