Casual Encounters--22 Flash Games Worth Getting Addicted To

Posted 01/15/2010 at 8:00am | by Rob Smith

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GraveShift 2: The Sewers

Does not stink in the least

The isometric 3D puzzle-adventure game has been around for eons, and this one brings a colorful style to its Indiana Jones–wannabe character. You have to navigate through the sewers, picking up gold along the way, fighting off the rats, skeletons, and more. These sewers are dangerous, with spike pits and other traps adding to the challenge as you try to recover King Krump’s treasure. The terrific art style makes it easy to spend hours exploring and figuring out how to retrieve each piece of treasure. (http://www.mochimedia.com/games/graveshift-2-the-sewers/)

Ultimate Assassin 2

Metal Gear Flash

This top-down stealth-action game recalls memories of early Metal Gear sneak, stab, hide, and escape gameplay. It’s extremely challenging as you move your assassin after the green “boss” target through 18 levels. Guards shine their torches and move through the environment in random directions. Your assassin can call on a brief invisibility (so long as you don’t move) and speed-burst to elude danger. After the hit, wait for the mission bar to fill before the exit is revealed, and hope the bad guys don’t spot the body and sound an alarm that sends them into a fast-moving frenzy. (http://www.games121.com/2009/06/ultimate-assassin-2.html)

A Dralien Day

Lose yourself in a puzzling journey

This tale of a dragon’s emergence from an egg and his travels through puzzle-infested environments is classic point-and-click adventure fare. Those big doe-eyes implore you to help the little fella through each area. Rather than pixel-searching for clickable objects, each interactive element in a scene is handily highlighted, so it’s easy to find the puzzles even if it’s not so easy to solve them. A full walkthrough is available if you happen to get stuck. (http://www.pencilkids.com/the-vault/a-dralien-day-page/)

Small Worlds

From small beginnings great worlds grow

An entry in the Casual Gameplay Design Competition, this quirky exploration game packs tons of style into its simple stick-character and block-graphics presentation. From an initial camera view zoomed in on your pixel “dude” you move around the world as the camera pans back to reveal its shape, paths, and direction to the exits. It’s more a game of wonder at the concept than a speed, movement, or puzzle-solving challenge, but still well worth your attention. (http://jayisgames.com/cgdc6/?gameID=9)