Never Be Productive Again: The 20 Best New Browser Games

Wonderputt

If you think you’ve played enough minigolf games, you’re completely wrong. Unless you’ve played Wonderputt, then maybe you’re right—we don’t know. The point is, Wonderputt is a incredible, creative, surreal take on the minigolf genre. Words don’t really do it justice, you’ve got to try this one for yourself.

Burrito Bison Revenge

The latest, greatest entry into the tried-and-true “Launch and bounce” genre is the follow-up to the original Burrito Bison game from a year or two ago. It follows the formula of launching Burrito Bison, steering him to crush the most bad guys and fly the furthest, then buying upgrades to make the next launch even more successful. Highly polished, and highly fun.

Gyossait

A delightfully moody platforming adventure game with some of the best, darkest pixel art we’ve seen this year. The gameplay’s not exactly revolutionary, but the atmosphere is really something you have to experience for yourself.

10 Bullets

At first glance, 10 bullets looks like a air defense game, a la Balloon Invasion, but it’s actually a chain reaction game, where you attempt to explode as many aircraft as possible with only 10 shots.

AirMech

Flash may not be as dominant as it once was, but (as evidenced by this list) it’s still got its claws pretty deep in the browser gaming market. AirMech gives us great hope for the post-flash future of browser gaming. A Chrome game, AirMech is a fully-3D, competitive, customizable action RTS (it’s very similar to the classic Herzog Zwei) that you can play right in your browser.

Edmus

Nothing gives you that feeling of standing out from the pack like literally standing out from a big pack of other players. Edmus is a simple, one-button platformer (think Canabalt) that pits you against the ghost runs of every other player to attempt the day’s level.It's disturbingly satisfying watching all your competitors fall by the wayside, one by one.

Cat God vs Sun King

Take on the role of the wrathful (and adorable) Cat God, and use an array of magical powers to smash the followers of the Sun King, and prevent them from completing their tower. Earn achievements to purchase upgrade items, like “Sock full of sand” and “Statue of a cactus.”

Kingdom Rush

There’s a lot of competition in the flash-based tower defense genre, but Kingdom Rush is the reigning champion. The game doesn’t offer you a ridiculous selection of towers, like some other TDs—instead, you’ll find a limited selection of towers and abilities, excellently balanced for a polished, challenging experience.

Gemcraft Labyrinth

Kingdom Rush might be the most polished tower defense available right now, but the old guard isn’t gone. Gemcraft is the deepest, most hardcore TD series out there, and it’s most recent entry, Labyrinth, provides literally hundreds of hours of gameplay for expert TD gamers.

Curvy

Talk about a test for your spatial reasoning capabilities. Curvy is a tile-based puzzle game, where your job is to rotate tiles to create a continuous mesh of red and blue lines, with no lines ending or going off the edge of the board. Simple, but strangely compelling.

Alight (In Dreams)

If the parenthetical title didn’t tip you off, this is another indie game with a surreal, slightly-twee premise and story. Fortunately, it’s backed up by fun exploration gameplay and a nice pixel art style.

noitcelfeR

A reflection-based platformer, noitcelfeR (Get it?) challenges you to complete standard run-and-jump challenges while keeping track of two versions of the level geometry—the main version, as well as the reflected version below.

Axon

The goal of Axon is simple: create the longest neuron possible by clicking from node to node, grabbing power-ups along the way. Easy to get into, but gets surprisingly challenging, fast. As a bonus, learn a little about neurobiology while you play!

Focus

A platformer that combines puzzle solving and jumping with quick-reflex projectile dodging (like N+, but less bonkers).

Hambo 2

Part Angry Birds, part Worms, Hambo 2 is a physics-based shooter that’s a lot of fun. Plenty of clever levels and a nice assortment of physics-based weaponry to destroy your pig enemies (gosh, why does that sound familiar?)

Realm of the Mad God

There have been a lot of attempts at a flash-based browser MMORPG, but Realm of the Mad God is the first one that feels like the real deal. World of Warcraft it ain’t, but this interesting mix of fantasy RPG and shoot-em-up gameplay has a surprising amount of depth. It’s free, supported by entirely-optional in-app purchases.

Mushroom Madness 3

A more family-friendly take on the popular “top down zombie shooter” genre, In Mushroom Madness games you have to protect your mushroom patches by smacking, shooting and blowing up approaching garden pests. In between matches, spend points to level up your hedgehog-obliterating abilities.

That’s My Dungeon!

Though it’s not the first game to put you on the opposite side of the usual dungeon crawl, “That’s My Dungeon!” is a fun combination of Dungeon Keeper minion-management and tower defense strategy.

The I of It

Is there an award for game developers who creatively avoid having to come up with any actual art for their games? If there is, The I of It should win. Play as the letter I, attempting to find the letter T, navigating geometric puzzles by stretching yourself out. Can be surprisingly challenging!

Utopian Mining

A pixilated version of the classic mining gameplay (c.f. Motherload) with a fun twist. As you dig deeper and deeper, complete quests to help restore the town of Utopia.