Tribal Trouble 2 takes the Oddlabs viking crew online for a multiplayer experience a bit like World of Warcraft. Like many other free MMORPG titles, Tribal Trouble 2 provides gaming advantage to the players who purchase additional points. You build up viking hordes to conquer rivals and capture treasures, gaining points for upgraded facilities and a stronger fighting force, but the advantage goes to those who spend money on points. If you're not planning to spend money and want to play for free, you need all the help you can get.
Continue reading Tribal Trouble 2 Walkthrough, Cheats and Tips for TribalTrouble2.com.
Loosely inspired by the recent Al Pacino and Robert De Niro movie of the same name, Righteous Kill follows the events surrounding a series of murders in New York City. Playing a series of hidden object and puzzle challenges, you step into the shoes of Officer Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in the hunt for a vigilante who has taken to killing criminals known for perpetrating crimes against women. The initial evidence leads to the arrest of the primary suspect, Terry Collins. But more murders begin to take place after he is held in custody. Is someone committing copy-cat murders, or was the wrong man arrested?
I realize that 2007 is long gone by now, but if you haven't tried the 2007 Puzzle Game of the Year, here's your chance to get it for a song (assuming you already pay .99 for music). All you need is the discount code AZADA99 when you checkout for a great deal on a game that normally costs $19.99. The premise of Azada is the adventurous Titus is trapped in a haunted room by his great-uncle. Titus needs your help to release him from the magical spell. To do this, you must solve the most mysterious puzzles of Azada. A little cheesy, yes, but the puzzles are a great challenge and you really can't go wrong for $0.99. The catch, this offer ends on August 15, so the clock is ticking.
The hidden object game goes underwater for a deep sea adventure in 10 Days Under the Sea. Search for lost treasures and other hidden objects amongst ship wrecks, coral, and lost underwater cities. The setup for the game is you're helping Little Carrie find her spirit. She had it stolen by the ghost of a mysterious old man, which sounds a bit like the plot of an Austin Powers movie. When she finds an ancient compass, she sets out on a quest to restore her spirit, but first she needs to locate some missing parts to the compass, which is where you can help.
Want the thrill of Gordon Ramsay pushing you to the limits of your culinary skills without actually being a chef? Just like the show of the same name, Hell's Kitchen puts you through a series of kitchen and dining room challenges designed to test your skills. You`ll need to master each Time Management test to progress to the next level of competition. Each meal is scored by a virtual Gordon Ramsay. While playing a game will never measure up to the demands of really preparing food in a working kitchen, Hell's Kitchen is one of the more entertaining games I've played in the "beat the clock" genre. It also includes some recipes you can try out in your kitchen at home, making this much more than just a game. And if you're not up to date on the latest season, you can 
Further expanding the Virtual Villagers island of Isola, The Secret City is the 3 chapter of the popular simulation game. Your job is to shepherd you villagers through the process of finding food sources, building shelter, raising their children, and discovering the secrets of the island. A long the way you help your villagers learn specific skills key to their survival. Children assist in the village by collecting rare objects and finding edible mushrooms to feed the villagers. Adults specialize in building, research, farming, and other skills key to survival. As you complete each of 16 puzzles your villagers increase their abilities while revealing more details of The Secret City. This is game developer Last Day of Work's best creation to date. If you're new to the series, be sure to investigate 
Feyruna: Fairy Forest lets you fly across the beautiful landscapes of the Fairy Forest using your mighty fairy magic spells to defeat all minions of evil! Relying on assistance from creatures like butterflies, ghost lights (will-o-the-wisp) and enchanted glow worms, you use your magic powers to drive away the dark forces trying to encroach upon the forest. As you succeed, you are rewarded with enchanted artifacts and eventually unlock three magical mini-games for even more fairy fun. There are 60 levels in total, all leading to a surprise ending.
Synapsis is a new escape the room game from Robot Jam Games. You start with a cube on a desk and must work through a series of clues in several rooms to complete the adventure and escape the game. One really cool thing about the game is it's absolutely free. There's no timer, but you'll find yourself wanting to figure out how to get to the end as quickly as possible, just to see where the clues take you. If you get stuck along the way, below is a room-by-room account of how to locate all the clues and win the game.
In Hidden Secrets: The Nightmare, you solve puzzles inside the mind of attempted murder victim Flora Dale, attempting to unravel the clues to reveal the name of Flora's attacker. At the beginning of the game, Flora wakes up briefly on her way to the emergency room before slipping into a coma. Trapped in her mind, Flora pieces together puzzles revealing clues about her life and events leading to the attack and her trip to the ER. Help Flora awaken with the name her attacker by solving the puzzles in her mind,unlocking clues in 50 different puzzle levels. Below is a list of basic tips to help you solve the game, along with level-by-level solutions for each of the games puzzles and mini games.
With the winter holiday season fully underway, Holly: A Christmas Tale makes the perfect hidden object game. The game's storyline follows Holly, a young woman who nods off on Christmas Eve and dreams about helping Santa Claus deliver toys to children around the world. But is she really asleep? Help Holly assist Santa in finding the missing items he needs to complete his annual Christmas Eve sleigh ride, by performing a number of clever tasks and searching for hidden objects in the classic puzzle style. Over 1,000 items are hidden throughout 25 different Yuletide scenes in Holly's story. Spotting the differences and locating hidden objects are only part of A Christmas Tale's fun.
Amazing Adventures: The Lost Tomb is one of the new breed of multi-puzzle games that are starting to crop up. Built on the success of find the hidden object games, this and other games like it expand on the concept, integrating other popular puzzle games into the story to add some variety. There are 20 different hidden object missions with over 2000 hidden items scattered across 22 Egyptian locations. Additional puzzle traps, like spot the differences mini games will attempt to trip you up in your quest to Find the Lost Tomb. A Secret Game mode provides yet another way to play this Amazing Adventures game. The game is from the creators of 
Luxor 3 is the latest installment in the Egyptian-themed arcade marble game Luxor series. Put your match-three skills to the test as you combat the power-hungry god of Chaos, combining marbles to defeat increasingly difficult levels. Seven unique game modes and tons of unlockable power-ups, ball sets and shooters make this one of the most extensive marble games to date. You can also play the original 
Neptune's Secret is one of the best looking seek-and-find games I've seen, with a gorgeous series of game screens. Integrated with one of the best sounding musical scores in a casual game, Neptune's Secret is both fun and a work of art. One of the biggest differences between this game and others in the category is a common sense of purpose between puzzles on a given level. Instead of looking for wacky items in a random set of rooms, you're trying to find many of the same thing across multiple rooms to help solve additional puzzles. The story line is built on the story of Hannah, a little girl abandoned as a newborn on the steps of the Convent of Ascension, with only an amulet to mark her parentage. She becomes an archaeologist, specializing in ancient artifacts. Summoned by the Abbess, she returns to uncover Atlantis and the many hidden secrets it holds. As Hannah discovers the truth behind Atlantis demise, she uncovers the mystical secrets about her own lineage. Navigating through the secrets of the underwater world, she discovers that her amulet is the key to giving back Neptune his full powers. Both an untimed mode and a beat the clock mode provide two ways for you to enjoy Neptune's Secret.
Like the original 
The makers of 
Plant Tycoon has a number of subtle features that make it fun to play and hard to win without some helpful tips. Below I've compiled a list of useful things to know, including a handful of tips, winning tricks and some helpful cheats to make sure you can succeed in breeding your plants to create the Magic plants of Isola.
For better or worse, I'm a product of the Eighties. I was born in the Seventies, but my teenage years were wasted playing drums in hair metal and grunge era cover bands, and watching Martha Quinn and Downtown Julie Brown on MTV. So it's with some amusement that I bring you The 80s Game with Martha Quinn, a trivia game geared at people who are over 30. Over 3000 questions will test your knowledge of television shows, fashion, music, and other pop culture straight from the Regan years. The t-shirt with the alligator on is back in fashion once again and sadly, so are leg warmers. If you're stumped on a question, just ask a teenager - chances are they're sporting Eighties style and don't even realize it.
If you're looking for an entertaining, non-violent gaming diversion for your kids, LEGO Fever might be the perfect choice. The game takes players through a series of challenges that require basic critical problem solving skills in helping the LEGO Brothers get from point A to point B, stacking matched bricks, and many other challenges. All levels focus on positive reinforcement in completing tasks. Challenges may be repeated in order to improve. Some levels are likely to be a way to waste some time for adults too.
In the first 
I haven't been excited about a PC arcade game in months. Ricochet Infinity changed that by once again turning the Arkanoid/Breakout game genre on its ear. You still use a paddle to break blocks, just like previous versions of Ricochet, but there are so many twists Ricochet Infinity barely feels like the same type of game. The ring game is completely overhauled, offering fast paced play featuring new balls and ships. 216 new levels present all new brick breaking challenges. The best new feature in Ricochet Infinity is the Recall option. Instead of waiting for the ball to bounce back to the paddle, you can force it to return at any time, changing direction instantly, and providing full control over the ball throughout the game - if that sounds like it makes Ricochet Infinity easy, trust me it doesn't. I've played numerous block breakers over the years, but the Ricochet series continues to be in a class by itself.
Secrets of Great Art is another of the hide-and-seek games like the 
Big City Adventure San Francisco is another one of those treasure hunt games like the Mystery Case Files. One of the things that sets Big City Adventure apart is the sheer number of levels - there are a total of 60 puzzles to solve as you set out to find clues in some of the most famous and obscure parts of San Francisco. Look for coins throughout the game to buy hints to help you as you get stuck in locating items in the puzzle. Along the way you'll learn a little San Francisco history and discover a handful of trivia. If you like a good treasure hunt, there are a handful of other 
For another twist on the hide and seek 
If you ever wanted to fire somebody then The Apprentice: Los Angeles is for you. Inspired by the Donald Trump television series, The Apprentice puts your skills to the test in four Los Angeles locations, attempting to please The Donald in four distinctly different casual game competitions. If you've played games like 
Little Shop of Treasures offers a slightly different spin on the hide-and-seek game category made popular by the 
If you've already solved the current batch of 
Like the first Virtual Villagers game, the sequel is packed with challenging puzzles and quirks. To help you succeed, I've compiled a list of tips, tricks and cheats to make solving the game less frustrating. If you haven't downloaded the game yet, you can 
Hot on the heels of 
I love hide-and-seek style games like Travelogue 360 Paris! It's a fun challenge to pick out objects in a cluttered room as you attempt to beat the clock and there's no commitment to hours of time if you only have a few minutes to play a game before you move on to something more productive. In this puzzle adventure, you search shops and views of Paris for objects that are either hidden in plain site or creatively out of place. This is the fourth game in this style from Big Fish Games and all of them are simply great. I played both 
If you're the type of person to get sucked into a game like the Sims or NeoPets, where you actively keep a virtual being happy, Kitty Luv is probably right up your alley. The game is centered around taking care of a virtual cat, including cleaning a virtual litter box, grooming the cat and keeping the cat entertained. Choose from one of six cat breeds: Russian Blue, Tabby, Siamese, Exotic, Abyssinian and American Shorthair. If you have real cats like I do, the creators have missed the mark a bit, focusing on all the stuff that's cute about cats and neglecting some of the annoyances like hairballs, cat puke and finding the exact spot to create a tripping hazard on the floor. Still this game has the mesmerizing power to keep you coming back for several playing sessions, as you help your kitten mature. It's not quite 
With the eve of Halloween upon us, here's one final spooky diversion. In the game, Dracula has been captured by a vampire hunter who has a sinister plan to create a serum that lets him live forever. Dracula's twin vampire twerps, Drac and Dracana are on a mission to save daddy Dracula from the clutches of the vampire hunter. Each of the twins is imbued with special abilities to help succeed in the adventure. Collecting blood rubies helps to develop magical powers. Casting spells will help defeat the challenges along the way. While the game isn't quite on par with something you'd find on a console, it's a fun diversion for Halloween or anytime you want to play an animated adventure.
Seeing Word Krispies, I'm reminded of the scene in Muppets in Space where Gonzo's alphabet cereal speaks to him by forming the words R U THERE? While you won't be reunited with your alien family by playing Word Krispies, your goal is to spell out words with available letters in a cereal bowl, scoring a higher nutrition as you complete words and advance through the levels. 10 power-ups, including Count Alphabetica, Broccoli Bob and Uncle Slam will help you make your way through 60 levels of cereal. 6 bonus rounds and a number of tongue-in-cheek cereal boxes will keep you entertained throughout each level. This is a good vocabulary building exercise for kids or an entertaining way to challenge the mind of the kid in all of us.
The Risk board game is a classic. Once upon a time I wasted many hours playing the Mac version of Risk on one of those old black and white Mac Classic screens. Tweaking the playing style of various computer opponents was a fun way to see which strategies worked to still beat the game. Risk 2 puts a new spin on the old classic with an updated board and a 3D attack interface. There's also a new Hot-Seat mode that lets all players attack at the same time which adds an additional challenge to the strategy. A networked mode lets you play against multiple opponents across a network. If you loved the classic version of Risk, this new version provides the familiar classic feel with updated game play with enough new features to make it challenging.
Combine the cool factor of LEGO bricks with the classic brick-breaking fun of Richochet and you get something like LEGO Bricktopia. The game takes the standard block-breaking concepts and adds the challenge of building bricks on your paddle, which can both help and hinder your efforts to clear all of the 160 levels featured in the game. As you clear out sections of each level, LEGO bricks must be caught on your paddle to store up in your LEGO brick stash. Little LEGO men appear periodically to help you with power-ups like an XL sized ball, multiple balls, beach ball, rockets and a handful of other useful power-ups. If you're looking for other block-breaking diversions, I also suggest:
I'm compiling a list of tips, tricks and hints for the game Hidden Expedition: Titanic. It's my favorite puzzle game in a long time. Hidden Expedition: Titanic takes the idea of the two Mystery Case Files games and adds the twist of beating the clock before your air tank runs out in your quest to discover the Titanic's hidden treasures. It can also be frustrating without a few tips and tricks to help you along the way. So far I haven't discovered any cheats to help you quickly bypass the hardest parts, but I've got a solid list of tips, tricks and hints listed below to help speed your discovery of hidden clues and make it through every room in the Titanic with air to spare.
In honor of my recent return from China, I'm featuring this Zuma clone for it's use of pseudo-Chinese cultural elements as the theme of the game. We've had ancient Aztec themes from 
Break bricks in an Egyptian pyramid in this sequel to the original Bricks of Egypt. In Tears of the Pharaohs you'll use the seven enchanting eyes to help you pass the levels and ascend through the challenges to face ever more complicated levels of block breaking action. Over 120 levels are included to challenge your abilities and test your skill at breaking blocks while maneuvering your paddle to keep the ball in play. Power-ups will help you in your quest. I still like the action in 
I have tons of people looking for tips and tricks related to the Virtual Villagers game I featured awhile back. While there aren't any undiscovered cheats to be had, there are a few pieces of advice and some general instructions to help you through some of the more complicated aspects of the game. From basic common sense like making sure your villagers have enough food and shelter, to walk-thrus for all 16 puzzles in the game, I've compiled a list of tips and tricks that should help you win the game.
Super Cooper Revenge is a cross between the original Mario Brothers game and something like the classic Lode Runner style adventure. Across 100 levels of game play, Super Cooper navigates progressively more complex layouts collecting bombs to clear the board of invaders while trying to collect as many coins as you can before they disappear. Every 10,000 points gets Super Cooper an extra life (which you'll definitely need after the first few levels). As a follow-up to the original Super Cooper game, this is a definite step up.
I keep raving about 
Tri Towers is possibly the easiest variation of solitaire to learn, but that doesn't mean you'll master it immediately. The game divides cards into three pyramids that gradually overlap in the final row. Remaining cards are put in a pile and the top card is turned over. You remove cards from the three towers if a visible card is either one card higher or lower than the card in the pile, continuing to remove cards until you can no longer go higher or lower with your current run. Tri-Peaks Solitaire gives this old concept new life by adding bonuses and a little animation that plays out depending on how each hand goes. The bigger your run of cards, the bigger the bonus at the end of the hand. There's also a strange subplot where you are shopping for artifacts ala Tex Carter's pseudo Pitfall Harry treasure hunter, but the real challenge is in beating each hand to get to the next level without causing a mishap for Tex along the way. 
Considering many Bingo games are found in the social hall of churches around the United States, there's something oddly ironic about the Saints & Sinners Bingo game. Like traditional bingo, the game calls numbers and you mark them on your card trying to win the bingo jackpot while competing against a number of computer opponents. The saints and sinners part of the game comes into play with some of the special features. For instance, there are temptations and distractions you can use against an opponent to make them forget about the game for a few seconds, giving your player the upper hand. Lucky charms help you do well against opponents and a pattern switching feature will change the layout of a card to either help or hinder your attempts at getting to BINGO. The game progresses through bingo halls in 20 different cities on your way to the Bingo Championship. Three game modes and over 100 card layouts will keep you challenged with hours of bingo fun.
When I hear the name Kenny I can't help conjuring the image of an overdressed kid mumbling from the inside of an orange parka. In this case, Kenny is a completely different kid, likely still mumbling as he's donning a diving suit and oxygen tank to explore underwater caverns in search of the family treasure. Pirates took the treasure some time ago and now Kenny is the first of his family to go on a quest in search of the family riches. Your job is to help Kenny find the treasure while avoiding sharks, jellyfish, octopi and other denizens of the deep who would rather eat Kenny than see him succeed. The cartoon graphics in the game are a ton of fun and Kenny's expedition is challenging enough to entertain serious arcade gamers, while remaining simple enough for the more casual game player. If you're looking for an adventure to escape from the day, take Kenny diving. Just don't get caught being the one who helps the sharks eat Kenny.
Elite Mahjong specializes in custom tile layouts but gets serious kudos from me for creating a kid-friendly tile set with designs less distracting than the traditional layouts. With tons of different tile layouts, custom design options for the serious Mahjong solitaire player and varying levels of difficultly from beginner levels playable by anyone to some of the most complex tile layouts ever imagined. Sure this isn't the classic Mahjong played competitively against your peers, but you'll never face the embarrassment of getting stomped by someone better at selecting tiles than you are either. From the long line of tile games released over the course of the last year, this variant is among my favorites. Others that deserve attention are 
I'm sure everyone knows at least one person perfectly suited for a game dedicated to shopping. If you don't know someone, that shopoholic probably stares you in the mirror every morning. In Shopmania, you're play a shopping assistant, helping people load their carts with stuff from the ultimate department megastore - $pendmore. Manage customers and help them fill their carts quickly while combing puzzle games with a nice helping of the skills honed in playing games like 
The first 
Maybe it's the kid in me, but I can't help thinking Drop 'Em Deluxe is a blast. I remember having table top pinball style games, where you pulled a lever to launch a ball through a maze of little plastic pegs in an effort to get the ball in one of several targets in the game. Drop 'Em is that game on the PC, with a number of variations to make things more interesting. There's the classic version of the game, a roll'em version, a spin on bingo and a fourth version that's based on a card game. In each game, you unlock bonuses and chips to help run up the score as you compete at more challenging puzzles. Think of Drop 'Em Deluxe as that kid's game with the ability to grow increasingly difficult with more game play. Sixty minutes of game time gets you started, although this is one game that seems to waste plenty of time.
A good word find game still gets me even with all the other options out there. The challenge of stringing together letters to try and squeeze as many points out of a set of tiles is both a good vocabulary and spelling exercise and a great way to kill a few minutes when I need a break. Babel Deluxe provides the diversion this time around, with several different methods for stringing together letters to form words and phrases. If you've got school aged kids, it's also a good way to make learning to spell more fun than simply drilling away at the dictionary. If word games are your favorite way to play, Reader's Digest 
The original version of 
Take the concept originated by Tapper back in the early days of arcade games, playing the role of a character serving up drinks to patrons while trying to keep everyone happy, and put a magical spin on things by making all the characters magical. Instead of serving up saloon patrons, you're serving up the local enchantresses, who prefer a menu of eye of newt and tongue of frog to a mug full of grog. Customers must be served quickly, while leaving time to clear away dishes between meals to seat the next round of guests. Play the potion building mini-game to create power-ups to help you in your quest to improve the Mystic Inn restaurant. Game play is a little like 
I like the challenge of a good puzzle. Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects is the sequel to one of my favorite casual games of recent memory - 
Feeding Frenzy is back with version 2: Shipwreck Showdown. This time, in addition to being able to earn double frenzy bonus points, both triple and mega frenzy bonuses are added for even more motivation to quickly eat as many fish as you can. After playing the PC version of the original 
While I'm more inclined to lose hours to an RPG like Oblivion on the Xbox 360, Aveyond brings back fond memories of games in the style of Sega Genesis offerings. The game features graphics that look right at home in the happy world of 8-bit graphics often seen in Japanese RPG adventures, featuring a female lead character leading a small team of adventurers on a quest through over 50 hours of roleplaying. Magic, mild peril and swordplay, all preformed in an almost turn-based adventure style will leave you wondering where the time went. Play free for the first hour of game play.
As my Xbox 360 gamer card over on Sync2play.com reflects, I've been playing some 
I have to admit not really "getting" the whole Sudoku craze. Filling in numbers based on some prescribed pattern just isn't my thing. Ancient Sudoku adds an interesting twist on the concept by offering a series of Sudoku boards that require placing the correct colored tiles in the appropriate spaces in addition to offering the more traditional mode of filling in numbers. There's also a built in media player for easy access to your music collection while playing. If I were ever to become a regular Sudoku player, I think Ancient Sudoku would be the game to put me there. Of course for the savvy Sudoku player there's also 
Rock Frenzy is a little like Dig Dug, without the tunneling and without using a pump to inflate the underground monsters. I suppose that makes Rock Frenzy not like Dig Dug at all, but it's the best analogy I can come up with. Your objective is to have your hero survive each level, avoiding monsters and crushing them with rocks when necessary (not as violent as it sounds). Along the way, you'll get special rocks to help you succeed in clearing the screen and a handful of special powers that can both help and hinder your progress. Each level becomes progressively more complicated as monsters and obstacles pile up until you reach a frenzied game pace.
Ancient Egyptian themes seem to be the hottest trend in casual games lately, with the 
7 Wonders is a marble game with roots in the Bejeweled style of game play, but with a whole new spin. The goal of the game is to match ancient runes to clear game pieces, amassing bigger bonuses for bigger combinations. 7 Wonders follows a story line that takes you from the Great Pyramid of Giza all the way to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Along the way you'll discover new rune types, find powered runes and try to create massive combos to run up the score. The marketing for the game is a bit silly in promising travel through enchanting Mediterranean islands and the glory of ancient Greece, but game play is fun and who ever pays attention to marketing anyway? Don't get stuck without any moves or you lose the game. Sixty minutes of game play is enough to get you hooked.
Egyptian-themed marble mashing fun is back with Luxor: Amun Rising bringing 88 new levels of challenging marble chain action. On each level, you must clear the screen of marbles before the chain reaches the pyramids the princes of Megiddo threaten to overthrow the pharaoh. Your winged scarab launches marbles into the chain, creating combinations to shrink the chain and ultimately clear the board. If you liked the original 
I never played the original QBeez to know how it compares to QBeez 2, but the new version is in the same vein as 
Check into the Hotel Solitaire where each room contains a different variation on the solo card game. In each of 100 rooms, a different card game may be played against the clock or in an unlimited time mode. Some levels are locked, requiring you to beat certain games before you can get additional games, rooms and backgrounds for more play. Card backs are also customizable as you win games and complete additional floors. All your favorite solitaire variants are here, so check in to check out the solitaire card games at Hotel Solitaire. Sixty minutes of game play gets you started.
Create your own ship captain navigating ancient trade routes of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Buy and sell ambergris, sesame oil, tea, salt and other goods as you work your way to fame and fortune. Battle pirates on the high seas as you defend your fleet from attack. Meet with the local authority in each port to take on special assignments for additional fame and monetary reward. Depending on whether you play in Story mode or Free Trade mode, the game varies slightly, with each of 4 preconfigured characters carrying out slightly different missions. Game dialogue is cheesy at times, but game play is fun without requiring the level of attention needed to complete a console adventure game. Like predecessor 
The old prospector from 
Take the classic Gem matching game and replace the jewels with hot dogs, cheese burgers, sodas and fries and you've got Bistro Stars, a matching game for the connoisseur of Super Bowl eats. In the classic mode you play with a time limit to score points and find new food items by passing each level and making an effective combination of fast food items. Bigger combinations translate to bigger scores. In speed mode, you must make combinations quickly enough to avoid time running out. An unlimited mode offers arcade style play until no moves are left. The first sixty minutes of game play are included.
Will there ever be too many Mah Jong solitaire variants? I'm sure that depends on who you ask. I love finding a new set of tiles to stare at every now and again. My time spent gaming is currently consumed by the challenges of Xbox Live, but that doesn't mean the world of PC games ceases to be. The adventure in Mah Jong Adventures is a globe-trotting storyline laid out by a journal left to you by an eccentric uncle. As you complete levels, travel to new parts of the globe with tiles loosely themed on whatever might be common to the area, starting with Hawaiian palm trees, dolphins and leis. If you prefer to just play a game of tiles, the classic mode skips the storyline. If only you got Xbox Live Achievements for playing these PC games.
Which one of these things is not like the others… Mirror Magic tests your ability to distinguish differences between the compositions of two images placed side-by-side. You try to find every variance before time runs out and move on to progressively harder pictures as you successfully match your skill against the clever removal of objects from one of two or three pictures. Depending on which level of play you choose, the challenge is progressively more complex. Start with sixty minutes of game play.
Depending on where you look this game is known as either Sudo Ku or Sudoku. You try to get the numbers 1-9 entered into the game grid so that you never repeat a number in a row or duplicate it in each of the 3x3 grids on the screen. The grid starts with a number of pre-filled numbers which are permanent to the playing board. Each level offers exactly one correct solution, so plan carefully. In the Easy mode, the board shows you playing options, to help make sure you understand potential moves. Increase the difficulty to make game play more difficult by removing preset numbers and ultimately eliminate the helper numbers from the board. Whether you're discovering Sudoku for the first time or already know the skills required to master the game, there's a difficulty level for you. Play free for sixty minutes.
Fish Tycoon puts you in charge of your own aquarium fish. Raise baby fish to adulthood from over 400 different fish breeds while seeking the seven missing breeds. As you raise fish, you can sell them in your aquarium shop to raise money for more fish and supplies. This simulation game plays in real time, keeping you busy raising fish in the background while you're actively doing anything else at your computer. Supplies like vitamins, tank ornaments and fish eggs help you in your quest to breed more fish and raise them to adulthood for sale in the aquarium shop. In the classic style of other Simulation games, Fish Tycoon requires less commitment than Neopets while still providing the fun of caring for digital animals. The aquarium window doubles as a screensaver when you step away from your PC.
Match-three style puzzle games seem to come in a million flavors. This latest variant sets the board on a spider web. You match three or more balls on the web to collect letters, spelling words to move you to the next level. As you complete levels, you move closer to freeing the kingdom from the spell of the evil spider. Of course, the spider will try to stop you along the way by removing sections of the web to complicate removing balls from the board. Sixty levels in all take you through an increasingly challenging series of webs with more roadblocks and complex combinations required before reaching each subsequent level. If you like 
Fly Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machines through the skies, catching updrafts to float your craft to collect coins while dodging hazards. Canons will fire at your craft, giant lizards will try to eat you. Collect all the coins on the level quickly and find the mirror to get to the next level. Find the invulnerability sphere to keep you safe as you collect coins. Bonus points are awarded for getting to the next level before time runs out. On each successive level the challenges become more complicated. Using the helicopter craft makes you less reliant on air currents because you can propel yourself upward without relying on the breeze.
The concept of Battle Castles seems simple enough. Defend your castle against cannonball attack from pirate ships trying to breach the wall. After the first few levels, things start to get crazy as the pirates get armored submarine type boats, their cannonball attacks get bigger, they have crews tunnel underground toward your castle to collapse the wall and an increasing number of ships come to pillage your castle. A quick mouse finger and careful aim will keep the marauders at bay. Between levels, you can repair your walls, add guns and renew your defenses in preparation for the next wave of invaders. This is arcade action at its best; simple concept with high energy fun.
Solitaire Mahjong is one of my favorite ways to waste 15 minutes when I need a break from writing articles or just want to zone out for a few minutes. My favorite Mahjong solitaire variant remains 
I like the challenge of a good puzzle. Mystery Case Files: Huntsville combines two puzzle styles in one game for something that's easy to catch on to, but considerably more challenging to solve. The first part of the challenge is locating clues mixed within the image displayed on screen. These clues are ordinary objects collaged on the page in a way that makes them both obvious and almost impossible to find, kind of like searching for Waldo. After you collect the clues, you must recombine a jumbled image to reveal the crime scene. All of this must be done within the constraints of a time limit that decreases with every round. You start with fewer clues to find and more time, progressively getting less time and more clues. Even when you see the same collage twice, looking for different clues, the game doesn't necessarily get easier.
The 
There's a sentimental spot in my universe for the classic sprite graphic animations of old Lode Runner variants. The game was the precursor to many that followed in the dodge-the-bad-guy-while-collecting-stuff genre. Gold Sprinter continues the tradition, with a giant rat hot on your tail as you collect gold and gems while picking the right ladders and digging holes to clear the screen before advancing to the next level. If you're looking for a trip down memory lane with an updated look and feel or just want to waste some time, Gold Sprinter offers the same classic Lode Runner entertainment we've come to expect.
Everybody's favorite bathroom reader is packed with entertainment like the Twister and Quizzler games. Now you can sharpen your vocabulary and play against the clock with an online version of the two popular pulp favorites. Pick the word that matches a definition or unscramble letters to form a correct word to complete the sentence as you pit your wits against the clock. With some practice, you might add one of the more than 5000 words included in the puzzles to your vocabulary. Have fun and pickup new words to annoy friends and coworkers. Sixty minutes of free play is included.
The original Bejeweled set a standard in productivity killing never before seen in the arcade gaming space. I had a version on an old phone that made standing in line less painful and the beat-the-clock version was a great challenge. Pop Cap is back with a new version that's even better. There's still a classic mode, with a few new power-up pieces and the risk of running out of matches. The Action mode provides the familiar beat-the-clock challenge. An endless mode is great for practicing those combinations. The completely new puzzle mode offers a new kind of challenge, requiring you to match jewels in the correct sequence in order to advance to the next level. If you loved the original version of Bejeweled or if you dig the recently featured 
This entertaing sequel to 
Professor Fizzwizzle is one of those arcade puzzle games that actually tests your problem solving skills while simultaneously entertaining. Each level is a new puzzle, requiring you to perform a series of steps to get the professor from the entrance to the exit without getting trapped in the level or captured by robots. Like the classic maze games, there's only one right way to get to the next level. Four different modes of play are available, depending on how sharp you think you are or your age. Aside from being a fun game, this is a good way to keep those problem solving skills sharp and a fun way to keep the kids entertained. If you get stuck, simply restart the level to play again. Regular mode teaches you the basics with gradually complex tests. Advanced mode throws you right into some of the toughest mazes in the game. Sixty minutes of game play are complementary.
For those that love Bejeweled, Gem Shop presents a new twist to an old favorite. Instead of simply matching gems to score winning combinations, Gem Shop has some interesting strategies. Combine gems quickly to keep satisfied customers paying high prices for jewelry in your shop or bribe them with chocolates and espresso while you struggle through the complicated match-ups. Between levels you can use accumulated points to offer more expensive jewelry, which translates to easier means for reaching the next level.
Professor Fizzwizzle is one of those arcade puzzle games that actually tests your problem solving skills while simultaneously entertaining. Each level is a new puzzle, requiring you to perform a series of steps to get the professor from the entrance to the exit without getting trapped in the level or captured by robots. Like the classic maze games, there's only one right way to get to the next level. Four different modes of play are available, depending on how sharp you think you are or your age. Aside from being a fun game, this is a good way to keep those problem solving skills sharp and a fun way to keep the kids entertained. If you get stuck, simply restart the level to play again. Regular mode teaches you the basics with gradually complex tests. Advanced mode throws you right into some of the toughest mazes in the game. Sixty minutes of game play are complementary.
It's great to play a digital version of a real-world classic every now and then. Mini golf is no exception. On the computer, mini golf obstacles become something never imagined in the real world, with explosive charges and things other than gravity accelerating your ball. Like the real game, there are two key challenges to excelling in the digital links - you need to finesse the ball with just the right amount of power and you need to aim to bank shots and avoid hazards. In addition to traditional nine hole rounds, this game also includes several mini games, which are one hole with Herculean obstacles to overcome. Free play is good for sixty minutes of gaming.
Gold Miner Special Edition is a little like the 
The original 
One of these days there will be no more twists on the brick breaking game concept. Since the dawn of home video games, this diversion has gone through more iterations than just about anything. Bricks of Atlantis moves the concept forward by combining the traditional brick obstacles with sea creatures aiming to block your path. Jellyfish, clownfish, coral, seaweed and little fish you can't possible hit all combine to create one of the more challenging block breakers I've played. Most levels start with plenty of low altitude blocks, meaning you need to be quick or lose your paddle. Gems and power-ups provide additional points and bonuses, but you need to be quick or it will all sink into the lost city. Sixty minutes of game play was enough for me, but as with others in the category, Bricks of Atlantis proves to be habit forming.
With the fall Salmon season rapidly approaching here in the Pacific Northwest, what better way to hone your skills than by playing arcade fishing? Okay, so the skill sets are completely different. Fishing Trip is a ton of fun and requires a surprising amount of strategy to survive beyond the first few levels. After getting the hang of hooking a certain number of the same fish in succession, you quickly realize that upgrading the right gear between levels is vital to success. Become too careless in rapidly hooking fish and you may over fish the pond of all types able to move you through to the next level. Don't waste your time on the big fish if you haven't got the gear, they just slow you down. For a quick game, there's an action round where you're tasked with catching as many fish as possible in 60 seconds, which tests your skill at grabbing the big fish from the school of smaller low-point fish.
I've seen plenty of Zuma imitators emerge since discovering the game back in early 2004. It's still my favorite. The object of Zuma is to eliminate all balls rolling onscreen before they reach the Golden Skull. If you don't eliminate balls fast enough, you lose the round. How do you eliminate balls? When you fire a ball into two or more balls, making a group of 3 or more, they explode! While this sounds simple, the spinning balls have a mesmerizing effect that will leave your head swimming. When you eliminate all the balls on the screen, you advance to the next level. Zuma Deluxe is PopCap, who created one of my favorite puzzle games of all time - Bejeweled. Zuma tests your dexterity while offering some of the best sound I've heard from an arcade style game in ages. Game play is extremely fast paced, although you'll find time slipping away as you play more and more levels. The sixty minute trial goes fast.
Combining solitaire with the beat-the-clock action of Luxor, Charm Solitaire is a variation on high-low solitaire card games where the object is to fill the board using cards either one higher or one lower than an adjoining card already on the board. The mission behind the progressively faster levels is to restore the memory of a magical kingdom, which you accomplish by completing each level and advancing to the next round. Along the way, your pursuit will be challenged by monsters who steal cards from the playing board and generally make it harder to complete levels. The game concept is easy, but as game play speeds up, keeping up with the pace of new cards appearing on the board can be a trick. Sixty minutes of free game play is included.
After catching up on television recordings during the flight back from San Jose, I still had some down time. Crime Puzzle managed to keep me occupied with puzzle matching of the Bejeweled-style of play. The loose premise behind the game suggests a Russian Count has stolen a prized philatelic collection. It's your job to track it down by clearing levels. The more levels you clear, the closer you get to tracking down this hot handed philatelist. Just like Bejewled, you swap pieces on the screen to create matches, which removes pieces from the board and gradually clears the screen to advance you to the next level. Pieces occasionally become occluded by on screen debris, requiring you to generate bonus artifacts to uncover the pieces. The playing pieces are a slick looking collection of postage stamps. Game play is free for the first sixty minutes, which takes you halfway to San Jose from Seattle.
When I'm looking for a mental escape, solitaire just isn't quite good enough. Sure I like it on occasion, but I love Mahjong. There's something about the combination of picking the right combination of tile patterns while trying to beat the clock that's a refreshing change from focusing on tech troubles. Or maybe it's the way Mahjong games always have mesmerizing background music that's equal parts soothing and hypnotic to keep players drawn to the game, losing hours of life to the pursuit of matching tiles. Regardless, Mahjong Towers Eternity is my latest favorite variant. This new version offers some of the most insane tile arrangements I've ever seen, with crazy names like Grab The Advil, Cheese Grater and Linoleum. Over 800 different game boards are currently available. If you don't find on you like, spend some time creating your own challenging puzzle layout. Tile sets range from the classic Chinese characters, to quilt patterns, to animated cartoons, to insects to musical instruments. Generate your own tile set by placing 36 jpg or bmp images in a folder and importing them as the tiles. Mahjong Towers Eternity offers both single player mode and a networked mode to play against online competitors. Sixty minutes of play time is included in the initial download.
When I have downtime, Mah Jong and variations of solitaire are known to help me pass the time. I'm partial to 
Cross the concept of Bingo with the arcade style of 
I'm not sure what the official classification for a game like Subway Scramble should be. The game is part puzzle and part timed arcade challenge. Your goal on every level is to route as many passengers as possible to their destination before the end of the round. Each level adds new complications to the subway routes, including more stops, track changeovers, additional trains and increasingly complex routes between start and finish. Starting in New York, you progress through increasing complex subway navigation through the public transit of Paris, London, Moscow and Seoul. Matching passengers to their destination becomes a challenge as you deal with switching stops and navigating trains that need to arrive at the same destination without colliding. Subway routes ease you into the game before layering on complications to keep you scrambling.
If you've ever played games like Othello, Nine Men's Morris or chess, you'll be familiar with some of the concepts in Tablut. The game is a variant of the Norse and Icelandic board games, Tafl and Hnefatafl. Game play is set on an 18x18 square board with two opposing sides. The object is for one side to wage an attack on the king of the other side before the king fortifies itself in the corner of the board. All pieces are limited to moving in a straight line. The side making the attack has no king and is given considerably more pieces than the defending side because, unlike chess, the king is capable of movement in all directions. For the attacker to win, the king must be surrounded by attacking pieces on all four sides before making it to safety in the corner of the board. It's surprisingly easy to pickup the basics of the game, although I'm finding it quite hard to actually defeat any computer opponents as the attacker. Defending is a much simpler affair, even with the seeming advantage of more attacking pieces. Competition takes place against online opponents or against the computer in a sort of World Series of Tablut against computer players of varying skill.
Puzzle games set in a backdrop of comically cursed pseudo-Aztec ruins are nothing new. Addictive cult favorite Zuma defined the genre. Rather than simply being a clone, like the Egyptian themed 
Sometimes when game designers cross two great game concepts to build a new game, they fail miserably. Other times, crossing two games works fabulously well, which is the case with Invadizoid (the latest release from Bantam City Games). They adeptly combine the arcade classic Space Invaders with the block breaking action of Ricochet. Instead of shooting the invaders, your mission is to knock them from sky using the traditional ball and paddle concept of block breaking games. Unlike most block breakers, the invaders are moving targets, instead of the traditional wall of bricks, which creates a new level of complexity for fans of block games. Most block breakers don't require dodging projectiles fired at your paddle either. Like Ricochet and the rest of the block breaking tradition, power-ups are awarded through falling tokens, which must be collected on the fly while dodging incoming attacks from invaders and keeping the ball in the air. Get started with sixty minutes of game time and prepare for addiction to this genre bending arcade game.
Maze games aren't typically my thing, but Slyder Adventures takes this wacky little blob on a wild ride through twisting and turning paths making the maze challenge a ton of fun. You control the game via mouse or keyboard, shifting the playing surface clockwise or counter clockwise depending on your movements. Slyder, the game's hero, falls in downward direction, moving toward whichever passageway is directly below him based on your latest mouse movements. Two different game modes provide their own unique challenges across four massive worlds. Along the way, Slyder dodges disasters, collects fruit, cheese, snacks and the highly prized ice cream cones. Figure out the way Slyder moves through levels within seconds of playing the game, but you'll keep relearning strategy with each increasingly challenging level. Everytime I think I've got the game licked, a new twist sends Slyder bouncing off in the wrong direction. Sixty minutes of game play gets you started.
Fed up with life in the corporate rat race, Flo abandon's her desk job the day she see's a restaurant for sale. There's a different kind of pressure in the world of dining, with orders to be taken, coffee to serve, tables to bus and food critics to satisfy. Diner Dash puts you in charge of Flo's restaurant with an updated spin on the classic Tapper game, seating patrons, serving them dinner and clearing the table to make way for the next round of famished friends. Fast service and attention to detail wins the critics and helps improve the restaurant with more tables, a better appearance and the opportunity to build the restaurant of Flo's dreams. Make sure to seat customers at the right tables and don't overlook smaller parties waiting for a chance to dine as the restaurant grows. Sixty minutes of game play provides a distraction from your own daily grind.
Oasis takes the strategy of Minesweeper and puts an arcade spin on it. With a set number of turns for each level, you need to locate all the cities in the kingdom and identify the location of the barbarians before they mount an attack against your armies. The cities are hidden behind a dark cloud, but clues in the geography provide clues to the location. Connecting the cities you discover helps join forces to defend against barbarian hordes, with further help coming from defenses forged in mines located in nearby mountain ranges. As you build your defenses, don't forget to locate the Glyphs of Power to reunite all the kingdoms. A tutorial quest gets you started and sixty minutes of gameplay is more than enough to finish the first round.
Combining the 8-bit nostalgia of classic Mario Brothers-style game play, with smooth edges made possible by modern graphics, Superstar Chefs sends two master chefs through increasingly complex levels in an attempt to recover their missing recipes. All fruit must be cleared from each level before the key to the next level will be revealed. Bees, birds, snails, ghosts and other beasties must be dodged and defeated to reveal the missing recipe on each level. Make sure you don't grab the key before you find the recipe on each level or you'll be leaving a copy of the secret sauce behind. Be careful to bounce on top of the baddies not bump into them or fall from the playing screen and lose your chef. Music for the game sounds right at home in Super Nintendo-era gaming. The first sixty minutes of game play may be started from one of eight levels.
If you've ever lost a few hours of your life to Bejeweled, frantically seeking out elusive matching gems in an effort to keep the clock ticking to buy a few more seconds to locate the next elusive match, Treasure Fall is sure to be right up your alley. Game play requires matching groups of three or more treasures to remove them from the screen. Larger combinations of treasures and bonus combinations removing two or more groups of coins simultaneously result in more points and faster build up to bonus points. Spellbooks, crystal balls, and crowns are enchanted with special powers to aid in removing other pieces from the board. Three of the same enchanted treasures give you the all-powerful rune. Play the first sixty minutes without registration.
Funky Farm is the animal rights activist's arcade nightmare. As the farmer, your goal is to raise sheep for shearing and fatten pigs for the slaughter while keeping the wolf at bay. Throughout each level the farmer is presented with monetary goals met by feeding the livestock in order to attain healthy wool production and big fat pigs ready for market. As resources are depleted, you must slop the hogs and replant grass to create an environment ideal for healthy animals. When animals are ready for market, they must be sheared or given the cleaver and turned into ham steaks. Undernourished livestock turns green to indicate a need for more food. At the end of each round, any livestock not sent to the slaughter is rounded up to move to the next stage of the game. Thirty minutes of free game play starts you down the path of virtual farming.
Pulsarius reminds me of the old Atari classic River Raid, without some of the strange blocky angles and set in space. The graphics are slick modern arcade backdrops with Nintendo 64 era spaceships and the standard computer-generated sounds associated with most of the arcade games available online. In the story behind the game, a hostile alien race has taken over the Pulsarius system. As pilot of the sole rescue ship, it's your job to rescue the people of Pulsarius from enslavement by the invaders. Screen backdrops range from space bases to asteroid belts to the alien lair. The first thirty minutes of your rescue mission requires no registration.
Bubblefish Bob is variation on the arcade shooter theme pioneered by addictive games like Zuma and 
I never really liked Asteroid-style games where you circle around endlessly attempting to defend yourself from all side as foreign objects attempt to collide with your spaceship. While this style of play is still far from my favorite, Clash N Slash does a good job making it seem compelling. In stead of firing away in defense of your ship from random space garbage, the premise of this game is to defend the planet from alien invaders. As you progress through the levels, bonuses include technology upgrades for the planet and better weapons and defenses for your space ship. Over sixty levels of game play and fifty different invading alien ships will test your aim and your ability to maintain the planetary defenses while receiving incoming attacks from all sides. Upgrade the planet and fend off invaders with sixty minutes of game play to get you started prior to the registration requirement.
If Super Collapse or Spongebob Collapse provided a clever diversion, you're sure to like Avalanche. With a collapse style game play, the object is to connect the black spheres in order to pass to the next level while also chaining enough matching snowballs together to cause an avalanche. The more snowballs you take out at a time, the faster the avalanche meter climbs, bringing you closer to victory and a higher score. Three modes of game play are fairly similar. In the Classic style, you simply try to connect the black spheres. Puzzle mode requires you to remove obstacles on every level prior to connecting the black spheres. In Tactics mode you play a more traditional game of collapse, strategically lining up snowballs for removal until you clear the level with an avalanche to advance to the next round. Sixty minutes of free game play gets you started.
The goofy gang of Raccoons from the Frogger-inspired arcade game 
Combine crossword puzzles, scrabble and an egg timer and you get something approximating Word Slinger. The game challenges you a to arrange a fixed number of words per level before you either run out of time or fail to add words to the screen quickly enough. To help you on your way you get the occasional hint and the opportunity to discard a few duds. Score bonus points and move to the next level more quickly by connecting game-generated words to make new words. Increase your score by creating crossword layouts, integrating single letters from words already placed on the board with two or more letters in a new word. Bonus points are awarded at the end of the round by adding as many additional words to the board as possible before time runs out. A second variation of the games provides unlimited time to complete levels. Sixty minutes of game time are free prior to registration.
Back when I started college fourteen years ago, my daily interactions with computers were with SGI workstations in the engineering lab, Windows in the general computer lab and a Mac Classic in my dorm room. The Mac provided me with a convenient way to write papers, fail miserably at figuring out how to program HyperCard stacks and waste hours of my time playing games like Railroad Tycoon that bridged the gap between the text adventure games of DOS and the future fully animated RPG environments like Warcraft and Age of Empires. At the time there was a game that let you play at being a pirate preying on ships in the Caribbean. For it's time, the game offered an entertaining story and a complicated enough gaming environment to keep me from caring about attending chemistry lectures with 500 of my closest friends. Tradewinds 2 is something of a evolutionary step from that classic story. You play a ship captain trading goods between ports and fending off pirate attacks with a ship loaded down with canons. By performing missions for the various governors, you gain rewards to help you achieve money for ship upgrades and with experience you gain the favor of other governors. Throughout the game you are charged with dispatching pirates, making profitable trade runs and discovering new ports in the trade runs between Cuba, Central America and many of the Caribbean islands. By completing all the challenges with one of the stock characters, you earn the right to create your own custom character and face new challenges. Tradewinds 2 requires some strategy to effectively buy goods in one port at prices that will turn a profit through adventures to other ports in the game. Your ability to read the markets ultimately determines your success in the game. Play free for the first sixty minutes of game play.
Stan the pig is in a bind. The farmer wants Stan for dinner, but instead of roasting Stan on a spit, you get to save Stan from the dinner plate by solving as much pop culture trivia as possible in 10 minutes. The game is played hangman style, hence the rope around Stan's neck. The more you guess correctly, the better your chances of making it to the bonus round and ultimately to Stan's Dream Round, where you get a Wheel of Fortune solve-the-final-puzzle crack at guessing a random question correctly. The pool of trivia is drawn from the past thirty years of music, television shows and movies. The more quickly you solve a puzzle the bigger the time bonus to keep you going until the next round. Bonus points are awarded for avoiding incorrect letters. Playing the sixty free minutes of this game is worth it just for the amateurish cartoon segments between levels. Movies, TV and the mixed game are locked in the unregistered version.
All of the alien shooting of first person classics like Doom and Halo, with none of that boring storyline stuff to get in the way (for the record, I like the storyline stuff, but sometimes it seems a bit contrived). With two modes of play, campaign and survival, it's up to your ability to fend off aliens to see how far into Alien Shooter you can make it without becoming lunch for the little green beasties. Just like other games in the genre, you need to collect ammo, revamp your armor and upgrade your weapons in order to stay one step ahead of the next wave of alien monsters waiting to rip you to shreds behind a bunker. Ten different levels of play will challenge you to survive repeated attacks by six different alien predators. Play the first sixty minutes for free to get your bearings then tackle the monsters with a vengeance.
Take the Lemonade Stand back in time to a land before big wheels and sidewalks and build an empire of peasant workers all laboring under the watchful eye of you as king. Instead of sugar, water and lemons, your ingredients for success are the right mix of man power, gold and defensive fortifications. Fend off goblins, marauders and denizens of the dark places in your quest to build the kingdom. Play the role of wizard, dwarf, prince, knight or warrior king as you direct your people to sell goods, offer clerical services, build your castle and defend its walls facing increasingly challenging conditions and assailants. If you want to build your own little kingdom in the virtual world, Age of Castles provides a day-by-day empire building experience without the time and deep strategy required to invest in an action epic like World of WarCraft.
Feeding Frenzy is one of those games that quickly steal away hours from your life without you even realizing they are gone. Starting the game as an angel fish feeding on smaller fish and dodging the big predators, you slowly eat your way up the food chain. In the next phase, you are a lion fish with an appetite for angel fish, parrot fish and other colorful fish varieties. After passing through an existence as an angler fish, you become John Dory in the final phase before testing you skills as a killer whale. As you grow, you no longer need to fear smaller fishes, instead feasting on the fishes you once feared. Starfish, pearls and special goldfish provide power-ups to give you an edge in your feasting. Watch out for mutant fish and their poisonous flavors and don't get caught in the giant oysters when trying to acquire rare black pearls. Sixty minutes is plenty of play time for you to get a taste of the full fun of this arcade adventure.
The original Slingo is this crazy game that plays a little like bingo with the randomness of certain electronic games popular in a well lit Nevada city that must remain nameless in order to reach the inboxes I deliver to. This slingo variation plays on another theme unpopular with email censors combining the scoring system of card gaming with a random presentation of the cards, allowing you to choose where they go on the board. Depending on your choices, the 12 hand combinations will be scored accordingly. Three modes of game play let you choose between a timed mode with card placement limited to a specific row on the board, an untimed version of the standard game and a mixed matrix mode which serves up five different cards at a time and allows you to place them anywhere on the board. Strategy is a factor as card placements do alter the outcome of your score. The first sixty minutes are free.
Luxor is a distinctly Zuma-like game, replacing the Aztec theme of the famous marble shooter with an Egyptian theme. Symbols we all recognize as Western interpretation of Egyptian symbolism like the eye of Horus, pyramids, the dog head of Anubis, the ankh and scarab beetles. Music in the background is faintly reminiscent of Hollywood movies with loud orchestra strikes and the abrupt chorus of voices signifying something sinister. Boards are standard marble shooter style mazes with a pyramid at the end where marbles run off the board. In addition to setting up strategic combinations for bigger points, Luxor tosses power-ups block breaker style. Sixty minutes of play time will have your eyes dried out from staring as you advance through increasingly complex levels.
A kinder gentler version of Mahjong. Clever tile images and custom themes offer personalization to the traditional Mahjong game board. This particular version of Mahjong is very player focused, with tons of player-created boards, downloadable board updates and a customization engine that works for both registered and non-registered users. Gameplay is similar to other variants of Mahjong, with the ability to rate boards for difficulty so you can keep track of which boards you consider easier or more challenging. Downloadable boards come pre-rated to give you an idea of what you might be up against, but your vote shifts the rating to reflect your personal ability and experience with any given board. If you like Mahjong and want to create a more personalized tile experience, this might be the game for you.
Cross the classic Centipede game with Asteroids and Defender, update the graphics, pump in some loud music and you might have some idea what Mutant Storm is like. Over 89 levels of gaming gets progressively more challenging with more alien attackers swarming your ship on each level. This is one of those games with non-stop arcade action requiring your attention on a full 360 degree radius. Power-ups are few and far between so you rely on your own skill and dexterity to get you through each level. The first few levels are easy to warm you up, but don't get fooled, this game is a challenge. Play free for thirty minutes.
The original version of 
The back story for zZed is absolutely lame, with space alien zZed wanting to make big money so he can marry his rich girlfriend. You, of course, play zZed trying to seek your fortune clearing debris for a space mining company so you can someday own a company and be a bigshot. Forget the back story, zZed is the heir apparent to Zuma, my all time favorite arcade shooter. zZed adds a layer of complexity not found in Zuma because you can't line up combinations and clean the entire level through the same kind of strategic playing found in other arcade shooters. Instead, you've got to keep the space debris from hitting your ship by clearing the area before you get crushed. Game play is just as addictive as Zuma with the added challenge of as many as four sides coming at you simultaneously. Play free for the first sixty minutes, which is plenty of time to get your zZed fix.
Jets N Guns will remind you of the action arcade space games of days gone by with a new twist that revamps the genre for a new generation of arcade fanatics. The download is a massive 75MB because the designers packed in tons of detailed graphics, an aggressive soundtrack and 21 monstrous levels of play. From the time you launch your first gaming campaign, your spaceship is under constant assault from the minions of the 12 Masters of Destruction. Unlike the arcade classics that defined this genre, Jets N Guns offers equipment upgrades between levels as you earn money for your role as a mercenary in this cosmic war. Outfitting your spaceship is similar to the car upgrades in 
Sometimes quirky games are more fun than games with over-the-top graphics and sound. One of the games I find most endearing for Xbox is 
A small sub genre of strategy games comprises the digital equivalent of the old mouse trap board game. You assemble a Rube Goldberg assortment of tools to help an onscreen character navigate through a level from start to finish without encountering any perilous obstacles. Mortimer and the Enchanted Castle falls into this category of games, challenging you to correctly place provided tools on the board to help him navigate the passageways of Castle MacFear. The castle graphics are a little simplistic, but you'll find plenty of head-scratching game play on every level as you attempt to place bombs, blocks, staircases and springboards in the right parts of the board to guide Mortimer safely to the exit. Sound effects are reminiscent of an Atari Haunted House variant updated for the Nineties. Sixty minutes of complimentary game play await.
Every time I think the marble matching games have reached the point where further innovation is impossible, a game comes along and surprises me with some subtle variation that turns the category on its head all over again. Asianata adds another twist to the category with a free form system for pairing marbles using a combination of strategy and a steady hand to make combinations come together in increasing complexity. One of the big differences between this game and others like it is making the marbles pressure sensitive; bump a neighboring ball and your entire configuration may be thrown off. Three variations, strategy, puzzle and arcade offer challenging configurations requiring pattern matching skills, persistence and a dose of speed to beat the clock in pursuit of the next level. Game play is free for the first sixty minutes.
Ninety six different games played on a virtual billiards table ranging from more traditional pool hall games of skill to an entertaining cross between pool, mini-golf and arcade puzzle games like 
It's Super Collapse in a pineapple under the sea with Spongebob Squarepants. All the fast-paced action on quickly multiplying rows of Super Collapse are here, with the sound effects and wacky extras of Spongebob's undersea world adding a Caribbean twist. Combine more blocks for a higher score but don't let the stacks reach the top or you're finished. Bonus points for clearing the screen. Take Spongebob Collapse for a run against your Super Collapse skills and then pile on the complexity of Super Collapse to with the Relapse mode to really make your head spin.
Tile games are always a good diversion from a frustrating day at the office or when you need to challenge your visual recognition skills. The Emporer's Mah Jong is among the toughest variations of the classic Mah Jong I've ever encountered. In guest mode you choose from one of several dozen board options. Playing the Emporer's challenge, you play against the clock removing tiles from increasingly difficult configurations in hopes of completing the minimum of tiles to move on to the next level. As you complete the phases, you are rewarded with a new challenge and an opportunity to compete in the 12 Emporer's challenge. There's also an option to design your own tile layouts, which is great for anyone seeking the ultimate Mah Jong layout.
Battle breakout is sure to be an entertaining challenge to up the ante for any fan of block breaking games like Ricochet. You square off against a computer opponent or online challenger to score the most points and move on to successively more difficult levels. Campaign mode lets you face newer more challenging competitors with each successive victory. A username and password are required for online play and posting of high scores to the online hall of victory. Six different arenas with over 150 levels and a combination of animated paddles are sure to keep your block breaking skills honed. Power-ups provide the upper hand for the opponent who claims them. The sound effects are clever. The graphics are everything you'd expect from your favorite flavor of Ricochet. The first sixty minutes are free always.
If you're prone to road rage or if you loved the Steve Jackson Car Wars RPG, you'll most definitely find hours of entertainment in this road racer. I'm not one to gravitate toward racing games because the controls are more complicated than stepping into a real auto, but this game keeps things directed toward having fun. Arm your car with rockets, mines, and spiked tires to keep the competition at bay, then hit the track on courses designed to test your racing skill and strategic cunning. Win the race and take home prize money to be spent on pimpin' your ride with increasingly high tech weapons of fast combustion.
Back in the early days of Windows gaming, one of my arcade favorites was a game called Jezzball. You had to trap bouncing balls on the game board by dividing it into smaller sections, without the balls hitting your game paddle. Cosmic Bugs takes this concept to a whole new level. Instead of bouncing balls, you are trapping mechanoid creatures both in the game board and traveling around the edge of the game surface. Each successive level offers more mechanoids and increasingly complex game board configurations designed to test your skill. Trapping some mechanoids releases power-ups. Over 500 levels offer hours of entertainment. Game play is free for the first sixty minutes.
Don't spill that soda. Create pipelines to route soda from one side of the board to the other while dodging obstacles, crisscrossing flavors and avoiding breaking the tube, all without spilling. Build massive soda flow pipelines to keep soda in the tube for as long as possible. Combine tube building into a action-packed gaming environment where beating the clock is a must. Simultaneous soda flows require quick adjustments to avoid mixing flavors and flows are occasionally divided into multiple sub-flows. Create twisting pipelines and straight soda lines in three challenging versions of the game. Play is free for the first sixty minutes of gaming.
With the kingdom enslaved by orcs and terrorized by monsters, the king finds a savior in the form of a giant troll capable of warding of the evil invaders. As the troll, it's your job to defend the village by deflecting fireballs from a dragon in desperate need of a roll of Tums, in turn knocking down the orc fortress. At the same time, monsters will be attempting to eat the villagers who are scrambling for safety. Along the way, the orcs offer some silly taunts from the castle walls. Knock down the orc fortress before the dragon levels the village and you advance to the next round. This is possible the most unusual brick breaking variant I've ever played.
I've long had a love/hate relationship with Defender and Galaxian-style arcade games. I reach a threshold where I just don't seem to get any better at them and eventually lose interest and give up. Astro Avenger is a similar space shooter, with slick graphics and explosive sound effects. The game delivers a combination of weapons upgrades and power-up features during game play adding a level of strategy not generally associated with this style of game. Game play progresses across successively complex levels where you combat 25 different enemy ships in 5 different galaxies. This is one of the few games in this genre where I've played through the full sixty minute trial period and felt like upgrading because I'm having fun.
The more I play GDF, the more I like it. There's a slight learning curve as you figure out how to fire weapons, but once you get in a comfort zone with the controls, it's a ton of fun. The game challenges you with multiple levels of target shooting, where you aim for various incoming obstacles and eliminate them from the screen to gain points, ranking, and new weapons. The simulation room gets you started, allowing you to earn points and status before taking on complex missions. As you advance in skill and points you gain access to more complex. The sound tracks with the various levels on this game add to the intensity, especially if you play while wearing headphones. The first 60 minutes of play is free.
There's nothing fishy about the concept behind Aqua Pop. Simply match bubbles of similar color to prevent them from rolling into the mouth of the waiting fish. Strategy gets a little more complex. Score more points as you increase the number of bubble combinations with each shot. Practice careful aim to be sure you don't misfire the bubbles and group them with the wrong color. Progress through each level and watch the bubbles move more quickly. Special power bubbles stop motion, elimate bubbles from the board, and offer additional powers to assist you in your pursuit of bubble elimination. Sea turtles occasionally block your view of the bubbles adding to the challenge. If you've played games like Zuma in the past, you'll love Aqua Pop.
I used to love jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid. I could waste hours putting together those thousands of jumbled pieces into famous paintings, movie posters, and scenic photos. When I found Jigsaw365 the nostalgia of pieces cluttering the card table with the family cat occasionally jumping in the middle of things spreading pieces everywhere came rushing back. The game offers a new jigsaw puzzle for every day of the year, with the option for creating puzzles from your own photos too. Choose the number of pieces and the size of the image, making puzzles more challenging for yourself or fun for small children too. The best part is you can never lose any pieces.
When the Three Little Pigs meet Home Alone in a game of dwelling security, it can only mean they aim to recapture their house from the Big Bad Wolf. Armed with a slingshot, the super swine of piggy household mounts a defense against Baddy's gang of wolf toughs who attempt to float past your vigilant watch by way of balloon. Bonuses and surprise tools help you defend your home. Keep the pork palace safe and advance through progressively tougher levels until you meet up with Big Bad himself. Sixty minutes of fully functional game play is free.
This geometric puzzler has you shifting shapes to fill in the gaps in a mythical puzzler filled with evil dragons, vengeful centaurs, and mystical unicorns attempting to thwart your puzzling skills. As the game feeds you random pieces, you fill in increasingly complex patterns before you run out of shapes to choose from. To pass each level, you must defeat enchanted creatures bent on destroying your puzzles. Patterns test your skills at arranging shapes in over twenty extensive levels challenging you in one of three difficulty levels played at one of three game speeds. The game keeps you guessing, adding new pattern combinations to the board as you successfully fill in the gaps. You'll find yourself draining productivity faster than you can say, 'really boss, I'm improving my spatial geometry skills.'
Matching games continue to offer some of the most addictive game play with the creators finding a new twist with each successive release. Big Kahuna Reef is no exception. The board layout changes at every level adding complex obstacles and unique patterns requiring strategy to eliminate sections of the board and move to the next level. In the background a coral reef comes to life with an assortment of fish. Complete levels to unlock additional fish and get bonus playtime. When the game is over, use Big Kahuna as your desktop screen saver, selecting a unique combination of reef layout and fish based on your success in the game. There's even a small educational component with information about each fish swimming in your reef.
Remember the Lunar Lander game for Commodore 64 machines? The one with those frustrating thrusters on all sides requiring a well thought out firing order to land on the moon without crashing. The Space Taxi works a little bit like the Lander, without so much frustration. Pick up fares at planetary stops and delivery them safely to their destination. Collect tips, repairs and other bonuses to help make it through the work day successfully. Wreck your cab and lose a turn. Run over a fare and get your cab impounded. As you progress through the game, delivering fares becomes more complicated. Black holes will attempt to suck you in. Canons fire puts your cab at risk. Monsters pursue you and deadly obstacles obscure the path to the final destination for your fare. Deliver fares safely and on time for tips and end of round bonuses. Play the first sixty minutes free.
I've already expressed my affinity for 
Cross the arcade classic Space Invaders with the breakout game Ricochet, complete with specialized power ups and graphically enhanced space aliens and you get some idea what the creators of Atomaders have in store. Save the five planets of the Leda system from alien cyborgs and their motherships using the weapons in your space vessel and the special attacks you acquire after destroying alien invaders. Watch out, some powerups have undesirable results. Sixty minutes of free play time gets you started. Registration gives you access to register high scores online and unlocks an additional set of planets.
Back when I owned a bar, I spent some of the slow nights feeding quarters into one of those table top game machines with game diversions like 
Think you know it all? Prove it! The Trivia Machine tests your knowledge in nine different subject areas with questions that are frequently updated from the online database of knowledge. Three category options are presented at random, ranging in difficulty from Elementary to Genius. You choose the category and the difficulty, then get points to move to the next level when you are correct. There's no $2 million dollar prize for being the big winner, but this might be the perfect training ground for becoming the next game show master. Play free for sixty minutes.
Cactus Bruce is a game too wacky not to play at least once. Using his One-Ton Claw, Cactus Bruce the Pirate grabs the Corporate Monkeys (who are invading islands around the world to displace natives and launch banana plantations for the Hallabager Corporation) and uses them to knock other monkeys from their perches before they conk him on the head with coconuts. As you complete levels, Cactus Bruce is joined by a increasingly comical cadre of companions who each offer a unique skill to assist in the removal of monkeys. Dan the Feather-weight Gnome delivers flower pots by parachute, Marvin the Exploding Snowman lends snowball projectiles to the Cactus Bruce cause, Bruce the Elastic Blowfish meddles with the monkeys, and a whole host of other heroes appear as you successful guide Cactus Bruce through 12 challenges and 90 levels. Like other games featured here Cactus Bruce is free for the first 60 minutes of game play.
Mario, Sonic, Jaxx; they've got nothing on the little man that looks like a Sugar Corn Pop with sneakers and a pith helmet. Adventure through levels as you collect coins, squish worms, and rescue your friends from the perils found on each new world. Use power-ups, energy boosters, and extra lives to navigate through increasingly complex game play. Three levels of difficulty will test your ability. Controls, game speed, and effects are fully customizable. The first sixty minutes of gaming are absolutely free.
Take the ninjas bowling and get taunted by monkeys in this 3D ten-pin adventure. Bowl alone or with friends while competing for virtual prize purses. Commentators razz you when you're in the gutter and applaud your strikes. Choose from five brand new alleys, 25 new eye-catching balls, computer opponents, and a variety of modes, all of which make a difference in your ability to control the game. Customize your ball with graphics for a more visually interesting experience. Top scores open additional levels, which are far more challenging than the opening rounds. And of course, you can play free for sixty minutes.
Five hungry raccoons skitter across dangerous terrain, avoiding predators, cars, humans, and natural hazards in a series of environments as they collect eggs on their way back to the safety of the den. Power-ups and extra lives help in the quest as you assist Binki, Shady, Rubin, Bean and Lulu in gathering eggs Pac-Man style while dodging cars and jumping on moving surfaces in a way that recalls Frogger. It's easy to figure out the basics of the game, with plenty of challenges waiting as levels get progressively harder. Play the game free for 60 minutes.
If you liked last weeks jungle adventure through the 
Jungle sound effects and vine varieties change as you traverse the jungles of the world solving increasingly difficult puzzles. Your quest to unlock complex puzzle combinations is assisted by dragonflies and thwarted by ladybugs, and other nuisances. Eliminate pieces before the bugs put them back. As you master levels, you are jetted around the globe, starting in Hawaii before heading for more exotic destinations. This is classic puzzle matching in the style of Pipes with trancelike drumbeats delivering the jungle telegraph. Warning: this is more addictive than a cup of Kona. Get a full hour of free game play.
Mad Caps is a puzzle game almost as addictive as the sugary sweetness contained under the bottle caps you match up to fill the soda. If you've lost an hour or two to the contagious thrill of eliminating endless rows in 
Everybody wants to be a superhero: but some of us have to be electricians! Your mission in this electrical puzzler is to light up the city at night and prevent a blackout. Quickly attach together a contact out of numerous wire pieces and get a faerie electrical discharge, accompanied by blinding explosions and special effects. Try out six different game modes and practice your reaction speed, reasoning ability or both! Even when your super suit consists of a tool belt strapped to the waist of your Dickies, you can still save the city from the forces of darkness. Sixty minutes of free playing time to become a power grid protector.
Solitaire comes in so many variations, it's fun to try them all just to see what crazy game you might be missing out on. Shape Solitaire is no different. The rules of the game dictate you must fill in all available spaces with cards, which seems easy on the surface. The catch is, when filling spaces cards on either side may only be one less or one greater than the current card. Without some careful planning you quickly run out of card options. The game is available arcade style with increasingly challenging levels and an aggressive point system, or you can simply choose to place levels one at a time. Try the game free for 60 minutes of solitary play time, register if you like it.
Lode Runner meets the Mario Brothers in this arcade mining adventure. Avoid cavemen, blazing fires, bats, buzzards, and other subterranean terrors as you collect gold from ore-rich mines. Don't forget to duck when other prospectors fire a load of rock salt your direction. Dynamite provides protection from underground obstacles and occasionally turns up valuable treasures. The cartoon sound effects provide effective entertainment as tools, ore, and extra lives are gathered during the course of the expedition. Game pacing is determined by level of difficulty.
Fly your Corsair to defend allied forces against waves of attacks from enemy fighters. Man anti-aircraft artillery to protect your ship from incoming enemy fire. Mount air strikes against ocean bound fleets using torpedoes to combat water targets before they shoot your plane from the sky. All pilot controls are accessible from the mouse in this fast paced WWII combat arcade adventure. Pit your dog fighting skills against computer controlled pilots to keep the boys stationed below safe from incoming fire. Twenty intense missions test your skills and keep you gripping your chair as you dodge enemy fire and try to complete your objectives for the team. Sixty minutes of free game time is enough to get you hooked. 3D scenery sets the backdrop and arcade-class sound effects will have you riveted to your seat anticipating the next move.
Explore the ancient ruins of Mayan civilization while discovering hidden treasures and priceless artifacts. In this new take on the classic arcade matching game, you must rearrange valuable relics to turn sand tiles into gold. As you venture deeper into the jungle, you will encounter increasingly difficult puzzles containing secret twists, cursed items, and buried artifacts. Plenty of free game play gets you started, combining entrancing music with ever more complicated puzzle scenarios.
With its stunning visuals and sound effects, gripping soundtrack and compelling level design, Ricochet Lost Worlds could quite possibly be the most addictive game ever made. This remarkable breakout action game will entertain your whole family for hours on end! Throw into the mix a slew of innovative power-ups, a new "Ring Game" and a level editor where you can make your own levels and you have an unbeatable combination. You just have to download this brick-busting game... it's a blast!
Find the missing pieces & complete the puzzle in this magical mental challenge from the creators of Puzzle Myth. The inhabitants of a fairy-tale garden have decorated their land with beautiful patterns of twigs. Can you recreate the enchanting designs? Let your imagination run free with this fantastic puzzler.
