puzzler posts

Freeware Friday: Solar Plexus

by James Murff Sep 11th 2009 @ 2:00PM

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

konjak enjoys making games. Sometimes, though, he just can bring himself to complete them, much like all developers. If every time he does not complete a game, we get something like Solar Plexus, we should encourage him to never complete anything! In all seriousness, Solar Plexus was released recently as freeware because konjak was just "not feeling it." But we're definitely feeling it. And despite its incredibly short length, Solar Plexus is a must play for all that are looking for a solid and excellent freeware action game.

Continue reading Freeware Friday: Solar Plexus

Filed under: Features, Action, Puzzle

Do math in DropSum v2

by James Murff Aug 5th 2009 @ 8:45PM

There's several puzzle games out there that encourage the player to apply themselves in basic ways, such as spelling and mathematics. DropSum is one of them, and it's excellent in a familiar, yet addicting, way. The graphics are simple, the music is calming, and the rating system at the end is hilarious. It's easily one of the better puzzle games we've played, and is reminiscent of Blocksum.

DropSum is controlled through the arrow keys and the mouse. Right and left rotate the board clockwise and counter-clockwise, respectively, and the mouse drops the numbers. Your goal is to create rows or columns that add up to 9. For example, three 3s add up to nine, so they trigger. Each block has to trigger 3 times before is disappears, so chaining together blocks and using old blocks for new chains is common. There's a number of achievements on the side that are saved for sharing with your buddies, and your best score is also saved.

Filed under: Browser, Puzzle

Give it a good Push

by James Murff Jul 9th 2009 @ 10:30AM

Sidescrollers need a good push into innovation lately, and Push provides that... well, push. Playing like a mix of Meat Boy and Pixeloids4k, Push has you moving blocks around through disruptive pulses. It's innovative in the best of ways: simple, entertaining, and devilishly difficult. If you are looking for a good browser challenge, look no further! Just make sure to sign up to get the benefits of editor and leaderboards!

Push is played with the keyboard only. WASD controls your character, and the mouse controls your pulse. The pulse can be moved around at full strengh simply by clicking and dragging. There are a number of block types, from ice to grass to crumbling, and 100 hard official levels. if you tire of these, you can play player-created levels or make your own as well!

[Via IndieGames]

Filed under: Browser, Indie, Puzzle

Freeware Friday: Eversion

by James Murff Jun 12th 2009 @ 2:00PM

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

There were quite a few impressive games to come out of the Commonplace Book competition at TIGSource. Experiences such as Verge or The Clatter of the Keys were all quite good, even if they weren't particularly scary. The one game that really captures the Lovecraftian style of horror out of the whole competition, however, is Eversion. Mixing disturbing imagery, excellent use of music, and a combination of puzzle and platformer gameplay, it is definitely the scariest game of the competition by far. You'll be hard pressed not to have shivers run up your spine while playing Eversion.

Continue reading Freeware Friday: Eversion

Filed under: Features, Indie, Puzzle

Crayon Physics Deluxe released through Steam

by James Murff May 8th 2009 @ 2:30PM

One of the most nostalgic and entertaining indie games in recent memory, Crayon Physics Deluxe, has finally been released through Steam. An excellent physics-based puzzle game, Crayon Physics deluxe won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival in 2008 through its clever mechanics (drawing shapes that are acted upon by real physics), quirky style, and excellent puzzles. You can also purchase the game through the developer's website. There is also a demo available through Steam or the developer's website, as well as here on Big Download.

Download the Crayon Physics Deluxe demo right here on Big Download! (25 MB)

Filed under: Indie, Puzzle

Review: Braid

by James Murff Apr 27th 2009 @ 2:00PM

It's been over half a year since the Xbox 360 received one of the most hotly anticipated independent games in recent memory. Now that it is April, PC users have been given this incredible boon as well. Jonathon Blow's Braid was released not too long ago, and I'm glad to say that it is still as good as it was last August. In fact, in some ways, it's a little better. But no worries, as it is still the time-bending platformer that was released to such rave reviews. In fact, if you've played the Xbox 360 version, you have pretty much played this one as well.

Continue reading Review: Braid

Filed under: Features, Hands-on

Freeware Friday: Blocksum

by James Murff Mar 27th 2009 @ 3:00PM

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

There's two kinds of casual games out there: ones that are mindless diversions, and ones that actually challenge the brain to work a little. While a casual game is approachable by anyone, the second set tends to get a little better reputation than the first solely for the fact that it requires more brainpower to excel at. A good example of this is Bejeweled versus Sudoku. While both challenge the mind and provide simple entertainment, Sudoku is significantly more cerebral than Bejeweled with its more logic-oriented gameplay. However, when you merge the two together into a sort of Casual Frankenstein Monster (and no, we don't mean Puzzle Quest), well, you get something truly addictive. That game is the freeware puzzler Blocksum, and it has completely ruined my productivity.

Continue reading Freeware Friday: Blocksum

Filed under: Casual, Indie, Puzzle

Lead the man home in FIG

by James Murff Aug 5th 2008 @ 8:00PM

There are some games that are incredibly intriguing by virtue of their control scheme. FIG is one of them. A freeware puzzler game, your goal is to get the little green-clothed man to the end of each level, collecting the blue stars along the way to unlock the final 5 or so levels. However, you can't actually control him. You must do things like blow out lights and scare crows to get him to move the direction you want him to go and avoid the obstacles. There's a total of 30 puzzles in the game, and they are all entertaining and challenging.

[Via IndieGames]

Filed under: Indie, Puzzle

Avoid the wall of doom in Spectrum Spelunking!

by James Murff Aug 4th 2008 @ 8:30PM

Another entry in Eegra's Game Makin' Shindig, Spectrum Spelunker is a procedurally generated platformer with lots of quirky charm. As you may have noticed, the theme of the shindig was colors, and Spectrum Spelunker pulls this theme off amazingly. Playing like Mario meets Puzzle Bobble, you must platform your way continually across the randomly-generated world, destroying blocks along the way. You can only destroy blocks that are the same color you are. The catch here (and what makes it bring to mind Puzzle Bobble) is that blocks that are the same color will be destroyed together and counts as a combo, making the player look for large clusters of bombs to rack up the points. Overall

Make sure to be ColourWise

by James Murff Aug 4th 2008 @ 6:30PM

Talk about a game that makes sure you paid attention in physics! ColourWise, an entry in Eegra's Game makin' Shindig, is a game about combining colors to match the color required to exit the level. It's a very simple puzzle game, but makes up for its simplicity in greatly refined gameplay. It's also somewhat of a mind bender unless you have all colour combinations memorized. The music is also pleasant, bringing back memories of ages spent wasted away in SimCity 2000. It even has goofy cartoon cutscenes! If there is one complaint about it, it's that the colors are hard to distinguish sometimes and the color combinations are confusing at times.

Filed under: Indie, Puzzle

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