Games exist to expand your mind, train your reflexes, broaden your appreciation of all things— naaah! I'm kidding, who cares about all that stuff, amirite? Really, most of the games we play exist just so we can have fun. And that's exactly what we have on this edition of Weekend Download: three tiny, simple games to deliver a bit of mindless fun.
Tanaka's Friendly Adventure (Windows, 2.8MB, free) - Tanaka is having a birthday party, but first he must gather his friends. Walk in any of the four directions and a friend will appear each time you enter a new screen. When you've found a bunch of them you can return to the menu and visit the party, checking out a few bits of info about each pal. The game consists of nothing but walking and random friends, but something about that simplicity made me come back to play again and again. Must find all 72 friends!!!
Alexitron's Journey to Learn GML (Windows, 1.7MB, free) - It may be the creator's first time working with Game Maker's scripting language, but this autobiographically titled game happens to be a bit of fun! Your only goal is to hop on every enemy on the screen. Some try and scoot off the platforms before you can hit them, which is bad, but others just float, hop, slide or run back and forth. Kill them all, move to the next level. Repeat.
!Xorpl (Windows, 2.4MB, free) - A tiny, tiny game of nothing but exploration. Seriously, that's all you do! As a little alien dude, you can walk across the ground and jump over obstacles in your way. Explore one of several branching paths, avoid a few traps, and see the game's three different endings.
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
That's funny, at least 2/3 were made in GameMaker.
Why is that funny? That's analogous to saying "2/3 of the games featured on Friday were made in Flash".
2/3 of these comments were made by smart alecks.
You must mean 3/4
Does anyone else have problems with keyboard sensitivity in !Xorpl? When I try to escape the rising lava I keep falling because it regularly does not register I have tried to jump.
1/6 of these comments are actually related to the games.
For Tanaka's Adventure, I got every friend but 7.. Numbers 27, 37, 62, 63, 65, 69, and 70.
I didn't think I would be, but I'm addicted to this game!
I keep getting the same friends over and over in Tanaka's Friendly Adventure D:
Any tips on how to get new ones every time? xD
I started playing tanaka and thought, "This is kinda lame" and then I discovered the party room and thought, "Oh, bugger, they got me."
Did anybody start humming "I can see clearly now?" You know, that song? I know, I'm crazy.
My little nephews were LOVING Tanaka's Friendly Adventure!!
Tanaka's friendly adventure was GREAT! I love it!
Update