Flash Game Recs
After playing a bunch of games last night I decided to make a list of my favorite flash games I've played recently. Not counting the Adult Swim games, because everyone raves about those and they don't need any more notoriety.
Warning, this post is going to be very image-heavy.
1. Submachine
I am probably the biggest, perhaps only fangirl of the Submachine games.
You know those point-and-click puzzle games where you have to collect and use various objects to break out of a space? Yeah, the Submachine games are like one of those games that ate Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and... whoever's writing good scifi these days.
I mean, Sub1 is pretty standard fare for a point-and-click puzzle game. I link to Sub0 here, which isn't officially part of the main series (it was designed for a contest) but it's easy and short and sets the tone of the overall series better than the actual original game. Once you complete that, you can get to the other games on the PastelGames website. Sub2 is where the storyline really kicks in. Through a series of notes, we gradually glean the story of Murtaugh, a scientist who, due to an accident, gained telekinetic powers. After the lighthouse he lived in was buried (no, it doesn't make sense--it's not supposed to), he used his powers to escape into the Submachine, which he then set up a lab and several research teams in order to explore.
Of course, as you traverse the games, you are the only sign of human life aside from the notes and computer messages left to you by Murtaugh and the other researchers... that, and the bloodstains in Sub2 should tip you off that something's gone pretty damn wrong in this machine. But old Mur is keeping pretty mum about it... and seems to become more and more malicious as the series goes on.
The atmosphere is creepy and awesome and the difficulty level steps up pretty evenly with each game--Sub3 is a bit of a departure from all the others because it's a more standard puzzle solving game rather than a point-and-click type (although the twist at the end is pretty sweet). I kind of... need more people to play the Submachine games so I can have more Submachine fangirls. In the interest of full disclosure, I couldn't get through most of the games without a walkthrough (0, 1, and 3 are the only ones I could do completely on my own), but it was worth it for the style and the story anyway.
2. Dino Run
Dino Run is an adorable 8-bit game in which you must outrun the apocalypse.
Seriously.
You control a little dinosaur--apparently some sort of raptor--using your arrow keys to flee a roaring, flaming wall of doom which consumes all creatures in it's wake. There is something grimly satisfying about devouring smaller dinosaurs to gain points, power-ups, and bonuses (you can even see their little bones flying as you gobble them up. If you jump and catch a sparkling fruit hanging from one of the branches, you can also gain the power to crush rocks and flip larger dinosaurs in your path.
There are two modes, the regular Challenge Mode, and then Speedruns, which offer you a variety of single-level themed courses. As you beat more challenges and gain more points, you can earn higher stats and also goodies (I earned enough bones to download Dino Run icons for my desktop ♥ )
It's a pretty easy game, but addicting, and adorable in spite of all it's carnage. It also has a lot more variety of gameplay and visualization to it than some other running games... which is a lot to say about a pixel-game, but those seem to be really in style right now. Hey, speaking of pixels...
3. Smaller Worlds
Not to be confused with... any number of games by the same name, the Small Worlds flash game is an exploration game for people who just... really like art and atmosphere.
There is exactly one function, one goal in the whole game--explore. As you explore, your world gets bigger, your surroundings become clearer, and shadows lift to reveal more and more for you to see.
Kind of poetic in it's own way.
It's... ridiculously easy, since you have one function--explore--and you can't die. However, as you play, the world you reveal to yourself is... ridiculously beautiful. This game shows the true extent of what pixel-art can be.
And Roger Ebert says that games can't be art. Well he can suck it.
4. Miami Shark
Happy Shark Week.
Meet Robot Unicorn Attack's surly, drunken cousin. In this game, you play a shark, wreaking mayhem off the Miami shore. Like Robot Unicorn Attack, you move your shark across a scrolling landscape with your arrow keys, using A to bite. Devour swimmers and dolphins, crush boats and start fires. This is the game to play when you want to cause absurd amounts of destruction but you don't want to go out and sabotage your neighbor's gas mains.
You can't crash and die or anything in Miami Shark. You just race to destroy as much as possible before your time limit runs out. And god, it's satisfying. This game is a good stress release--very cathartic.
Oh, and did I mention you can pull fucking helicopters and jet planes out of the sky and destroy them?
How can you not want to play a game where you get to be a shark ripping planes out of the air?
5. Loved
Wired has an article about this game entitled 'Loved': The game that hates you. That is probably the best possible summary of this game ever.
Loved is a creepy little platformer. It opens with a narrator asking you for your gender identity, and then spitefully referring to you by it's opposite. It doesn't get any nicer. This voice will taunt you, demean you, and try to mislead you all throughout the game. It's like Portal's GlaDOS without the playful wit.
Meanwhile, colorful pixelization around you is constantly obscuring the scenery, getting worse as you go on. Hazards make you shatter like glass, and moving red blocks will hunt you down like a dog. (EDIT: Apparently, if you play the game obediently, the game gets prettier as you go along.)
The mood of the game is wonderful and it's fun to play in a sitting. The ending feels a little abrupt, especially story-wise--I hope there will be a sequel. This is the game to play if you like platforming games and total mindfucks.
6. Coma
Coma is another game in the same spiritual vein as Loved--a dark, warped exploring game/platformer. Well, Loved is more of a platformer and Coma is more of an explorer but they both have elements of each.
Coma definitely, definitely has better art, though. It is surreally beautiful in it's own way, featuring the bizarre mindscapes of a subconscious world and all the weird characters that run through it. The story and art are the best parts of the game, like some wonderful, horrible dream. There is a bit of squick to it, though--this is definitely not the game to play if you never want to be forced to crawl through a giant worm's stomach and out it's butt.
Gameplay itself is easy enough, with a couple of catches (in one area of the game, right becomes left and left becomes right). It's mostly a lot of running around with a few fairly simple jumping and problem-solving challenges.
But seriously, play it for the art and the story. In case you couldn't tell, I love a game with atmosphere.
7. Music Catch 2
Don't let the number throw you off--Music Catch 2 is everything the first game was, and much more.
Music Catch is your media player's visualizer as turned into a game. It's simple and relaxing for an action/arcade sort of game, a feel promoted by the beautiful classical piano music that plays in the background of each level. The music guides the rhythm of the appearance of colorful glowing shapes that you must catch with your pointer, being careful to avert the red ones.
This game is like a zen garden or stress ball set to music and crammed into your computer. If you're ever really pissed off and you'd rather not promote your bloodlust by destroying things in a game like Miami Shark, play this game instead to cool off.
Probably the best part about Music Catch is that once you beat all the built-in levels of the game... you earn an option to play the game set to any song you want.
Well, you'll need an MP3 link to do it. May I recommend BeeMP3 to that end?
And I'm sure I'll come up with more games I want to rec later.
Warning, this post is going to be very image-heavy.
1. Submachine
I am probably the biggest, perhaps only fangirl of the Submachine games.
You know those point-and-click puzzle games where you have to collect and use various objects to break out of a space? Yeah, the Submachine games are like one of those games that ate Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and... whoever's writing good scifi these days.
I mean, Sub1 is pretty standard fare for a point-and-click puzzle game. I link to Sub0 here, which isn't officially part of the main series (it was designed for a contest) but it's easy and short and sets the tone of the overall series better than the actual original game. Once you complete that, you can get to the other games on the PastelGames website. Sub2 is where the storyline really kicks in. Through a series of notes, we gradually glean the story of Murtaugh, a scientist who, due to an accident, gained telekinetic powers. After the lighthouse he lived in was buried (no, it doesn't make sense--it's not supposed to), he used his powers to escape into the Submachine, which he then set up a lab and several research teams in order to explore.
Of course, as you traverse the games, you are the only sign of human life aside from the notes and computer messages left to you by Murtaugh and the other researchers... that, and the bloodstains in Sub2 should tip you off that something's gone pretty damn wrong in this machine. But old Mur is keeping pretty mum about it... and seems to become more and more malicious as the series goes on.
The atmosphere is creepy and awesome and the difficulty level steps up pretty evenly with each game--Sub3 is a bit of a departure from all the others because it's a more standard puzzle solving game rather than a point-and-click type (although the twist at the end is pretty sweet). I kind of... need more people to play the Submachine games so I can have more Submachine fangirls. In the interest of full disclosure, I couldn't get through most of the games without a walkthrough (0, 1, and 3 are the only ones I could do completely on my own), but it was worth it for the style and the story anyway.
2. Dino Run
Dino Run is an adorable 8-bit game in which you must outrun the apocalypse.
Seriously.
You control a little dinosaur--apparently some sort of raptor--using your arrow keys to flee a roaring, flaming wall of doom which consumes all creatures in it's wake. There is something grimly satisfying about devouring smaller dinosaurs to gain points, power-ups, and bonuses (you can even see their little bones flying as you gobble them up. If you jump and catch a sparkling fruit hanging from one of the branches, you can also gain the power to crush rocks and flip larger dinosaurs in your path.
There are two modes, the regular Challenge Mode, and then Speedruns, which offer you a variety of single-level themed courses. As you beat more challenges and gain more points, you can earn higher stats and also goodies (I earned enough bones to download Dino Run icons for my desktop ♥ )
It's a pretty easy game, but addicting, and adorable in spite of all it's carnage. It also has a lot more variety of gameplay and visualization to it than some other running games... which is a lot to say about a pixel-game, but those seem to be really in style right now. Hey, speaking of pixels...
3. Smaller Worlds
Not to be confused with... any number of games by the same name, the Small Worlds flash game is an exploration game for people who just... really like art and atmosphere.
There is exactly one function, one goal in the whole game--explore. As you explore, your world gets bigger, your surroundings become clearer, and shadows lift to reveal more and more for you to see.
Kind of poetic in it's own way.
It's... ridiculously easy, since you have one function--explore--and you can't die. However, as you play, the world you reveal to yourself is... ridiculously beautiful. This game shows the true extent of what pixel-art can be.
And Roger Ebert says that games can't be art. Well he can suck it.
4. Miami Shark
Happy Shark Week.
Meet Robot Unicorn Attack's surly, drunken cousin. In this game, you play a shark, wreaking mayhem off the Miami shore. Like Robot Unicorn Attack, you move your shark across a scrolling landscape with your arrow keys, using A to bite. Devour swimmers and dolphins, crush boats and start fires. This is the game to play when you want to cause absurd amounts of destruction but you don't want to go out and sabotage your neighbor's gas mains.
You can't crash and die or anything in Miami Shark. You just race to destroy as much as possible before your time limit runs out. And god, it's satisfying. This game is a good stress release--very cathartic.
Oh, and did I mention you can pull fucking helicopters and jet planes out of the sky and destroy them?
How can you not want to play a game where you get to be a shark ripping planes out of the air?
5. Loved
Wired has an article about this game entitled 'Loved': The game that hates you. That is probably the best possible summary of this game ever.
Loved is a creepy little platformer. It opens with a narrator asking you for your gender identity, and then spitefully referring to you by it's opposite. It doesn't get any nicer. This voice will taunt you, demean you, and try to mislead you all throughout the game. It's like Portal's GlaDOS without the playful wit.
Meanwhile, colorful pixelization around you is constantly obscuring the scenery, getting worse as you go on. Hazards make you shatter like glass, and moving red blocks will hunt you down like a dog. (EDIT: Apparently, if you play the game obediently, the game gets prettier as you go along.)
The mood of the game is wonderful and it's fun to play in a sitting. The ending feels a little abrupt, especially story-wise--I hope there will be a sequel. This is the game to play if you like platforming games and total mindfucks.
6. Coma
Coma is another game in the same spiritual vein as Loved--a dark, warped exploring game/platformer. Well, Loved is more of a platformer and Coma is more of an explorer but they both have elements of each.
Coma definitely, definitely has better art, though. It is surreally beautiful in it's own way, featuring the bizarre mindscapes of a subconscious world and all the weird characters that run through it. The story and art are the best parts of the game, like some wonderful, horrible dream. There is a bit of squick to it, though--this is definitely not the game to play if you never want to be forced to crawl through a giant worm's stomach and out it's butt.
Gameplay itself is easy enough, with a couple of catches (in one area of the game, right becomes left and left becomes right). It's mostly a lot of running around with a few fairly simple jumping and problem-solving challenges.
But seriously, play it for the art and the story. In case you couldn't tell, I love a game with atmosphere.
7. Music Catch 2
Don't let the number throw you off--Music Catch 2 is everything the first game was, and much more.
Music Catch is your media player's visualizer as turned into a game. It's simple and relaxing for an action/arcade sort of game, a feel promoted by the beautiful classical piano music that plays in the background of each level. The music guides the rhythm of the appearance of colorful glowing shapes that you must catch with your pointer, being careful to avert the red ones.
This game is like a zen garden or stress ball set to music and crammed into your computer. If you're ever really pissed off and you'd rather not promote your bloodlust by destroying things in a game like Miami Shark, play this game instead to cool off.
Probably the best part about Music Catch is that once you beat all the built-in levels of the game... you earn an option to play the game set to any song you want.
Well, you'll need an MP3 link to do it. May I recommend BeeMP3 to that end?
And I'm sure I'll come up with more games I want to rec later.