Boxhead: The Zombie Wars

Boxhead, that zombie shooting series has it's fifth game out and this one just keeps getting tougher and better. In Zombie Wars, you have more weapons, more zombies, more of everything waiting for you in this shooter.

This game is tough. The number of zombies quickly gets out of hand. You need to learn how to react quickly, strategize (barrels, barricades, etc...) and more within the first few levels or else you will be dead and buried before you know it.

There are plenty of battlefields to choose from, but it all comes down to your reaction time.

Play Boxhead: the Zombie Wars at kongregate.

Update: Now that I've played this game for a few weeks, I have a few pointers and tips. First, the basics.

There are two scenarios as you start out. On the left side is the basic, and on the right side is defense. They are the same game, it's just the 'defense' is how things should look for you after a five or six rounds (if only a little bit neater). You have a defense set up, with turrets and barricades. You also have access to some more weaponry (as if you had worked your way through the earlier rounds).

The difficulty ratings also place you further along. It's as if you start off at round 10, instead of round 1. You have access to more weapons, but the demons are already out to get you. So if you're a newbie, place at beginner until you can get past the first few rounds. Then up the difficulty. It's as if you're restarting at a later level.

Scenarios. The scenarios don't really matter all that much to me. Different landscape doesn't really affect gameplay all that much. The smaller the field, the faster you have to deal with the hordes that come upon you. Also, you don't want to get trapped behind your defensive bulwarks, so the direction they come at you isn't all that important either.

Basic walkthrough strategy: Set up a defensive perimeter using turrets and barricades. Place more turrets and barricades as you can. Replace those that fall. Other than that, stay outside of your own perimeter and blast away. If you stop for even a moment, the devils will flame you to death. It only takes two quick shots from them to finish you off. Plus, you need to get out there and pick up the boxes to restock and replace your health. With a good defensive perimeter, you can last for a very long time. Once I have a good setup going, the only reason I lose is because I end up setting turrets around myself, trapping myself.

Barrel laying is great. If you start laying out barrels in a trail behind you and set them off (or they get set off by the turrets or by the devils), you can lay waste to hordes at a time. It's also great as a more offensive weapon. Once the barrels are placed behind you, they can set off the next one in line (sort of like dominoes). If you keep running ahead and placing more barrels, you can basically charge into a crowd and clear them out with explosions.

The minigun is great at clearing out a line, but I find it hard to select it. Instead, I usually use the barrels then the shotgun (once it's been sufficiently upgraded). The air strike is fun (it will clear the whole screen). The handgun is actually quite useful for a while, but won't help once it becomes too crowded.

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?

N3wton

More fun than it first appears to be, N3wton is a short and sweet game applying Newtons Laws of Physics. You control a simple tank. Shoot at all the black tanks that are either firing at you or are firing at predetermined angles. Knock them off the platform or get yourself knocked off to lose. Just be careful of the recoil.

To play, move around with the arrow keys or with aswd. Aim and fire with the mouse. The longer you hold down the left mouse button the harder your shot will be, but that also increases the amount of recoil you should expect.

The levels do get harder, but there are only 25 of them. You should be able to finish the game fairly quickly.

Play N3wton at kongregate.

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).

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.

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.

Spamalot, the game

Spamalot lets you pick. Shall you choose the English or the stinky French? Defend your castle from attack by flinging whatever comes to hand, whether it be a cow, a chicken, shrubbery, or a rabbit with a vicious streak.

With not much else to recommend this game, if you like to go around saying "none shall pass", or "bring out yer dead" or even "Some call me Tim", you'll like this game. Otherwise, you'll get quite sick of "spam, spam, spam, ..." over and over again, so just "run away!"

Categorize this under: Defend Your Castle

Play Spamalot at addictinggames.

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.

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.

Boxhead

Boxhead is a zombie shooter. With five levels of gameplay you can try different scenes, but it all comes down to one thing. Shoot them down or get overrun.

With multiple upgrades of your weaponry, you would think you could last longer than you do. I prefer the shotgun (upgraded) and the grenades to blast multiple zombies at a time. The problem is you can blow yourself up with the grenades. Rather annoying to die after getting up to level 82 by killing yourself.

Controls are basic. Fire with the space bar. Switch weapons with 1-8 and move with the arrows. A bug in the game causes you to start out at the same level you died at, but without the upgraded weaponry.

Categorize this under: Shooter

Play Boxhead at crazymonkeygames.

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.

Tower Defence

Tower Defence is a strategic game in which you place turrets throughout the playing field in your best effort to defend your citizens from the invading dots. You have several choices in turrets, and depending on which turret you pick, you may only get so far.

Each wave of attackers is that much harder to kill. So it's not enough to build a bunch of small turrets. Each turret must be carefully placed to take advantage of its strength. For instance, fire may hit hard at lower levels, but water can shoot farther.

Probably the hardest defend your castle game I've played. I can only get in the low 70s for a score. How about you?

Categorize this under: Strategy, Shooter

Play Tower Defence at jeannettevejarano.

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.

Aggressive Attack

Aggressive attack is a vampire killling game. Chase down those pesky nuts in capes and kill them, before they kill you.

You have a group of hunters at your disposal (you get more hunters each level). This allows to separate them into subgroups, bringing in some opportunity for small group tactics (but not much).

Use the left mouse button to point out where you want your hunters to go. Use the mouse to aim and the space bar to fire. Vampires tend to stay hidden until you get close, so move cautiously.

Categorize this under: Shooter, Action, Adventure

Play Aggressive Attack at armorgames.

Phosphur

Feel like getting fragged in an online first person shooter (FPS)? Then phosphur may be the game for you. Five different weapons with headshot capability should keep you occupied for a while.

Phosphur is written on SHockwave 3D, so make sure your computer can handle the drag time. Jump with the space key, move around with wasd keys. Look around and fire= with your mouse.

This is the first public beta, but multiplayer is supported. So get in there and frag someone.
Ar
Categorize this under: Shooter, Action

Play at rasterwerks.