Well, I've had a hard day mayoring the sovereign town of Trickania: fishing, catching beetles, buying hats, donating fossils, catching more beetles, smacking rocks to get coins, plotting revenge against foxes for selling me fake paintings, falling in holes, shooting balloons, catching further beetles... I think it's time to kick back and relax with some excellent games from the JayIsGames archives. Action, interactive art, and puzzle games should definitely help kill some time... at least until the fireworks festival starts.
- Exit Path - Jmtb02 gets a little dark and dystopic in this 2010 action romp. Browser jump-and-run games can sometimes suffer from a lack of plot, but Exit Path shows just how much a well-constructed setting can add. Sure, being a test subject at the whims of a what appears to be a never-ending series of mechanical death-traps isn't exactly new territory for games to explore, but jmtb02's iconongraphic style (the protagonist looks like a street-walk sign come to life) and subversive wit definitely means he puts his mark on the genre... after killing you, like, three hundred times.
- Record Tripping - Probably the third best argument for the existence of the scroll wheel (after "opening tabs in a new window" and, uh, "scrolling), Record Tripping, a 2010 piece of trippy interactive art by the Bell Brothers, shows us that old inputs can still surprise us with new tricks. You'll use that scroll wheel to scratch records, run factories, and change the flow of time itself, but it feels so natural that, by the end, you may wonder why no one else has ripped it off yet. Perhaps it would be too much of a challenge to replicate the amazing visuals and soundtrack, with its reading of Alice in Wonderland being used particularly well. Few experimental games are as a glorious success as this one.
- Me and the Key - Though Mrs. Perry, my sixth grade English teacher, would shudder at the misphrasing of the compound subject, Bart Bonte's 2009 point-and-click puzzle has charm to spare. The surface simplicity of clicking about to find a key, makes for the unique experience where, almost paradoxically, over-thinking poses the greatest challenge. Bonte is a master at keeping it simple, stupid, and Me and the Key shows his talent for intuitive design running on all pistons. Also, there are penguins. Just sayin'
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!
Me and the Key - Though Mrs. Perry, my sixth grade English teacher, would shudder at the misphrasing of the compound subject (...)
Try interpreting it as a compound object.
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