Gorgeous Time Consumer

Winterbells is an absolutely gorgeous flash diversion. It falls into the same category as the other flash games that are unbelievably simple, but, at the same time, will devour your time as you find you are addicted to bouncing around on gorgeously rendered bells.

This mouse-driven game has you guiding a bunny as he hops from bell to bell. Each acts as a sort of trampoline to get you to the next one. You don’t technically need to bounce on the bells, you can bounce through them, too. Oh, and using birds as springboards earns you double points.

The game also records your high score, so you can, in effect, try to beat your own best score. Unless, of course, other people are also playing on your machine. Then you’d be competing against them.

The graphics make this flash game stand out, so much so that the first time you play you’ll be drooling. And the gameplay makes it stick.

Winterbells is from a website by Ferry Halim called Orisinal.  Her other games are equally beautiful and playable. Thanks to Carina for the tip!

Nintendo’s version of an advent calendar

Fun for everyone as you play as a snowman in Nintendo’s version of an advent calendar. So, yes, it is month-long advertisement for various Nintendo games. But the levels are entertaining and there’s a new one everyday.

(Sorry that I posted this so late in the month) Also, I forgot the link. [Thanks, Travis!]

Take this ticket to ride

Most times, board games translated into ones and zeroes don’t turn out so hot. Case in point: any console Monopoly game and The Game of Life for PC. But Days of Wonder, a prominent card and board game maker, managed to do with their javascript games that companies like Parker Brothers have not: made them engaging. Currently, I tend to play “Ticket to Ride.”

Basically, you try to claim as much of the available train track as you can. Okay, no. That’s pointless. You have to make very long continuous tracks while connecting destinations on ticket cards. Ticket cards ask you to go from city to city. In the USA version, it could be anything from a ticket pointing you on a route from Los Angeles to New York or one that requires a quick jaunt from New York to Miami. While the more ambitious ticket choices have higher point values, if you fail to connect the dots, the points are deducted from your score.

You can only set down trains if you have card colors that match the track colors and if you have the right number of cards to claim the track. Locomotives are like wildcards (I guess not all trains need them?), so they can be any color.

Of course, while you’re trying to hoard enough purple cards and locomotives in order to claim that long stretch of railway between two cities, someone might take it before you. Yes, I’ve cringed a few times at the computer screen when a fellow player (probably sitting pretty behind his computer console in some place interesting like New York or Paris) took my much needed route from Point A to Point B.

The game challenges its players to plan multiple routes for their trains so they don’t get trapped without a railway to their destination point. Or, and this has happened to me more often, I ran out of train cars. That’s right–you only get a limited number of cars to work with, and once someone has only one or two left, the game cycles into its last turn. Because of this, creative thinking is a must-have quality in the game.

By itself, the game is a great javascript version and will only take about 45 minutes to an hour of your time. An account on the Days of Wonder site is free. However, the folks at Days of Wonder hope it will entice you enough to buy the board game.

Whether or not you wish to invest in the actual, real-live board game (do they still make those these days?) you should definitely check out Ticket to Ride. It’s enjoyable, and, dare I say it? Fun.

The Free MMO Game

After an excruciatingly long download of “Maple Story,” I excitedly booted it up, made my cute character, and happily sliced away at snails.  But five minutes in, I got bored.  Perhaps it’s my lack of game savviness.  Perhaps it’s my complte lack of an attention span.  It’s probably because I didn’t have the patience to get to the community aspect of the game. Whatever it is, I did not have a great time playing it.

I can’t imagine leveling up my character for no reason.  If anyone has any good things to say about Maple Story (or any other free MMO game), please leave a comment.  I feel like I’m missing the point of these games.

Free Tycoon Game

I love tycoon games.  Something about the simulated setting makes me glued to my computer screen.  2k Games is offering Railroad Tycoon for free on their webpage.  It’s meant to advertise the Sid Meier’s Railroads.  But hey, I’ll take anything for free. (Story from Joystiq)

And to anyone who’s wondering, I haven’t abandoned reviews.  I have just realized that the feverish pace I had been putting them out at is not, to say the least, manageable.

Falling Diversion

FallDown 2 is a game specifically designed for those people who need to sit in a cubicle all day and need a diversion from endless monotony. The basic gist is that you guide the ball with your left and right arrow keys and keep it from running into the ceiling. In essence, you need to fall to live.

Which is not something you should try in real life, just to warn any of you who have some problems determining between fantasy and reality. (Although, if you think you’re a black ball whose only goal in life is to see how far you can fall, you need some help. Now.)

In any case, FallDown 2 is good at what it’s supposed to be good at: being a diversion. Yes, it’s not the most spectacularly interesting game ever made, but it’s addicting, fun, and short. Very, very short. Unless you’re an uber-Falling Down master.

WADP is a not-to-be missed jaunt (er… bounce)

“Within a Deep Forest” laughs in the face of platformers that take themselves too seriously, while offering an adventure that’s both frustrating and gratifying at the same time. Actually, the frustration comes when you know that you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be–except you can’t manipulate your character to bounce correctly.

Yes. You bounce. Why? Because you maneuver various ball types around (one at a time, of course) rather extensive levels to prevent Dr. Cliche from setting off his bomb that will inevitably destroy the world. By freezing it. Which I suppose is better than having the world blow up into pieces of oblivion and disperse into the universe. But who would know?

The actually controls are manageable. Unlike many of the other games I’ve reviewed, all gameplay is controlled by all of six keys: the four arrow keys and the A and S keys. That’s it. But don’t let the simplistic gameplay make you complacent.

The game boasts an array of different ball types to get you through the levels. Some levels require a certain ball type; the glass ball, for example, shatters easily but won’t be affected by laser beams. Some balls go fast, bounce high, but are barely controllable.

And this game will screw with you. Your mind, at least. Imagine the most infuriating experiences you’ve had with good games. Levels that you’re absolutely sure you’re doing the right thing. And then you find that you’ve been approaching it in exactly the wrong way. That’s what Within a Deep Forest is like during many of the levels. Or you know what you’re supposed to be doing, you’re doing it correctly, but the ball won’t do what you want it to.

However, you won’t want to abandon the game because the levels are wonderfully large and the pixel graphics are beautiful. Some of the in-game jokes are funny. They’re mostly graphical and involve various different strange animals eating your character. Even the music is interesting to listen to, if a little creepy at times.

In all, Within a Deep forest is a great experience that will probably have you bashing your head against the keyboard during certain levels. Other than that, it’s wonderfully immersive and every aspect has been done to a high standard.

The .exe file download is 17.8 MB. There is also a .zip file you can download.

Eating squares == diversion

So, Squares 2.  Apparently, there was a Squares 1, but who’s counting?  Playing games like this offered for free on the Internet makes you wonder what the big deal of the multi-multi-million polygon count on the PS3 is.

Basically, you play as the one square that is definitely not like the others: it’s rotated 45 degrees.  See?  That one.  Right under the score.

This game involves your rotated-45-degrees square and the other black and white squares.  And some circles.  You need to guide your square into the other black squares (apparently, it’s cannibalistic)  and eat them.  Well, there is no animation that actually shows you eating the other black squares, but Snake didn’t have an animation, either.   Also, the red squares are diseased and they kill you.  Actually, I’m not sure what they are, but they aren’t good.

You can also eat the black circles.  They’re power-ups that make gameplay easier (an extra thousand points, smaller square, etc).  You can eat the red circles, which aren’t quite as deadly as their square counterparts, but they do mess you up.

Overall, the gameplay is simple but fun.  It will keep you busy for a little while, and it’s one of those quick diversions to an otherwise unfun day.

All you need is four seconds

Anyone up for a WarioWare-like game that is simple to learn but uber-frustrating at the same time? Enter Four Second Fury, a game that comes with only one set of rules: use your arrow keys and space bar.

That’s it. No other explanation for gameplay is given, so you basically have to figure out how to play the mini (erm… micro) games in the four seconds that are supplied for each one. Each game gives you a command like “Run!” or “Shoot!” and nothing more. They’re not necessarily hard to learn but may upset the more stress-prone among us.

The games are interesting to a point. They get repetitive as the object of many of the games are similar. For example, more than one game makes you go from point A to point B with only the use of your arrow keys. Of course, it’s probably hard to conjure many four second games for a varied gaming experience.

The graphics change with each game. Sometimes, the pictures look like something someone would draw with a tablet and artpad. Other drawings are stylized to look like old video games. It depends on the game. I think the overall style keeps the game from being cohesive enough, even though the idea is to have a frenzied, detached pace.

The best thing about the game is its replay value. I found myself coming back to it simply because I wanted to see if I could get further into the game than I had done before.

I would have liked to have seen a little more variety, but Four Second Fury is a great game to play if you only have a few minutes of free time.

Do you sudoku?

If you’re like millions of other people around the world, you probably do it. Sudoku, I mean. You know? The game where you have to write the numbers 1-9 in boxes and they can’t repeat within a box or a row or a column? Yes, that sudoku.Well, now it’s online and you can play for free! Okay, so Web Sudoku has been in existence for who knows how long. But I’m talking yummy multi-player action. Sudoku puzzles done before you blink!

Online World Sudoku Championship 2006 (yes, the name is long; bare with me here) allows you to play against other sudoku addicts around the world (presumably). You can play by yourself, too, but the fun is in the multiplayer. You can play anywhere from one to three other people who are currently online. The game has a point system based on how many squares you correctly fill in. Those points are translated to another point system that gets carried over to other games and determines your ranking.

I only found one bug where someone else’s points were being assigned to me in game, but during the point of assignments out of that particular sudoku game, the system seemed to straighten itself out.

You do need to register to play, but registration is free.

The sudoku-phile in my absolutely adores this online version. But for those of you who have a problem with it, my advice is this: steer clear!

I learned of Online World Sudoku Champion from Kao-Ani. OWSC is a free sudoku game that pits you against other players.