Music Catch

In Music catch, you control a bat (for lack of a better name?) and you must catch shapes to get points. As the shapes get further from the line they spout from, they get smaller and turn blue and possibly are worth less points. Also as the music gets more intense, the shapes spouting from the line get bigger. Yellow shapes increase the size of the bat and also the points modifier, and red shapes do the opposite. Then there are also delicious purple power-ups which suck everything good into your bat.

It’s an incredibly simple game, but is artfully made, really intuitive and has really nice simple piano music. I found it really relaxing and immersive to play, and I imagine it would be a great way to relax after a stressful day. I reckon this is one of the best flash games I’ve ever played and would definitely encourage you to check it out.

Kongregate > Nonoba

I just recently stumbled upon this games site called Nonoba. I had a look around, seemed like quite a cool site, but I couldn’t help thinking that I’d seen something like it before. It turns out I had: in the form Kongregate. To me, the two sites look exactly the same. Both offer flash games and a community. When you play games at these sites a fun little chat box is attached on the right hand side, and you can do achievements in the games. The only difference between the two seems to be that Kongregate was started in 2006 and Nonoba seems to have been started in 2007. I wonder who copied whom? It might just be the Kongregate fanboy inside me speaking, but I have little respect for a website blatantly plagiarising an idea. Whereas The Casual Collective had something new to offer, as I can see, Nonoba doesn’t. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

The Casual Collective

The Casual Collective is a fantastic “Social gaming & Casual networking” site where you can meet your friends, socialize, and play some pretty wicked games. Not just any games can be played on this website however, the long awaited Multi Player Desktop Tower Defense (MPDTD), Desktop Armada, Flash Element 1 and 2 and a game called Buggle. I hadn’t played most of these games before, and I was in for a very nice surprise. The site also has a chat room, a radio station, a forum and generally just a whole lot of good social features. Although all the games are free, you do need to pay to unlock all the features and modes of the games. It’s pretty cheap however, with a full year subscription only $20. Anyway, you should definitely check out this site, and while you’re there register and add ‘Feltpants’ as a friend.

SHIFT

SHIFT is a nifty little puzzle/platform game with a twist. In SHIFT you must complete each level by making your way to the exit, sometimes picking up keys along the way to make little trapdoors move. However you soon encounter a level which you can’t complete just by jumping and running, and that’s where the game starts to get a little crazy. By pressing shift you can invert the level, white becomes black and vice versa, and the once impossible challenge is transformed into something quite possible.

By introducing this cool game dynamic the game immediately set itself out from the crowd and caught my attention. The music is OK, and the graphics are functional but not pretty. It’s quite a simple game, but that’s not always a bad thing. Overall though, SHIFT is a challenging, (but not overly frustrating) fun to play platform game with a great little quirk.

Chain Factor Beta

‘Chain Factor‘ feels like a mixture between Tetris and connect four where you must arrange numbered discs into rows and columns. When the numbers shown on the discs correspond to the size of the row or column it sits in, the tile disappears. For instance, if a tile shows a ’4′, then when there are four discs sitting in a horizontal or vertical line, the ’4′ disc(s) will disappear. The discs are numbered from 1 to 7, with a few grey unnumbered ones chucked in there to mix things up. Each time a numbered disc is destroyed next to a grey disc, it is weakened and after two discs have been destroyed next to it, it becomes a numbered disc. After each disc is destroyed you are awarded points, but getting chains of discs disappearing when they fall and set each other off is where the real points are. To begin with I played basic mode, but I soon delved into ‘Power’ and ‘Survival’. Each mode is basically the same, with a few ‘Powers’ to choose from, which each do beneficial things. To activate the powers you generally must reach levels of energy, which is awarded through combos.

It’s pretty easy to get the hang of, and each time I played I improved on my previous high score. Try and avoid creating large areas of grey discs and lines of ’1′ or ’2′ numbered discs, which are both hard to get rid of. Number 1 discs can be dangerous, but also very useful for dropping on top of grey discs to crack them. On first impressions, it seems luck is the main factor in getting combos and therefore lots of points (and energy, if playing in ‘Power’ or ‘Survival’ modes), but I’m sure it’s possible to plan in advance once you get good. One of the things I like about this game are the ideas and motives of the people who made it. You won’t find any ads on the Chain Factor website and you don’t have to pay to play. This an ad free gem in a realm where almost every available surface is covered with Google ads. The site even has a different quote from a smart person on the front page everyday! I later found this in the game’s FAQ, a scalding criticism of the gaming industry:

…the creative power of games is being held hostage by the conservative forces of the marketplace. For years, the mainstream games industry has fed us a steady stream of lowest-common-denominator drivel: brightly colored mascots scampering around childish fantasy lands; hyper-violent, testosterone-soaked war simulators; vacuous, marketing-driven movie spin-offs; and the endless grind of mindless, massively-multiplayer treadmills.

You’ve just gotta love those angry indie game makers ^_^; Overall, a novel, entertaining and highly addictive puzzle game made by a group who can really write an FAQ rant.

Dolphin Olympics 2

In Dolphin Olympics 2, you control dolphin that can perform stupendous tricks, breath in space, and fly at speeds of over 100 meters per second. This isn’t just any old dolphin. This dolphin is special (just like me ^_^;), and by controlling its amazing powers, you perform countless amazing tricks and string them together to create point scoring combos. If you land in the water nose (beak?) first, the combo continues, and therefore you can continue to perform one long chain of tricks for the allocated two minutes. As you gather speed, either by swimming through rings of stars and getting a boost, or just performing tricks, the dolphin flies higher and higher through the air and allows you to perform more tricks before once again hitting the water. Once the dolphin really gets going, it can soar into space, past the Moon, Mars, and countless other planets all the way to the ‘Restaurant at the end of the Universe’. Once up in space, the dolphin can grind the stars (by corkscrewing) and get you large amounts of points while it’s somehow breathing in space.

It’s really fun just messing around and seeing how high you can get your dolphin to fly. Be sure to read the ‘How to Play’ instructions and watch the video on page four. If you get stuck trying to get to the ‘Restaurant at end of the Universe’, I recommended you check out this video. Overall – Dolphin Olympics 2 is a fantastic game based around a deliciously unrealistic concept.