Stunt Pilot 2

May 23, 2009, 0 comments

Stunt Pilot 2Not only does this look gorgeous, it plays fantastically too. The aim’s simple: fly through the rings, with only the up and down arrows on your keyboard for company (and Space for boost). It’s tougher than it looks — but Stunt Pilot 2’s one of those games that rewards you for failure. The little men on the ground run for their lives, the scenery explodes and topples, and, pleasingly, even the rings themselves fall out of the sky if you clip them. Which you will. A lot.

Best of all, you can turn the music off. Play Stunt Pilot 2 (Flash)

Shift 4

May 21, 2009, 0 comments

Shift 4Oh god. If you haven’t played Shifts 1, 2 and 3, go back and play Shifts 1, 2 and 3. Go on. We’ll wait.

All done? Fun, wasn’t it? And now you’re perfectly prepared for Shift 4, which expects you to be fully briefed on its brain-sizzling concept: press Shift, and the room flips 180 degrees, turning the walls into gaps and the gaps into walls. Like its predecessors, the fourquel improves as your mind and eyes start to work almost on automatic (it feels a bit like mastering the face and the vase). But this time, you’re using Ctrl to switch between multiple people — which ups the satisfaction that comes with trotting impossibly over/through/under/over walls to the exit. And offsets the motion sickness and possible vomiting.

Don’t miss the hidden unlockable achievements, either. Some of them can be earned before you’ve even started the game, hint hint. Play Shift 4 (Flash)

Crunchball 3000

May 20, 2009, 0 comments

Crunchball 3000Speedball online, basically. The Amiga futur-o-sport classic hasn’t materialized as an emulated browser game in its own right — but Crunchball 3000 from Ben Olding Games will do very nicely in the meantime. For those new to the idea: run, throw ball, tackle, and don’t bother appealing to the ref — there isn’t one. Even if there was, he’d probably just get face-pummelled to the floor like everyone else. Crunchball is more Speedball 1 than Speedball 2, so no coins, no bounce pads, etc. But it’ll still bring out the hyper-aggressive sports thug in you. Play Crunchball 3000 (Flash)

Party Boat

May 19, 2009, 0 comments

Party BoatMesshof (aka Mark Essen) has just released this dodge-the-missiles game. It is fun. But it’s only fun when you’ve worked through the three ‘stages of comprehension’, which are:

1. realising that you’re rotating and thrusting, and — oh! — you can suddenly control the blasted helicopter

2. remembering that the title screen told you that you can ‘FLIP FOR MULTIPLIERS!!’

3. stopping trying to flee from the missiles, and starting to weave elegant looping 360-degree-flipping arcs around the sky that are mathematically calculated to avoid death

Then you’re playing it all night. Play Party Boat (Flash)

Fathom

May 19, 2009, 2 comments

FathomYou must play this. The first few seconds of Fathom’s shooty platforming are pleasant enough: chunky pixels, slick control, synthy sounds. But are you thinking the opening boss battle seems suspiciously hard? You’d be right. Suddenly, Fathom turns into something very beautiful indeed. We won’t spoil the surprise. Except to say that the title will, eventually, make a whole lot of sense. Play Fathom (Flash)