Game 77: Line Rider

If you haven't played this game, you haven't lived. At face value, Line Rider looks almost too simple, but after playing it for a couple of minutes you'll soon find yourself creating increasingly wacky and impossible courses for the brave -- nay, foolhardy -- tobogganist.

Game 71: Hedgehog Launch

Like the little prickly wonders in the Beatrix Potter books, this hedgehog is cute. Unlike them he is not safety conscious, quite the opposite in fact. The ultimate aim to launch him into space but he is going to crash to earth a good few times before you succeed. In order to gather the right skills and equipment (including funky goggles) to get your chap into space you need to pick up coins and buy upgrades with them. The final achievement is worth it though: so beautiful, so vast.

Use the mouse to drag and release the hedgehog and then use the left and right arrow keys to power the left and right boosters and, once you've got them, the up arrow to fire yourself higher, and the down arrow to release your parachute.

Game 60: Super Stacker 2

Take your stacking skills to another level, quite literally, with this second instalment on the Super Stacking franchise. There's various shapes: squares, circles, rectangles and triangles, all of which require the same treatment.

You've got to stack them in such a way that they stay stacked for the duration of the timer, or all the faces revert to a smile. There are four stages of difficulty to work with - four big slabs of fun.

Game 55: Fantastic Contraption

Fantastic Contraption is a physics puzzle game in which the objective in each level is to move all red objects into a rectangular goal area. To do this, you are given a blue rectangular building area and a few different materials in which you can build your device. Standing in your way, however, are a variety of obstacles, ranging from gaping gaps to a sea of circles bent on destroying your red-object-mover-apparatus.

To make your machine, click on the type of material you want, and then click or drag in the light blue "building area" to place it. At your disposal are three different wheels—a clockwise spinner, a counter clockwise spinner, and a regular wheel—as well as two different connectors—a solid "stick" and "water" rod, which can pass through other walls and wheels, but not the environment. Each of these objects has nodes (represented by small, light gray circles) that other objects can attach to so you can create more complicated contraptions.

One nice feature about this game is the keyboard shortcuts. A couple especially useful ones are:

[Shift]+mouse to move items. Note that if you click on a node when using this technique, only that connection will move, whereas if you click on any other part of the structure, the entire device will move. Also, you can use [Shift] click to pan around the level by clicking on the background.

[Command]+mouse (or Ctrl, for Windows users) to delete items.

[Space] to start or stop a test.

Game 53: Dolphin Olympics 2

Here we have Dolphin Olympics 2, a sequel with some great new features. Firstly, other sea creatures will now interact with you. In fact, you can earn more points by getting other fish to follow your lead and jump out of the water. Magic rings both above and below the water give you a quick speed boost and can help you reach the dizzy heights of outer-space (complete with 1950's sci-fi-movie-style music). There are some new tricks and secrets to discover as you try to swim, leap and tail-slide yourself onto the high score board. I was a big fan of the original Dolphin Olympics and the sequel does not disappoint. Although the mechanics and aim of the game are pretty much the same, this has a slightly different look to it, with significantly more detail added to the sea bed and background. Once again, the challenge is in chaining together strings of successive tricks to boost your multiplier and amass some massive scores. And the trick to that is ensuring that your re-entry to the water is perfect every time.

Whilst this is a great way to spend your five minute coffee break, this game will reward replay with new moves and ever higher places to explore. I'll leave you to discover most of the secrets that are hidden in this game, but if you run the game at different times of day or night, you will be pleasantly surprised (change your system clock and re-load the page if you don't believe me).

Game 47: El Laberinto Esférico

Barcelona's Nacho Rodríguez puts his award winning flash animated character, Mr. Coo, in his first game, an adventure puzzler called Mr. Coo: El Laberinto Esférico ("The Spherical Labyrinth").

El Laberinto Esférico has a fun animated style like Pink Panther meets Ren and Stimpy, and a surreal imagination along the lines of Bill Plimpton with a bit of Salvador Dali.

The game starts out in an endless labyrinth, where you start the moment Mr. Coo falls to his death—but then he has a dream that turns into a "choose your own" path style of point-and-click adventure. You have several paths you can take, and each path has several different versions you can experience depending on a choice you made earlier. You usually wind up back where you started, and must repeat again. And so the game goes, a bit in circles, but finding a new path, puzzle, or a new ending is part of the fun.

Remember to click "English" at the start if you can't read Spanish!

You only have to watch the first scenes twice, from the 3rd time you die you get a shortcut version.

Also if you enter any correct password, you get this shortcut path.

Game 41: Grow Tower

The latest in one of the greatest series of browser games ever conceived is not a disappointment. This time you have to pick five different items to stack on top of one another, with the ultimate aim being to turn the sun on... a long way up above you. You've got a plant pot, a piece of turf, a sideways cauldron, a box with a button, and some bricks.

All you have to do is pick them in the order you think they should go, and let the game do the rest. There is only one right way, and this will reward you with the most elaborate animation, but each different combination yields an animation of its own that is great in its own right. This is the best visual game I've seen in a while. 

Tip:

Throw logic out the window and just have fun, but make a note of what you have and haven't tried, or you'll be frustrated by repetition.

Note:

The game may not load properly the first time you click, instead you may see a webpage. If this happens, just close the window and try again. Some weird bug I can't figure out, sorry!

Game 38: Electric Box

A new, creative puzzle game has surfaced, and it rocks: A little gem from Candystand that's called Electric Box. The premise is quite simple, and I'm sure you'll agree: You've got some power at point A, so get some to point B. There are many tricks and gadgets you will have to use to win, like doodads that give power out, or things that take it in.

Electric Box is quite a pleasant sight; Its chain-reaction gameplay makes me want to play all night. Enjoy.

Game 26: Boomshine

Boomshine is a new take on the chain-reaction action pioneered by Omega's Every Extend. The goal is to remove a given number of the colorful, floating dots moving around the screen. Simply click the mouse to trigger an explosion; any dots that come into contact with the resulting circle will also explode, although after about 3 seconds each explosion will shrink and vanish. Every level increases in demand for the number of dots that must be removed, from level 1's laughably easy 1 out of 5 to the formidable 55 out of 60 in level 12. You'll want to make your first explosion count, because that's all you get. After setting off the chain-reaction, sit back and watch the explosions play out and, if you've removed enough dots, advance to the next level.

It would be a stretch to call Boomshine relaxing—watching those dots float by milliseconds after your chain-reaction begins to shrink is a little too agonizing for relaxation—but it is certainly refreshing, and a nice, albeit simple addition to a rapidly growing category of casual games. Enjoy!