Friday Free Game: Viking Defense Friday, January 09, 2009

As my reader(s?) may know, I'm a sucker for a tower defense games. Viking Defense is one of the best I've ever played. It's flavorful with a thoughtfully-designed difficulty curve that I still haven't conquered after a solid week of playing it.

Like other defense games, the interesting decisions here are where to place what kinds of towers, but I love the idea of the escalating series of challenges to unlock more powerful ways of defending your waterway from drakkars and giant whales.

This is going to be the last Friday Free Game for a while... why not visit Jay is Games for all your casual gaming needs? And play S3QUENC3R on Kongregate and rate it for its elegant-yet-challenging gameplay and not whether the intro screen was implemented correctly. To be honest, I lost the source code to the game in a hard drive crash (RAID is now my friend) and can't fix it. It'll have to remain imperfect, like so many other games (and people).

Friday Free Game: Auditorium Friday, December 05, 2008

Auditorium is a beautiful mixture of game and toy, sight and sound, puzzle and exploration, serene in a way that reminds me of Boomshine, in a way, with its sweet, dreamy melodies and abstract, colorful gameplay. The idea is to conduct the stream of light, filtered by rings of color, to "fill" the squares. If you think it sounds a little awkward and requires some getting used to, you're right. But before long, you're entranced by the beauty of a full-screen Flash experience.

Boomshine is one of my favorite Friday Free Games of all-time, and even making a comparison to it should tell you I think pretty highly of the game for delivering a remarkable and challenging overall user experience. I find the interface to be a bit uncomfortable, if acceptable, but the level design is good with a steady challenge ramp-up rate.

On the whole, Auditorium certainly is a fun and engrossing game, but it's a bit too puzzley for my taste, and I grew bored of it after 45 minutes. But that's already thrice as much as I ever ask out of my Friday Free Games. It also auto-saves your game so you can stop at any time and lose no progress. I could go on, or I could say, Play Auditorium.

Friday Free Game: QWOP Friday, November 21, 2008

I like QWOP: it's one of the most frustrating games I've ever played, but if there is a virtue to be ascribed to video games, it is in being maddening and yet addicting. You always win when you play QWOP, because, as it tells us smugly, everyone's a winner.

Just go ahead and try to make this guy run. I dare you. I fell on my face for 4m after a half an hour of trying. It's a compelling enough game, in that it feels solvable, but damned if I know how to make that man stay on his feet.

The story is you're a hapless guy from the tiny nation of QWOP (as a man of Maltese heritage, I feel for him already) who's been sent to the Olympics with - how shall we say - inadequate training. Your QWOP keys control your thighs and calves, supposedly, but they don't seem to work very well. The only solid thing I figured out in the half hour I gave the game was that I should start with "Q".

I can't decide whether I'm having fun, but yet I keep playing. It's a perfect Friday Free Game for masochist achievers. Like me. Play QWOP.

Friday Free Game: Kung-Fu Election Friday, October 24, 2008

Just for shits and giggles, try out Kung Fu Election, a Flash-based Mortal Kombat clone where you can fight as Barack Obama or John McCain. I played this one about five times, losing to Sarah Palin as Barack (who sort of loks and fights like Mitsurugi... oh and he throws a flight of white doves as his missile attack) and then losing to Joe Biden as McCain, but then suddenly something clicked (maybe because McCain fights a little like me favorite Soul Calibur character, Kilik), and I started climbing the ladder. I literally laughed out loud when I fought Hillary (who carries fans like MK's Kitana) and she threw a projectile at me that had Bill Clinton appear and punch me in the face three times. You have to play this game just for that.

Friday Free Game: Bloons Tower Defense 3 Friday, September 19, 2008

It's been about two years since I recommended a tower defense game, and in that time, it has surprisingly become a genre in its own right. There are a hoarde of these games, now, primarily since they're very simple to build, and relatively easy to balance. If you've never played one of these games, it's really just a twist on the RPG grind: kill stuff, get stuff, kill bigger stuff, get better stuff, ad infinitum. As a matter of fact, the main difference between a tower defense game and a dungeon crawl is that in a dungeon crawl, you find the monsters and in tower defense, the monsters come to you.

But don't listen to me, because I'm sitting here telling you how banal these games are and yet I can't stop playing them. Much like the old RPG grind, there is something very satisfying about the power-up cycle. My latest tower defense obsession is called Bloons Tower Defense 3, and is the inheritor of the name of a clever little game about a monkey popping b(a)lloons by throwing darts. So, not surprisingly, this game is about positioning various types of monkeys around the board so that they can pop balloons.

But it's not just darts. It's spiked balls thrown by catapults, spinning blades, ice balls, cannons, and superhero monkeys with plasma beams that shoot out of their eyes. Okay, so it may not be particularly coherent, but the game is a lot of fun, mainly because the difficulty curve is really well-designed. Several times, I was humming along, kicking butt, and then all of the sudden, the stupid metal balloons would show up and ruin my game. I'd try it again, this time with a rocket launcher in place, only to have the MOAB – a nigh-indestructible blimp carrying tons of other balloons – show up and ruin it all again. My best advice is to ramp up gradually, starting with a monkey, then adding tack-throwers, then saving up for cannons. The super monkey is definitely worth it!

Sur this isn't the prettiest game around, and there are more original tower defense titles, but the playability and variety kept me coming back, and I'm sure it will do the same for you. Go on. Touch the monkey. You know you wanna.

Friday Free Game: Monkey Island Friday, September 05, 2008

This week's Friday Free Game is called Monkey Island. No, not that Monkey Island – this is a simple Flash game with a clever central mechanic that's sure to engage as you navigate the Japanimated world of an island-hopping simian.

The controls are very simple: rotate the monkey using your mouse and then click and release to control your jumps. Make your way from island to island to collect all of the bananas. But careful: some of them shift, and some will even sink underneath you! By the way: the game is all in Japanese, so click on the red button on the opening screen to start the game. Happy hopping!

Friday Free Game: SquarO Friday, August 29, 2008

This week's Friday Free Game is a straight-up puzzler reminiscent of Minesweeper. It's called SquarO, and operates on much the same principle as the earlier game: deduce the correct location of the dots by observing the number of dots adjacent to each square. With four difficulty levels and gameplay that's familiar but challenging, SquarO is the perfect ten-minute distraction. But be careful about that solution button: just mousing over it is a spoiler. Enjoy!

Friday Free Game: Go Go Plant Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Posted early in observance of Independence Day in the States.

Go Go Plant scratches the specifically twitch-gamer itch, sort of like Dino Run (the last Friday Free Game from late May(!)), and it's a great candidate for this week's twenty-minute casual distraction. It's a bizarre concept that somehow works. You're a plant, see. And you're grabbin' money. Why? Doesn't matter; it's fun.

The controls are a marvel of perfect design: up to fly, down to dig, forward to punch, back to grab. Somehow it all gels seamlessly in your brain in .3 seconds, and you're off finding Zen-like flow with this game almost equally as fast.

I think the fact that the boards are scripted adds to the addictiveness of the game, because the controls are natural and responsive (but, of course, not too responsive) and the timing they throw at you is always a little tricky. I found myself playing the beginning several times and enjoying each time. There was a good amount of playtesting done on this game.

But don't get me started on the soundtrack. This has got to be one of the most truly random and insane couplings of sounds and visuals ever seen in a Flash game, and that is saying something. The music is this eerily poor recording of some man singing in some language that could be Italian but fucked if I'd know if it was Swahili. And your little green hero is a potted plant with an elastic fist and a butterfly net. And I am not making that up. It's pretty damn strange.

But, like I said, fun. Play Go Go Plant.

Sane Scientists Need Not Apply Sunday, June 08, 2008

Not much of a game per se, but I know some of you will enjoy this game intended to help you learn about neurons: Make a Mad, Mad, Mad Neuron!

Friday Free Game: Shift 2 Friday, March 21, 2008

The Friday Free Game two-hit combo is live and on the scene, administering the beatdown of game goodness for the righteous readers of the Red Bull!

Shift 2 is the sequel to the Armor Games negative-space platformer that I featured as the Friday Free Game for February 15th. This time, they have added a few more new twists for deeper and more varied gameplay. While this robs the game of the simple elegance of the original, it definitely kicks up the challenge level a good two notches, making for a more satisfying experience if you're a gamer with a somewhat harder core.

The basics are all still there: black and white space, key puzzles, shifting, taunting comments, and the big-ol' splash of blood when you fall on the spikes. What's new is two new features: gravity modification and checkered space. By far, the most brain-bending aspect of Shift 2 is the incorporation of gravity redirection as part of the puzzles. Now instead of just flipping the board two different ways, you now have four possibilities. There are four different arrow icons you can touch to rotate the board and all of the sudden, walls become floors, floors become walls, and you're forced to look at things a whole new way. Checkered spaces are really just another kind of door. Hit the lightbulb icon (just like a key) and a set of blocks are removed so you can move on to the next step of the puzzle.

But perhaps the most interesting additions are to the meta-game. Shift 2 rewards players with trophies (a la XBox 360-style achievements) for completing various goals (such as beating the oh-so-annoying crosses level in the specified time limit). It also adds a level editor ("Shift-ed"... get it?), and the designers hint at a future pack of player-designed levels. It's easy to use and outputs a code that you can use to load and share your custom-designed levels. Like this one:

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

You can play it by clicking "Extras" on the main menu and loading "Shift-Ed", then clicking "Load Level Code", and then paste the code above into the text box. It will load the level in the editor. Click the "Preview" link to play.

Custom levels, deeper puzzles, snarkier narration and monochromatic charm all combine to deliver a solid experience. And with all of these new features, Shift 2 is bound to continue the momentum created by the original. I know you'll agree when you stop procrastinating and start shifting! Play.

Friday Free Game: Chat Noir Friday, November 02, 2007

Have you ever heard that expression about herding cats? Game designer Taro Ito (who also brought us Dice Wars, FFG 08/18/06) seems to have taken the idea to heart. Chat Noir is a game about corralling a black cat by surrounding it with darkened dots.

I first read about the game on Jay is Games (the wellspring from which all casual games flow) a few weeks ago and only got the chance to play it this past weekend. Ever since, I have been sort of obsessed with this devilishly clever little game. It sounds so easy: click the spots to darken them and make them impassable to the cat. Keep doing this until you successfully given the cat nowhere to go or the cat escapes, scampering off the edge of the board. Your first few games may be a bit frustrating, and I'm pretty sure that there are some starting configurations that are unbeatable, but once you get the hang of the game, when you find that flow, the game becomes a thing of impressive tactical beauty.

Chat Noir is everything that a Friday Free Game should be. It has a short play time, super-simple mechanics and engaging gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. One bit of advice: you'll have more success trying to build barricades further away from the cat, so stick closer to the edges. Also, if you find you're chasing the cat around the board, you've probably already lost. Give it a try and tell me that you didn't give a little "w00t!" when you beat it the first time.

Friday Free Game: Ramps Friday, September 28, 2007

The Friday Free Game routine isn't as regular as I had hoped it to be; it's hard work finding games. I have decided that I want to keep providing Friday Free Games, but I know I probably won't be able to do it weekly. I am trying to devise a better schedule for blogging overall, and because I think it's better for people reading your blog to know when there's going to be new material, I will be having that discussion out loud in the Red Bull Diary.

jayisgames (who picked up S3QUENC3R, so you know he has good taste), recommended a great little Flash game called Ramps about two weeks ago, and it's a well-made and thoughtfully designed little time-wasting game that kept me going for about forty minutes and I made it through 23 levels.

The central mechanic is arranging of – you guessed it – ramps in order to guide a ball that is dropped out of a chute at the top of the screen to its destination at the bottom. The first wave of levels has your rolling and bouncing with ever-smaller ramps. But then there's the robotic lava-dwelling pirhanas.

I bet you didn't expect robotic lava-dwelling pirhanas, did you?

Play Ramps. It's fun.

S3QUENC3R Picked up by PlasticThinking.org Wednesday, May 09, 2007

A German gaming blog called PlasticThinking.org has picked up S3QUENC3R, causing another very nice spike in traffic and another 500 unique users in a single day. To sum up, S3QUENC3R has had about 2,000 unique users in just 5 days!

And, once again, no Diggs.

Everybody I talk to has the same response. First: what's Digg? Then: too much effort to sign up. Okay, I get it. Nobody wants to give away personal information just to promote my game. Personally, I've had a Digg account for a while, so I'm not even sure what kind of information they ask for.

But everything I've read about the whole self-promotion thing says that Digg is one of the best ways of driving traffic to your site. Maybe it's the wrong tool for this case? Maybe a deeper game would be more likely to get dugg?

S3QUENC3R Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I think I have worked out some of the kinks with S3QUENC3R, so here it goes a third time. I think people were having trouble running the game the first time, so if you would be so kind as to click here, you can load up the game and see if you still have a problem. I've had a hard time diagnosing the problem on my side, so please leave comments if you do encounter problems.

I've noticed that sometimes the game just hangs and doesn't start. If that happens, just refresh the browser. That should fix it. In the meantime, I will see what I can do about it.

But I'm excited for people to try out the game. Let me know if it's too hard, and post your high scores!

Friday Free Game: The Road Less Taken Friday, March 16, 2007

I like to recommend games that are more polished than this, but I was surprised at how quickly I became addicted to The Road Less Taken; it's a strange little game. Move a yellow dot towards a green square while avoiding the numbered red squares. There's a pattern to it, and as Raph Koster says in A Theory of Fun, "once we see a pattern we delight in tracing it and in seeing it reoccur" (p. 27). The presentation is low-fi, but it grabs you because you just know you're smarter than it is. You see the patterns and want to master it.

I strongly suggest you try this game and ask yourself after ten or more levels: why is this fun?

Friday Free Game: Swords and Sandals II Friday, February 16, 2007

The Red Bull Diary is pleased to present Swords and Sandals II, the sequel to the Friday Free Game from October 13th of last year. Like any good sequel, it offers more of what made the original game so much fun without changing the overall structure of the game. There are still opponents with goofy names, surly shopkeepers, and lots of ways to customize your character. But now there's more depth, more options, and a story structure woven in between the goofy gladiatorial bouts.

The first and most important new feature is the addition of missile weapons to the game. Now, instead of having to charge at your enemy to attack, you can sit back and soften him up a bit before drawing your axe and hacking off his limbs. There's also the addition of the Magic Shop, where you can have your weapon enchanted or purchase spells to sling at your hapless opponents. The arena has also changed format. In the original game, if you lost a fight, the game was over; not so this time around. You can still participate in tournaments, where you fight to the death, but beforehand you can build up by fighting duels, where you win by drawing first blood. There are also a number of new special combat abilities, including the ability to try to win over the crowd and do power-up strikes, but these weren't particularly interesting in the demo version of the game. I'll guess that these become more important as you move deeper into the game.

Unfortunately, the demo version doesn't let you get very far. Once you start to get the hang of things, the game tells you that you've gone as far as you can go without buying the full version. I'd really like to hear from someone who has played the full version to get a feel for what the full experience is like. But the demo is a lot of fun as something to while away an hour or so and I can heartily recommend it to any fan of the original.

Friday Free Game: Fields of Logic Friday, January 26, 2007

This week's game is a very nice collection of puzzles from Bart Bonte called Fields of Logic. The game here is to discover how to beat each of the sixteen levels. There are no instructions, just subtle clues as you point-and-click your way through sixteen puzzles, most of which require simply clicking on computer monitors to rotate them. There's also a sliding puzzle on level 10. I've never been any good at solving those silly things, but from the sounds of it, I'm not alone.

The challenges are well-designed, if a bit conventional, and the consistent cows-in-a-field theme is fun. It kept me busy for 12 minutes. That's all I want in a Friday Free Game.