It's time for Mysterious Mysteries of the Unknown! Mysteries! We've uncovered an old, import-only Japanese Game Boy Advance puzzle game from a company that folded shortly after publishing the title, leaving only a ten level PC demo and countless frazzled eBay searchers. Furthering the mysterious mysteriological setting (that's not a word, is it?), in Blood Ties you'll investigate kidnappings with a 450 year-old vampire, and a recent Cactus release drops you in a dream-themed platforming game that makes no sense. What a world we live in.
Blood Ties (Windows, 44MB, demo) - Based on the television series that's based on the Blood Books by Tanya Huff, Blood Ties brings the familiar law enforcement/mystery setting to casual gamers as a hidden object game. Vicki Nelson is an ex-cop and private investigator with failing eyesight. Working with a 450 year old vampire who is also the son of King Henry VIII (yes, you read that right), you'll investigate the disappearance of 14 members of a secret society called the Hellfire Club. Each member carries a fragment of a magical tablet that keeps a demon named Astaroth banished, and if the pieces aren't reunited once a year the demon will break free. Which is bad. The plot is a bit convoluted, but makes for interesting scenery, and the game itself is straight-up object finding, no pesky minigames to get in the way.
Swarm Racer (Windows/Mac, 1MB, free) - Why race one vehicle when you can control a whole swarm of them? Why race vehicles when you can control bees?! Zoom around each stage collecting gems while trying your best to keep the group together. Funky backgrounds and a stylish audio package make it an almost psychadelic experience.
Psychosomnium (Windows, 1.6MB, free) - From Game Maker developer Cactus, Psychosomnium is a short experimental platformer using the dream world as a setting, complete with illogical puzzles and scenarios that make little to no sense. Expect strange things to happen, and don't give up just because an obstacle seem impossible! As Cactus said, the game is not a prank.
Big Box of Blox (Windows/Mac, 11MB, free) - Tetris is so two decades ago. Not only do we want to stack blocks nowdays, we want to smash them as violently as possible. Enter Big Box of Blox and its multiple game modes, tiled themes and satisfying crashing sounds as you make matches. As groups of blocks descend from the sky, switch their position with the [arrow] keys and try your best to line up groups of three. It's sort of a cross between Lumines and Tetris.
Guru Logic Champ (Windows, <1MB, demo) - A sad tale in portable gaming history, Guru Logic Champ was the brainchild of Japanese developer Compile. Released only in Japan for the Game Boy Advance, the company tanked not too long afterwards, leaving a superb puzzle game to wither in obscurity. Fortunately a ten-level PC demo was released, allowing many more gamers to experience the sometimes infuriating logic puzzle bliss. The full game is import only and is a tough one to find, but if you enjoy this kind of puzzle, download PopCap's Pixelus for a similar experience.
Millenipede (Windows/Mac, 1.1MB, free) - A retro-themed arcade game inspired by Centipede. Shoot mushrooms, dodge spiders, flying saucers, snails and the millenipedes themselves as you climb your way up the high score board. Blocky pixel graphics included, sticky arcade buttons and annoying little kids picking their noses omitted.
I'm absolutely and completely stuck on Psychosomnium. I'm still in the first sequence
Jimmy dies, you become stranger...
Am I supposed to do that? If so, what am I supposed to do next? Is there something I'm missing? Someone drop me a hint! :)
Me too... I was hoping someone here would know.
I tried going back to the butterfly, but that didn't help at all.
Oh, and by the way, JohnB looks a bit different in his avatar! I didn't even notice until now! :D
Psychosomnium is making me nuts!
also, check out Stranded 2 also...i loved the first one and just saw this! didn't know where to submit
[Edit: Please use the Suggest a game form in the menu at the top of every page to submit game suggestions. Thanks! -Jay]
Found it!
You have to
die as Jimmy, then run over to the next screen, instead of jumping across, run back and you'll be on the other side!
Now stuck at the third checkpoint. :(
I can get past the
bunnies with Tom, but not with Mitch. After the bunnies I'm stumped. Do you need to get Mitch there instead of Tom to pass it?
This is frustrating.
Well...
I can't even get Psychowhatever get going. The game starts, I go to the butterfly, it says what it should - and then what? I can't make the speech bubble disappear. I tried each key on my keyboard and mouse and nothing works. And while that damn speech bubble is up I can't do anything.
Just to save you from unnecessary comments :) - I have a standard wire keyboard and I had no problem with it in the past.
Anyone else experiencing this?
Psychosomnium is great but very short. Some interesting puzzles though and nicely implemented.
Hints for those who are stuck:
When faced with a problem why not back away from it?
Hope that was cryptic enough. If you're still reeaally stuck heres how to get past the third room:
When you are the stranger and in the room with the big hole, simply go back to the previous room and you will appear at the other side
:)
bioLarzen--
try pressing "z"
bioLarzen--- try pressing "z"
Just finished the game. I agree, it was very short. I really wish it was longer, I like the aspect of playing as different characters.
(Oh, and just wanted to say, this is my first post, but I've been a jayisgames fan since 2005! It's really cool to see a website progress over the years.)
Tried each and every key, so z must have been tried and didn't work. (And even if it did - what a stupid idea of making the key z get the bubble disappear??? Would justify a 1-star rating right away... Unless, of course, if it's mentioned somewhere in the game - in that case I get that 1-star rating.)
Bleh, I'm still stuck at the
part after the bunnies.
Any help?
darn! psychosomnium was such a brilliantly humorous game, but i wish it were longer! (actually, the quick ending made me crack up even more, so maybe that's a good thing.)
Nevermind, I beat it. Finally.
FULL WALKTHROUGH:
Note that through the game there's buttons under the pipes. Hit them for a checkpoint, don't skip them!!
1.
Talk to the butterfly. Use the 'z' key to skip through dialogue. Go right, and then jump the stepping stones carefully. Go right again. When confronted with the pit of spikes, simply jump in.
2.
As the stranger, go to the right. When there are stairs, go back a screen and you'll be on the other side! Go right again to continue.
3.
A simple spike maneuvering course. Run forward and jump over the spikes, and continue right. Wait, you've appeared at the beginning of the screen again! No worries, simply go to the right again, and then a third time to continue.
4.
More dialogue, then to the right, Hit the checkpoint and right again. Spikes hanging from the ceiling! Run past them as fast as you can without stopping or you'll die! Right again to continue.
5.
A yellow/blue area. Jump the pit and keep going. Make the few jumps, get the checkpoint and continue on.
6.
This part's really tricky, so pay attention! More dialogue and then DIE ON THE SPIKES. Make sure it's the spikes on the screen with the big man (the small patch of spikes to the right of the screen) and you'll become the big guy. Go right (but avoid the spikes this time!)
7.
Bunnies demand carrots! You have no carrots, so your only option is to force past them. Notice how they jump when you jump, but you jump higher than them. Jump over one at a time, but be sure you're going to the right in midair WHEN YOU'RE ABOVE THEM IN THE AIR! This requires timing, keep trying. Do this once for each bunny and continue to the right.
8.
Another jumpy part. Just jump and go to the right, no tricks here. Just keep going until you see the bee (it shouldn't take long.)
9.
Whee, you're a bee! Repeatedly hit up to fly, and use left and right to steer (obviously! :P ) and go to the right. MAKE SURE TO GET THE CHECKPOINT BEFORE GOING ON! Once you've done that, carefully maneuver all the tunnels, I can't really offer any advice here. Carry on until you see a little white man.
10.
Fly toward the man. BZZZZT! You're dead. That's ok, because now you're the little guy! Just jump jump jump to the right until you get to the dialogue.
Congratulations! You've won!
Wow, Psychosomnium is hauntingly... weird. It does try to be illogical, which makes the unlimited lives helpful. I like it, but it doesn't really have much in the way of replay value.
Actually there's an easier way to get past the bunnies
once you have the big guy, press Z
D'oh! Didn't see that. Thanks Harukio :D
Completed! That was one crazy difficult little game.
And the end was strange as well..
Woah John B you're looking fly in the new picture
Guru Logic Champ is a pretty neat puzzle game; I'd probably buy it if I ever came across it. The game mechanic really makes one think differently, though I guess that's the goal of most logic puzzles. Psychosomnium was okay, but needs some serious expansion (and possibly better graphics) if the game developers really want to capture the nature of a dreamworld. More activation synthesis!
Guru Logic Champ is pretty darn sweet, but I blew through the first nine levels of the demo with ease (at least for me... i'm generally pretty lousy with puzzle games) and then 10 made me want to tear my hair out and I never did figure it out. Maybe I'm just tired. I'll look at it tomorrow... but I'm probably not smart enough to figure it out, so if someone who has could give me a hint... otherwise it will haunt me forever. thanks!
I beat level 10 in Guru Logic Champ after about 45 minutes. Here's my walkthrough for that level. It was kind of hard to write out designations, hope this helps:
Press X
Fire 5 blocks at 4
Press Z, Suck in 11
Press X times 2, Fire at 7
Press Z, Suck in all left at 4
Fire all at 5
Press Z, Suck in 10, 11
Press X, Fire 1 at 5
Press X, Fire 1 at 2
Press Z, Suck in all at 5
Pres X, Fire 1 at 2
Fire 2 at 1
Press Z, Suck in 4
Press X, Fire 1 at 4
Press Z, Fire 1 at 15
Press X, Suck in 4
Press Z, Fire at 7
Somehow my post combined itself into one long line. Hopefully this will be better. I apologize for the double post.
Press X
Fire 5 blocks at 4
Press Z, Suck in 11
Press X times 2, Fire at 7
Press Z, Suck in all left at 4
Fire all at 5
Press Z, Suck in 10, 11
Press X, Fire 1 at 5
Press X, Fire 1 at 2
Press Z, Suck in all at 5
Pres X, Fire 1 at 2
Fire 2 at 1
Press Z, Suck in 4
Press X, Fire 1 at 4
Press Z, Fire 1 at 15
Press X, Suck in 4
Press Z, Fire at 7
JohnB is bearded!
Thanks a lot, sono_ryuu_sochi!
Once I saw where you were going with the first about 4 steps there, it was clear. That's really one of those puzzles where once someone shows you the correct answer it seems like it shouldn't be so hard, but wow. I just really couldn't get my brain to stop wanting to shoot the blocks into the "obvious" spots where they were then irretrievable. Tricky! Thanks again!
I noticed something neat in Psychosomnium. When you get control of
Mitch
you can go all the way back to the part with Shirley. It's neat because she has different dialog than when you control
Tom.
WOW this is a really interesting site for flash games, i didnt know i could find a blog for Flash games, this is super cool. I think flash games own graphic-card-needed-Pc-gaming as they are fun and so much each to play, you have your own community and leader boards, flash games are the best, one of my favorite flash games is this really cool trick-skating game, chk it out....http://sewer-run.zapak.com?utm_source=b
I love "find the item" games and I jumped on Blood Ties. Just a word of warning: apart from the very moronic premise it is based on (storywriter's fault, I suppose), the game is both:
Too easy (I solved it on the first run, in one hour and a half) and
BAD, meaning absurdely repetitive (you have to find the same items over and over, and they are always in the same places) and lacking any sense of involvement.
Bah.
Blood Ties is now available for Mac, and I agree with Tracian -- it's a dud. The graphics borrow so heavily from the look and feel of the MCF games that they feel like a ripoff, and the storyline is non-existant. You find things, you move on to the next zone, you find again.
Yawn.
Update