Sandlot Games is known more for its strategy games than anything else, what with titles like Tradewinds and Westward to its name. Now the studio is bludgeoning its way onto the hidden object game scene with Kuros, a beautiful and unique object finding adventure that will remind you in more than one way of the Dream Chronicles series.

You wake up in a strange magical world knowing not who nor where you are. Upon exploring this mystical place, the holes in your memory are filled in one bit at a time by the eccentric host of characters you meet. You're name is Katya, and the world you are exploring is none other than Kuros, a realm kept in balance by glyph stones that keep the elements in harmony.

You soon learn that all is not well and this is far from paradise. Someone has thrown the elements out of balance and launched an offensive against those who have sworn to protect the glyph stones. Now the inhabitants of Kuros turn to you to help them restore order and track down the culprit that threatens the fate of their world.

You'll find that your time on Kuros will be very busy indeed. In order to explore more of the world, you'll have to search the various scenes for cleverly hidden map fragments. Once all the fragments for a given area have been discovered, piece them together and open up new areas. You'll also put your object finding skills to the test to solve puzzles, many of which open up even more puzzles! As if this wasn't enough, keep your mind on restoring the glyph stones, a task that will require the use of your magic wand and your ability to carve the sacred glyphs you'll find all over the place.

Analysis: It's clear that Sandlot Games wanted to make sure its first venture in the world of hidden object games was a strong one. Indeed, Kuros roars out of the gate determined to prove it is anything but a conventional object finder.

There are no lists of random objects in Kuros, everything you hunt for plays a strong part in the game. Finding map fragments is perhaps the most conventional object seeking task. Outside of that, you'll find some of your item hunts will loosely resemble those in Totem Tribe. That is to say, you'll often be sent to track down numbers of like items across a broad area (or, in this case, across multiple scenes, sometimes spanning the entirety of Kuros itself).

In other instances, object seeking resembles gameplay found in Flux Family Secrets. Hotspots which are ultimately part of puzzles will summon blacked out images of items you'll have to find in the immediate scene. Once these items are found and put in their correct slot you can proceed with the puzzle. By getting creative and mixing up the hidden object mechanic, Kuros keeps the core of its gameplay fresh and engaging even if conventional object finding may have grown a little old with you.

Backing up the item hunts is a strong supporting cast of puzzles. From lining up paths of piping to punching your way through Guitar Hero-esque organ playing, these puzzles may not be exactly the most original we've seen, but they are exceptionally well-executed. These stand-alone puzzles are further bolstered by a very light item-based puzzle element. In both cases, most of the challenges you will be tasked with are not all that difficult and serve as a nice way of changing the pace as opposed to acting as nigh-impassable obstacles.

Rounding out what makes Kuros work so well is the cast itself, or, more accurately, the storytelling dynamic. The plot behind Kuros is rich and hints at unplumbed depths waiting to be discovered. This mystical planet brims with life thanks to the eccentric characters you'll meet, from the nearly-blind Farseer to the catastrophically clumsy Librarian. Each character (with perhaps one or two exceptions) is brilliantly voiced. The voice of Katya deserves special mention here. Her lines may test the boundaries of believability with the way the shocking is dealt with nonchalance. But the voice somehow manages to sell it with a near-perfect blend of awe and cynicism. While we don't spend too much time with the characters in this story, it's hard to walk away from Kuros without the feeling that new friendships have been forged.

Yes, Kuros inherits its personality from its inhabitants, but it has a physical beauty all its own. From a kindly forest setting that promises the beginnings of fairy tales to chilling windswept snow-capped peaks, the look of Kuros is surreal enough to be fantasy, but real enough to take your imagination on an amazing ride.

While overworld navigation is easy enough, navigating whilst in a scene can be a pain. The hotspots that let you leave any one given setting are often unintuitive, bizarre, or far too obtrusive, taking up most of the main playing field. Another annoyance is the fact that you'll have to manually enter every item you pick up into your inventory. This may seem small, but when you are searching for objects over the span of several settings this can be a rather trying hindrance. Kuros also would have also been helped by a slightly more generous hint system. The irony of the matter is that you must find special items to gain hints, and these are some of the most fiendishly hidden objects in the game. This strikes me as counter-intuitive because if you are having a hard time finding one of the objects you need, chances are you'll have a harder time finding one of the items needed to help you find it.

The last problem plaguing Kuros is somewhat bittersweet: it's just too short. Yes, Kuros has its flaws, but even with those taken into account, it's clear that Sandlot came up with something pretty special here. As I neared the end I did so with a slight twinge of sadness. I was just getting started. Hidden object veterans should power through this title in an afternoon, but you'll wish you had at least twice that time.

Kuros has what some may call rookie mistakes, but the ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into making this game shine amazingly bright. In the end it's sad to leave Kuros behind for the mundane world, but we do so with great hope that we'll have the opportunity to return soon (and hopefully for a little longer next time).

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

You know, I think I'm old enough now to have a "day". As in, "Back in my day, we never had games about toast, or nailing jelly to a wall. And jigsaw puzzles actually made sense!" But then I remember that my "day" was actually pretty boring and consisted of really big hair, Lawn Darts, and music videos by Paula Abdul. So instead, let's enjoy this day, and this week's Link Dump Friday!

• Pixa Fixa - Yoy may not think you're all that old, but Pixa Fixa is here to show you just how terrible your memory is. Recreate coloured pixel images using the highest of high-tech cannons on a grid! And then when your self confidence has been well and truly shattered, we can go hang out together on a porch somewhere in rocking chairs, talk about Pac Man, and yell at kids to stay off our lawn. It'll be keen!
• Summertime - Easy jigsaw puzzles are for suckers. The only time a puzzle is really good is when it has you staring at a computer screen with such intensity that those around you can hear the gears in your head shrieking away like a rusty buzzsaw. Drag and drop the appropriate images together, and then use your enormous brain to solve the energy crisis and trasmute lead into gold, because you're clearly some sort of mutant superbeing if you can finish this one. No, I'm not bitter!
• Toast of War - It's difficult to put into words just how awesome this joyously quirky little platform adventure about an intrepid slice of toast is. It helps if you realise that if Toast of War was a person, he would wear a leather jacket, jump over sharks, and get all the ladies. Or we could just say "Boss fight with a chainsaw", and that would tell you all you needed to know.
• The Rather Difficult Game - Old people have the best sayings, mainly because they never make any sense. This way, the next time one tells you something is "as difficult as herding kittens" or "nailing jelly to a wall", you can tell them you've already done it and bask in your sense of superiority. At least until they lecture you about respecting your elders and remind you that you haven't really herded kittens until you've done it uphill. In a snowstorm. In space. With fireants in your shoes. Yeah.
• Fat Slice - Finally, a game Sweeney Todd would enjoy! Use your mouse to slash every spare bit you can off a series of increasingly complex shapes. Which is easier said than done since some inconsiderate person filled them with bouncing balls you have to avoid. May or may not make you want to throw your keyboard out a window. (Hint: Probably will.)

What is it with the Japanese? Every time I turn around they've locked me in a room. At least this one is furnished with a nice comfy couch. Oh look! A widescreen TV and a selection of DVDs. Great! Now, where's the remote...?

Escape From the Living Room, a new game by Japanese designer Isshi-e, is a solid, entertaining room escape game. Simply point and click your way through an uncluttered yet beautifully rendered living room, packed with challenges.

There is no back story here, no note from a mad doctor, no urgent ticking clock. Just you and a comfortable living room. Bars at the edges of the screen make finding your way around quick and easy. A few important objects are rather small, but even my tired old eyes could spot them. While navigating through the room is itself relatively simple, solving some of the puzzles, especially the end solution, will take a bit of ingenuity. This is basic escape-the-room stuff; but what a lot of stuff! What in the world is that three-headed rotating totem for? That's for Isshi-e to know and you to find out.

You'll spend most of your time in Escape From the Living Room collecting and using objects as you work towards the final solution. Not to say that there aren't any puzzles. There are indeed some tricky brain-teasers, but the answers to the more practical "How do I use that?" questions are what keep the game fun.

The puzzles themselves are logical and flow easily from one to another. The photorealistic backgrounds make you want to slow down and enjoy the scenery. Despite minimal decoration, the lush textures beg to be touched. The music... well, thankfully Isshi-e has included a mute button.

My only quibble is the sometimes frustrating way the game handles your inventory. The problems begin after you select an acquired object, then hit the "about item" button for a close-up. Some items need to be opened, turned, and manipulated, and finding the "sweet spot" that will allow you to do this can be tricky, with no visual cues.

Qibbles aside, Escape From the Living Room makes for a fun, quick escape. Or you could just kick back on that inviting couch, relax, and watch some DVDs...

Play Escape from the Living Room.

John Cooney (Achievement Unlocked, Ball Revamped) now provides us with this important news bulletin: Rabbit Wants Cake. Okay, so maybe it's not news. In fact, who doesn't want cake? Maybe as you play through this time-tweaking platformer, you might want to envision yourself in place of the cute little rabbit. There you go, now you're set to chase after some fine cake.

But what's this? A remote-control antenna sticking out of your back? Well, no worries. Your goal is to program in a series of commands that lead you to the cake while dodging all of the spikes and furry monsters in your way. To do this, click the "Record" button near the top, then use the [WASD] or [arrow] keys to lay down your motions (they'll appear as colored lines in the timeline at the top). When you're satisfied with your commands, stop the recording and hit the "Playback" button to see what you've done.

If you make it to the cake, hooray, you've got cake! If you don't, aww. But there's still hope! If you elected to play the Normal mode, you can edit your colored bars of actions just like a movie by adjusting their length or position (but not by splitting or creating new bars), and play it again to see if your new commands work out a bit better. If you chose the expert mode, you're only allowed to re-record your commands, so get ready for some heavy memorizing and precision timing.

After 25 levels of careful planning, timing, and noshing, you'll have a new appreciation for cake. You will also learn why you should never give a rabbit a remote control to give you commands. The cake is not for you; the cake is for the rabbit. Let the rabbit have the cake. He'll be very nice to you.

Play Rabbit Wants Cake.

Football? No thanks. Soccer? Yawn! Baseball? So last year! These days, the great outdoors looks a lot more like the boring outdoors. It's about time someone invented a new sport for the kids to play. Something gentle, yet awesome. From Harold Brenes comes the next great outdoor pastime in Fragger, a sweet little puzzle game on a physics engine. With grenades. It's every bit as wholesome and appealing as golf, except you'll actually enjoy yourself, instead of just pretending to.

We're not entirely sure what's going on here, since no story whatsoever makes an appearance. The dopey grin the target wears sort of puts one in mind of the Beagle Boys, so let's just pretend you're trying to keep them from breaking into Scrooge McDuck's moneybin. With extreme force. Each stage consists of a certain number of these no-doubt dastardly baddies, and you need to get rid of all of them to proceed. You have a certain amount of grenades per level, and you can keep track of how many you have left in the upper left of the screen. Run out, and you'll be forced to restart.

Few things can compare to the simple joy of tossing grenades around on a bright summer day, and Fragger makes it easy for you to get into the swing of things by controlling everything with the click of your mouse. Move your cursor up and down to adjust the pitch, and toward or away from yourself to choose the force behind your throw. Once you click the left mouse button, your bow-legged on-screen counterpart will toss his grenade. Grenades only explode after they stop moving, not when they hit something, so you'll want them to land as close to your target as possible. If it looks like it's going to miss, you can tap the [space] bar to instantly make it vanish, but you'll still be minus one grenade. In a pinch, you can also "destroy" enemies by knocking them off screen.

As the levels go on, Fragger keeps things fresh by introducing new items onto the field at a decent rate. You probably won't be surprised by the exploding crates, since they're contractually required to be in every game with the slightest military theme, ever. But some items, like the timed exploding boxes that zip off in a specific direction when hit, are a pleasant surprise. It's just enough to keep you on your toes and thinking.

Analysis: Early on the "puzzle" aspect of the game is mostly limited to figuring out just how much force and angle you need to put behind a grenade to tuck it between a goon and a wall on an odd platform. Later, the game surprised me by offering up several stages that resembled Rube Goldberg machines, replete with platforms, tunnels, and walls that had to be approached in a certain order. I honestly wish there had been more of them. Tossing a grenade in the opposite direction of a goon and watching it set off a bizarre chain reaction that still eventually wins the stage is intensely satisfying. The downside is these stages also depend on everything falling just so, and there were times when I had to restart an entire level because a fall of blocks landed at an odd angle and blocked off the area they were supposed to clear.

Still, as big and fun as it is, Fragger is actually never really that difficult. You may have a finite number of grenades, but you can restart a level over and over without any penalty. Just sit back and toss away until you find something that works; this is generally an acceptable strategy for all but the most finicky of stages, which sort of takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Since the only moves to master here are "throw explodey thing" and "make guy go boom", there's not a lot of necessity to improve your skills. If you hit someone in the head, they'll just topple over like cardboard cutouts, so you never have to deal with the added challenge of a moving target.

With a bright, cartoony design and smooth interface that makes playing a breeze, Fragger is a winner, but not quite a classic. But for an afternoon of exploding fun, you'll be hard pressed to beat it at its own game. Just remember to duck and cover!

Play Fragger.

Push, by Ian Snyder (Valo, Captain Dan vs Zombie Plan), is a retro-looking new platform game with a twist. Actually, not just a twist, but a full-fledged indian burn. Oh, the controls are simple enough — use the [arrow] keys or [WASD] to run and jump on platforms, hold the jump key to stick to ceilings with your flat sticky head, click on the screen with your mouse cursor to warp the very molecules of space around a powerful force anomaly. But the twist is that you can... oh wait, that was it. The physics-warping anomaly thing IS the twist. And it changes everything.

Your goal on each level is to get your heroic cubey-leggy-thing to the sun. Like practically every pre-16-bit platform game, the levels in Push are made of tiles, locked at first into the traditional grid where tiles live out their blocky lives. When you hold the mouse button, though, a circle expands from the cursor, forcing the tiles to the perimeter and thus creating new gaps and platforms. Everything can be subverted and bullied — blocks, hazards, even the sunny goal that ends the level. Only brick tiles are immune, and many levels use those immutable bricks as a welcome source of structure and sanity, so you can't just splatter the landscape all over tarnation like a whimsical demigod.

Another nod to sanity is the fact that tiles will creep back home after they leave your (literal) sphere of influence. The chaos is limited to a small area, where your keyboard hand and mouse hand work in tandem to succeed. I can even imagine playing this with two players, one on movement and the other on Reality Shred. Just be prepared to die a lot.

Analysis: Actually, be prepared to die anyway. The controls in this game are super-touchy, and because the collision detection is trying to cope with the constant pressure of strange events, it can feel glitchy at times. Make friends with the little comic-book-bubble Squish that appears when homecoming tiles trap your hero, because you'll be seeing a lot of it. And learn to enjoy falling into the void.

So, the concept for this is flat-out brilliant, and the presentation comes right from the center of the current indie games ideal. Large-pixelled charm and subtle emotional tones, with a killer soundtrack if you're into melancholy electronic whooping (which I am). The biggest problem is in the level design. Like all the games at BonusLevel, Push rests on a foundation of user-created levels, and that means even the offical levelset is repetitive and often too hard. The gradual introduction of challenges that would come with a tuned Story or Adventure Mode is a gaping hole in the center of this game about gaping holes.

I would love to see the level progression match up with the game design, but Push is exciting and inventive enough that everybody should at least peek at it. The first time you click the mouse, it will expand your mind.

Play Push.

You can also play Push at the Casual Collective, who sponsored the game.You can play a whole different set of user-created levels there!

The cry goes out across the land for a hero! Someone stalwart! Someone true! Someone with a really awesome 'stache, and some... little... purple dude, we guess! That's right, true believers, the only one who can save us now is none other than the devastatingly handsome Reemus! And thanks to the combined talents of Jay Ziebarth and his team, Reemus is back for the third chapter in his several journeys: Know Thy Enemy. Will Reemus ever become a hero? Will Liam ever get his own matching vest? Why don't more people have gelatin pools in their underground lairs? These, and many other questions, will not be answered in this installment! Luckily, it's just as slyly fun as the rest.

Things get even stickier in The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3, as Reemus and Liam race to deliver an important message to the castle. Or, um, not race, exactly, since Reemus's trademark unimpressed stare and casual lope is still firmly in place. Click on objects on the screen to interact or move the two would-be heroes around. You can play as either Reemus or Liam, and clicking on the appropriate icon in the upper left corner will swap who you have control over. As you progress, you'll find you need to do that quite a bit. Reemus is stronger, while Liam is smaller and more agile, so neither is suited to every task.

This time around, after an initial puzzle that looks pretty familiar, you're presented with a problem that has our heroes split on how to handle it. Depending on which solution you go after, you'll be faced with a different set of puzzles, and a different ending. It adds a nice chunk of replay value to a game that would otherwise be pretty short.

Analysis: Part of what makes Reemus so enjoyable is the bizarre world in which he lives. The strange plants and animals there are as weird as they are wonderful, and there's always a certain amount of anticipation involved in each new installment, as you discover just what Zeebarf has dreamt up this time. Somewhere, Tim Burton looks up at the vast inky bowl of fathomless night sky, and senses he has a kindred spirit.

Considering that their realm is so far removed from our own, the puzzles in this latest chapter are surprisingly logical. All it takes is some clicking around to figure out how each strange beast or item reacts, and the pieces typically fall into place with little prodding. They make their own queer sort of sense once you stop trying to apply silly things like "the laws of nature" to them. Oh, of course you can lead the bees around like little balloons! Why wouldn't you? It's all so obvious!

Even with two paths to explore, however, Chapter 3 is pretty short. The areas are so small and well designed that you won't spend a lot of time aimlessly clicking about, searching in vain for whatever magical MacGuffin could be hidden behind a pixel. The ending will leave you wanting more, but in a good way. After all, the greatest compliment a chef can get is the sound of someone scraping for the last bits at the bottom of a bowl. If you're looking for an hour or so of Zeebarf's signature sense of humour and a good deal of questing, then look no further. Reemus is here, and he polished his paunch just for you!

Play The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3.

[Note: The Freewill Cycle game file is 25MB, so please be patient while it loads.] I am very fond of classic adventure games. The games in which you wake up in a strange place with no idea where to go or what to do. No intro, no handy tutorial, no friendly ghosts, no bloodthirsty zombies, just a lot of questions that need answers. The Freewill Cycle: Volume 1, by first time designer William Buchanan, will take you back to the days when the first thing you have to figure out is "What the heck am I doing here?" Cue mysterious music...

You awake in a room. Could be in a spaceship, could be in a space station, could be just a strange building in East Podunk, Michigan. There's no way of knowing, because all you can see out of the windows are pretty, pretty moving lights. You notice that the ominously pulsating glow has breached the room next to the one you started in. Should you walk into the light? On second thought, not a good idea. Perhaps you should explore a little more...

A JIG exclusive, The Freewill Cycle: Volume 1 is in essence a simple point-and-click escape game. The cursor turns into an arrow to let you know where you can go, or it turns into a hand when you encounter something you can touch, move, or take. Finding your way around is fairly easy; figuring out what needs to be done? Not so much. Take your time, look around, pry into other people's private e-mail, and slowly a pattern emerges. How good are you at reproducing lab experiments and repairing potentially radioactive machinery? You're about to find out.

The first part of a planned trilogy, The Freewill Cycle: Volume 1 is reminiscent of the genre classic, Myst. You will have to examine everything, take anything that's not nailed down, and go everywhere. As you explore the story unfolds, giving, in a few short clues, a vivid account of what may have happened and the personalities of the people involved. Who, by the way, are mysteriously missing...

Analysis: It is amazing what can be packed into such a compact game. Considering that it contains only a handful of rooms and a corridor, there is a world of information to be gleaned. As you read the e-mails the story takes shape, and you get a glimpse into what the facility must have been like before the...incident. Gameplay is smooth and simple with the cursor letting you know when you've encountered something important. The puzzles range from easy (guessing the computer passwords) to extremely complex (...but that's a spoiler for the end of the game).

The graphics are stunning and uncluttered, allowing you to both enjoy the beauty of the design and easily identify the important hotspots. Rendered in 3D, with colors and textures galore, the game invites you to take the time to look around and enjoy. The background music is simultaneously eerie and unobtrusive, enhancing your claustrophobia and paranoia as you wander around trying to figure out what went on. One tip: don't play on mute. There are a few audio cues you might miss if the sound is turned off.

A minor quibble is that the environment seems a bit too sterile. Any kind of working facility would certainly have a little more clutter (have you ever worked with engineers?). Also, the solution to the largest of the puzzles requires a bit of lateral thinking. The clues are all there, but your ability to synthesize will be key. Also, for the sequel I'd like to see Buchanan add in a save feature and a mute button, two elements that are welcome in any game.

All in all this is a dramatic, eye-catching experience; the game is immersive enough to lose yourself in while being short enough for casual gameplay. I am most amazed that this is a first effort by the designer, who taught himself both Flash and 3D Studio Max as he went along. If the trial effort is this good, I can't wait for part two.

Update! New version uploaded that addresses the inventory item issue reported in the comments.

Oh how I have longed for this day! A game with the complexity of Myst boiled down into a bite sized chunk. An amuse-bouche of a game, if you will. This lovely little taste left me hungry for more!

Play The Freewill Cycle: Volume 1.

Update: A new version has been uploaded that should address the issues with the inventory items that some people were having.

Welcome to a new feature here at Jay is Games. If you've been visiting for a while, you've surely noticed that the site has grown and changed over time. Especially in the last year, we've attracted a ton of new readers, and along with them came new suggestions, new energy, and new JIG staff members. The site would not be what it is without you. You Are Games, every bit as much as Jay is.

I was initially attracted to JIG during one of the awesome Casual Gameplay Design Competitions, and while the next one of those is still a ways off, we wanted to give you another way to be creative and participate with us on a regular basis, beyond the usual comments and critiques of the daily games. You Are Games will change from week to week, but it will always be an opportunity for you to do stuff, whether it be a mini-competition about level design (like this week), a writing or art challenge, or a hunt for hidden flash game gems in a certain genre. We've got plenty of ideas, but we're going to play it by ear and see what happens.

That brings us to the Jay is Games Incredibots 2 Mini-Brawl!

We have mixed feelings about Incredibots 2, which Grubby Games recently released into Public Beta. Like the original Incredibots, it's one of the most versatile web applications around for creating physics-based robots and scenarios, and the sequel is easier to use than ever. You can now move pieces around in groups by just clicking and dragging with the mouse. You can adjust the gravity and many other variables that used to be constant.

However, Incredibots 2 doesn't include any official challenges, which were the center of the single-player experience in the first game. Instead, you are encouraged to create your own, and user-generated content being what it is, there is a wide range of quality available in the current line-up. This is the biggest change to Incredibots; it is now a big, friendly level design tool, with nearly endless possibilities. It's hard to recommend as a casual gameplay experience at this point, but for a brand new column about reader participation, it's just about perfect. Go go gadget level design contest!

Your mission for this Mini-Brawl is to create a challenge for your fellow JIGsters using the Incredibots 2 challenge editor. There are three restrictions:

1. The Sandbox Size must be Small. The dialog box that pops up when you click the Challenge Editor button lets you select the size of your building arena, and to keep our designs tight, let's all use Small, the default size.
2. The "Allow User Construction" box must be unchecked. That means the player of your challenge can't make their own robot; you have to supply both the robot and the obstacles. To find this checkbox, click on the "Restrictions" button in the upper right of the Challenge Editor screen.
3. There must be at least one Win Condition. The "Set Conditions" button in the editor takes you to the win condition screen. There needs to be some sort of goal, so we players have something to strive for.

Everything else is fair game. Let your imagination run wild, and feel free to post your creations here in the comments for everyone to play.

Play Incredibots 2!

If you wish to enter:
Please send a link to your challenge to the address on the right with the subject line "Incredibots 2 Mini-Brawl" and include your JIG display name (the name that appears when you comment here). To get the link to your challenge, play your challenge and click on the "Link to this Challenge" button in the control bar. The deadline is this Sunday evening, the 5th of July, at midnight, EST. The JIG staff will choose our favorites from the entries and post them here next week, and then maybe we'll have an audience vote too. Again, we're playing this by ear right now, and your feedback about our new feature is encouraged.

We're not sure what the prizes will be. This is mostly for the glory and the amusement. But there will be winners in the following three categories: Most Fun, Prettiest, and Best Use of JIG Mascot. That's the little guy doing a jig on the word "Gameplay" in our logo. Maybe someone will win all three categories! Anything is possible!

Feel free to discuss Incredibots 2 in the comments, and if you have ideas for other things we can do in the You Are Games column in the future, let's hear them. Also, extra-special thanks to Mat Annal of Nitrome for creating our lovely You Are Games banner. Cheers!

All is not what it appears in Anode and Cathode's latest release, The Fun Fair. Thankfully, you won't find any creepy clowns in this point and click adventure game, but you will find a slew of carnival themed mini-games, intriguing characters and some interesting puzzles.

Part 1 of The Fun Fair starts with your character standing outside the entrance to a fairgrounds with various amounts of coins and counters (the amount will depend on the difficulty level you have chosen). You are not quite sure why you decide to enter, but it has something to do with Sophia's mystery. Using your mouse to click your way around the expansive fairgrounds (or, if you prefer, click on the mini-map in the top right corner) you will encounter useful items used to further your quest as well as additional coins and counters. The coins are used to play the carnival mini-games, which make up quite a large portion of actual gameplay. Completing a carnival game will unlock items that will ultimately allow you access to later portion of the game. Some of these games are purely luck based (the cleverly named Wheel of Luck is probably a good example), some are easy enough to accomplish with very little skill (Horse Race) and some require the equivalent speed-mousing dexterity of a Ninja neurosurgeon to complete on the hardest game setting (The Far West Legend).

There are 3 prize tiers in the carnival games: the lollipop, the useful inventory item and the trophy. The lollipops are for doing poorly in a game, the useful items for doing well and the trophy is awarded when you've been outstanding. Fortunately you will need quite a few lollipops to exchange for items as the game progresses and even more fortunately the trophy items are non-essential — they are just a point bonus to your overall score.

After completing the carnival games and getting at least all of the useful items new character dialog options will become available. This will give you the opportunity to trade for needed items, which will in turn allow you to access new areas until you can progress to the adventure's final scene.

Analysis: There's a lot of diversity in The Fun Fair which makes for an eclectic game. Some players might find that the combination of different game elements leads to an incongruent gameplay experience. Other players not usually attracted to the genre might find an unexpected treasure. Unlike Anode and Cathode's other point and click games, The Fun Fair also requires the player be marginally comfortable with fast paced mousing (usually found in action games) which makes The Fun Fair rather unique in the point and click adventure genre, which will likely turn off more casual players. The few puzzle/character interaction elements to be found are straight forward and not difficult — the difficulty level is instead included in the carnival mini-games.

The control scheme for actual character navigation is fluid, although the pseudo-isometric point of view might take a few minutes to get used to. Inadvertently walking into a carnival game location or vendor booth can occasionally happen (and you'll be looking at a black screen for 5–10 seconds on scene exit as the fairground map rebuilds itself) so use of the mini-map will definitely save a lot of mouse clicks and time and is highly recommended. The area to explore is quite large and the "fog-of war" is a very nice touch.

The Fun Fair features beautiful artwork in some of the game locations and looked very polished. The music is sparse and haunting and compliments the artwork very nicely. Together they do a great job of setting the atmosphere of an ethereal fairground ready to be explored.

A rather glaring omission is the lack of a save feature. Why the developer neglected to implement a save feature when there is the distinct possibility of a player rage-quitting when the timer runs out in a mini-game (and you only needed one more duck!) is unknown. There are also a few bugs that became apparent when playing through the game upon first release. After visiting the King of Pancakes the second time and receiving the ugly sock painting, grab the carrot and exit the scene immediately (this will make sense in-game). If you do not you may face eternity having a one sided conversation with the King of Pancakes until you refresh and have to start all the way back at the beginning. There were also some issues with countdown timers in carnival games being erratic; this made the carnival games either impossibly fast or unfairly slow. The music, as sparse and pretty as it was could probably benefit from a mute button. Hopefully these issues will be addressed in part 2.

Incorporating elements from multiple genres, Part 1 of The Fun Fair definitely presents itself as a game that holds a lot of promise for upcoming parts in the series, especially if the series continues to be 100% clown free.

Play The Fun Fair.

The games of Gareth Thomas, aka Gaz are known for their simple yet addicting natures, and while they may not be as eccentric as a Tonypa game, they're almost always neat little timewasters worth checking out. Although they can be quite fun, his games usually don't have a lot of depth to them, and often you'll find them tucked away in a Link Dump rather than being given a full feature. Such was the case with Bubble Cannon, a collision-based game in the style of Gimme Friction Baby.

In Bubble Cannon 2, Gaz has updated that initial offering, keeping the core of the game intact, but changing around some of the nuts and bolts. You still aim and shoot with the mouse, and your goal is still to eliminate balls by colliding them with their similarly-colored mates, but instead of an infinite supply of randomly-colored balls, you're now limited to just a few. In order to keep on playing, you'll have to replenish your supply by eliminating balls that are already in play. Also, the game is now divided into 10 levels, and with each new level you must account for an additional ball color. As in Combine, each additional color increases the difficulty greatly, so while it's possible to breeze through the first few levels, this is not an easily beatable game.

These changes may seem small, but they make a vast difference in the pacing. They introduce a much-needed difficulty ramp that does a great job of sucking the player in, then cranking up the challenge before monotony sets in. There's also a sense of urgency in Bubble Cannon 2, which gives importance to every shot. Under threat of a dwindling ball supply, each shot must be put to the greatest strategic advantage — whether that means eliminating balls from the field or clearing the path for future shots. In short, Bubble Cannon 2 is exactly what the original should have been: engaging and very addicting!

Play Bubble Cannon 2

Writers of science fiction stories love to exploit the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, and what happens when that intelligent life comes face-to-face with ours. We've seen it hundreds of times in movies and books; The Day the Earth Stood Still is a classic example, made new again by a recent movie remake.

So it should come as no surprise to see a game about being Kidnapped By Aliens. Developer Selfdefiant tells the story of a human protagonist (you) who has been kidnapped and awaits who-knows-what from his or her captors. Sharing a room with a "Human Pod" sign, an impenetrable elliptical door, a rather small bed, a yellow locker, and a bizarre pipe full of blue liquid that appears to function as a toilet.

By the use of a little ingenuity, our hero manages to escape the cell and explore more areas of the UFO, with the ultimate goal of returning to Earth... perhaps.

Analysis: It's about time that something from Selfdefiant gets featured here on JIG. His latest game, Kidnapped by Aliens, shows us he knows how to make an extensive escape game and do it right. The surreal but perfect background sound and puzzles that make sense without being too obvious turn this game into an enjoyable experience.

A couple puzzles are a little obscure and the game has a few glitches, but nothing that gets in the way of the fun. It's definitely worth a play.

Play Kidnapped by Aliens.

A big bunch o' arcade games have been assembled for this week's Mobile Monday. It was actually really easy to gather them, too. All I had to do was put out a bit of arcade bait and they came a-runnin'...

Wild West Pinball - I'm as much a pinball fan as I am a connoisseur of Somalian sorghum. Which is to say, I'm not. But I had a pinball itch for some strange reason, my iPod was in my hands, so I went digging. I found Wild West Pinball, a free, single-table pinball game that goes to great lengths to preserve the old school pinball feel, which I can appreciate. It's got bank robberies, an Indian village, a wanted criminal, railroad tracks and more. Nice setting, good pinball action, and you can't beat the price. Oh, and be sure to watch the title screen for a few seconds for a 3D tour of the table.

Knights Onrush - From prolific iPhone game publisher Chillingo comes a rather handsome castle defense game in the tradition of Defend Your Castle. Knights, bomb toters, and other baddies rush the fortress to the side of the screen. Using your almighty finger of almightiness, fling them to the sky to protect your beautiful pile of stones. Buy upgrades to improve both your offensive and defensive capabilities in-between rounds. Things get real hectic and real wacky after a few levels. A free Knights Onrush Lite is also available.

MUST. EAT. BIRDS. - Gotta love a game with that straightforward of an objective. Also gotta love a game with a character called a nomster. Fire nomsters from the makeshift slingshot by dragging and releasing the rubber band. Your goal is to not eat the birds— just kidding! Chomp away at those fluttering little things, the more the nombetter. Crash a couple of nomsters together to make a big nomster. You know you want to.

Star Trigon - Based on the original Namco arcade game from 2002, Star Trigon is all about rescuing uchujin who are adrift in space. Your character circles small planetoids either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Tap the screen to hop from object to object, leaving a trail in your wake. Fence the uchujin in with a trigon and your work is done! The tutorial is short and painfully slow (just let me play already!!), but otherwise the game's a great little time waster. A free Star Trigon Lite is also available.

NOTE: Games listed may not be available outside of North America. Prices are subject to change and are therefore unlisted. Please see the individual game pages for purchasing info.

Zombie Cow has just unleashed upon the world a sequel to their award-winning point-and-click adventure, Ben There, Dan That, called Time Gentlemen, Please! If you haven't yet played BTDT, you might want to stop here and start there first, because plot spoilers are below.

It feels like an eternity has passed since Ben and Dan embarked on their great journey to fix their television, escape from evil aliens, and make it back home in time to catch Magnum PI. Can you believe it's really only been a year? And, by a year, of course I mean two weeks. Confused yet? Oh, you just wait.

At the conclusion of Ben There, Dan That!, it turns out that the evil aliens were in fact Ben and Dan, albeit older, evil, future versions of the duo. Thanks to an obsolete timeline, however, the evil Ben and Dan disappear, but this does not produce the obligatory happy ending. After a mandatory comprehensive Magnum PI marathon (including the Murder, She Wrote crossover), the entire population of the world has died because supreme world leaders Ben and Dan forgot to tell them they could take breaks to eat and handle other biological functions. Now, in order to save the world, Ben and Dan have to go back in time and prevent the invention of coat hangers (which started this whole mess in a roundabout way if your way of thinking is just twisted enough) in their second major point and click adventure.

Oh, you thought the plot summary was done? Ha-ha! We haven't even made it to the opening credits yet! You see, Ben and Dan manage to stop the invention of the coat hanger well enough. Only, somehow, this has paved the way for Adolf Hitler to take over the world with a giant mech-suit and an army of robo-zombie-dinosaur clones. Now your goal is to stop yourselves from stopping the invention of the coat hanger so that Hitler doesn't end up taking over the world with his dinosaur clone army. If you manage to harm or kill the dictator in the process, that'd be a happy bonus.

Confused? Good, you're ready to play. Time Gentlemen, Please! is controlled with the mouse, just like your standard old school adventure game. Right click to cycle through a host of different cursors, each allowing you to perform a different function such as walk, talk, use, and look. Guiding your mouse up to the top of the screen will bring up a control panel that will allow you to save, load, quit, and access your inventory (here depicted as a nice home made bindle).

Collect items, search for clues, and solve a plethora of puzzles to stop Hitler. Wait, no, you're trying to stop yourselves. Well, okay, you're trying to stop yourselves and Hitler. Well, wait, you're really supposed to undo all the bad things that resulted from time travel, but before that you have to, um, do a little time traveling. Now are you confused? Don't worry, there's no cause for alarm. This kind of thing is bound to happen whenever Ben and Dan get near time travel equipment. Hmm. Okay, maybe there's cause for a wee bit of alarm.

Analysis: Ben There, Dan That! took both the staff and audience prize for our Best of 2008 freeware adventure award for good reason. From its irreverent humor to its innovative item based puzzles, BTDT captured the heart of many gamers (those that weren't outright offended by it, anyway). Though it's not free (just really, really close to being free), Time Gentlemen, Please! manages to meet or exceed the high standards set by its predecessor in all other areas with ease.

The Ben and Dan adventures are intentionally designed to act as one part homage, one part parody of the old Lucasarts games such as Sam and Max and Maniac Mansion. As such, the artistry does a great job of paying its respect to the era with its cheerily angular cartoon lines and brilliant crayon box colors. In this adventure, though, the folks at Zombie Cow decided to put some special effects in which come off looking particularly snazzy.

The similarities only start at the aesthetics, though. TGP is heavily laden with item based puzzles, many of which are of the variety that make you feel as though your skull is about to crack open. Great care was taken to make seemingly unsolvable puzzles doable, however. Hints are embedded all around you, and particularly thorough adventurers will find themselves rewarded with enough information to make the seemingly impossible possible.

To tell the truth, while the Ben and Dan adventure games trade on their comedic value, I found the puzzles to be the most enjoyable part of the game. Sure, the solutions are often times absurd, but in this game everything is absurd. Further, the Zombie Cow team did a marvelous job of creating puzzles where the solution always feels like a gentle nudge away ultimately creating lots and lots of those "ah-ha!" moments that adventure game enthusiasts live for.

Part of what makes the puzzles so great is the innovative usage of time as a commodity that can be manipulated. Time travel in Time Gentlemen, Please! is possible on both an external and internal level. What this means is that through your adventures you will travel backward and forward in time (external), but also you will have the ability to age and de-age specific items (internal). What results is a myriad of puzzles that challenge your ability to think in a way in which time is both non-linear and malleable. Pretty deep, right?

Those who fear deep philosophical thought, fret not. Despite the time mechanics, Time Gentlemen, Please! is a playground for just about every type of humor that is likely to get you ousted from civil society. This is not a game for the easily offended, the squeamish, people with a heart condition, or pregnant women. Ben and Dan break nearly every social taboo with crude abandon, and they are hilarious as they do it. The writing is simply wonderful, but what really delivers the punch are all the tiny little details. Facial expressions and body language are used with surgery like precision to drive the laughs home.

If you liked Ben There, Dan That!, you'll love Time Gentlemen, Please! It's bigger, better, harder, and raunchier than the original by a mile. If you haven't delved into the adventures of Ben and Dan, what are you waiting for?

Note: Time Gentlemen, Please! is an adventure game for adults. This game contains foul language, scatological humor, mature humor, and humor about Nazis. If there are five minutes that could possibly be deemed appropriate for humans, I haven't found it yet. You have been warned.

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

Enlightenus is Latin for — wait, no it isn't! Actually, Enlightenus, from Forgotten Riddles creator Blue Tea Games, is a story-driven hidden object adventure game made backwards. Instead of looking for and collecting a list of items in cluttered rooms, your job is to find where items belong and put them back. Compare your inventory with the objects on the screen and decipher which items go in which location. It's a simple gameplay switcheroo that shoves Enlightenus away from the pack and into the spotlight.

You are Inspector Doubleleaf, a famous detective called by novelist Edgar Lee to unravel an intriguing mystery. The author has a machine that can transport him to different worlds, a trick he uses to find inspiration for his novels (cheater). An energy surge threw everything out of whack, however, scrambling his stories and hiding the pages of his novels in an alternate version of his mansion. And now it's your job to put everything back together.

The introduction eases you into this uniquely constructed game, and subsequent chapters expand on the concept in measured increments. As you explore each room of the mansion you'll come across pages of Edgar's novel. Each page is a hidden object scene (well, the opposite of that, but you get my drift) that, when completed, gives you buttons that are used to complete puzzles elsewhere in the mansion. It all weaves together into a fantastic plot that feels like a cross between Myst and Harry Potter.

Putting objects in their place is much more of a brain trick than you might think. Your only clues are the names of inventory items and short labels found around the scene. For example, an item might be labeled "hostage cow" and a UFO floating in the background might be casting a "bovine beam" to the ground. See how that works itself out? Some objects have to be used before you can uncover uses for other items. Can't very well see the bovine beam if the barn door is shut, can you? A hint system serves as a gentle nudge, but don't rely on it too much. Completing found object scenes will require some actual thought and light riddle solving, something many hidden object gamers aren't used to.

Analysis: Enlightenus isn't a comedic game, but I couldn't help but grin at its premise. I mean, here I am putting found objects back where they belong, almost like I'm cleaning up after some hidden object gamer played the very same stage! Besides the twist on the genre, Enlightenus also has a distinct Azada or Dream Chronicles feel, and you really can't go wrong if you follow in those footsteps.

If I were to choose one area Enlightenus needs improvement, I would have to say accessibility. Despite its reverse mechanics and adventure game leanings, this game falls into the hidden object genre. Hidden object games tend to be straightforward. From exploring environments to finding items in a scene, everything takes place on a nice and neat track. Enlightenus encourages you to move around and explore, solve puzzles in your own order, and unravel a number of riddles. This non-linearity will frighten a small set of casual gamers away, though, in truth, it shouldn't. Perhaps its a fault of our genre labeling habit, as I don't feel Enlightenus got anything "wrong" in its design.

Enlightenus is a beautiful and inspired game, from its story to presentation to the scattering of apropos mini-games. You'll love the atmosphere, you'll adore the adventure sensibilities, and after you get accustomed to it, you'll love putting objects back where they belong.

Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a puzzle? Is it a platformer?... no! It's both! It's Bango! Isn't it majestic? Isn't it glorious? Just don't stare up at it too much. You might be smashed in the face by a falling block, and then boy will your face be... uh, well, not red so much as... broken.

Created by RJGames (Nitro Platform 2), Bango! is an exercise of not only skill but patience. Using the [arrow] keys to move left and right, and tapping the [space] bar to jump, you play a tiny little stick figure with admirably sparkly feet who dashes about the screen on top of brown blocks. Once you've touched a block, beware; as soon as you step or jump off one, it falls. The goal is to clear the screen of all of them, and some genuinely fiendish block placement in later levels makes that much harder than it sounds.

In fact, some levels are so hard we really felt for the nameless, faceless little protagonist. Who put him there? Do the blocks fall because of the curious sparkles that trail his every move, making it both blessing and curse? What is his motivation? Is there some sparkly little love interest waiting just off screen? Oh! That must be it. How romantic! Keep running, little hero! We believe in you!

While Bango! has been on the casual gameplay scene for a while now, we held off featuring it initially due to several bugs that made the game more frustrating than fun to play. Although most of these have been ironed out, one of the bigger ones persists. If you happen to brush against the side of a block while attempting to jump up onto it, the block will vanish as though you already stepped off of it. You'll wind up having to carefully judge even the smallest jumps, since a wrong foot in this game means having to restart the entire level. You could argue that this makes the game even more challenging, but having the careful planning you put into navigating later levels be undone by a collision detection issue is frustrating to say the least.

Still, there's a lot to like about Bango! The simple, bright graphics. The ultra peppy soundtrack. The ability to take your time and think your way through the levels. If puzzles are your thing, then Bango! is here to be your new best friend. Get ready to run and jump your way to victory and high scores! Just remember to always watch your step.

Play Bango!