Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Jam's Pick(s) of the Week

Hello everyone and welcome to my Pick(s) of the Week (parenthesis s because I didn't post the previous week, my bad!) On our season premiere I chose an online game you can play right in your browser, and the following week I chose another game you can download to your computer and play at your leisure. So tonight, as a way of giving you something to do before our next episode (which I think is pretty epic! plug plug plug), I'll show you my picks and give you your daily time waster.

CONTINUITY


This game plays out partly like a platformer, partly like a slide puzzle (as you can see above from this screenshot). Your goal as a little stick figure is to progress from room to room by lining up the tiles so that the borders align with the next, get the key, and then get to the door. No time limit, no gold to pick up, just get there. It's fun and easy to get into, and before you know it you'll be making jumps, freezing the action in mid-air to line up tiles and getting right back into it. A nice new twist on puzzle games, I'd like to see this ported to handhelds and phones with more levels and a level creator.

TRILBY: THE ART OF THEFT


"Trilby: The Art of Theft" is a side-scrolling platformer game inspired by games like Elevator Action, Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle and Bonanza Bros, with a large heaping of stealth thrown in for good measure. In it, you play as professional thief and cat burgular Trilby as you make your way through a building collecting loot, disabling alarms and avoiding detection by cameras and human guards.

Here, you can see Trilby on the third floor shocking a guard with the taser built into his umbrella. Yes, he's that dapper. Looking at the level layout, you can see the darker parts of the level away from the lightbulbs, cameras pointing towards points of interest in certain rooms (sometimes they swivel around, so watch out for that!) and the elevator shaft and stairs that you have to use to get from floor to floor. Until you collect a certain amount of loot, you're not allowed to complete the level and leave the way you came in, so make sure you check every desk, drawer and safe that you can find. As you progress through the game, your performance is ranked on how much loot you collect, how many times you used your taser, and other factors, and earn cash based on that you can use to purchase new abilities such as rolling across the floor or sticking to the ceiling like Spider-Man to avoid detection in bright light. You can even go back to earlier levels with your new abilities to improve your score and earn more cash. It's a fun game to play and another title I would fully support on a handheld system.

Well that's it from me for this post, I hope you guys enjoy these games as much as I have, and I'll be back to bring my findings from the far reaches of the internet for your entertainment. See ya!