Flash Games

There are a lot of flash games out there, here is a look at a few that are definitely worth your time.

In Radical Fishing you fish the "man's way", which means after you've caught as many fish as you can, you launch them all into the sky to be shot. Yes that's right in order to 'catch' the fish, you need to have blasted them to pieces. Each time you blast a fish you get money to buy new equipment to make your fishing experience better. If you are looking for some quick simple fun, it is really hard to go past this one.
You can check it out on Sugar Toast here.

Obey the Game is a collection of rapid mini games in the vein of something like Wario Ware. You play as an elephant trapped in a series of mini games and you must obey the orders you are given. That is unless it tells you to disobey, it seems simple enough but as the game gets faster and faster it becomes hard to resist your initial urge to either obey the orders or disregard them completely. While I think some people would love this game, it is the weakest of the three mentioned here. It is an Armor Game and it is available here.

A Game About Literacy has a bit of a misleading title. It is a fairly straight forward platformer with a few twists and although for the early levels it is important to read the title of the level, the literacy part of the game takes a back seat later on. I don't think it ever mentions you can wall jump but you can so remember that for later on. Otherwise it is quite a quick game but still an interesting one. Also correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you play as a chair. It is available on Daily Flash Games here.

Game Dev Story [iOS, Android]

Game Dev Story is a simulation game where you run a company that develops games. It is quite a simple game yet there is something so addictive about it. You'll begin with a small team of developers and you'll need to hire some more. Eventually you will move to bigger offices and acquire team members with a range of skills. You can train and upgrade your staff using research points and items. If you switch them between careers and build up their skills enough they can eventually take on über careers, that give them a wide range of skills and great stats. Your company will level up too, giving you access to new genres and game types.

Your team will begin with a small budget, scraping by developing things for other companies or making your own little titles. Soon things will pick up for you though and you will be moving to bigger offices and buying the rights to develop for more popular consoles. You can even launch your own console onto the market. To do this you will need to level a staff member to level 5 on all positions, then they can become a Hardware Engineer. Make sure you spend money on advertising for your company and continually release new games to keep your fans interested.

I love this game and I think it will appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of making their own videogame, yet there is something lacking. It just needs a little bit more variety and a little more complexity. It is still fun to play for hours but it just lacks the replay value it could have had. It is on special for AU$0.99 on the app store and is currently on special for AU$2.50 on the android market. 8/10.

Tamurkhan the Throne of Chaos

Tamurkhan the Throne of Chaos is finally available for pre-order. You can check out some preview shots of it here. It will not only include a Warriors of Chaos army list for reenacting all the battles mentioned within the book but also a complete Chaos Dwarf army for those long suffering evil dwarf lovers. The Chaos Dwarf miniatures look absolutely stunning with fine runes and details carved into them.

There were a few delays in getting the book ready for production, here's hoping that Forge World used some of that time to edit the book, as Game Workshops books are notoriously riddled with typos and incorrect or ambiguous rules. I also sincerely hope they have managed to include some Beastmen units into the armies as well. I will give a full review when I receive my copy in the mail.

One Sentence Reviews

[iOS] Fish Tales - If you are really into keeping fish then you will love this game, then again if you are really into keeping fish you will have a fish tank full of much more exciting fish than these simpletons 5/10.

[iOS] Spirits - A new take on lemmings and it is very compelling but it can't compete with the original 7.5/10.

[iOS] Goggle Frogs - An abomination 2/10.

Trainyard Express and Trainyard [iOS]

Trainyard and Trainyard Express are two puzzle games based on the same concept, get your trains safely home. Trainyard Express is the free version which features 60 unique puzzles and the full version Trainyard, has 150 completely new puzzles. The full version is currently retailing for $1.19 AUD.

Rocks are the least of your worries.

Some levels look simple but are really quite hard.

In Trainyard you draw track onto the screen guiding your trains to safety. Like all great puzzle games this sounds simple but it becomes quite complex. Trains come in all different colours and you need to guide them safely to the right colour station. Trains can also change colour by being painted or through touching different coloured trains. Trains can be combined together into one single train by merging them on the tracks which is something you need to do a lot of in harder levels. The game does a good job of guiding you through all the concepts in the early levels before you are left to your own to tackle the more difficult puzzles. On the iPhone drawing the tracks can be a little frustrating at times as the squares are so small. This is not such a big issue as there are the erase and undo buttons to get you quickly back to where you started.

4 trains merging into 2 then ultimately 1.

Trainyard is a solid puzzler and with so much free content it is definitely worth a try. If you love the game you can go on and buy the full version and if you don't you haven't lost anything 8/10. 

Infinity Blade Update

There is a whole host of new content out for Infinity Blade and it's free! This includes new silly hats, items, monsters and locations.

The game still suffers from the same issues however and I wish they would give you just a little bit more money per fight so you can unlock some of these cool new items without such a grind. It still remains a cool game though and this extra content only adds to it.

One Sentence Reviews

Lego Minifigures [iOS] - Teach your kids how to gamble in this unrewarding pokey game; for die hard Lego fans only 2/10.

Turbo Grafx [iOS] You can play the demos for free but they expect you to pay for the full untranslated versions -1.69/10

Dictionary! [iOS] Does what it says on the tin and is free but has ads, also unneccesary exlamation marks 7/10.

Blocks Mania Premium [iOS]

In Blocks Mania you play as a smiley faced block whose object is to make it to an x mark to finish the level. To complete a level to the one hundred percent mark you must also collect stars along the way and finish the level using the minimum number of moves. Along the way you will encounter monsters and gain abilities like fire to burn through blocks.

The game is fun enough but it just lacks that special something. It has your typical puzzles such as using a key to unlock a door and blocks that allow you to only go one way. The addition of warp tunnels makes it interesting to. However, at the end of the day from any position you are in you can only move in four directions, so it is fairly simple as to what you have to do. What it really needs is a game mechanic to make it seem more complex than it is. It's just too easy and you will complete it very quickly especially if you are a puzzle junkie.

 When I first "purchased" Blocks Mania Premium it was free, it has now gone up to $1.19 AUD.  There is still a free version available but it is very limited. It is definitely worth zero dollars but I find it hard to recommend it for even a dollar 6/10

Minecraft Beta Review [Mac OSX, Windows, Linux]

Minecraft may only be in beta but it is quickly becoming a huge phenomenon with over a million pre-release copies sold. It is currently selling for €14.95 which cost me $20.55 AUD and it will go up to €20 when it is fully released.

Minecraft is currently playable in two modes, creative where you have unlimited blocks as well as life which is available for free here and survival, what I consider to be the game proper.  In survival you begin with nothing but your hands your first order of business is to find the basics you need to build a shelter and survive the first night as it is at night time when all the monsters come out. You can waste hours in a mine searching for that elusive resource emerging only when you need a new tool or go off adventuring wielding a sword and wearing iron armour. What you do in the world is only limited by your imagination.

Or you can start a forest fire.

I have included pictures of the game but they really don't do it justice. Somehow it is one of the scariest games yet the monsters look like this,

and you are always happy with your handy work even if it looks like this,

the thing is you just get sucked into the world and you forget that these are just squares and blobs. As well as being scary the monsters can be quite devastating to your creations. I recommend watching Yahtzee's review which sums up the creepers perfectly.

It is hard not to get caught up in the excitement of what is yet to come in Minecraft. There are two new game modes planned, adventure which limits you to only using items no block destruction or creation and zombie siege of which little is known but I think the title gives away a lot. There is also a lot of potential for user created mods. A mod in the same vein as the upcoming adventure mode is available here. There are also heaps of skins and tilesets already available to change your character and world respectively.

More lava means more fun.

There is still a lot of work to be done on Minecraft however. Minecraft on Mac OSX doesn't let you paste IP addresses in multiplayer, nor can you quit using command q or even the drop down menu, only hitting the red circle will quit the game. You cannot enter the Nether world on any OS in multiplayer which is a weird thing to have missing.

The game is only in beta but the flesh of the game is already there and it is being sold so I think it is fair to review it. If you are the kind of person who loves open-ended games, where it is up to you what you do, there is no way you can go past this game. Ignoring the hype of what is yet to come for Minecraft I give it a 8/10.

Question

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