With Halloween lurking around the corner like Jason Voorhees at your local summer camp, now is the perfect time to make an amazing costume, find a bag big enough to store an entire neighbourhood's worth of sweets - and stay in all week playing games. (Did you know you can get sweeties at the shops now?) This week's selection box includes a fraction of frogs, a pinch of medieval shark, a peck of birdie, a sliver of Snayke, and an innovative first-person-ish platform game. Enjoy!
Frog Fractions by Twinbeard Studios
Go and play Frog Fractions right now. Seriously - right now. Don't stop to finish your coffee, put on pants, or complete that bowel movement - click on the above link immediately . Although it seems like a simple fruit-catching game with edutainmenty qualities, Frog Fractions soon becomes so much more. It took me an embarassingly long time to work out how to afford the warp drive - which is where the game begins in earnest - so I'm going to perform a public service and spare you the trouble. To get the warp core, all you need to do is [REDACTED]. Then [REDACTED] the [REDACTED] until the game [REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED]. Bet you're kicking yourself, right?
Medieval Shark by Felix Weisner
Rather than including Frog Fractions five-and-a-half times, I should probably recommend some other games. Next on the list is Medieval Shark, the latest military shooter from Activ... nah, it's a score attack about a medieval shark. A medieval shark with an executioner's mask and axe, because games are amazing things . I love this. It's the equivalent of those films where a mega something meets a giant something else, but for once it lives up to the brilliant title.
No, Birdie, No! by Carnefrisca
As good as that bit at the start of Cliffhanger was, it would have been improved no end by an obnoxious bird pecking at the fingers of the woman Sly Stallone was trying to save. No, Birdie, No! plays out like that, but with a ledge instead of a length of rope, and no Sly 'Don't call me Cooper' Stallone. It's still great, and tough, requiring a dexterity I'm not exactly known for (I fell up some stairs the other week). Proof, if more were needed, that birds are evil, fluttering jerks that resent mankind and everything we stand for.
Snazzle by Amidos
We told you about Snayke the other week , but the Snayke-insired Snazzle just might be better than the original, and not just because it's named 'Snazzle'. It's a turn-based version of the above (which, in turn, is based on the game you probably played back on an old mobile phone), with Spacechem-style movement arrows and a lovely, fragile soundtrack. It's pretty much the same game as Snayke, but at a far more relaxed pace that my stupid brain has a better hope of keeping up with. Plus, and this can't be overstated, it's called Snazzle .
Atum by Team Cupcake
Sidescrolling platformers may have reached saturation point, but sometimes all it takes for them to feel fresh again is a particularly good gimmick - and Atum's gimmick is particularly particularly good. It's a platformer as played by someone sitting at their computer; move the mouse and you can look around your room. Things get smarter when you realise you can interact with the game externally - for example, by using your lighter to illuminate a gloomy area. This is something we'd love to see expanded and refined.
