Warlords: Call to Arms

In Warlords: Call to Arms, the idea is simple. Get enough of your people to the far side of the battlefield to conquer the enemy's territory, while keeping their people from coming to conquer you! Purchase new unit types, upgrade the ones you already have, and hone your strategy as you try to conquer each of the factions on the map. Play as humans, orcs, elves or even the undead!

Big Fish Fridays -- Natalie Brooks: Secrets of Treasure House

Natalie Brooks: Secrets of Treasure House is part point and click adventure, and part hidden item puzzle. Follow Natalie as she returns to her late Grandmother's home and begins to uncover secrets that will change her life forever! Along the way you'll consort with smugglers, search a museum storage closet, and even spy on the chief of police. Can you uncover the truth before the city demolishes your family home in favor of a new highway?

Ultimate Defense

Time to post another Tower Defense game -- this one is called Ultimate Defense. There's not too much that's unique about it, but if you like TDs, you'll love this one. It reminds me a bit of Protector, in that you're placing characters rather than actual towers. The characters automatically upgrade themselves once they earn enough exp, so you never have to waste gold on upgrades. Overall, this is a fun little diversion with all the hallmarks of a great tower defense game.

Mabinogi

The game that has been taking up an overwhelming amount of my time of late is a free (that's right, I said free!) MMORPG called Mabinogi. It's been around quite some time in Korea and China, but was just put into Open Beta earlier this month for the North American continent. The immersive world and customizable gameplay make for a gaming experience that's truly a treat! And if you happen to stop by, drop a line to Alonisa or Sidira and say hello -- I'm more than happy to help out a noob or two!

Big Fish Friday: Doggie Dash

If you've always wondered what it would be like to work in a pet salon, Doggie Dash won't help a bit. On the other hand, if you've dreamed of a pet-themed version of Diner Dash, this is it! Featuring cameos by Flo herself, Doggie Dash will have you scrubbing, grooming and styling like a pro!

Monkey Island

Monkey Island is a far more challenging game than it appears. Your goal is to collect bananas by hopping from island to island, but that can be tricky. Move your monkey by clicking on the mouse. The length of time you hold down the mouse button determines how far you'll jump. You can only see the island you're on and a little of the space around it though, so be careful to memorize the map at the beginning of each level, or you may find yourself jumping out into the ocean!

Mancala Snails

Mancala is an ancient game, which has been dated back to somewhere around the 6th century A.D. or so. Mancala Snails is a great internet version with a built in tutorial. Play against the computer or against a friend. In the one player mode, you can even choose the difficulty of your opponent. If you're not familiar with Mancala, you really should try it -- there's a reason this game has withstood the test of time!

Big Fish Friday: Coffee Rush

Part match three game, part food service, Coffee Rush is the perfect blend for coffee lovers and haters alike. Match ingredients to fill orders, then don't forget to deliver the coffee and collect the money too! How many recipes can you earn?

Wild Games -- Lumines

Lumines on Wild Games is an addictive and fast-paced puzzler that you simply have to try to believe. The idea is to create blocks (2x2) of the same color which are then removed as the sweeper moves across the playing field. Sounds simple enough, but the game speeds up faster and faster until you don't even have time to think about where the block should go. See how many levels you can make it through before you lose control!

SquarO

SquarO is a fun little logic puzzle, reminiscent of minesweeper. In this one though, instead of finding which adjacent squares have mines in them, you have to figure out which of the corners of each square should be filled in. As you solve for each square, the number it contains will turn black, but be careful -- that doesn't necessarily mean that your solution is correct! With four different difficulties, there's a SquarO puzzle for any skill level.

Shift

Shift is not your average puzzle platformer. It starts out simple enough... arrow keys to run, space bar to move, collect keys to open locks, and get your guy to the door to move on to the next level. But then things get a little strange and you learn about shifting... When you hit the space bar, all of the positive space and negative space is reversed. For those who don't follow, that means that if the floor and walls are black and the air is white, the whole map flips and now the white parts are the floor and walls and the black is the air. Use this to your advantage to find your way through each level and move on to bigger and more complex puzzles.

Big Fish Thursday? Jojo's Fashion Show

I'm posting a Big Fish Game on a Thursday this week because tomorrow is the Blog365 official day of rest. It's the one day this year where participants are not supposed to blog, so I'm doing all my Friday stuff a day early. So don't expect a game tomorrow. Well, at least not here anyway.

So, here's today's game; Jojo's Fashion Show. Match fashions to eras, styles, colors and patterns and then march your models down the runway to earn points and bonuses. Earn even more by creating combos. If you do well enough, you'll beat your rival, Claudio Maximo, and regain your status as a top designer!

Jane's Hotel

In Jane's Hotel, you're in charge of check in, room service and coordinating the housekeeping staff to make your tiny little hotel into a profitable business. Keep all of the customers happy to earn more money and buy upgrades. See how far you can make it in the hotel business!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game

This mostly-text-based RPG re-creates the story of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in a puzzlingly humorous way. If you're at all a fan of the HGttG books, you should certainly give this a try. After all, it's mostly harmless.

StormWinds 1.5

Defend against derigibles, flying cannons and more in StormWinds 1.5, a Tower Defense game on Kongregate. No mazes and complex winding paths in this one though, your tower slots (only four!) are on the left and the enemies come at you from the right (mostly). Upgrading is automatic, but repairs and buffs are costly. See if you can make it through a campaign or two!

Big Fish Friday: Monster Mash

Monster Mash is a fairy tale take on the traditional tower defense game. There are a few curveballs though -- you have a team of builders who can only build or upgrade one tower at a time. They also collect bonus tokens which can produce effects like damaging all monsters on the map or making all of your towers fire faster. In addition, there is a little girl running from each wave of monsters. If she makes it into the village safely, you've effectively gained another life.

Filler

Today's game is Filler. No, that's not a knock on the quality of the game, that's what it's called. The object is to fill 2/3 of the screen with white balls. The trick is trying to avoid the little bouncing balls that become more numerous with each level. Click and hold down your left mouse button. This will start a ball growing. It will stop growing when you let go of the button, hit another ball that you've grown, or hit a bouncy ball. If you hit a bouncy ball, your growing ball will disappear and you will lose a life. Keep growing balls until you either run out of balls or out of lives, and try to hit that 66.6% goal to advance to the next level!

Note: This has not been the best of weeks for me, and it seems gaming posts have fallen by the wayside. My most humble apologies. Assuming there are no more crises, regular updates will resume tomorrow, 2/21.

Monsters' Den

Monsters' Den is an RPG on Kongregate. It's single player and turn based, so you never have to worry about lag, and it's party based, so you can explore several character options at once. The game interface is nothing terribly flashy, but with a good solid play experience, it's bound to become a favorite.

Big Fish Friday: Magic Seeds

Magic Seeds is another gardening game, but in this one your goal is to cross plants to create new ones. It seems the game's creators are a little fuzzy on the logic of DNA, since you can do things like cross a sunflower to another sunflower to produce tomatoes, but that doesn't stop the game play from being fun and engaging. See if you can discover all of the different types of plants, while keeping your bank account in the black and fending off pests of course.

WildTangent's Fate

Wild Games Fate is a fantasy RPG, done old-school style. No need to pick a class or specialty here though. You can build up your skills and spells as you see fit. Want to be a swordsman who can also summon monsters when he sees fit? Go for it. An archer with the ability to heal? No problem. You can build your character any way you choose. This one is only a free trial, but well worth a look!

Spin The Black Circle

Spin the Black Circle is a simple game to learn, but a bit of a challenge to master. Each level is a simple maze. A ball, some spikes, obstacles, and a target. You have to try to get the ball to the target by rotating the maze on its axis, but if it hits the spikes, it will explode and you get to start over. Sounds easy? You haven't tried it yet...

AlphaBounce

I'm not typically fond of breakout type games, but AlphaBounce is a bit different. It's kind of like an RPG played on a breakout engine. You get three free plays a day, and you can earn more in game. You're playing a space prisoner, serving your time as a galactic miner. As you break bricks, you can earn upgrades and such that will help you out as you progress through the game. Anyway, don't take my word for it -- go try it out!

Big Fish Friday: Farm Frenzy

So you start with a duck, or maybe a few. Ducks lay eggs. Eggs can be processed. Processed eggs can be baked into cakes. Cakes can be sold on the market for quite a bit of cash. But if the ducks don't get fed, there won't be any eggs. And if the bears get em, you can just forget it! That's the concept behind this week's Big Fish game: Farm Frenzy!

Crossword.swf

Crossword.swf is anything but your typical crossword puzzle. Instead of solving clues, you're given a mostly empty grid and a set of letters to be fit into it. When you click on a blank space on the grid it will highlight all of the other spaces that will hold the same letter. In this way, you can eventually puzzle out all of the letters to solve the puzzle. Can you make it all the way through expert mode to win the game?

Penguin Diner

Penguin Diner is a lot like a "light" version of Diner Dash. You play as Penny, a penguin who is working as a waitress to earn enough money to get home. Seat customers, take orders, serve food and collect tips. Between levels, don't forget to upgrade! Before you know it, you'll be headed home.

Frontline Tower Defense

Frontline Tower Defense is one of the more difficult TD games I've played. And that's on the easy setting! It looks pretty standard... Open playing field, creeps moving through it. But the creeps are deceptively difficult, and the towers are a bit on the pricey side. Think you have what it takes? Go find out!

Free Rice

Ok, so I didn't post yesterday. A thousand apologies. I got a little caught up in a different project, not that that's an excuse, but it's still the truth. So, two games today! Here's the first:

Free Rice is a charity and a fun vocabulary-building game all in one. The game itself is fairly simple. They give you a word and you chose the correct one of four possible definitions. You answer correctly? Next word is a bit harder. Get it wrong? Next word is easier. Doesn't get much more straight forward than that. But here's the cool part. For each correct answer, 20 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. Now, 20 grains might not seem like much, but the more you play, the more it accumulates. In fact, yesterday alone, 139,444,840 grains were donated. So next time someone tells you that playing games online is a waste of time, send them to Free Rice!

Go-Go Gourmet

Part hidden object game, part Diner Dash-like service game, Go-Go Gourmet is the type of game that will appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Your Grandfather has retired and left you his restaurant. There are a few problems though -- the place is a dump, you have no money, and you need to learn to cook. Take jobs in increasingly complex restaurants, learn skills and recipes and earn the money you'll need to remodel the old place. Bon appetit!

Monster Master

Monster Master is a card-based game in which two players match off to see whose monsters can destroy the other player. It's a little bit like a simplified version of Magic: the Gathering, for those who've ever played that, without the investment in cards, and overly-complex rules system.

Areas

Areas is a simple, yet addictive game consisting of a lot of black, white and grey circles, no text at all, and no need for ever clicking your mouse (even though the entire game is played by mouse rather than keyboard)! Wondering what on earth I'm on about? Well, the best way to find out would be to go try it for yourself!

Naturalchemist

Today's game is called Naturalchemist. The idea is to combine potion ingredients into sets of three or more so that they form the next ingredient in succession. Keep leveling your ingredients up and eventually you may produce gold nuggets! Your score in each game is converted at the end to ingredients you can then use in a cauldron to produce all kinds of fun effects like changing your avatar on the site and such. You can also use any gold you earn to spin the magical wheel and earn upgrades and ingredients.

I should note though that while this is a free game, only one play per day is free. If you want to play more often than that, you'll have to spend some dough on tokens.

Draw Play

In Draw Play, you get to draw your own levels! Well, mostly. The obstacles are already there, and getting over, under, around and through them can prove to be quite tricky. This game is sure to challenge the creative thinker in everyone.

Big Fish Friday: The Sims Carnival SnapCity

Kind of a mix between Tetris and a Simplified Sim City, all set to music from The Sims, The Sims Carnival SnapCity is a fun diversion that any puzzle gamer can appreciate. Place puzzle-shaped zoning divisions in your city to create the perfect balance of residential, commercial and industrial properties. Be sure to pay careful attention to those bonus grids to add special structures. Make sure all of your zones have good access to transportation, or they'll become run-down. And don't forget to quell disasters like tornadoes, riots and even alien invasions before they wreak havoc on your helpless populace.

Flash Element TD 2

Some of you may remember me posting Flash Element TD a few weeks ago. Today, I'm featuring it's sequel, Flash Element TD 2. If you thought the last one was funny with the speakers on, you'll love this one. As each wave enters the playing field, they'll yell some sort of battle cry. Then when they die, they'll cry out in defeat. In this one, you're not defending a stronghold or anything, rather you're protecting a set of colored orbs. If the creeps manage to get all of the orbs back to their home base, it's game over!

Tarnation

Use your army of seeds to defend your garden against attacking bugs in Tarnation. Send out seeds to become flowers and repel the bugs, but don't send too many or your waste meter will take a hit. Don't let the bugs reach the water or you might find your garden in jeopardy.

TylerK's Picross

Time for another Picross site! I don't know why, but I'm pretty well hooked on these puzzles. For those who missed the explanation last time:

Picross is a game where you have to fill in a picture on a grid. Do this by using basic logic skills to fill in the blocks on the grid. Each column or row tells you how many black blocks there are, and how they are grouped. From this information, you must determine which are black and which are white. Clicking a block once will turn it black, click again to put in a placeholder if you're sure the block should be white. I recommend turning fade on, so you can see which rows are already complete.

Edit: Not sure what happened to the picture, but it's back now...

Featured Game: Seal Bounce

The folks at Yeti Sports must really have it in for penguins... In Seal Bounce, the goal is to toss a penguin as high into the air as you can. So where do the seals come in? Well, they lend a helping hand... er, flipper... when the penguin hits them. Who says penguins can't fly?

Big Fish Friday: Garden Defense

Of course, I can't make it an entire week without posting a Tower Defense game... This time it's Garden Defense, which has a few little twists on the genre. At the start there are two sets of towers available, gadgets and plants. The gadgets can be moved at any time, with only a short period of non-functionality afterward. Handy for shooting at the start of the maze and then again at the end. Plants can't be moved at all, but they do self-upgrade and spawn new plants, so you can populate your entire maze without having to continuously buy new plants. Of course, there are also all kinds of ways to improve your arsenal as you continue through the game. All in all, Garden Defense is an interesting and fun take on tower defense!

Big Fish Week: Wedding Dash

If you're a fan of the Diner Dash style of games, you'll love Wedding Dash. You play a wedding planner who has to put together the perfect day for one couple after another. Keep track of their tastes so that you can order the proper food, cake, flowers or honeymoon, then take charge of the reception. Make sure all of the guests are seated where they prefer, avert disasters like swarming bees and angry bridesmaids, and keep the food coming! Before you know it everyone will be on the dancefloor and your job will be done, for this event anyway!

Big Fish Week: Alice Greenfingers

Today's Big Fish pick is Alice Greenfingers. It may not look like much, but this little gardening game combines the art of gardening with the science of marketing to produce a fun and profitable business! Not only do you need to manage your garden, keep your plants watered and harvest everything yourself, but you also need to run your own vegetable stand, keep an eye on market trends and price your flowers, fruits and veggies appropriately. How will your garden grow?

Big Fish Week: Kudos Rock Legend

Kudos Rock Legend recreates the experience of putting together a rock band and propelling it through obscurity and into stardom. Choose band mates that will not only get along, but also bring unique talents and characteristics to your group. Make sure you have the proper equipment and staff. Write new songs, practice the old ones and hone everyone's musical skills. Book gigs at a variety of venues and promote, promote, promote. But don't forget to give everyone a little free time or your friends will become cranky quickly! Will your band have what it takes to hit the top of the charts?

New Feature: Big Fish Fridays

Yeah, I know... This is a blog about FREE games, but I'm a sucker for a free trial. My favorite site to go to for free trials of downloadable games is Big Fish Games. They release a new game daily and they're usually top quality offerings. I've been downloading there for years and I'll continue to do so as long as they still offer what they do. So, in homage to Big Fish, I'm starting a new feature here on Featured Games: Big Fish Fridays. Every Friday I'll post the link to a game from the Big Fish catalog. You can go and download the trial and play for an hour free, or just go ahead and buy the game.

So why am I talking about this on Monday you ask? Well, to kick off the new feature, I've decided to dedicate this entire week to Big Fish. So every day this week will be a Big Fish Friday... Yeah, I can do that. It's my blog.

Today's game is Aveyond. If you like RPGs, you're going to love this one. Yes, the world is two dimensional and the graphics are pixellated, but the game is amazing. Gather together friends to aide you through your quest to seal the Demon Portal and save the world. The whole game is about as non-linear as it gets, with plenty of options for how you want your story to go.

Featured Game: Temple Guardian

Time for another tower defense game, and this one's a bit trickier than most. In Temple Guardian, you're defending an ancient temple against waves of invaders. You start out with the usual fare, cannons and arrows, but there are also eagle's nests and sacred dragons. Manage your money and your miracles, and don't forget to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!

Featured Game: Paper Pug

Take one pug on a string, a slew of soldier guys with shoulder-mounted guns, and throw in a sword-wielding ninja, and what do you have? Paper Pug! See how long you can dodge bullets and swords and keep your pug alive.

Featured Game: Sushi Go Round

Sushi Go Round is a fun little service-type game. You'll need to master various Sushi reccipes, with new ones added each level, in order to serve your customers quickly. But that's not all there is to this game! You also have to manage your supply of ingredients. You can only order ingredients in quantities of ten (or less!) at a time, but most of the recipes require at least two of a single ingredient, so it's easy to run out if you don't keep on top of things! Of course, if your customers are getting cranky from having to wait, you can always smooth things over with some complimentary sake.

Featured Game: RingShot

RingShot is a fun little skill game, where the entire idea is to slide little colored discs into corresponding colored rings. Of course, saying it is always easier than doing it. You'll only have so many of each colored disc, so don't waste your shots. Be careful not to knock discs out of place, and think strategically about the order in which you want to play. Of course the levels get harder and harder, so see how far you can get!

Featured Games: Osmosis

Osmosis is a fun little physics game that will really make you think. You've fallen asleep in the middle of a physics test. A sheep appears to help you with your test. You now must maneuver your sheep through a maze, while manipulating spin, friction and gravity to help him avoid obstacles.

Featured Game: Reaction Effect

Reaction Effect is a fun little game/toy that experiments with the chain reaction concept. Rotate any one of the 256 circular tiles that make up the game board. When the edge of the arc on that tile hits the edge of any other arc, it will rotate that one as well. See how many rotations you can chain together!

Featured Game: Laser and Bubbles

Laser and Bubbles is a chain reaction game that's just a little different than most. Your mechanism for starting your chain off is a set of two lasers, one horizontal one vertical, which fire simultaneously. They fire at a screen full of colored bubbles, which each pop in a way specific to their color. I find that the lasers make my brain work in a way that is different enough that it can be a bit of a challenge, just to aim! Maybe I've been playing too much BoomShine though... lol

Featured Game: Reflex

Some of you may remember the classic puzzle game "Reflexion." Reflex is simply a remake of that gem. The idea is to maneuver the ball through a level by bouncing it off of various mirrors. You have to hit all of the coins in the level, then make your way to the exit. Of course, there are plenty of obstacles and challenges to get in your way.