People are always telling you not to play with your food, but if you listen to them then you'll get no fun out of this week's Vault at all! Proving once again that tasty treats are the great unifiers, this week's theme is delectable edibles of all kinds, and features a wide variety of gameplay styles to boot.
- Sushi Go Round - What's not to like about sushi? Cold raw fish packed into cold sticky rice wrapped in dried seaweed! Mmm-mm! But even if you're a sushi philistine (we should make a club) you'll still find a lot to like in Lucidrine's adorable time management simulation starring everyone's favourite chilled fish snack. As the new chef, it's your job to quickly dish up and serve each customer's order as it files past them, but you'll also need to keep track of the ingredients to boot. While it may be fairly repetitive, however, Sushi Go Round manages to land smack dab in the middle of "just one more game" territory, and its simple, snappy gameplay combined with smart looking pixel graphics makes it a formidable contender for your free time.
- Hotcorn - Ninja Kiwi has always been great at taking simple concepts and whipping them into addictive arcade action. Take this little gem starring everyone's favourite fluffy white movie treat. No, I'm not talking about the smooshed, sweaty marshmallows you smuggled past the usher in your socks... popcorn! You'll need quick reflexes to master this one, which involves guiding a smoldering spark around the screen and popping all the kernels into stuck-between-your-teeth goodness while avoiding hazards... all within a time limit, naturally. It starts off easy but quickly will have you sweating bullets within the level constraints, yet somehow never stops being fun. There's not a lot of depth to it, but the frantic gameplay and action makes it the perfect size to fill up a coffee break before you know it.
- Jelly Battle - You're going to have to think on your feet to win at this turn-based strategy game... and what adorable, pudgy, tasty jelly feet they are! The clock is ticking as you try to figure out the best course to take to guide your chubby avatar around the board, picking up power-ups and weapons to lay waste to your opponents while simultaneously struggling to avoid splattering yourself all over the map in the process. It's a bouncy, frenetic game that's far from relaxing but manages to hit that sweet-spot where the action is just fast enough to keep you on your toes and quick enough to jump into to make it a breeze to pick up... and hard to put down. Sporting a multiplayer option for those of you who've always wanted to unleash jelly carnage on your buddies and a gorgeous visual style, it's one weird, wacky, and morbidly delightful little game that's fun to play by yourself but even better with a buddy.
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!
Oh damn you, JIG. I have things to do today and I'd forgotten how much I loved Jelly Battle! ;)
Does anyone else have trouble with the Jellybattle server? The countdown to server update keeps sticking at 1 and I have to log out then back in. I used to play this game a lot, thanks Jay for the reminder but I never had server problems like this before.
[That happened to me the first time I played when play testing to be sure the game was still functional. I just exited back to the menu and tried a new battle again, and it worked correctly. So, try again? -Jay]
Jay, you're right, but it often takes 3 or 4 times minimum to get a multiplayer game going. My problem maybe? Dang I love this game! Tried it with firefox and chrome, no difference.
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