Editor’s note: With a long holiday weekend coming up you’re going to have some extra gaming time on your hands. What better way to spend the holidays than playing fun and free casual games? I can’t think of anything. Don’t delay, check out Gabe’s faves today! – Brett
In Mobcast 015, the gents discussed whether it’s okay for a “hardcore” gamer to play casual games. Being a casual game developer myself, I always appreciate it when folks in the industry talk about my oft-overlooked side of the biz. Don’t get me wrong — most of the time, I would rather hear about Halo, WoW, GTA, or God of War. But everybody wants to feel loved, right? Right.
Over the past few years, I’ve played literally thousands of obscure and under-the-radar games: Flash games, downloadable indie games, random applications, freeware and shareware from the dark, scary corners of the interwebs. You name it, I’ve played it. Or I’ve stared at it just long enough to say, “Oh, God, no.”
Through all of the tripe and drivel, I’ve kept coming back to a few games over and over again. Here is a short list of some of my most memorable little titles that you may not have heard of.
Fantastic Contraption is a brilliant little sandbox puzzle game by Colin Northway. The IP was actually purchased by InXile Entertainment (the Line Rider guys) and brought to the iPhone, but it hasn’t made the waves that I expected. I wasted many a day on the Flash version.
Solitaire meets Tetris meets “AHHHHH!!!!!!” in Speed Cluster. With the instructions in Japanese, you have no idea what’s going on. Figuring out how to play is half the battle, but once you do it’s SUPER CRAZY FUN FUN TIME HAHA LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!1!!! If you want, I can explain the rules.
Souptoys is a game. Or maybe it’s more like an application. Or it’s a strange sort of toy. Whatever it is, it’s pretty cool. It puts a “toybox” on your desktop. Pull toys out of it and play around with the Rube Goldberg-esque physics. You can also download other users’ setups to see what sort of crazy stuff they’ve done, or upload your own wacky creation. Currently more than 23,000 user-created playsets are available for download. Somebody with deep pockets needs to discover these guys and bring this game/application/toy to the masses. Facebook, please?
Developer Tonypa has a bunch of fantastic diversion games on his site. Actually, I don’t know that he’s a dude. It might be her site. Gender-bending aside, the puzzle mechanic in Pariboro is simple but addictive. It’s like a cigarette: I have to get in a quick round or two midday so that I’ll stop shaking.
At this point, Bloons is pretty well known. It is, after all, one of the most played Flash games in the history of ever. Plus it just made it big on iPhone. So…I don’t know why I’m including it on this list of “games you’ve never heard of.” Whatever, just go play Bloons.
Covert Front is just one of many exquisitely designed “escape the room” games from Mateusz Skutnik of Pastel Games. It’s extremely well made and a lot of fun — if a little lonely. Also try the Submachine series from the same developer.
This is the original Flash Trials game from Red Lynx — not the newer Steam/XBLA 3D Trials games that they totally ruined. The Flash version has much tighter controls, and it’s provided me with hours and hours of entertainment. I never get tired of watching that little guy eat it.
I could keep on going, but that should get you started. These are the ones I go back to most often.
Now it’s your turn: What bite-sized games have you discovered on the world-wide tubes that have kept your attention?
