Flash Game Friday: Politricks

Just Pres. Obama - doing what he does.

Sometimes you need a launch game, and sometimes that game can be loosely based on a economic crisis in the United States.  But in a launch game, you solve the problem by being on a pogo stick.  This is the very fiber of why flash games are awesome stretches in human logic.

So here's Politricks.  It's silly fun.  The upgrades are what you would expect to find in a launch game (go further, jump higher, use a kite, make more supporters appear).

If you're into launch games, this is a political based no-brainer.  You don't even need to understand "legitimate rape" or "struggle snuggles" or "tax documents."  Just click and twirl and rake in the dough to save Uncle Sam!

Flash Game Friday: Nuclear Plant

The monsters are coming.

Nuclear Plant is the tale of a war ravaged society trying to nurture the single last plant alive in order to save humanity.  You play an unnamed scientist/badass who must resurrect the plant.  Unfortunately, you are constantly swarmed by mutated creatures who are trying to impede your progress.  Why?  Because it's a flash game!

The game play is half platform-y, half point and shoot.  You control your character by using the arrow keys (or the ASWD), but aim and shoot using the mouse.  Uniterrupted time at the Laboratory is used to build your skills (e.g. more health regeneration, better accuracy) and killing mutated monsters yields cash to buy new guns (from - where?).

It's fun, and short, though it took a couple of game overs until I got the hang of it.  Enjoy!

Flash Game Friday: Sky Garden

Sometimes, you actually have to do work at work, rather than pretend that you are a much beloved video game blogger, with users dedicate themselves to your every movement.  So, sometimes you have to work - and you're looking for a Flash-based distraction that will calm and relieve your stressful work life.

The graphics are simple, as is the gameplay.
Simple and calming.

Enter Sky Garden, a simple puzzle game with music that is so calming, it blends you slowly into a Friday afternoon coma.

The concept is simple: click every tree.  The tree releases a stream of water in all four directions as far as possible.  The streams built from clicking the trees will destroy any tree they touch, so the game casually introduces you to the strategy of using streams to block future streams.  Then, like any good puzzle game, new elements are introduced.  Seedlings require water to be born into trees.  Ice halts your streams' progress.  And lava slowly spreads, killing your trees.

I strongly recommend this game for its stupendous ease to pick up, play, and complete.

Flash Game Friday: Farm and Grow

Farming.  And Growing.

Farm and Grow is a delightful flash game that makes farming look easier than it really is.  This game is fun and sort of addicting, but farming - let's be clear - is actually not.

You manage a farmer and his family: planting crops, selling them in town, becoming educated, and farming more efficiently.  You have to feed your mini-pixel characters or they will die, and 12 dead family members means Game Over (also, 12 is a lot of pixel-blood on your hands - you maybe should seek therapy).

Flash Game Friday: Special Episode for Leaving Higher Education - First Person Grader

Today is my last day working directly for an institution of higher education, which has been the status quo for the past ten years - my enitre adult life!  To celebrate, I'm sharing this gem: First Person Grader.

More fun than grammar should be.

You are a starving graduate student with a mountain of debt, eagerly accepting a TA-ship with the hardass Dr. Paynuss.  The good doc sends you papers and you must grade them in order to fail students and get paid. 

While the premise sounds a little dull, the game is actually a blast to play and enjoy, and a great send off from my life of working for higher ed.

Flash Game Friday: Burrito Bison Revenge

One of my favorite launch games has issued a sequel, Burrito Bison Revenge.  The original game was perfect, so I couldn't imagine how another iteration of the game could possibly be better.  Well, more power-ups, longer levels, a Survival Mode, and in-game achievements all brought together to make Burrito Bison Revenge an excellent entrant.

The game is simple enough: you launch the titular bison from a wrestling-ring turned slingshot and land on as many of your former captors as possible, liberating them from their small amounts of cash, which you - in turn - spend on being able to go further, faster, and access more power-ups.

The power-ups are extensive.  From increasing your initial power to adding new and unusual gummies for you to stomp on and drive cars, fly propeller hats, and ride rockets.  It's just the thing to make a highly addictive - and fun! - flash launch game.

The in-game achievements give you rewards for successfully doing either the routine (go this far) or the unusual (stomp this many gummies in a certain way).  Unfortunately, if I had to criticize one part of this game, the achievements would be it.  It's not that they are bad, but you only get to access 3 of them at a time, and with 120 total, it's no surprise that you might see a new achievement that you've already completed six or seven times.

But all in all, this game is great.  Give it a spin if you're up for something different.

Flash Game Friday: Rocket Santa

Rocket Santa is the best holiday-themed launch game I've played this Christmas season.  It's a vertical launch game where you must help Santa to deliver presents to the moon.

Like all launch games, there are upgrades that make it easier and easier to accomplish your goals, culminating in a fun ending.

Merry Christmas!

(P.S. Rocket Santa would encourage you to visit my Amazon.com gift list.)

Flash Game Friday: Hyperpipe

Pipe Dream-esque games have always fascinated me.  Hell, I even liked the hacking in Bioshock (there!  I said it!).  However, I can barely get my mind around Hyperpipe, which no only wants you to connect pipes, but do so without leaving any pipes unconnected.

Far from being frustrating, the game is actually best played with a cup of coffee and some Whisperings PureStream piano happening in the background.  Kick it!

Flash Game Friday: Word Bacon

Do you love bacon?  I know you do.

Do you love word games?  Who doesn't?

Put them together and you've got Word Bacon, a fun little letter-replacement game made by a Redditor named seebs.  The objective is simple, you are trying to take one word and make into another by replacing letters.  Every replacement must construct a new word, so it's a tricky brain teaser.  At normal mode it's okay, but at "Holy Swine of Zeus" you might find yourself clicking the "Hint" button every round.

Definitely a contender for your Friday "productivity" time.  Give it a go!

Flash Game Friday: Sweatshop

Maybe you don't want to think about social issues while playing a Flash Game.  If so, skip this review and just play this classic.  (No seriously, you should play it, anyway.  It's about not shitting your pants, an admirable goal.)

Sweatshop is a game created by Little Loud to help raise awareness of the high costs of cheap prices, and possibly just be a fun game to play.  The game can, at times, be a bit heavy handed about it's thesis (sweatshops = bad), but at its core, it has a fun story and very non-traditional tower defense gameplay.

Workers have specialties, but children can do anything!

As raw materials come down the production line, you must place workers to craft the items.  As manager, you control the worker's conditions: how fast the belt runs, if there are bathrooms available, etc.  Some of these impact production and sale value, and some are simply for the benefit of your employees' health and wellness.  It is cheaper to hire children and replace the dead ones with new ones, but that's awfully heartless!

The game boasts 30 levels of increasing difficulty, and I found myself into the game for a few solid hours.  Give it a go, if not just to blow off some steam at your comparably easy job, but also to learn!

Flash Game Friday: 100th

100th, a puzzle platformer that relies on the use of rising balloons, may be just the time waster you need today!

Balloon hoppin' - that's my thing.

The game uses basic arrow keys to control your pixelated creation, and X to hold or release baloons which you can use to explore the world.  The game is easy enough to understand, with a couple of fun puzzles to collect gifts and reach then end.  Good play!

P.S. while very demanding from a manual dexterity perspective, you can beat the game only using the red balloon.  Good luck!

Flash Game Friday: Warp Game

The Platformer genre has largely gone by the wayside, with video game developers wanting more and more to make games which utilize sophisticated physics, graphics, and complicated motion controllers, but sometimes you just want a good platform game.  Thankfully, small Flash developers everywhere have taken to the call, and this week's entrant: Warp Game makes an admirable showing.

In its thirty levels (plus 3 bonus stages), you will traverse simply made platforms with one added catch: roam off screen left or right, up or down, and you'll appear on the other side.  The result is some fun puzzles to get through the stages.  Powerups are introduced halfway through that make you jump higher, become invulnerable, or break through certain walls.

It's celver, simple, and a great 30 minute distraction!

Flash Game Friday: Corporation, Inc

Oh, resource management games.  I have a confession to make.  I love you.

No, now, don't freak out on me.  I think we're ready for this next step.  After all, I've been clicking to and from things for hours (gosh, has it been that long?  It felt like mere minutes), and you've been rewarding my minimal effort with power-ups gifts of your love to make my clicking easier!

Upgraded bathrooms make employees happier.  That makes sense, I guess.

That's why I'm dedicating this Flash Game Friday to Corporation, Inc.  It was pitched to me as a "SimTower like" experience, and I loved SimTower.  And it has everything you'd want in a resource management game: employees, offices, upgrades.  An easy to use and navigate interface allows you to extend your office to heavens, or just build a 9 floor wide complex full of researchers hellbent on discovering the secrets of world domination (no, really!).

Check it out, especially if you want a distraction from work, by - you know - doing some other type of work.

Flash Game Friday: Upgrade Completer!

Fire all lasers!

I think I've spoken before about my love of the meta-game of acheiving things and upgrading things and watching bars fill up to bursting completeness.

You can get a feel for this by playing Upgrade Completer!

Everything is upgradable, even the grammar of the upgrade menu!  You even have to buy certain upgrades before you actually play, and once you do, you'll be rewarded with a fun little shump shooter game.  Eventually, your upgrades make the game batshit crazy easy, but it's totally worth the couple hours you'll throw down in its throws of interest.

Flash Game Friday: Achievement Unlocked

Yes, I am on an airplane right now, but I'm writing this in advance, because you need a little diversion on Fridays.  After my rant last weekend on trophies and achievements, I figured Achievement Unlocked and Achievement Unlocked 2 would be the perfect games to feature. 

Here's the deal.  You are an elephant.  Why?  Who can say?  You are in a room.  The room has spikes and blocks and everything you do or interact with (essentially) triggers an achievement.  You fell into a pit?  Achievement unlocked!  You stood still?  Achievement unlocked!  You quit playing the game?  Achievement unlocked!

Hey look!  I achieved things!

What starts as a humorous exercise in the ridiculousness of trophies/achievements quickly turns into an obsession to figure out how to achieve every single one.  There's a list for you to see what you need to do, with hints that border on puzzling, but nothing too challenging.

The real shining point is the sequel, which adds additional rooms to your gameplay insanity, lets you panic (exploding yourself), and gives you the ability to poop out pastries (because, why not?).  It also adds a keyboard, teleporting devices, a slot machine, and a big button!

While the gameplay is sheer platforming, plain and simple, the real fun is in the bizarre achievements the game has set.  If you're a gamer, you should get a few laughs out of it.  And if you're not a gamer, it's still an easy to pick up flash game that has you controling a cute little elephant.

Flash Game Friday: The Farplane Wars

The Farplane Wars is a Flash game I discovered via /r/WebGames on Reddit.  The developer himself submitted the game for Reddit's review, so I thought I'd give it a playthrough.

There's a lot going on in this Friday-diversion.  It's largely a resource management/space sim, with some shump (or fixed shooter) gameplay, a little platforming, and a little point and click adventuring.  It's like the developer thought: "why can't one Flash game have it all?" 

While the game is fun enough, I did start to get bored with it.  It's got a fairly good story, considering, and the art, while MS-Paint-ish, fits the mood okay, which doesn't take itself entirely seriously (even though aliens are invading known space, and blah blah blah).  If you're looking for something different, definately check this one out.

Flash Game Friday (Bonus Sick Edition): Clarence's Big Chance

My head is full of uck, but that doesn't mean that I can't play and review another flash game.  So, if GemCraft tower defense didn't float your boat: you might enjoy this 16-bit platfromer, Clarence's Big Chance.

You play the hopeless Clarence, who is trying desperately to not be Forever Alone.  You've got a date with a hottie from online, but you need desperately to bathe, dress, and better yourself before you are ready.  It's silly and fun.  Give it a shot!

Flash Game Friday: GemCraft

Have you ever been at work and suddenly realized, "Hey, it's Friday!  I don't want to work, I want to play Flash-based browser games!"  Well, I've got you covered.  Every Friday, I'll review an old favorite, or something new I've stumbled upon; with any luck, you'll be able to enjoy a couple hours of divine pleasure which would ordinarily be wasted on unprofitable boredom.

GemCraft (Chapter 1, Chapter 0, Lost Chapter/Labyrinth)
I don't know who at GenieInABottle.com learned how to number things, but the GemCraft series hasn't been following traditional numbering conventions.  That's okay, because this tower defense game is plenty of fun, no matter which iteration you are enjoying.  Even my husband ended up getting engrossed in the original GemCraft (Chapter 1) back when it first came out.

Like most tower defense games, the objective of these flash-based distractions is defend your home base from ongoing waves of monsters by setting up attacking towers on the path that they travel.  In GemCraft, you give towers functionality by placing gems into them.  Lower leveled gems cost less, but provide less damage.  As you progress with the game, you can make higher level gems, and combine gems (or craft them, shall we say) to form even more powerful attacks.

Gems also have a variety of secondary functions, aside from damage.  Slowing, stunning, or weakening monsters in exchange for high damage rate.  The real fun comes from combining the powers of gems to set up effective strategies. 

As you beat levels, you will gain experience, which allows you to buy upgrades to your crafting skillz, such as they are.  Towers cost less to build, you get more "mana" (the currency of the game) each time you kill a monster, etc.  This introduces more strategies as you continue to play.

Many levels limit you in the types of gems available for you, so you get to work your noggin a fair bit.  Extremely fast monsters might show up on a level in which you don't have access to a slowing gem, or heavily armored targets in an area where you don't have access to armor penetration.  This is a great take on forcing a player to revise his paradigm.  On very few levels will you be able to spam the same uber strategy.  It's fun for a brain tickle, and unique for a flash game!

There's decent replay value as well, as you can try to best previous levels for better scores and more experience.  Some levels only appear if you've completed a level with a high enough score.

The game does plenty of hand-holding, but it's not invasive and easy to skip if you're a grizzled veteran of tower defense games.  If you're completely new, start with Chapter 1, and relax - it's just a game.

The later versions introduce traps and amplifiers, and all sorts of madness.  Chapter 0 is its predecessor, and The Lost Chapter/Labyrinth is the latest released (only recently, at that).  All the games are free to play, though there is additional content for the wealthy among you (okay, not really the wealthy, as it's only a few bucks).

Flash Game Friday: Launch Games!

Have you ever played a launch game? Don’t get them confused with a physics game which involves launching (like Angry Birds), but has a finite space vertically and horizontally. I became somewhat enraptured with them this past week. So I wanted to review, compare, and recommend three of my favorites.

1. Flight
2. Burrito Bison
3. Pogo Swing

(Quick note: I don’t particularly have a favorite Flash Games site, and listing two links to http://www.armorgames.com/ should not be an endorsement, but I will say that their website is one of the least distracting, and didn’t flood Google Chrome with tons of cookies or malware or any of that.)

The basics of a launch game are that you are in a contraption, and it is going to launch you forward, with the goal to go as far horizontally as possible. You are rewarded for your travel with money, which you then spend on upgrades to your launching ability. Launch games also include an endgame, either by acquiring so much money, or being able to travel so far horizontally.

Flight

In this game, you are represented by a paper airplane, which is being launched around the globe (or at least, around the eastern hemisphere). The design is great, and the accompanying story is touching and funny.

The really big stand out for Flight is the dynamics of gameplay. You are given an amount of “fuel” for each launch that allows you to control the pitch of your paper airplane, or gain a slight boost to your speed. Conservative use of fuel can help you adjust the plane’s trajectory and gain a great deal of distance; or you can blow through all your fuel to ascend to the heavens. During flight you are encouraged to collect stars for money and paper cranes, which award higher multipliers for stars collected. Aiming for stars is somewhat tricky, but you will collect plenty along a long enough flight.

Burrito Bison

So, you’re a bison, minding your own business, walking peacefully through a grocery store when suddenly you are kidnapped into a bag of candy to participate in a coliseum wrestling match against a giant jawbreaker. Already, I’m in love. Unlike the other two games I’ve mentioned, this launch game is completed only when you are able to travel the full length of the game horizontally. This entrant also has the least amount of player interactivity post-launch. You could launch your bison and go make a cup of coffee for all the game cares.

The delight of the game is in its whimsy, but also its challenge. A great many things are standing between you and freedom from your captors, including two giant doors and a glass pane. The speed of the bison must be above a certain level, or you won’t break through the door, and go back to the launch point. Speed can be increased through hitting certain gummis (some are carrying bombs, you know, as gummi bears sometimes do), but can also be decreased by missing a gummi (landing on the ground) or hitting a gummi police officer. Lose too much speed, and you are paid for the distance you traveled (and robbed from poor gummis you landed on) and sent back to the launch point.

Pogo Swing

This game made me laugh. Twice. Not just a polite chuckle at a moronic joke, but actual aloud laughter. It doesn’t take itself seriously, but has a more real worldly premise than Burrito Buson. Sort of. You are a group of teenagers, eager to buy something expensive. The answer? Earn money by jumping off a swing onto a pogo stick as far as you can.

Pogo Swing allows you to rotate your character midair. Full rotations earn you more money, but if you don’t land pogo stick first, the results are undesirable. This mechanic adds a risk to greed, which I always find to be an enjoyable gameplay element. When I fail, it’s my fault for being too greedy in going after a seventh rotation, and I watch my teenager bounce to the ground on his head.

Each of these games can easy suck two or three hours of free time away from you, and are fun enough to play, but probably not as enjoyable to play over and over again. Once you have purchased all of the upgrades and reached the end game (either through traveling total distance, as in Flight; escaping the candy bag in Burrito Bison; or by earning enough money in Pogo Swing), there isn’t much else to do, and the sense of trying to accomplish something is gone.

The Games: Flight, Burrito Bison, Pogo Swing

The Cost: Free – these are all Flash games and should work perfectly fine on any recently purchased PC

Worth It? The only thing you are giving up is time, and you were probably going to waste in on the internet anyway.

Best Parts: For launch games in general, it’s the simplicity of play which is a big draw.

Worst Parts: Not a lot of post-game, if you’re into that sort of thing. If you finish the game and still want to play, find another launch game.

Overall: I started playing these Flash games at work, because almost anything is better than work. But when I got home, I still wanted to play them, instead of using any of my much more expensive video game systems. A testament to good (and addictive) design.