Cursed Winds

Cursed Winds from freeonlinegames is a fun sailing shooter. Take your pirate ship out and attack the other 'cursed' pirates in 15 levels of mayhem. Either take out the ship below them by blowing it to smithereens or board the vessel and take the crew on (make sure you can take them, or they may just take your ship!). Either way, make sure you plunder their ship before it floats away.

The best strategy is to upgrade your reloading capability first. This applies on every level until its fully upgraded. Then go for upgraded damage and boat speed (avoiding their cannon fire is a priority).

A great way to start a level is to move into the up-right corner. Unless something comes out from the right side (it does happen occasionally on the later levels), you should have a free shot until they turn around and make their way back across.

If you can get above the enemy ships, you also have a free shot, but the slide upwards very quickly, so you may get stuck in a boarding action when you're not ready for it.

If you can get past the second level, you should be alright, but I would still save between every level. Spend all your money in between levels to upgrade your ship.

Play Cursed Winds at freeonlinegames. At admiral level, I had a final score of 854805. Have you beaten that?

StormWinds

Stormwinds is a new turret defense game that is pretty generic in nature. If you like games like Bowmaster or Battle, you'll enjoy this game. Just don't expect too much.

Place your turrets in your cliff fortress and fire away at the oncoming waves of enemies. The first few levels are very easy, but they do get tougher. There are 25 levels in all, with each one getting progressively more difficult (not completely linear, but a general trend of increased difficulty is there). The boss is not too hard to defeat once you get to him.

No sound effects is a detraction, but the music is good. Repetitive after a while, but it does set the stage nicely. I wish the hot keys would work for me. Switching guns is a pain, the hotkeys would be nice.

Basic guns are the heavy turret (good for taking damage) and the machine gun (good for long distance fighting). Place your heavy turret in the first slot to take the most fire. The sniper gun is useful for quick take downs. One strategy is to have two snipers and one heavy turret. That will get you pretty far. The lightning gun is fun, but slow to recharge.

This game is pretty basic in nature, fun, but like I said, don't expect too much.

Play StormWinds at herointeractive.

The Battle

The Battle is in Beta, so anything I say here could be different in the final version, and really, that should be a good thing.

Similar to Bowmaster or Bowmaster Prelude, you have a big gun that you can fire at the opposing troops (but not their base) as they try to invade your base. You can also recruit troops to attack their base or defend your position.

On the field in between the two opposing bases are turrets which you can take over (or attack if they are already occupied) and oil fields. You want to defend the oil fields in order to build up your money supply.

The money you collect can be spent on troops, research on better troops, upgrading your weaponry, or shooting at the bad guys.

What I like about this game: the introduction of money into the strategy is certainly interesting. Also, different weapons, upgrades, the cost of firing your own weapon, the 'surprise' ending on level 15 all make this enjoyable. Figuring out where to place your troops to maximize their effectiveness adds a nice bit of strategy to the game.

What I don't like (and I hope they fix in future versions):
Overall, this game is way too easy. You can shoot your way to victory on every level without recruiting more than a couple of men (who go out and occupy the turrets and oil fields). It's also way too easy to take the turret (when available) that's next to the enemy base and let it destroy the enemy base.

The research is a nice idea, but it's too easy to research everything by level 5. Then you're left with a lot of money which means you don't have to worry about spending at all.

The point system leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps a bonus for time to finish or something. If you want to maximize your score, just kill everything the other base creates and he runs out of troops. Destroying the other base gives you a nice bonus, but not enough to make it worth your while to do so.

Also, if you have two different methods to end the level, there should be some way of marking your progress with either method. You know what the enemy base hit points look like, why don't you know how many more troops he can recruit?

Why can you stop some of your troops from running off the far side of screen and not others? Also, once you run out of population, you need to commit suicide in order to build others. It would be nice if you could sell them off instead.

Anyways, I still had fun with it. Bowmaster is way better, but if you like that, you'll like The Battle (lousy name, btw).

Tactics 100 Live

Tactics 100 Live is a tactical strategy game similar to chess, but set in a fantasy world. Set up your army using 100 points spread across up to 10 pieces to take on your opponent with. Play the single player walkthrough or go head to head against a live opponent.

You play on a 7x7 board and start off facing your opponent. But things can quickly get out of hand if you choose to charge ahead with some of your pieces. Your starting army can consist of wizards, knights, archers and healers.

Play the single player version a few times and play around with your army. You can take the balanced default army straight through the 10 levels in the single player game, but it's only be experimenting with the various upgrades that you can really have fun with this game. Will you upgrade a few to their highest level? Do you want another archer, or do you want the healers abilities? Maybe you want to try out your luck with just wizards on your side?

I'm really enjoying this game. The strategic possibilities are just fascinating.

Some things you should keep in mind. Hitting from the side or back can pay off. But exposing your own backside to a knight can be deadly. Wizards chain reactions can be really useful, but without upgrading his damage potential, hitting the fourth opponent for only 2 points may not be worth it. Knights are great for both dealing and taking damage. Use them for buffers to protect your wizards and/or archers. Archers are cheap and don't do a lot of damage, but they are very mobile (and cheap).

It is possible to beat all ten levels in the single player without losing a life, but you may need to restart a level (without a penalty) to do it. Sometimes luck plays a part, too.

Play Tactics 100 Live at kongregate.

Boxhead 2

Boxhead 2, like Boxhead, is a zombie killing game. Wave after wave of zombies come out at you and their only thought is to get to you. Collect your weaponry and start clearing them out.

The graphics are better, and so are the controls and the sounds. Overall this sequel is a big improvement over the first, but it still isn't perfect.

To be honest, it's not much of a challenge. Most often, I end up dying from making some stupid mistake because I tried to liven things up by trying to kill some the oncoming hordes in a different manner than before. For the most part, I rely on the shotgun and grenades to carry me through.

Play Boxhead 2 at kongregate.



You may have noticed I've been playing a lot of games at kongregate lately and there's a reason for that. For whatever reason, a lot of the best game creators are now hosting their games there and the community is a lot of fun. So I am definitely recommending kongregate as a site to find all the best games.

The Last Stand

The Last Stand is a zombie killing game. Last the night and you can go in search of new weapons and allies during the day. Spend your time wisely, or you may be overrun when the zombies come back.

You can move around inside your barricade, aim (head shots work well) and shoot your weapon. Once they get close enough, you should use the chainsaw.

Spend more time looking for survivors at first (8-4 survivors to weapons). Then switch the amount. Otherwise you won't get past day 2. Try not to aim for the chest when taking down zombies. That does the least damage. The closer they get, the better your aim, but it's not worth the wait. Even if you don't get a weapon when searching, the time still counts.

I played this game a while ago, but was amazed to see I never did a review of it. So here you go. Play the Last Stand at kongregate.

Momentum Missile Mayhem

Momentum Missile Mayhem is a great twist on the defend your castle genre. Fire your missiles at the advancing tanks before they have a chance to cross your tower. You get 40 lives (40 chances to let a tank break through), but you're more likely to die when your tower blows up due to near-by explosions.

As with many archer games, pull back and let fly your missiles at the advancing hordes. Each wave gets more and more difficult, so choose wisely when it comes to your upgrades. Either better missiles, more energy build-up, better stability, etc... Everything comes into play.

Tips: Build up your energy and your stability first. Having the missile you want to throw at the advancing hordes blow up in your face instead of hitting one of the tanks is really depressing. Also, the shockwave is easy to acquire near the beginning. Set it to blow next to a line of tanks and watch them blow up in line.

One other thing. This game reminds me of bowling sometimes. If you shoot your missile at the right angle, you may get a strike, rather than just hitting that one pin on the left. Of course, it's also easy to be left with a 7-10 split, too. ;-)

Play Momentum Missile Mayhem at armorgames.

Luminara

Luminara is a clone of geometry wars, with all the eye-splitting fireworks that go along with it. The music is fun, the gameplay is simple, and the action is fierce.

You are circle in the midst of oncoming squares, triangles and circles. Use your mouse to aim and shoot (just hold the mouse button down) your enemies before they close in on you. Each attacker has their own style, from random movement up to charging right at you. Some will break apart and come at you in smaller pieces while others will work together to come after you. You can dodge using the arrow keys or the wasd keys.

As I said, the gameplay is simple, and there are only 50 levels to beat (they go very quickly). My second time through I beat the game and got 572,345 points. It's not very challenging, but served as a nice break (hint: try not to move around too much. Its too easy to lose track of your guy in the mess).

Play Luminara at armorgames.

Bubble Tanks

Bubble Tanks is an interesting idea. The graphics are really good for flash and the sound effects are decent. But without any real objectives or difficulty, it just isn't a lot of fun to keep playing.

Travel from bubble to bubble destroying all the other bubble tanks in each bubble. Pick up bubbles to power up. The bubble shield seems to be the final power-up(see the image). There are no bosses, although some tanks are bigger, and so take longer to destroy.

Suggested improvements include:

• An objective. Traveling from bubble to bubble is fun to watch, but with no goal in mind, it's mindless.
• Other/choice in upgrades would be nice. I happened to like the multiple shots, rather than the big shot. Also, since the other tanks get heat seekers, why don't I?
• Some more difficulty. It wasn't that hard to kill everything. I was never in any danger. After I had traveled through 10 bubbles, I felt like I had seen it all.
• A map. I managed to make it to the edge of the world, but I have no idea how many bubbles I had missed along the way.
• Stats. This ties in with the whole objective thing. How many bubbles cleared? How many enemies? etc...
  

At the end of the day, I'm glad I saw this game. I enjoyed playing it once. I won't be back until there's improvements or a sequel.

Play Bubble Tanks at armorgames.

Flash Circle TD

Flash Circle TD is another Tower Defense game from the same creator of Flash Element TD. This time, the weapons are a lot more balanced, and the objective has changed. Before, you had to defend the castle from invasion. Now, your objective is just to keep the number of creeps down below a certain limit (100 in normal, 80 in hard). The graphics have improved and so has the sound. But the game has become too balanced.

The problem is the upgrades just aren't a lot of help. The game has become too balanced. Each upgrade gives your gun turrets the ability to do more damage, but since with each upgrade, your increase in damage goes down and the cost goes up, the increased range just doesn't help out more.

So, either make more level 0 turrets, or upgrade the ones you've got to get as far as you can. And unless you just build Fast Towers, it doesn't seem to matter which tower you choose to use. Whether splash towers coupled with slow to spread your damage around or damage towers with their massive amounts of damage per shot, as long as you have a couple of air towers in the center to take care of the flyers, you should get into the low 70's.

Play Flash Circle TD at candystand.

What's your best strategy?

Update: Tip: (or should I call it a walkthrough?) I was able to get to level 103, score of 2878 using the following strategy. Build 4 splash towers (then upgrade) in the upper (middle-ring, as opposed to the center and outer rings) right hand, with slow towers nearby. As the creeps come in on the right, click on the front creep to target him. As he falls back into the crowd, click on the next creep to come to the front, thereby bunching them up. This allows you to maximize the splash affect.

Build some slow towers on the left side, to automatically bunch up the creeps as they come in the left.

Once your four splash towers have been upgraded, build some more.

Also, build some air towers in the center to take care of the flyers as needed.

The only issue with this strategy is the massive amount of clicking you need to do. Fast creeps can ruin this, as well as too many flyers left circling around. They just get in the way.

Update Again
Flash Circle TD was updated to include interest payments. You get 5% back at the start of each wave for whatever money you have in the bank. You've also lost the ability to target creeps, so the above strategy no longer works.

Current Strategy: you should allow the creeps to build up as much as you can stand in order to take advantage of the interest payments. In other words, don't build more towers unless you need to. Build one fast tower, then let the creeps come. When you feel like you're about to be overrun, build a damage tower in the center block (along the edge). Let it go again. When you feel like you're in danger again, build another damage tower. Let the creeps keep coming. When needed, add an air tower. When you feel like it, upgrade. Repeat...

As long as you keep building up a money supply, you're interest payments will allow you to stay ahead of the creeps. By doing this, I put over $9 million in the bank on level 207. The hard part is not building at the beginning. If you're a gamer, your first response is to act, not wait. I assume I would still get overrun eventually, since I should run out of building space. But by level 150, if you're not bored, you need to get out more. ;-)

Desktop Tower Defense

Desktop Tower Defense is another tower defense game, but with more freedom. You can place your towers anywhere you like. Otherwise, it's more of the same. You get five choices for towers, each with their own strengths and limitations. Upgrade them (one fully upgraded tower is worth more than just about any amount of level one towers), then let the creeps come at them.

Basically, you have a gentleman's agreement with the creeps. They can't attack your towers, but you can't completely block their passage through.

I have to say, finding a good arrangement for my towers was a challenge. At first, I tried to build up the pellet guns as far as possible, figuring that was a cheap way to go. But the pellet guns, despite their phenomenal range once upgraded, were just too slow, even when I built up a maze that had the creeps on screen for a long time. Eventually, the maze would get overwhelmed with too many creeps on screen. So, a flyer would come on, while I was still trying to get rid of the creeps on the ground. And I would lose on level 47 or 48 (there are 49).

Instead, I came up with this '2' maze, with the squirt towers built up as much as possible in the middle. By getting the creeps to circle around the center, I'm able to keep up the maximum amount of firepower on them for just long enough. I still have trouble with the last flying group, though. I win on 'normal', but about a dozen creeps do manage to get through. It's frustrating to say the least to see the flying boss (level 42), in particular, to fly right by.

Feel free to let me know about your best strategy for defeating the creeps.

Play Desktop Tower Defense at handdrawngames.

Other Tower Defense games:
Flash Element Tower Defense - TD
Tower Defence
Imminent

Update: I was able to kill all on normal level using a circle defense: See the map That's a swarm tower surrounded by squirt towers. Frost towers line the circle to slow them down. Score 6352.

Rails of War

Rails of War is very similar looking to Final Fortress, but with a twist. This time instead of defending a fixed fortification, you're defending a moving target. But despite the similar looks, the gameplay is quite different, and not for the better.

First, it takes way too long to figure out how to play this game. Not only do you have to make choices about which rail cars to attach to your train, it just isn't clear what difference it makes. Do you go with the passenger car, or the coal car. And how does that affect your engine. And sometimes, after making your choice, the car you had chosen in the previous step disappears, but it's never clear why.

Also, it shouldn't be so hard to hook in another car midway through the level. The designers should have had the helicopter come in and do it automatically. Instead, you're left sitting there on the tracks for a few minutes trying to line the *&#*# thing up on the track. It's a waste of time and just interrupts the gameplay.

Also, it's very hard to make it through even one level. Unlike Final Fortress where you have a gradual build up of forces arrayed against you, Rails of War starts out hard and gets worse.

But, you may still want to try it out for the differences. Tip: Hold the left mouse button and continuously fire your cannon. Also, make sure you get the biggest cannon you can. It makes a big difference. Also, make sure you make a full stop in the compounds so that you can refuel and repair.

Play Rails of War at miniclip.

Swords and Sandals 2

Swords and Sandals is back in (demo version) a new and improved format. More weapons, skills and upgrades make this a much improved game.

Unlike the first version, you're more likely to survive to fight again. Duels are fought to first blood (Hint: buy a ranged weapon!), but tournaments are to the death. So make sure you upgrade your character the best way you know how before you attempt the tournaments.

Also, it may be cheaper to sleep on the street, but you're also much more likely to be robbed, plus your energy levels start out low.

Hints: I upgraded my agility more in order to use a ranged weapon. When fighting to first blood, you're going to need it. Also, entertain the crowd near the end of the fight, not at the beginning. The crowd tends to get bored quickly.

All in all, I enjoyed this second version a lot more than the first. You're much more likely to survive to fight another day, although if you run out of money, you may just wish you had died instead.

Play the demo Swords and Sandals II at swordsandsandals.

Endless War 3

Endless War 3 puts you in the middle of various mini-battles. The objective is simple: survive.

Each battle scene will present new weapons and new combatants, from a battlefield, whether you're fighting in WWII, Iraq, or in the future against aliens, in order to win, you'll need to reach some spot on the other side of the battle field.

Be careful when you go up against the aliens. Some of their shots will bounce. If you spend the time and make it all the way to level 4, you'll get a chance to play with those cool alien toys.

I'm not sure there are many tips I can give you, but here you go:
When the battle starts, let your teammates take the fire at first. Once the major shooting dies down, carefully proceed to engage each enemy fighter one-by-one. Don't get caught out by several opponents at once. If you can, get them to come to you, where your allies can take shots at them. Once they're distracted, step out and take them down.

Play Endless War at ungrounded.net

Sploder

Sploder is a flash game with a straightforward objective. Either destroy all the enemies on the playing field, or capture all of the crystals. But playing this game is only half the fun.

Make a Free Flash Game

I tried to make a simple level that demonstrates the various options, including obstacles, reloads, various enemies, wingmen, turrets and repel/attraction points. If you don't like the level you see embedded here, go make your own. Set up your main fighter, give him some wingmen, then place all the bad guys you want to help destroy him.

Sploder is in Beta, with hopefully more to come. There are already some good suggestions, such as ammo counts, teleporters and doorways, so hopefully there will be more to come. Also, I found the following description of the various obstacles you will find:

• Wingman: Pretty tough, good all round defense and offense.
• Obstacles: Indestructable, they are obstacles. Useful for cover and general display.
• Items: Pickups. Careful you don't blow them up. Wingmen can use pickups.
• Cruiser: Fires missiles, tough enemy. Beat with any weapon.
• Guard: A guard. Normal craft.
• Speeder: Speedy nasties that fire bullets. Weak.
• Crystals: Adding these makes your game collect the crystals. Indestructible. Hopefully, I mean- I have not been able to blow one up yet.
• Missile turret: The turrets sometimes bug and don't shoot. However, when they do, this inflicts high damage at a high ROF. Take care of with ray gun from behind, or cannon.
• Turret: Fires bullets. Try blowing up with missiles.
• Cannon turret: If you just get up close at moderate speed, it can't hurt you. Fires at one range only. Kill with laser.
• Magnets attract, repellers repel. Take care of fast.

Issues I had: The more complicated games slow down drastically. Also, some of the turrets are pretty buggy as well as the other fighters. It's almost like they would rather run into the wall rather than come after you.

The game creator (I assume it was him) left a comment asking me to review the game, and I'm glad I did.

Categorize this under: Shooter, Arcade, Action, Adventure

Play Sploder at sploder.

Warbears Mission 2 Walkthrough

Warbears Mission 2 is the second part of the Warbears series. With hints about a Mission 3 (the page is already set up), it looks like they are going to continue this successful game series.

Warbears Mission 2 is a point and click puzzle game. You have four warbears, Ryoh, Steve, Kla and Lucas who you need to get inside the house to acquire the secret object. This is a training mission for the bears, but you still have to get it right. Your boss will let you know if you mess up sufficiently to fail.

I'll put a walkthrough in the comments below in case you get stuck.

Categorize this under: Action, Puzzle

Play Warbears Mission 2 at warbears.

Reindeer Tipping

Reindeer Tipping puts you in control of Ebenigma Scrooge in his quest to find joy and happiness by tipping reindeer. And not just any reindeer, but Santas own team of reindeer.

Travel around the pen (arrow keys) and each time one of the luckless reindeer fall asleep, come at them from above or below to knock them over. Keep Scrooge happy by avoiding any of the bazooka shots from those relentless penguins. Oh, and if Santa catches you, it's lights out.

Tip: Ruffling Rudolph is worth twice as much as any other deer!

Categorize this under: Kids, Holiday, Arcade, Action

Play Reindeer Tipping at reindeertipping.

My thanks to JIG for pointing this one out.

Bowmaster Prelude

Bowmaster Prelude successfully merges strategy, shooting and action into one fun and exciting (if long) game. 30 levels of shooting action, while your knights, horses, archers and priests take the field against your enemy. If you like the original bowmaster, you'll like this prelude.

Take charge of the hero archer with his magical bow. Upgrade your weapon, or recruit more forces to take the field. Help out your men by shooting the enemy, but be careful... You can hit your own guys.

Tips and other help: There are several options for shooting: From auto aim to drag and shoot. Take your pick, but don't worry. You won't be stuck with it. Keep track of what kind of damage each type of arrow does. Any ice creatures (white) react poorly to fire (red) and vice-versa. Flying enemies are a pain, but don't do as much damage (unless you totally ignore them). Each level ends when you capture their flag, or you defeat all waves.

I prefer to destroy the opposing castle as quickly as I can. It gives you a better field of fire as the wave of opponents enters the screen. His archers tend to hide behind it, too.

You only gain xp and gold by shooting with your basic arrow. So keep going back to it. You'll need the money for upgrades and your xp needs to go up in order for your hero to level up so he's capable of doing more damage. Head shots do more damage, but you may want to avoid them in the first few levels. Killing in two shots gives you more money and more xp.

On level 30, the big guy (shown in the picture) is invulnerable until he raises his axe (shoot him in the belly) or when he takes off his helmet (hit him with an exploding arrow to knock him over).

Categorize this under: Strategy, Shooter, Action

Play Bowmaster Prelude at lostvectors.

Matrix Rampage

Matrix Rampage is a simple arcade action. Shoot everyone else on the screen. Jump up and down within the building, destroying it as you go. Pick up any weapons and medical supplies as you go along. All this just to live as long as you can.

a is your action (hit/shoot/swing your sword) key. s to pick up an object. Move around with the arrow keys, including jumping up and down levels. Double move left or right to speed your way across.

Tips: Keep moving around the building. Meds pop up randomly throughout, so you want to go find them. Also, if something is thrown at you, you can hit it out of the air if you have a katana or stick.

Categorize this under: Arcade, Action

Play Matrix Rampage at gamebrew.

All Hallows Eve

All Hallows Eve is a fun zombie shooter/defend your castle game. You'll probably get sick of the 'brains....', 'death', and 'ahhhhh....' from the various undead coming at you. But that's ok. You can always turn the sound down.

Pick your weaponry carefully. I was trying the molotov cocktails out at a later stage in the game and almost got trampled because of the slow reload. It may do a lot of damage, but the frag grenades are so much better. Also, the Uzi is key. Despite it's lower damage, 30 rounds is hard to turn your nose up at.

Take head shots. They do more damage. Oh... there is a zombie without a head, however. Kind of disorienting after training yourself to only shoot at the head. You can buy several upgrades to the auto repair. It's probably the most useful defense you can get.

Categorize this under: Strategy, Shooter, Action

Play All Hallows Eve at gamesbob.