Each game consists of a set number of rows and columns, and color hints that indicate the position and length of each color in the row or column. Two black and one brown for instance indicates that you need to fill two black squares first and then afterwards a brown square. It is now up to you to find the starting position of the first and second color.

The game mechanics sound simple but it may take a test game or two before you get a feel for the game play.

A list of 30 different puzzles are provided by the game, sorted into three difficulty levels. The first ten puzzles are played on a 5×5 grid which makes them easily solvable. It becomes slightly more complex and difficulty once you hit level 2 with its 10×10 grid and level 3 with 15×15.

You need to click on the colors at the top, or use the shortcuts 1-4 on the keyboard, to switch colors. A left-click paints the selected color into the field on the grid. A second left-click removes the color and replaces it with an empty field marker which you can use to keep track of fields that you believe do not contain a color.

The top bar offers back and forward options, a restart button, a check button that checks if the current colors are correctly placed on the grid, and a solution button which displays the resulting picture (and ends the game).

Players should take a closer look at the color information when they start a new map. Some are large enough to fill the whole row or column which makes them a good starting point. It becomes more difficulty in later levels though, which makes rare colors and empty fields the best starting option.

Color Pic-a-Pix is a great little puzzle game, ideal for a short break and for users who like to to try something different for the change.

The game controls are displayed briefly on the screen (WASD or cursor keys to move, mouse to fire and aim, space to switch weapons ) before you are thrown right into tank warfare mayhem.

Awesome Tanks uses a fog of war system that hides the majority of the level from you at the beginning. The fog clears once you start exploring the level. The first level acts as a tutorial explaining some of the key game concepts. Depending on the difficulty level selected, you may have troubles completing the tutorial level. New gamers are advised to start with the beginner difficulty.

You earn Dollars for defeating enemies, finding money caches and completing a level. Even if you are defeated, you take the money that you have earned in a level back to the upgrade screen where you can invest it into upgrades.

Available for selection are performance and weapon upgrades. Performance upgrades increase the tank’s visibility, movement, turret speed or armor, and weapons more powerful weapons. The tank has a stationary minigun with unlimited ammunition, and five extra weapon slots that are more powerful but require ammo to fire.

Awesome Tanks is a fun game that will keep you entertained for about an hour. Just head over to the Kongregate website to start playing the game right away.

The player has only a few towers to select from in the first levels of the game. This changes later when updates become available. Zombies enter in at least one but often multiple entrances and leave the map through one or multiple exits which are usually indicated with arrows. There is also some debris in the levels which act as natural borders that zombies cannot pass.

It pays off to look at the layout of the map before placing towers. It is often possible to block parts of the map with cheap towers to direct all zombies through a narrow opening for maximum effectiveness.

Towers range from cheap basic towers to lightning, fire, minigun and laser beam towers. Each tower has a distinctive attack pattern, range, firing speed and damage.

Towers can be upgraded if the necessary upgrade has been selected by the player. Available for selection are new towers, additional money or global tower upgrades. All towers benefit from the latter.

It is up to the player and play style to decide which upgrades to select. It is not possible to go back to select different upgrades at a later time though which makes it important to make the right selections.

Defeating zombies earns money which can be invested in new tower placements or tower upgrades. The game has a total of 15 different maps that unlock gradually and become increasingly difficulty to master. Enemies become stronger, map layouts more difficulty and wrong tower placement often result in a loss. Players loose one life if a zombie reaches the exit, if 20 zombies reach it is game over. Game over only means that the map was not won and needs to be restarted to progress to the next map.

The game becomes repetitive halfway through, which can be mainly attributed to the lack of “interesting” new zombies and the lack of a story. Another element that is missing is a fast forward button to speed up the gameplay.

Still, the game is fun to play especially for users who like the tower defense genre. You can play it over at Free Web Arcade. (via)

Since it would be pretty boring to just connect nodes, you will encounter all kinds of special nodes. Some give you energy back, others unblock regions or have the ability to break crystals which block your route to the finish.

The first ten or so levels should not be to much of a challenge for most gamers. Once you reach level ten things get a little bit more complicated as you know have multiple routes to take. Not all later levels are considerably more difficulty though. The Cannon Challenge levels for instance should not pose a problem for the majority of gamers.

But even if you are stuck in one level, you have the option to try a different zone first and come back later to the level that you could not complete.

Later levels are challenging. You may encounter multiple start locations or teleporters that add to the complexity of the solution. And if you are really stuck you can click on the Walkthrough button to watch a video walkthrough of all levels.

Prizma Puzzle Challenges is a great game for a break. You can complete most levels in less than a minute, provided that you find the right path right away. Some levels can be frustrating to complete, but since you can select others to continue playing that should not bother you to much.

You can play the game in your web browser over at Kongregate.

The game is solely played with the mouse. A left-click fires the golf ball into the selected direction. You can change the strength of each swing with a power bar that is automatically displayed when you move the mouse cursor in vicinity to the ball.

The main goal of the game is to beat the course. There does not seem to be a time limit or of how many times you can try to get the ball into the hole. That, the design and music is what makes this game more relaxing than most other games.

You may still experience frustration if you cannot figure out how to complete a level in the game. Chance is that you will experience this for the first time in the water levels 9 and 10. Hole 10 can be especially frustrating if you miss to hit the water lilies time and time again.

The game records your best tries for each hole, with options to jump straight to a hole to replay it to beat your previous score. Holes that you have not played yet are locked. The game tracks your high score and has a basic achievement system to motivate players to keep on trying.

Wonderputt is a game for a short break. It will keep you entertained for ten to fifteen minutes tops before you have completed the game. It does not really have that much replay value, expect for the “lets beat my previous score” or “get all achievements” type of players who like those challenges. You can play the game over at Armorgames.

The game begins slowly to get you accustomed to the game pace and the different types of enemies that are thrown at you.

Enemy types come in a wide range, from standard cannon fodder that do nothing but move and standard shooting types to enemies that leave toxic waste on the arena floor when they die. You will also face a boss every ten levels which have more hitpoints than the standard ships. They are much harder to beat, especially so if you play the game on medium or hard difficulty.

The last ten levels are especially demanding as you face multiple bosses in each wave. You get experience and level ups, which you can invest in improvements like better ship armor, faster bullets or more bullets. Each improvement is offered as a basic, medium and advanced improvement costing one, two and three skill points respectively. You get two skill points per level up and end up with about 18 skill points total which indicates that you need to make decisions here. Do you go for the best armor in game to protect your ship, or do you prefer faster and more bullets. It is up to you and your play style.

The improvements are necessary to make it to the last waves of the game. Destroyed ships drop extras from time to time. These ranges from filling up ship health to a stationary cannon in the arena, seeking missiles or piercing bullets. It is extremely important to make use of those extras, especially in later stages of the game. You can only carry three with you around at times, so use them to free up slots if enemies have dropped more extras on the ground.

Experienced players should start with the medium difficulty right away. The hard difficulty is not available before you beat the game on easy or medium.

Diepix Arena 2 is an ideal game for a short break, as you can jump right in and start playing. It will keep you busy for about ten to fifteen minutes if you make it through wave 50, or less if you do not. You do not get many replay value though, except for the hard difficulty and beating the high score. That does not mean that you won’t play it again though, but you’d probably move on pretty quickly. You can play Diepix Arena 2 at Armorgames. On a side note, Diepix Arena, the predecessor is available there as well.

The game changes to an exploration map once you reach a location. That map displays your position, monsters, treasure and exits. You can move freely around with the mouse. Events are started when you move on a field with a monster, treasure or exit.

Whenever you move on a field with a monster combat commences. Your character has an assortment of attacks at disposal, from melee attacks to spells. You move the character with the mouse, and use shortcuts to cast spells, attack with melee weapons or drink potions in case you get hurt our run out of mana.

The combat levels are always the same. A limited room where monsters can come from left and right, which makes it extremely difficulty to fight against stronger monster types. You see, there are basic monsters on the map plus monsters with plus icons. Those are champions or unique monsters that you can only beat with great effort and a suitable character level.

Your character gains gold and experience with every fight, and monsters drop treasure which you can sell or equip. You sometimes get skill books that add new spells or skills to your repertoire, or improve already existing skills.

Each character class has an assortment of active and passive skills. The mage for instance can cast fireball, meteor and ice nova, and benefits from the passive skills mana recovery and magic mastery.

You get five stat points with each level up that you can use to improve the five stats strength, dexterity, vitality, intellect and willpower which have different effects. Vitality for instance increases your life, intellect your mana and strength your melee damage and the maximum weight of stuff that you can carry.

Items come in many shapes, from standard items to rare and unique ones with lots of bonus stats and effects.

Magi The Fallen World comes with many traits that make action role-playing games fun to play. It offers multiple character classes, leveling up, skills, different weapon types and unique equipment and quests.

If there is something to criticize it is the repetitive combat system. Different locations and different monster types would have gone along way here.

Still, if you are looking for a game that can keep you busy for an afternoon, then Magi The Fallen World may be that game.

In Upgrade Complete 2 you start with nothing, not even a mouse cursor. That may sound intimidating at first but it is actually lots of fun. The developer is nice enough to give you the mouse cursor, but after that it is up to you to purchase the available upgrades to make the game itself more enjoyable.

Or are the upgrades the game, and the shooter is merely a means of accumulating enough coin to purchase them?

You spend your time in three different game sections. First, the upgrade screen where you purchase new upgrades that change how you perceive the game. You can buy prettier backgrounds, faster loading times, music, options to change the game quality or effects for instance.

Then you come to the spaceship generation screen where you can equip your vessel with weapons, improve its movement or make it bigger to add more stuff to it. This costs coin as well and you need to make decisions if you spend your coin on upgrading the game or your ship.

In the shooting stages, enemy spacecrafts float from the top of the screen to the bottom. You need to take them down and collect the coins they drop. Once a wave completes, or you fail, you can invest those coins in ship or game upgrades.

Here is a basic example of one of the game upgrades. You pay three coin in total to straighten the game.

So, you basically need the shooting stages to earn enough money to buy the upgrades to make your game prettier and your spaceship stronger, and to complete the game of course. Your goal is to defeat the final boss of Upgrade Complete 2, but you won’t be able to fight until you have bought all game upgrades (and reloaded the game once for a final upgrade).

What I like about the game is the unique idea to give the player nothing in the beginning. You really start up with slow loading times, buggy menus, spelling errors, which all go away or improve once you start buying those upgrades.

You can play the game over at Kongregate.

The games are still that popular that fans have created remakes of the games with better graphics and sounds.

But Sarien Studios went a different way. They decided to retain the charm of the classic games by making the original game versions playable in a web browser. On top of that they added multiplayer support which sounds crazy at first. Ever imagined yourself playing Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards with ten other Larrys? No? Me neither.

sierra games online

Sarien Studios have added nine Sierra On-line games so far, including memorable games such as Gold Rush, King’s Quest I to III, Police Quest or Space Quest I and II.

All games are hosted on the site and playable in most modern web browsers including Firefox 2 and up, Internet Explorer 6 and up, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

Playing the games alone would have been enough fun for some users but the multiplayer addition kicks it up a notch.

You see other players wandering around in the adventure, their input commands displayed as speech bubbles. It is even possible to chat with other players which might be helpful in situations where you are stuck, and those will come, believe me.

Veterans might need a moment to get used to the idea of seeing a dozen clones of their character wandering around in the game shouting commands left and right. Multiplayer can be disabled, helpful if some players do not know their boundaries.

The developers have already announced plans to add new games and features to their adventure gaming project. Next up looks to be King’s Quest IV.

If you have some time at hand check it out, it is well worth it.

Still, it’s sometimes nice to just play a quick game and that’s where browsers excel. Nintendo 8 is a website that has huge list of available games that can be played in the browser which has to support Java because the games are emulated in a Java applet.

You can choose to browse a category like Action and RPG or browse all available games. Every category except the one that lists all games displays a preview image of the game. A click on the title or screenshot loads the game. Controls are usually the arrow keys for directions, B-key being Z, A-key being X, Start key being enter and Select mapped to CTRL.

Games are fast loading and performance is fine. Excellent way to spend some free time.

The basic task of the player is to reach the Treasure of the Cutlass Reef by beating enemy Pirates and their Armadas that try to stop him from reaching the Treasure. What makes this game stick out is the fact that you can upgrade your ship after each victory. This requires some basic strategic thinking: Do I add more Pirates, more cannons or want a faster ship ?

The battles are much like those if Pirates on the C-64. Your ship starts at the bottom of the screen and enemy ships appear at the top. Unlike Pirates however the screen does not scroll at all and your ship can’t reach the top of the screen. This is probably the only aspect of the game that is not that well done.

Graphics are well done and the effects are nice as well. The game becomes extremely difficulty at the end because a lot of enemy ships enter the battle at the same time all with more men and cannons than your ship.

It is possible to save the game after each battle which do not last longer than 5-10 minutes each.

Play:

Treasure of the Cutlass Reef

The only thing that the Lemmings are doing is walking and it is your task to order them to do certain tasks to cross obstacles of the level. Orders are for instance to block other Lemmings, digg through the soil, use parachutes to land safely or build bridges. The most important aspect is timing of course and you can change the speed that new Lemmings appear in the level.

If you need to build a large bridge for instance you could slow down the speed to make sure that no Lemming falls down a bridge that is not completely build yet. Currently 40 levels of the original game have been implemented and the author aims to create all 120 levels of the game.

Beginners should start with the Fun difficulty setting which explains all the different actions that you can assign to the Lemmings. This is great fun and should work in most browsers.

I suppose everyone knows the original quake game which was fun to play, especially because of the coop story mode part where you could play the game with your friends in coop mode.

Take a look at this great remake, and keep an eye on it, if they continue it will become an excellent conversion.

Update: The developers have worked hard on the ftp shooter, and it has been ready for prime time for quite some time now. Users need to sign up for a free account before they can start playing. Once they have done that, they can join matches in a matter of seconds.

The game features all game modes, weapons and character models that the original Quake 3 Arena game offered plus dozens of enhancements. This includes additional maps and game modes that players can enjoy online. Here is the list of supported game modes:

• Free for all – The classic deathmatch mode that pits everyone against everyone else.
• Duel: A 1vs1 mode for two players.
• Team Deathmatch: Two teams fight it out in the arena.
• Clan Arena: Like Team Deathmatch with the difference that dead players won’t come back to life in a round. Last Man Standing so to speak.
• Capture the Flag (CTF): Best mode ever. Capture the enemy flag and protect your one at the same time.
• Freeze Tag: Freeze enemy players to immobilize them. You can “unfreeze” your team mates by standing next to them for three seconds.

New Quake Live players should check out the getting started guide that explains key game concepts.

Here is a Quake Live video to get you in the right mood.