Category: Time-Wasters

In Reachin'Pichin, you take the role of a genetically engineered creature whose manufacturing process went awry. While that sounds quite ominous, it's really not: you were supposed to be able to fly, but instead, you can merely hop. Your goal in life (or in the game, at least) is to reach as high into the sky as possible, by leaping from platform to platform. At the beginning of the level you are ...

I know what you're thinking; Tetris? Top-down action? How can these be combined into any sort of coherent time waster? Well, Tetravalanche shows us they can be combined. You're Upman, and you're trapped inside a Tetris game. Bricks are falling from the sky, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is Mr. "Monster-From-The-Deep" (their name, not mine). That's a scary blue monster ...

First off, Saunavihta Vortex is pretty creepy. I mean, it's not really kid-friendly. But having said that, it's can be lots of fun for teens and adults. Basically, you control the fate of a ragdoll. You need to somehow get the ragdoll into a flaming pit. When the ragdoll gets there and stays there for three seconds, you pass the level. To get the doll there, you need to launch, batter and roll it ...

Yes, that's an actual screenshot up there, not an error. That's what Momiga looks like! One dot, one button (the left mouse button, or SPACE on the keyboard), and one cute "beep" sound. That's all you get. This is probably the most bare-bones time-waster we've ever published, but it's awesome just for that. You have to get the dot from one end of the screen to the other. The dot's starting ...

When Lee reviewed the original Blosics time-waster back in 2009, he concluded the review with the words "I just wish there were more levels, but I'll be heading back for another round." Well, it seems like Lee's wish has been granted, with the Blosics 2 Level Pack. Gameplay is exactly like the original: You shoot cannon balls out of a certain area of the screen, trying to make a tower of bricks ...

Ahh, the spirit of Christmas! Not that I would know anything about that, actually... But if Christmas is your thing, you might enjoy Garden Gnome Carnage. Or actually, even if it's not your thing, but you just enjoy the concept of brutally flinging tiny, merry garden gnomes all over the screen to the sound of hectic 8-bit music, this may be for you. You're dangling off of a building's chimney. ...

Orbox B is a puzzle, but it's one with a very frenetic pace. Each level is composed of a "field" of blocks that are carefully arranged. You control a single block and the object is to get it to the exit. Here's the tricky part: once your block starts moving, it won't stop unless it hits something. And if it falls off the board, you lose. When you do hit another block, you stop -- and then it's ...

When I first looked at Dogfight 2, it didn't appear all that exciting. You have to shoot down the other planes – big deal, right? But then the game started, and I really got into it! Gameplay is fantastic! The fact that it's a side-view game made me think that it would be just a simple shoot 'em up, but it isn't like that at all. At each level, you only have a few enemies and the field ...

Whitecaps on the bay: A broken signboard banging In the April wind. – Richard Wright, courtesy of Wikipedia Ah, the timeless art of haiku. This beautiful form of Japanese poetry has now been made into a Flash game, Haiku Hero. And if that sounds like a bad idea, there's a reason for it. I just don't think that composing "timed haiku" really conforms to the spirit of the art, and ...

In Rocket Science, you control a bunch of rockets. There aren't very many, mind you (between one to three on each level), but it's what you do with those rockets that counts. You see, this is a game of careful manipulation, calculation, and observation – brute force has no place here. Basically, you have to hit the planets with your rockets. Hit all the lava planets, and you're done. At the ...

I love World of Goo. I bought it a while back, and it's one of the most addictive games I've played. That's part of the reason why I was so excited to find Moonlights. It shares a lot of elements with World of Goo, but is very different, too. Like in World of Goo, you have to construct something stable out of unstable elements, and your structure needs to get to a certain destination. But that's ...

Remember, remember, the fifth of November! If you celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, liked V for Vendetta, or even if you're just extremely bored, you might get a (modest) kick out of Guy Fawkes Adventures. It's a simple puzzler where you push barrels around to their designated positions. When all barrels are in place, there's a resounding BOOM and you're transported to the next level. Each level gets a ...

If you've been following the time-wasters that I've been writing about, you may know that I'm not a huge fan of the point-and-click puzzle genre. Give me physics games or something with explosions, and I'm good. Puzzles usually just make me frustrated. But when I started playing The Trader of Stories, it really drew me in. It's not a lengthy game, and it's not very difficult. What I found most ...

Steel Grinder is a fairly simple game. You're driving a tank, and you see the level from an overhead view. There are waves of enemies coming at you, and you need to blow them up with your mighty shots. You move the tank using WASD (which is no good if you happen to use Colemak), but you can also move it using the arrow keys (lucky for me). While you're driving the tank away from oncoming enemies, ...

In Nanopath, you're a spaceship that has to find its way out of a maze. This isn't about the mystery, though; the exit is in plain sight. The question is how, exactly, you're going to get there. You see, this spaceship doesn't move in real time. Instead, you plot its course first, and then hit Play to watch it go through the motions. With any luck, you will have planned the course correctly, and ...