Universities, good for more than just simple education. Hello Worlds! is the by-product out of the University of Washington, and is a flash game that is very unique, and reasonably damn fun. Granted it doesn't have THAT much replay value, and once you beat every level, there really isn't much else to it...

But my god this game is creative in every way you can imagine, from level design to extra features, it doesn't get much better.

The game puts users in control of.. well there are actually multiple characters to select from, so you can be everything from a turtle to a little dude to a crab, take your pick. Since you start off as a crab, and all characters have the same attributes, I'll just refer to you as a crab. Little crab guy is soooo cute... anyway on to the game.

So, Hello Worlds! is a flash-based [puzzle]/[adventure]/[omfg physics engine] hybrid hosted on Kongregate. It has no enemies in it, there is no REAL time limit on each level, and you can't really die. Sounds easy right? Think again.

Levels start off fairly easy, where your only objective is to get from your spawn to the red door and press the space bar to beat the level. However, along the way there are coins for you to collect, as usual, but the coins aren't essential to beating the level. You see for each level completed you can receive 1-3 stars, with certain levels having a special star that can add another, making the total 4. Stars are awarded for completing the level, collecting all the coins, and completing the level under a certain time. The first 15 levels or so are fairly easy to complete fully the first time through.

However, due to the complex nature of some of the levels, not all are completed that fast. You see... the levels are not as simple as you first think. Each level is comprised of as many as 4 separate screens at once. All environmental factors are always present, so if a wall exists in 1 world, it exists in all of the screens you can see. Pressing the 'C' button will merge all of the worlds so you can see how they interconnect better, however while they are merged you can't move.

Now, various other features play into the game, like green doors. Green doors will close the particular world that you are currently on, removing all of it's environmentals as well as any remaining coins. Often it is essential to collect certain coins in the red door world before closing off a green world door. This is because some platforms are required to get to certain places. However, if you screw up don't worry, there is always a rewind button.

Hold 'V' and you will immediately rewind the actions that had taken place. There is a decent amount of time for the rewind, and it doesn't run out if you use it repeatedly. Some levels make exceptionally good use of it, and others you will find you don't even use the feature.

Now there is a second type of door, it is silver with a hint of yellow in the middle, and these will switch or open new worlds. I personally have never seen a game that features this type of play, and it will be confusing to start for many, once you get used to it tho it is pure genius. Whoever wrote this game was insane one day when he came up with the concept. There are multiple groups of stages, each group having around 6 levels. Certain more advanced groups of levels can only be reached once you have accumulated a certain number of stars... This reminded me of Super Mario 64, where you could only open doors with the right number of stars.

Aside from the par time for each level, there is also a special speed run time that is given. This time is usually VERY fast, much faster than you would think possible, how each time is attainable and will increase your score dramatically

Now, as far as physics, the game is fairly flawless. I mean there is only 1 glitch I encountered that has to do with jumping and closing a world and getting caught in between two dividers... but you can always just rewind and fix the problem. This means that if any bugs do come up... just rewind.

Overall this game is simply amazing. It is a completely new take on puzzle games, and really does deliver a new type of flash game experience, something hard to come by these days. Since the author is said to be updating regularly, it might have some replay value, but once you've gone through every level, it loses it's entertainment a little bit. But trust me, the first 30 minutes is MORE than worth it.

Rating:

Longevity: 2.5/5
Interface: 3.5/5
Addictiveness: 4.0/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Simplicity: 3.5/5

Overall: 3.5/5

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Sometimes you just need to bust out a classic, hammer out hours and hours on an old school NES until your fingers bleed... in this case tho there is now an online equivalent! That's right, MARDEK RPG Chapter 1 on Kongregate is in the same style of an old school RPG, and I love those.

Just to start off, I want to say that this game has 3 chapters currently available on Kongregate with a total of 8 being written by the author. This review only looks at the first of those 3 chapters, but you will find the next two chapters reviewed in the next two days. Let me also say, that this chapter can easily be beat in under 30 minutes. I had to save two or three times without need, and I could have skipped a few sections and still, as you will see later, I did it in just shy of 30 minutes.

So gamers take the role of the main character Mardek,you are an adventurer capable of slaying dragons and saving the princes. In fact that's exactly how this chapter starts out. You run around a castle, and fight a dragon and kill it. You start off at like level 50 or something, and you just annihilate it. The point is tho, the game teaches you a few things about reflex's and the controls get familiar in the few fights that you do. At that point in time you are warped back to your current existence or something, and you are level 1 again. Don't worry tho, levels are gained fairly quickly, and by the time the game ends I was around level 3.

There are two different main parts to the game. The running around, and the fighting. This is pretty standard for anyone who is used to these Final Fantasy style RPG games. This one, even tho flash games have made massive inroads into graphics, still insists on using an old school sprite based engine. Have to say, I really do love the choice of the author to do this. The maps are fairly detailed, and the shops are present which remind us greatly of Final Fantasy 1. In fact I honestly think some of the emblems and logo's for shops were lifted straight out of that game. Saving is handled not at an inn, but at blue crystals littered around the world, walk up hit activate, save and heal and you are off again.

The combat system is also very Final Fantasy 1, no attack timers just pure turn based combat. At the top of the combat screen you will see the order that the turns will occur in, something I've never seen before in this style of game. It helps quite a bit with the memory work since it means you don't need to memorize the attack turns of your characters. This will prevent you from forgetting that the monster attacks BEFORE your mage heals as opposed to after. While this does simplify combat, I don't feel it reduces the enjoyment of the game, hell this isn't ACTUALLY the original... and that game was brutally difficult.

The controls are handled like you are holding an old NES controller. You have movement keys for arrows, and [Z] and [X] are you accept and cancel buttons. However, the author was smart to know that computers have mice, and so for some more complex menus you will see a little mouse icon indicating that you should us your pointing device. Simple things that this are what I am sure will promise to make this a fantastic series of games.

Now to the meat of this one. once returning to your home town, and going to sleep for the night, you witness a flying object crash land nearby. Being adventurers of course means investigating this crash, and so you do. Encounters are handled randomly, with your character pausing an icon flashing and you being taken into the fight. I feel that there could have been a slightly higher number of random encounters, but that's just my personal feelings, and doesn't detract from the game.

Upon reaching the end of the forest, you must battle a mean bully that requires a touch of healing on your part. This is where your skills come into play. You have an attack type called 'imagination', which can be thought of like a type of magic. And inside this attack type you have two abilities to start, one heals the caster and one attacks the monster with more power but less accuracy. Now for this early on in the MARDEK series, I don't think either is really required, but it never hurts to play around with things so you can use them in the future.

After dispatching the big bad bully, you must venture forth into the downed flying ship where you discover the brutal corpse of... well... something. It then injects itself into Mardek's body, sharing his physical form with him.

This is where the massive plot dialogue starts. To warn you, this game is extremely rich in dialogue, it doesn't just have alot of it, it is also well written and slightly sarcastic. You can always skip through it if you want, but I suggest reading it, these types of RPG's are good because of their stories also.

Either way you chose, once you finish that sequence, you just go back home. Navigating larger sections of the world allow you to actually move freely between different parts. What I mean is, when you step on a little blue arrow, you can move as far as you have traveled previously... sort of like a warp gate that gets you to any destination you have been to previously. So once you warp back to the village, and get to your house and goto sleep, we get A MASSIVE amount of plot details, and then the chapter concludes with giving you the option to save.

I'd save now, the reason being is you can then load your save file from one chapter of this RPG to another, which is exactly what I will be doing.

Overall, the game play in this flash game is limited to start, however the game has a fantastic engine, and the start of a great plot. I can't wait to see the rest of this saga unfold as time comes, so I hope you join me and we can play through it all.

Rating:

Longevity: 3.0/5
Interface: 4.5/5
Addictiveness: 3.5/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Simplicity: 4.0/5

Overall: 3.8/5

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Sequals! My word they seem to be all over the place of late. And let me tell you, The Fancy Pants Adventures World 2 (yes it's that long of a title) REALLY delivers as much or more than the original found here. It has a few more features, but a massive amount of more content.

You see the first Fancy Pants game is rather short. It did make me fairly giddy, but to be quite honest it felt like a game made to demonstrate a flash technique. Or something that was cooked up as a cool physics demonstration that turned into a game. This feeling of it never being made as a game really left me just slightly irked. I felt like the author had the opportunity to add a lot more depth to the game, and he just missed out.

Well, trust me, this version has enough depth for an olympic diver to jump into. There are a lot more levels, the nasty rabbit you have to fight at the very end for your awesome ice cream is fairly hard. Now that says a lot, because while the fight principles are simple, it was VERY tough to execute properly.

Overall game play is still the same, you still run around the world collecting little squiggles, you still jump on spiders and slide down hills. However, aside from just more levels, a few other touches have been made to the game. It handles nicer, with slides being smoother down hills especially on the new types of terrain. And originally wall-jumping was hardly used, well in this new world it is essential to be able to clear the levels. Not only that but now you can play golf!

That's right, the very start of the game has you teeing off on a turtles shell for a round of golf... this is a clue by the way for how to beat the last boss... that dastardly rabbit.

Everything is still fairly kosher. The menu's are still fully interactive, the music is still relaxed and fitting the game perfectly. You can disable it now, as well as being able to turn off stupid scrolling backgrounds if you find them distracting.

Now, it might sound like the game hasn't been updated much. But you'd be wrong. See, little things like your character taking a nap if you don't play much. Or if you pause the game you have the option of locking the keyboard preventing accidental continuing... a feature I've come to love. Also, levels have more detail in them. Trees are more artistic, the level design has more flow to it. It's like the original... only a batter newer and bigger version.

Overall I have to admit, this game simply makes me giddy everything I jump around. Honestly I spent 10 minutes in level select just sliding around on the platforms, it is ACTUALLY addicting... I had to remember to write this instead of just playing. This game might have you even come back a few times after you beat the nasty little rabbit. The trophies are worth collecting and a timer has been added for how fast the quickest time of completion you have is; Just another feature that makes it a little bit better than the original.

Rating:

Longevity: 4.0/5
Interface: 4.5/5
Addictiveness: 5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Simplicity: 4.0/5

Overall: 4.4/5

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Squiggly lines, and colorful pants are what await you in today's fantastic game. Fancy Pants Adventures is one of those games that you will start to play, and after a few minutes notice yourself actually smiling more and more and more...

This game is simply delightful. No harsh comments about how insanely flashy it is... because it isn't flashy. Nothing about the amazing graphics... they all look quickly hand drawn. It isn't that long of a game... I went through it twice in 30 minutes, once for the review, once for the trophies. It won't have you come back more than maybe once or twice... In fact that is nothing alarmingly good about this game at all.

And that's why it's so wickedly fun. You see, the thing that makes a REALLY good flash game is the unexplainable force that makes you like it. The thing that makes you so giddy you jump around the menu for 5 minutes for fun. Oh yes, this game is entirely interactive... that means no mouse, ever.

You are in control of Mr. Fancy Pants... your job is to, well, the game doesn't really say but I suppose it's to run around and have a good time. There is an evil penguin at the end that needs vanquishing, but don't worry the good ol' 3 hops on the head works perfectly well; granted he has to get stuck to a wall first.

No, the thing that does it about this game is the physics, and the principles behind the design of this game. It seems very simple, very plain, but underneath the basic exterior is something that much more amazing.

A physics engine to blow the rest out of the water. You see it runs off of momentum it would seem. That and 'S' for jump. You open doors by pressing the up arrow, and run with left and right. Otherwise, there are no other controls at all.

To complete levels you only need reach the end and walk through the door. You don't need to collect the squiggles, but you will try. The damage you take from the few enemies that exist is minimal. And it is quickly healed from picking up those hand drawn shapes.

The thing is tho, you can do little back flips, and jump off bounce pads, and slide down ramps... this game makes me feel twelve. That really is the only accurate way to describe it. As for the rest, well the sound track fits the game nicely, although you can not turn off the music. Data is easily reset if you want to go through it all again... it doesn't really matter, but whatever. There is level select, so once you beat a level if you do die you can go back... but you will never die.

All in all I have to say this was one of my favorite flash games of all time. I have no idea why, there is just something about jumping around in a simplistic world that just makes you love everything about it. You need to go play this game. Right now... and tomorrow I will tell you to play the sequel even more.

Rating:

Longevity: 3.5/5
Interface: 4.5/5
Addictiveness: 4.5/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Simplicity: 4.0/5

Overall: 4.1/5

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I felt like it was back in 2002 playing Diablo 2, there was objectives, a store, a map, even way points! Robokill really brings a lot of elements to the flash gaming platform, combined with pristine graphics, the game simply shines.
The company called Rock Solid Games, who's arcade can be found here, really did step up with this title. It is a combination top down run and gun style shooter, that has some elements from GTA2. It also combines RPG elements such as level's experience and various weapons.

The objectives in the game are fairly easy, and quite similar to each other. You enter a room, and in this room you use the robot of death that you control to obliterate everything. At this point you say, oh great it's another one of "Those" games... you know the kind, where you just hold left click until you win. Well for some parts of the game you are right, however for others, simple run and gun tactics will absolutely NOT work.

I consider myself a pretty avid gamer. I play something for most of my day, be it the latest PC game I am into, an old favorite, or a flash game I am trying out to review it later. Well To be quite honest, this game tore me to shreds. a particular section I died maybe 8 or 9 times on one level before I could beat it. Granted this is still a rare thing even in this game, it should be said don't just run.

To start with there are a variety of enemies in each room to clear. Most have combinations of fast shooting tough robots mixed with tiny ones that try and suicide on you. There are a variety of turrets as well, and in some levels machines exist which spawn robots periodically. Those machines are the focus of one level in the first mission; destroying the factories is essential.

Speaking of levels and missions, this game is organized very well and in multiple stages...

I'm going to stop hear and give you some warning. There are 4 missions, and a total of 13 levels... I think. However after the first mission a little box pops up asking you to buy the rest of the game. Now I am a broke university student like the rest of us, so I definitely did not purchase this game, but let me tell you that you are probably better off going and buying a full scale game. I love flash games, but I do not think that their individual use should have to be payed for.

Moving on, there are 4 missions, each with it's only collection of stages. Now each level can be though of as a shift up in difficulty. Enemies will take more damage to kill, there will start being more and more of them. Level's themselves will get larger and larger. By that token, this game also has some similarities to and old school Zelda game. The reason is for the map design with rooms is extremely close to the one they used back on the NES. I really do favor this style, and it works quite well for the team that made Robokill. But every now and again you will come to a room that has a teleport pad in it. This will allow you to teleport back to your base of operations.

At this base there is a shop that will sell you a variety of upgrades to your little robo killer. These upgrades are interchangeable and can be described as either a weapon or an upgrade. You have to be a high enough level to be able to use an item, levels are gained as you progress through the game. There are a total of 4 slots for weapons, and 4 for upgrades.

Weapons range from slow firing shotguns and grenades launchers, to a variety of high speed rifles. There are also individual modifications that can occur on each weapon. This can be a combination of upgrades for a rare item, or just 1 upgrade for an uncommon weapon. Effects include knockback, freezing and even things as odd as bullet speed. There are good parts to each, and often a combination is best seeing as you have four slots.

Now as far as upgrades go I would only suggest 1 type. It is called a shield charger, and it is your friend. This will charge your shields slightly after each room that you clear. The advantage here is that some rooms are easy and so you can build back up your shields for those tougher levels.

Controls are good, with Q bringing up your inventory/character screen, and E bringing up the map. These are the perfect keys considering you should be using WASD to be moving.

However should you die you will be sent back in the direction of your base of operations with the store. And due to you being absent from the field of combat, a number of rooms will have been taken back over by the invading robots. Also you will have lost a certain amount of money, money you need for valuable weapon upgrades.

As far as everything else is concerned, sound and music are great. However they could be easier to disable from somewhere in the game itself. There are two different graphics settings; most computers can handle high, however if it is slow for you feel free to switch. The computer plays intelligently sometimes, and realistically the game puts out everything you could hope for from a game of this style.

There isn't much room for longevity since once you have beaten a level there is no point in going back to that level. however you will probably push yourself to finish this game... or at least the free part. But don't think you will do it in 30 minutes or under... By the 30 minute mark I was just starting the 3rd level, which is almost as large as the first 2 combined. It took me nearly 1:15 to beat this game.

Normally I stop at the 30 minute mark, which is exactly what I did... but then the game called to me in the middle of writing this and I just had to go and finish the parts that I could, even after I died numerous times.

Overall this is a fantastic game, exactly what a modern flash title should look and play like. The only things that bother me are the sound controls, as well as the fact that they don't tell you ahead of time you need to buy it.

Rating:

Longevity: 2.5/5
Interface: 4.0/5
Addictiveness: 4.0/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Simplicity: 4.0/5

Overall: 3.7/5
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Remember back to elementary school, and those chose your own adventure books that we all loved and held so dear... Well I present a chose your own adventure game.

The Ray series of games are great. That about sums up everything in as short as I can put it.

Like really.

They are based on the idea of non-linear story line, in which users are put in control of something that is closer to a movie, with small mini games sprinkled throughout. Decisions are presented in a multiple-choice fashion, for example:

What should you do to this bum:
a)Nothing, just walk by.
b)Piss on him, that scum needs more filth.
c)Steal his coat.
d)Waste that POS

... For the back story, Ray is a local street thug and hitman, that roams the city doing deeds for his boss, pulling jobs and wasting mobsters. He has no regrets, and no problems blasting anyone or anything that crosses his path.

The animation in this movie-game is superb, considering the brunt of all the work that went into the game series is done by one guy: Phil.

Players throughout are given scores based on how good their decision making skills are, with a better score being awarded to how bad-ass you are.. killing is good.

If you make a bad decision, and get Ray killed in the process it's OK. The game has a friendly system to deal with death, getting caught, or killing the wrong person, you just get warped back to the decision screen that had that even occur, and you get to redo your option.

Ray 1 and Ray 2, definitely warrant the time to go through them both more then once, as each new decision can take you somewhere more exciting then the last, and the game boasts huge amounts of game play.

Ray 3-Introduction is more of a straight movie, it introduces elements that we are told will be present in Ray 3 when it gets released. And lets say I will be looking out for it. Boasting 60 minutes of game play, with multiple story paths from the start, and more of a free-roam type play, I look forward to more killing.

So while this game is not as interactive as some of the rest, maybe it doesn't have as much of an addictive quality, but everyone needs to play through it at least once.

Give Ray a chance... or else.

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