It's time to get a little dark and griddy! And by that, I mean, this week in the JayIsGames Vault, we're featuring some of the greatest grid-based games for you to gleefully go and grok. It's so hip to be square!
- Back to the Cubeture: Era 1 - Confession time: this fair reviewer had actually never come into contact with EdibleCastle's humorous Cuboy before encountering this 2009 point-and-click game. But, as advertising methods for your flash cartoon series goes, putting together a hilarious isometric adventure where a cheerfully oblivious protagonist turns the world of the wild west into his whimsical playground has to be among the best. Polished, hilarious, and unabashedly oddball, Back to the Cubeture: Era 1 will definitely put an angular smile on your face.
- Gridz - Originally this puzzler by Atomic Cicada was released merely as "Grid", before being semi-sequeled semi-remade in 2009 with a "z" attached to the end of the title. And that added little bit of EXTREME SPELLING made all the difference, since Gridz is a true classic. It's a joy to see how the mish-mash of presented pipe-segments coalesces into an elegant solution. Perhaps it's just my latent OCD coming through, but when I'm somehow able to put order into the chaos of each of Gridz's forty levels, I get the sense that things are somehow being made right in the world.
- Grid Game - Finally, before this edition of The Vault goes off the grid, I'd like to share with you this charming little chain reaction webtoy. Released by Mark James in 2005, Grid Game feels like it would be as at home on your office-top desk as it does on your computer screen. The simplicity of clicking a cell, which then rotates a cell next to it, rippling out in a cascade of clicks and chirps is strangely beautiful. The "high score" function was definitely a devious inclusion on the part of the developer, since it just about guarantees that I won't be able to stop playing until my coffee break has well and truly disappeared in a flurry of rotating circles. Totally worth it.
While we welcome any comments about this weekly feature here, we do ask that if you need any help with the individual games, please post your questions on that game's review page. Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there and rediscover some awesome!
Update