These are online games that, in my opinion, offer a "good experience" - good game design with an overall attention to quality. Unless otherwise noted, they're all free, online, and available right now.
| Name | Duration | Date Added | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adventurous Eric | Watch the cat's day unfold. (Clever take on the mouse-maze game.) (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 17, 2009 |
| Plants vs Zombies | Plant the plants to keep zombies on your lawn. Cute fun. (Downloadable demo or buy full version for twenty bucks.) | varies | Oct 30, 2009 |
| Hypnotic Discotheque Fascination | Clever use of color and music transform a simple concept into a fun game. | fast | Oct 25, 2009 |
| Small Worlds | Elegant and beautiful exploration. (tx, waxy) | fast | Oct 23, 2009 |
| Machinarium | Outstanding adventure game from the makers of Samarost 1 and 2. Must-play. | long | Oct 20, 2009 |
| Must Eat Birds | Bizarre fun from Japan: shoot the ball to eat birds and grow cake. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 16, 2009 |
| Crush the Castle Players Pack | Several dozen new player-submitted levels extend the fun of Crush the Castle. | fast | Sep 22, 2009 |
| Icycle | Beautiful design - visual, sound, gameplay - in this clever and friendly puzzler/jumper. | fast | Sep 17, 2009 |
| Diepix Arena | Fun quick shooter - upgrade & finish in a few minutes. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 11, 2009 |
| Windosill | Cool animated puzzle. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Sep 8, 2009 |
| Upgrade Complete | Clever & fun exploration of upgrades in video games. | fast | Aug 25, 2009 |
| Fig. 8 | Beautiful and unique: bicycle through the blueprints. (via) | fast | Aug 20, 2009 |
| Must Pop Words | Fun word game - combo of Boggle and Tetris. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 14, 2009 |
| You Only Live Once | Don't skip the intro. And play the whole game. Clever. | fast | Aug 12, 2009 |
| Bunni Game | Super-cute adventure game, using some harvest-production elements. | long | Jul 31, 2009 |
| Pirate Launch | Cute, simple. Launch pirate ship to collect booty. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 23, 2009 |
| Altitude | Fantastic multiplayer dogfight game, reminiscent of the classic Netrek but easier to learn. This is A+. Download for Mac/Windows. | varies | Jul 6, 2009 |
| Fragger | Simple fun with physics and grenades. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 2, 2009 |
| Push | Clever combination of run-and-jump and click-to-move-blocks. | fast | Jul 2, 2009 |
| clickplay | Clever minigames with nice visual design. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 25, 2009 |
| Vector Boom | Shootemup with clever blast-radius interface. Too much clicking, though. Space bar, please! | fast | Jun 23, 2009 |
| Lunar Lander | Elegant and fun, 30 years on. (Tx, Scott) | fast | May 20, 2009 |
| Crush the Castle | Hurl rocks to bring down the castle. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 4, 2009 |
| RotatSpin | Retro jumper with clever use of the pause button. | fast | Apr 25, 2009 |
| BallDroppings | Fun musical physics toy. Just try it. | fast | Apr 11, 2009 |
| Yahoo! Hearts | My favorite multiplayer Hearts game online, for nearly a decade. The other card games here are good, too. | fast | Mar 21, 2009 |
| Sound Memory | Fun audio version of Concentration. Very nicely done. | fast | Mar 21, 2009 |
| Capt Dan v Zombie Plan | Clever non-gory zombie puzzle. Avoid being spotted, click to shoot. | fast | Mar 21, 2009 |
| Hex Empire | Strategy war game, just a bit more involved than Risk. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Mar 19, 2009 |
| Tasha's Game | Charming run-and-jump game with an unusually elegant interface. | fast | Mar 17, 2009 |
| Fantastic Contraption | Build a contraption with parts that obey physics. | varies | Feb 18, 2009 |
| Perfect Balance | Balance the shapes just right. (tx, waxy) | fast | Feb 4, 2009 |
| Grow Tower | Another A+ outstanding entry in the Grow series. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jan 23, 2009 |
| Monolist | Brilliant update of Space Invaders. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jan 15, 2009 |
| Crossblock | Puzzle of removing blocks. Starts easy, gets harder. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Jan 8, 2009 |
| Auditorium | Attractively designed musical puzzle. (Tx, sandy) | fast | Dec 29, 2008 |
| Fishing Girl | Very nicely designed fishing game with a clever payoff. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 29, 2008 |
| Merge | Triangulation puzzle - nicely designed. (Thanks, Geoff) | fast | Dec 16, 2008 |
| Big Bod Says | Clever (and easy) version of Simon Says. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 13, 2008 |
| Drawminos | Fun toy to set up & knock down virtual domino arrangements. (Thanks, MUG) | fast | Dec 10, 2008 |
| Draw My Thing | Nicely done Pictionary clone. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 6, 2008 |
| snm#1 | Simple, well-designed Flash toy for players very young (or not). | fast | Nov 22, 2008 |
| Powerpool | Simple billiards game with a twist. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 18, 2008 |
| Zilch | Simple, well-executed dice game. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 14, 2008 |
| Hanna in a Choppa | Stylish, elegant, friendly helicopter game. Excellent. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 11, 2008 |
| Crazy Go Nuts | Shoot squirrels out of a cannon to hit the nuts, Polinko-style. | fast | Nov 7, 2008 |
| Splitter | Clever physics game of slicing to the exit. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 3, 2008 |
| Adventure Ho! | Stripped-down adventure game - combat, inventory, levels. Super-efficient gaming. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Oct 24, 2008 |
| Bubble Tanks 2 | Grow a bubble fighter to defeat the boss. Great game play. | fast | Oct 20, 2008 |
| These Balls Are Made for Hiding | Elegant. Find the hidden circles with a bouncing laser. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 10, 2008 |
| Dogfight 2 | WWI flying, fighting, bombing missions. Nicely done. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 6, 2008 |
| Z-Rox | Unique visual puzzle. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 30, 2008 |
| Hit the Jackpot 2 | Neat archery simulator. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 22, 2008 |
| Elements | Maze unfolds level under level. Unique look & feel. | varies | Sep 16, 2008 |
| Maverick | Clever retro, a la Miner 2049er. Move dude with gunshots. Too much clicking, tho. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 14, 2008 |
| Kagi nochi tobira | Find the key, put in door. Starts easy, nice progression of difficulty. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Sep 11, 2008 |
| Shooting Star | Avoiding in an Asteroids universe. Mouse-only, elegant. | fast | Sep 4, 2008 |
| BoomBot | Place charges to blow the bot to the exit. (via) | fast | Aug 23, 2008 |
| Polinko | Beautiful and surprisingly fun version of pachinko. Similar to Peggle. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 15, 2008 |
| Pel | Elegant low-tech paddle game. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 15, 2008 |
| Coign of Vantage | Clever concept, nice gameplay: rotate the image until everything clicks. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 14, 2008 |
| Kinetikz 2 | Souped-up version of billiards, with obstacles and baddies. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 13, 2008 |
| Evito Ball | Guide the ball with arrow keys, avoiding obstacles. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 30, 2008 |
| Open Doors | Clever puzzle of moving around a blueprint. | fast | Jul 16, 2008 |
| Totem Destroyer | Click to remove blocks while keeping the sculpture off the ground. (via) | fast | Jul 8, 2008 |
| Hedgehog Launch | Unique, clever, well-balanced game - with a nice surprise, too. | fast | Jul 1, 2008 |
| Sunny Day Sky | Calming bear-in-traffic game from orisinal. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 26, 2008 |
| Applicate vol. 0 | Clever puzzle game with apples. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 15, 2008 |
| Galcon | Great multiplayer conquest game (much like Nano War, but Galcon came first). Download for Mac/Windows. | fast | Jun 6, 2008 |
| Unique | Elegant: click the one that doesn't match. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 6, 2008 |
| Nano War | Cool real-time strategy. More levels and multiplayer, please! (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 30, 2008 |
| Robokill | Exquisitely executed shooter, an update of Smash TV - a game based on a movie based on a book. (Thanks, jay) | varies | May 28, 2008 |
| Music Catch | Nice musical game. Catch the shapes, like Doeo. | fast | May 26, 2008 |
| Paddle Ball | Very simple concept, well executed. | fast | May 26, 2008 |
| Canyon Shooter | Surprisingly engaging down-scroller. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 25, 2008 |
| Dino Run | Clever, retro scroller - outrun the volcano. (tx, rene) | fast | May 23, 2008 |
| Brute Wars | Turn-based combat/adventure game. (Thanks, jay) | long | May 17, 2008 |
| Music Bounce | Unique, clever, musical, all-around great. (Thanks, jay) | varies | May 13, 2008 |
| Doeo | Stylish mouse-only game, recalls Katamari. (via) | fast | May 1, 2008 |
| Puzzle Parlor | A dozen jigsaw-like puzzles. | varies | Apr 30, 2008 |
| TypeRacer | Race other users in typing speed. One problem: it doesn't recognize bit lever-typed text, which is as legit as everychar typing. | fast | Apr 26, 2008 |
| Race to the Bottom | Elegant 1-button game: stay ahead of the caterpillar. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Apr 26, 2008 |
| Blockoban | Clever and difficult block-sliding puzzle. | varies | Apr 21, 2008 |
| PongOut | Multitasking fun: play Pong and Breakout at the same time. | fast | Apr 16, 2008 |
| Magic Pen | Fun crayon-physics game. (tx, jim) | fast | Apr 14, 2008 |
| Uchuforce 2 | Very old-school shootemup. Elegant. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Apr 7, 2008 |
| Color Junction | Quick and fun. Try to remove all the colors. | fast | Apr 3, 2008 |
| Boomstick | Excellent. Shoot the abstract shapes to get more ammo. | fast | Mar 28, 2008 |
| Go Robot | Quick game about a robot, made by yours truly. | fast | Mar 19, 2008 |
| Nanotube | Outstanding. Elegant design, unique gameplay - vaguely Tempest-like. (thanks, jay) | fast | Mar 12, 2008 |
| WordConnect | Combo of Tetris and Scrabble, sort of. Neat. (tx, Nev) | fast | Mar 1, 2008 |
| Grid16 | Fun collection of two-second games. (Thanks, jim) | fast | Feb 19, 2008 |
| Luminara | Outstanding shootemup with great powerups. | fast | Feb 14, 2008 |
| Escape Vision | Interesting escape-the-room puzzle. (Thanks, Alberto) | long | Feb 12, 2008 |
| Shooot 2 | Elegant shooter - sequel to Shooot. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Feb 11, 2008 |
| I/O | Fun geeky puzzle, not too hard. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Feb 7, 2008 |
| Spin the Black Circle | Rotate the board to guide the ball. Elegant, difficult game. (thanks, waxy) | fast | Feb 5, 2008 |
| Multiball Madness | Quick version of Breakout with many balls. Juggle! (Thanks, jay) | fast | Feb 1, 2008 |
| Chain Factor | Drop numbered tiles to form chains. (thanks, kottke) | fast | Jan 29, 2008 |
| ZunderFury | Fun shootemup, a strong sequel to OrbBlaster. | fast | Jan 17, 2008 |
| Filler | Elegant. Like Qix but with circles. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jan 16, 2008 |
| Passage | This is a MUST-play. The whole game lasts only five minutes. Just play it. (Download for Mac/Win/Linux.) | fast | Jan 14, 2008 |
| Cursor*10 | Clever puzzle of stairs and recordings of past moves. | fast | Jan 13, 2008 |
| Excit | Puzzles in a spreadsheet world. Workflow | fast | Jan 3, 2008 |
| Strategic Domination | Finally, the classic Mac game Strategic Conquest is online and multiplayer. | long | Dec 29, 2007 |
| Rigby | Elegant, fun bouncing-ball game. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 29, 2007 |
| Day of the Bobteds | Inventive ball-physics game. | fast | Dec 28, 2007 |
| Tall Stump | Very nicely designed side-scroller. (Thanks, jay) | long | Dec 27, 2007 |
| Cat on a Dolphin | Strangely compelling cat-tossing game. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 27, 2007 |
| Picture Logic | Fun puzzles somewhat like sudoku. Good game UI, though most text is Japanese. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Dec 14, 2007 |
| Zwingo | Swing the ball to protect the base. Nicely designed. | fast | Dec 10, 2007 |
| Laser and Bubbles | Unique and fun: pop bubbles with lasers. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 7, 2007 |
| Funny Farm | Ingenious word-association puzzle. | long | Dec 5, 2007 |
| Chat Noir | Simple - but not easy - puzzle of hemming in an escaping kitteh. (thanks, bb) | fast | Nov 30, 2007 |
| Touch the Bubbles 2 | Very nicely designed music puzzle. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 30, 2007 |
| OrbBlaster | Excellent shootemup... shades of Asteroids and Red, and new elements, in this outstanding design. | fast | Nov 28, 2007 |
| Speedtest | Nicely designed typing test, in one minute. I got 101 correct, 0 wrong (without a bit lever). | fast | Nov 26, 2007 |
| Picto | Very clever memory game: just click the new thing. (thanks, IN) | fast | Nov 19, 2007 |
| Age of War | Evolve through several technological ages to defeat the enemy. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 17, 2007 |
| Treasure Box | Clever and beautiful little adventure. (thanks, MUG) | varies | Nov 14, 2007 |
| Click Maze 2 | Click the dot through the maze; a bit like mini golf. Fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 9, 2007 |
| N3wton | Sumo-wrestling tanks! Nicely designed. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Nov 9, 2007 |
| Mr. Mothball 2 | Very clever take on the shootemup genre. Friendly and cute; too much clicking, though. Space bar, please! (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 9, 2007 |
| Treasure of Cutlass Reef | Simple game of sailing ship combat. Nicely done. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 2, 2007 |
| Know Your World? | Very nicely designed geography quiz. | fast | Oct 31, 2007 |
| Indestruct 2 Tank | Clever game where you try to get hit by the baddies. | fast | Oct 29, 2007 |
| Word Shoot | Way more fun than a typing tutor. Shoot the advancing words! (In Qwerty or Dvorak, covered in my book). | fast | Oct 24, 2007 |
| PuzzPinball | Design a pinball level to solve each puzzle. Really nice. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 23, 2007 |
| Factory Balls | Outstanding puzzle game: clever, fun, and unique. | fast | Oct 22, 2007 |
| 50 States in 10 Minutes | Very simply: can you name them all? (Thanks, Jonathan) | fast | Oct 17, 2007 |
| Free Rice | Vocabulary game that donates rice upon a correct answer. Cleverly sets the difficulty level (I got to 45). | fast | Oct 16, 2007 |
| Launchball | Fun science-museum-type puzzles. Great visual and sound design. (Thanks, jay) momi12agma | fast | Oct 15, 2007 |
| Library | Still in a rough "beta" version, but unique and fun: choose the best source for library patrons' queries. | fast | Oct 13, 2007 |
| Tanks V2 | Tanks shoot it out - a bit like the old "Worms 2" game. | fast | Oct 12, 2007 |
| Hotcorn | Pop the corn. You're the sun. Some hard levels, but fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 2, 2007 |
| Ramps | Elegant and fun. Position the ramps to guide the sphere safely. (Thanks, jay) mallorylikespolkadots | fast | Sep 19, 2007 |
| Sproing | Clever & elegant: not a shootemup but a "whipemup." I don't get Level 6, though. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 14, 2007 |
| Grow Island | Yet another must-play in the Grow series. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 13, 2007 |
| Escape the room games | List of "escape the room" games. Click around to find and use objects and solve the puzzle. | long | Sep 1, 2007 |
| Mindfields 2204 | Neat tank puzzle game, reminiscent of the German cow game. (Thanks, Ralp H) UA33 | varies | Aug 29, 2007 |
| Zeta Flow | Nicely designed abstract shootemup. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 27, 2007 |
| Dolphin Olympics 2 | New & improved version of the great Dolphin Olympics, listed here a year ago. Play this! (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 27, 2007 |
| Adventures of Alex | A game with cute overload. Avoid those mean clouds and get the happy hearts and gold coins. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 24, 2007 |
| Bombay Taxi | Fun with parallel parking. | fast | Aug 21, 2007 |
| Thor Towers | Build a tower with space bar only. Elegant. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 10, 2007 |
| Boxhead More Rooms | Sequel to Boxhead Rooms - more rooms, weapons, and baddies. | varies | Aug 6, 2007 |
| Cat with Bow Golf | Shoot the arrow (cat hanging on happily) toward the bulls-eye. Cute. | fast | Aug 3, 2007 |
| Space Pilot | Nice twist on Asteroids - just move, never shoot. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 29, 2007 |
| Boxhead Rooms | Shoot the zombies. (Thanks, Matt.) P.S. Here's a possible theme song for the game by my friend Andrew. | varies | Jul 27, 2007 |
| Bound Bear | Clever, unique bear-head-throwing game. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 14, 2007 |
| Bomb Wars | Great replay of Tron Deadly Discs, one of my arcade favs from 80s. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 13, 2007 |
| 50 States v2 | Place the fifty states on a map. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 13, 2007 |
| Bloxorz | Clever 3-D block-movement puzzle. (thanks, jj) 524383 | fast | Jul 6, 2007 |
| Rat Maze 2 | Just explore the look-and-feel of this retro game... much like Adventure, the old Atari 2600 game from a quarter-century ago. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Jul 1, 2007 |
| LightSprites | Fun game with a cute-bizarre Nintendo feel. Drag and throw the colored balls to grow happy humanoids. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 1, 2007 |
| Door to Door | Cute version of Concentration, especially for kids. (Thanks, April) | fast | Jun 15, 2007 |
| Amberial | Great design. Navigate the ball with left and right arrows only. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Jun 13, 2007 |
| Shuffle | Simple, fast, and fun billiards-style game. | fast | Jun 2, 2007 |
| Castle Draw | Draw rocks to drop onto invaders. Don't miss the Shop menu on the right. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 30, 2007 |
| Crazy Mammoths | Neat space bar-only game. Jump your mammoth at the right moment to win. | fast | May 25, 2007 |
| Artillery Live | Nice scaled-down tank game. Simple multiplayer game - good work. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 22, 2007 |
| Hoshi Saga | Inventive - find a way to uncover the star in each level. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 22, 2007 |
| RGB | Shoot the colored targets. Simple & fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 22, 2007 |
| Crazy Ladybugs | Elegant and fun one-click game: bring the ladybugs together. (thanks, bb) | fast | May 18, 2007 |
| Red Team | Navigate two characters separately and simultaneously. Fun. (Thanks, jay) different | fast | May 12, 2007 |
| game, game and again game | Worth trying because it's so unique... abstract poetry in the form of a video game. Don't try to make sense of it, but do try it. (Thanks, jay) | varies | May 12, 2007 |
| Ignition | Stylish, elegant, and quick driving game. Nicely done! (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 12, 2007 |
| Dodge | Dodge the red balls. So simple... for a few levels. | fast | May 4, 2007 |
| Angry Faic | Bounce your angry Pac-Man onto color-coded balls. Fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Apr 29, 2007 |
| Rapture Capture | Unique shootemup, or perhaps a "whipemup" - inventive mouse-only interface. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Apr 17, 2007 |
| Cannon Bods | Cute, fun game with pirates and cannons. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Apr 12, 2007 |
| Rhythm | Very inventive. A mouse, a pentagon, and some insipiration from Dance Dance Revolution... (thanks, AudioElf) | fast | Apr 3, 2007 |
| Fulfillment | Fun block-fitting game, like a static version of Tetris. (thanks, AudioElf) | fast | Apr 3, 2007 |
| Ellipsis | Nicely executed, simple mouse-clicking game. Like Asteroids without the aim. | fast | Apr 2, 2007 |
| Bloons | Fun balloon-popping game. | fast | Mar 29, 2007 |
| Boomshine | Set off a chain reaction - like Chaos Theory but better graphics and sound. Fun. | fast | Mar 27, 2007 |
| Desktop TD | Cuter, more addictive version of the other TD games. See WSJ profile of the creator from June 20, 2007. (thanks, kottke) | fast | Mar 20, 2007 |
| Flash Circle TD | Great followup to Flash Element TD - even better. Caution: addicting. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Mar 20, 2007 |
| Formation | Elegant avoid-the-dots game. Nicely done. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Mar 8, 2007 |
| Orange | Followup to the outstanding Red. Nice visuals and sound, and decent game play, but too much mouse clicking. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Mar 8, 2007 |
| Glassez | Cute game of filling a puzzle with geometric pieces. Too much clicking, though. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Mar 2, 2007 |
| Rings and Sticks | Clever puzzle game: grow the tree branches through the rings. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Mar 2, 2007 |
| Nests of Moai | Quick fun: mouse over 100 Easter Island heads each level. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Feb 21, 2007 |
| Phoboris | Neat. Clear the grid bugs by bouncing the frisbee-thing around. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Feb 21, 2007 |
| FoolYoo | Cute samurai game: cut up the baddies (and veggies - refer to this). (Thanks, jay) | fast | Feb 16, 2007 |
| Attractors | Fun gravity toy. You can drag the platforms and gravity sources. | fast | Feb 2, 2007 |
| Castle Smasher | Well-designed, fun catapult game. | fast | Feb 1, 2007 |
| Stick Remover | Click to remove sticks without destroying the structure. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jan 25, 2007 |
| Flash Element TD | Set up towers to shoot incoming waves of monsters. Good stuff. (Thanks, joanne) | fast | Jan 19, 2007 |
| Catch Thirty-three | Mouse over the digits in sequence. Quick and elegant. (Thanks, Matt) | fast | Jan 17, 2007 |
| The Python Challenge | "The first programming riddle on the net." Geeky fun. | long | Jan 10, 2007 |
| Valo | Elegant and simple, with nice music. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jan 1, 2007 |
| Motherload | Mine the earth for minerals and money. (Thanks, kottke) (original URL) | long | Dec 27, 2006 |
| Mini Golf | Nicely done mini-golf game. (Thanks, kottke) | fast | Dec 27, 2006 |
| BowMaster Prelude | Defend the castle by shooting arrows. Excellent. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Dec 14, 2006 |
| Grow v.1 | A quick but welcome addition to the outstanding Grow series. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 12, 2006 |
| Mission in Snowdriftland | Great winter-themed game, much ilke Mario World. (Thanks, jay) | varies | Dec 9, 2006 |
| Winterbells | Fun holiday game with a jumping bunny. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Dec 7, 2006 |
| Kumo Neko | Swing the cat onto the diamonds. Elegant. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 28, 2006 |
| Jungle Crash Land | Drop bombs to clear the runway before you land. | fast | Nov 28, 2006 |
| Games for toddlers | List of sites that link to games appropriate for toddlers. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 25, 2006 |
| neko-juppiki | Guide the kittens to safety, like lemmings, by clicking on arrows. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 22, 2006 |
| Snake | Elegant - just left and right arrows. Here a lifelike snake eats mice. (Note: Minor blood and gore.) | fast | Nov 19, 2006 |
| WEBoggle | Nicely implemented Web-based Boggle. (Thanks, JA) | fast | Nov 16, 2006 |
| Missile Game 3D | Use the mouse to pilot through the tunnel. Elegant. | fast | Nov 16, 2006 |
| Crossword | Good crossword game with no clues. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 15, 2006 |
| Paths | Clever drawing game: draw the path, hit the space bar, and move the obstacles. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 15, 2006 |
| Double Wires | Swing the stick figure, Tarzan-like. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 9, 2006 |
| Commander Keen | An old side-scroller now online. A lot like Mario World. | long | Nov 9, 2006 |
| 20Q | This game of Twenty Questions has been online for awhile, learning (as a neural network) from user input and becoming surprisingly smart. Try it and see. | fast | Nov 8, 2006 |
| Geography Challenge | Nicely done geography quiz. | fast | Nov 8, 2006 |
| Globulos | Fantastic set of multi-player games featuring yellow and red bouncing balls. Games this good are rare online. (Note: All the games are kid-friendly but there is always a chat window visible, allowing other players to type uncensored messages.) | fast | Nov 7, 2006 |
| Lander | Quick three-level lunar lander game. Fun. | fast | Nov 6, 2006 |
| Paper-and-pen games | List of offline games, like Other Foot, that require only pen and paper. Great for parties. | varies | Nov 6, 2006 |
| Line Rider | Draw your own track for the sled to ride on. Then watch this video, and this, to see what others have done. (Thanks, kottke) | fast | Nov 3, 2006 |
| Four Second Firestorm | Another four-second minigame medley, like Frenzy and Fury before it. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Nov 3, 2006 |
| Jinx | Fun kid-friendly adventure game themed for Halloween. This is Part 1, and when you're done, try Part 2. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 26, 2006 |
| Pixel Blaster | Outstanding shootemup except that you have to click to fire. Space bar, please! Be nice to wrists. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 26, 2006 |
| Pod Panic | Nicely done, creative update of Asteroids. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 25, 2006 |
| Air Monkey | Cute one-button game. Click the mouse to jump onto successive ropes. | fast | Oct 21, 2006 |
| Battleships | Good implementation of the classic board game Battleship. Note that you can only play the computer. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 20, 2006 |
| Snake Classic | Well done update of this classic game. Don't eat your tail! (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 20, 2006 |
| Opniyama | A bit like Fly Guy - a cute, fun world to explore. (Thanks, MUG) | fast | Oct 11, 2006 |
| Ollie's Dance Experience | A keyboard version of Dance Dance Revolution. | fast | Oct 10, 2006 |
| Neon 2 | Fun shootemup. A bit like Asteroids in the vector-art world of Tempest. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 6, 2006 |
| Red | Fantastic update of Missile Command. Concept, graphics, music, game play are all excellent. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Oct 2, 2006 |
| RaidenX | Nice homage to the 1980s top-scrolling shooter. | fast | Sep 26, 2006 |
| Roly Poly | Inventive interface: move the board, not the character, to finish the level. | fast | Sep 21, 2006 |
| Warthog Launch | Launch the jeep in the air to get the floating baddies. Fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 20, 2006 |
| Panic | Great shootemup. Trick is to shoot the baddies while as high up as possible. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 19, 2006 |
| Fly Guy | A very old one, in Internet years, but still good. A friendly little world to explore. | fast | Sep 19, 2006 |
| Snowy: The Bear's Adventures | Cute bear throws snowballs at baddies. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 19, 2006 |
| White Jigsaw | Jigsaw puzzles with an especially clean and simple interface. Starts easy and builds up. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Sep 14, 2006 |
| Cosmic Encounter | Nice online version of the classic board game. Complex, but fun, once you know the rules. Click "Play as Guest" to avoid registration. | varies | Sep 14, 2006 |
| Hyper Sphere | Sort of a 2-D version of the 80s classic Marble Madness. | fast | Sep 11, 2006 |
| Fingerbilliard | Fun Flash game of pool. From the home page, choose Toys, then "fingerbillard" [sic]. | fast | Sep 8, 2006 |
| Digg Games | (List) A couple dozen quick Flash games that have been featured on the home page of Digg. | fast | Aug 26, 2006 |
| Board Dots | Elegant and difficult puzzle - click around in the grid and you'll get it. You have to fill all the squares. | varies | Aug 25, 2006 |
| Super Smash Flash | An imperfect but spirited attempt at recreating the Nintendo über-classic for online play. (The regular Super Smash Brothers is, I believe, the best multiplayer console game ever created.) | fast | Aug 24, 2006 |
| Flow | Outstanding. Explore a strange aquatic world. Mysterious and soothing. (Thanks, all who recommended.) | varies | Aug 21, 2006 |
| Tube Racer | Dizzying game of navigating a series of tubes - that is, the Internet. Just use the arrow keys. | fast | Aug 21, 2006 |
| Tama | Neat ball-tossing game. Land in red or blue, avoid black. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 20, 2006 |
| Happy Flower Music Time | The old handheld game Simon (mimicking tunes) on animated flower petals. Cute. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 18, 2006 |
| Mystery of Castle Wildenburg | Nice point-and-click adventure game with photographic backgrounds. (Thanks, jay) inits0818 | long | Aug 18, 2006 |
| Pac-Xon | A cross between Pac-Man and Qix - very nice. | fast | Aug 17, 2006 |
| Toon Crisis | Shootemup set on the streets of London. | fast | Aug 17, 2006 |
| Runes of Shalak | Old-school graphics and music make for a fun Lode Runner-type game. H58K9 | varies | Aug 17, 2006 |
| Dolphin Olympics | Outstanding. Elegant and fun - just use the arrow keys. Play! (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 16, 2006 |
| Tilt | Elegant. Use the mouse to keep the toy balanced. | fast | Aug 16, 2006 |
| Guess the Place | Guess the city or country from a photo or part of a map. | fast | Aug 15, 2006 |
| Insane Orb | Outstanding update of Pong. The space bar can shoot the puck. Watch for a 80s arcade celebrity sighting. | fast | Aug 15, 2006 |
| Bullet Bill | Very fast side-scroller where you play the bullet in the Mario games. Cute. (Thanks, jay) Q3TH6 | fast | Aug 15, 2006 |
| Four Second Frenzy | Another mini-game medley; the sequel to Four Second Fury listed earlier. | fast | Aug 14, 2006 |
| Sudoku | The standard, except that here you can click the "New" link to instantly generate a new puzzle. | varies | Aug 14, 2006 |
| Egg Way | Draw little barriers to help guide the egg yolk into the pan. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 11, 2006 |
| Goggles: Google Maps flight sim | A simple addition to Google Maps - a little cartoon airplane - makes a surprisingly good flight simulator. | fast | Aug 10, 2006 |
| Cutie Quake | Shoot any bouncing thing that moves, don't get shot. | fast | Aug 9, 2006 |
| Horsey Racing | Simple and fun - move the mouse to the right or left to control speed, click to jump. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Aug 7, 2006 |
| Feed Me | A bit like a Mario World side-scroller, starring a venus flytrap. | varies | Aug 7, 2006 |
| Dicewars | Very nice scaled-down version of Risk, playing against several computer opponents. | fast | Aug 1, 2006 |
| Geartaker | (Find the link near the top of the list.) Click at the right time and advance. Elegant and fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 29, 2006 |
| fuzetsu | The closer you get to the flying objects - but don't touch - the more bullets you shoot. No buttons or keys - just move the mouse. Elegant, beautiful, and fun. (Note: Needs this Java thing to play.) (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jul 25, 2006 |
| Four Second Fury | Use the arrow keys and space bar to complete each mini-game within four seconds. (A lot like WarioWare - nicely done.) | fast | Jul 13, 2006 |
| Racing game | Nice Lunar Landar-type game from my buddy Ze Frank. | fast | Jul 12, 2006 |
| Iron Sudoku | Nice interface to solve a daily puzzle. Free with registration. | varies | Jul 8, 2006 |
| Gamma Bros | Outstanding shootemup. Play this and you'll relive (or get schooled in) Asteroids, Galaga, and Robotron 2084. Warning: addictive! (Thanks, Eric at UW) GOLVL2 | varies | Jul 8, 2006 |
| Archipelago | A south-Pacific version of Myst, except much harder. Here's a walkthrough with the answers. (Thanks, jay) | long | Jul 8, 2006 |
| Orbox | Clever puzzle game. Use the arrow keys to move the ball to the goal. | fast | Jul 5, 2006 |
| Dumbolf | Cute minigolf with a cartoon elephant. Some of the levels are pretty difficult. | fast | Jul 5, 2006 |
| Milaa mindreader | This Flash app created by a designer in Iran appears to read your mind. (Thanks, Shaun) | fast | Jun 28, 2006 |
| iFiction games | (List) Many command-line text adventures from the 80s, available for play online. | long | Jun 17, 2006 |
| Grow v.2 | A delight to play, like the previous Grow games. Click the elements in the right order. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 12, 2006 |
| Binball Wizard | Shoot the soccer ball into the office bin. Elegant and fun. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 10, 2006 |
| Maze Frenzy | Click on the red dot and then guide it through the maze. | fast | Jun 10, 2006 |
| Escape from Rhetundo Island | From the designer of the Hapland and Avoision series. Click things to remove obstacles and keep the guy running to the right (a bit like the 80s game Pitfall). | fast | Jun 8, 2006 |
| Avoision XP Pro | Sequel to Avoision - with even better graphics and level design. Nicely done. I got to 1064. | fast | Jun 8, 2006 |
| Avoision | A lot like Eskiv, but with better graphics. | fast | Jun 8, 2006 |
| One on One | Dribble past the goalie and shoot. (Thanks to the game designer: jp) | fast | Jun 7, 2006 |
| Bubbles | A bouncing-ball version of Asteroids. Left arrow, right arrow, space. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 6, 2006 |
| Soccer Challenge | Clever design of kicking soccer balls into various goals. (Thanks, jay) | fast | Jun 4, 2006 |
| Air Support | Avoid everything. Press z to jump. Nicely done. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 23, 2006 |
| Sumo Sushi Soccer | One-on-one soccer with sumo wrestlers. Hint: don't jump too early, and use the up-arrow a lot. | fast | May 20, 2006 |
| Invader360 | Good old-fashioned shoot-em-up. (Thanks, jay) | fast | May 19, 2006 |
| Eskiv | Call me old-fashioned, but this is one of the best games I've found online. Simple, elegant, fun. Hit the box and avoid the balls. (Thanks, Xeni) | fast | May 18, 2006 |
| Click the Colour | ...and not the word. Harder than it sounds. | fast | May 18, 2006 |
| Tumbler | Touch anything green and avoid everything else. | fast | May 18, 2006 |
| Brain Buster | Nicely done reflex-memory game. The music section is a great way to learn intervals - I wish that was its own game. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | May 18, 2006 |
| Pendulumeca | Swing, Tarzan-style, along the ceiling. Key is getting the right angle and speed. | fast | May 9, 2006 |
| Experimental Gameplay Project | (List) Many quickly developed, experimental online games. Quality varies. | fast | Apr 29, 2006 |
| Ring Mania 2 | Collect and match the colored rings by flying around the screen. Nicely done! triviaaaa | fast | Apr 28, 2006 |
| Orangutwang Game | Stretch the cute orangutan to grab the bananas. Too much clicking for me, but visually well done. (Also: learn more about these endangered animals) | fast | Apr 24, 2006 |
| Miners 4K | Excellent game in only four kilobytes. Right-click to build tunnels for the workers. Caveat, techie Java-install required. (Thanks, Christoph of Aevum Obscurum) | fast | Apr 20, 2006 |
| Movie Puzzle | Clever puzzle: reconstruct the pieces of the bouncing ball's animation. | fast | Apr 18, 2006 |
| Dungeon Escape | Outstanding. A tribute to Dragon's Lair and other short-lived laser disc games of the mid 80s. The Web is a perfect platform for this genre, and I want to see more. | varies | Apr 13, 2006 |
| High Delivery | Use the fan to blow the balloon near the roses. Keep growing the bouquet. (Thanks, Jonathan) | fast | Apr 11, 2006 |
| Hapland 3 | The latest sequel in this popular series. Find the proper sequence of clicks to win. | varies | Apr 8, 2006 |
| Curveball | 3-D pong, looking top-down, with spin. Well done. | fast | Apr 5, 2006 |
| The Fancy Pants Adventure | A Mario Brothers-like scroller with hand-drawn cartoon graphics - nicely done. (Thanks, Jay) | varies | Mar 25, 2006 |
| Roboclaw | Move the robot arm to pick up the ball. Clean, simple design. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Mar 24, 2006 |
| iSketch | Good online version of Pictionary. (Thanks, ze) | fast | Mar 21, 2006 |
| Eight Letters | Similar to Babble, but with a focus on eight-letter words. (Thanks, AL) | fast | Mar 16, 2006 |
| Babble | Nicely done version of Boggle. Only downside - you have to register to play. (Thanks, svn) | fast | Mar 14, 2006 |
| Word Sandwich | Guess the secret five-letter word. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Mar 13, 2006 |
| Travian | Simple browser-based massively multiplayer game - with elements of Settlers of Catan and Risk. We'll see more games like these in the future. This is one to watch. | long | Mar 2, 2006 |
| Warbears | Nicely designed all around. A bit like Samorost - find the proper sequence of clicks. (Thanks, Jay) | long | Feb 27, 2006 |
| Katamari | A very low-res version of the excellent Playstation 2 game Katamari Damacy. It's a little like Fishy - with the sense of humor of the PS2 game. | fast | Feb 17, 2006 |
| Typing game | Nice, clean interface for this typing game from 2addicted.com. | fast | Feb 16, 2006 |
| ESP Game | Sort of a Web version of the old TV game "Password." Try to guess the keywords that another user types when they see a given image. (Use bugmenot.com to get a username and password.) | fast | Feb 15, 2006 |
| Plastic Balls | A circular version of "Breakout" - nicely done. | fast | Feb 12, 2006 |
| Cube Bugs | Cute implementation of the common game of clicking off sets of similar items (bugs, in this case). | fast | Feb 10, 2006 |
| World of Archoon | Inventive gameplay. Hold and release the mouse button to shoot down every balloon. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Feb 7, 2006 |
| The Blank Card Game | (Offline) An in-person party game with markers and blank cards. Haven't tried it but sounds fun and creative. (Also see Telephone Pictionary.) | varies | Feb 4, 2006 |
| Free Style | A rare game that blends music with game play. Use the arrow keys to turn all the squares green. | fast | Feb 3, 2006 |
| Pretty Pretty Bang Bang | Like Chain Reaction but faster paced. Try to get to the Underwear Ventriloquist. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Feb 3, 2006 |
| Cube | Like shuffleboard with a square puck. Well done. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Feb 2, 2006 |
| Tontoko | A very fast game. Try to get above 1000 points. | fast | Feb 1, 2006 |
| Grow Cube | Third in this outstanding series: first play Grow, then Grow RPG, then this one. (The same designer also made the excellent Tontie.) | fast | Feb 1, 2006 |
| Grow RPG | Fantastic game. But first play the equally fantastic Grow, if you haven't yet, since this is the sequel. | varies | Jan 27, 2006 |
| Rapid Motion | Pinball game with a sleek interface and easy controls (space and left/right arrows). | fast | Jan 27, 2006 |
| Turbo Tanks | Outstanding update of the old early-80s "Combat". Stone! | fast | Jan 25, 2006 |
| War of the Hell | A truly strange and inventive game. You're trying to rescue poor stick figures dumped on the floor. Trouble is, you only have a bungie cord for them to cling on to - move it too fast as you bring them to "heaven", and they may fall off. | fast | Jan 24, 2006 |
| World of Sand | There's no object here except to play. Experiment with the different substances (sand, water, salt, oil) and special tools (fire, ceramic, and the weird viral thing). Fun and addictive. | varies | Jan 24, 2006 |
| Hot Rocks | Great updated version of the 1980s classic Asteroids, including new weapons and a cool soundtrack. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Jan 24, 2006 |
| Cubefield | Use the left and right arrow keys to fly around the boxes. Anyone who played "Star Wars" in arcades in the mid-80s will recognize it. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Jan 14, 2006 |
| Rocket Bob | Clever game of jumps: just choose the power and angle. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Jan 9, 2006 |
| Bugs | Elegant and soothing. Great design. Click and hold the mouse button, but let it go before the ladybugs touch the bubble. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Jan 6, 2006 |
| German cow game | Drag the arrows to control the cow. Somehow reminds me of Blix. | fast | Jan 5, 2006 |
| Swoop to Nuts | Unique interface: just move the mouse left or right - there are no other controls - to get the flying squirrel to pick up nuts. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Jan 4, 2006 |
| Stretch Bendycoot | A side-scroller with a unique interface - when the cursor turns into a pencil, you have to draw the path of the jump. (Thanks, Gordon) | fast | Jan 3, 2006 |
| What Did I Search For? | Clever design: fill in the blank on the search results page. New from gamesforthebrain.com. | fast | Dec 16, 2005 |
| Set - Daily Puzzle | A daily online puzzle from the makers of the popular Set card game. (Thanks, Sarah L.) | fast | Dec 14, 2005 |
| Samorost 2 | The sequel to the well-loved Samorost, listed here back in August. | long | Dec 12, 2005 |
| Gridlock | Move the blue block out the right-side exit. I like the organic, torn-paper look. (Thanks, Evan) | fast | Dec 8, 2005 |
| Shufflebrain | Clever ball-rolling puzzle by Scott Kim. | fast | Dec 4, 2005 |
| Art Games | (List) Several games or game-related projects with art themes. | varies | Dec 2, 2005 |
| Mahjongg Solitaire | This version of the tile-matching game can be played offline, once it's loaded up. (Thanks, Thomas Weibel) | fast | Nov 29, 2005 |
| Drifts | Elegant gameplay and a nice scrolling background. Unfortunately, the game is much too harsh, often ending abruptly. | fast | Nov 29, 2005 |
| Blix | Elegant, fun, addictive, and just plain cool. I played this game for the first time in (I think) 1999, and it's still great. Thanks, gameLab! It's got great tempo. | fast | Nov 22, 2005 |
| A Dog for All Seasons | Inventive gameplay, brilliant execution. Get the four puppies to jump over the red balls. | fast | Nov 21, 2005 |
| Pyoro | Hit the space bar to make the bird eat the seeds. Elegant, fast, with nearly hypnotic gameplay. (Thanks, jay) Also: weirdly-similar movie | fast | Nov 18, 2005 |
| Hot Shot Business | Created by the Kauffman Foundation and Disney to teach entrepreneurship. Although it's built for younger players (middle- or high-school age), I found myself drawn in. Outstanding. (See The Economist article for background info.) | long | Nov 18, 2005 |
| Nethack | (Download) Difficult to set up and difficult to learn to play, but overcome those obstacles and you have the best one-person adventure game ever created. I recommend the text-only version, which is more immersive and compelling than any version of Doom, Halo, or anything else. Also see this. | long | Nov 16, 2005 |
| Conqueror | Good Risk-type game. (Thanks, jay) | long | Nov 13, 2005 |
| The Bugs Are Coming! | Fun mouse-avoider game. (Find the name of the game about halfway down the list.) | fast | Nov 10, 2005 |
| Mypie | Simple game of avoiding the alligators and getting the goodies. I like the cake-eating noise. | fast | Nov 3, 2005 |
| Mouse Avoider 2 | Elegant UI - no clicking, just moving the mouse. I dare you to get past Level 7. | fast | Oct 31, 2005 |
| Tontie | A much more interesting version of Whack-a-mole. If you can get past level 9, I salute you. Great design. | fast | Oct 28, 2005 |
| Gravity | With an interface similar to Spaced Penguin, fire an atom to orbit - and not touch - several gravity sources. Try not to hit a wall. (Similar game: Orbit) | fast | Oct 25, 2005 |
| The Way of the Ninja | A kind of updated Lode Runner with Gumby running the course. (No coincidence that the first level is called "the motherlode".) Elegant controls: just left, right, and jump. | long | Oct 24, 2005 |
| Magnetism | Great little game, somewhat like Spaced Penguin. Levels 1 through 9 are fun; 10 is nearly impossible to beat. | fast | Oct 24, 2005 |
| Doom Funnel Chasers | The long-awaited sequel to Spaced Penguin. | fast | Oct 21, 2005 |
| Spaced Penguin | Gravity, a penguin, and one of the most elegant game interfaces anywhere. An oldie but (very) goodie. | fast | Oct 21, 2005 |
| Lightning Pool | Fun one-person billiards game with different challenges. | fast | Oct 17, 2005 |
| GlobZ Mini Games | (List) A dozen tiny games controlled with a mouse click or not much more. Apparently no sound, though. | fast | Oct 13, 2005 |
| The Amazing Dare Dozen | Move the egg up from bowl to bowl. Elegant design: you control the entire game with the mouse button only. | fast | Oct 13, 2005 |
| Eggrun | Click the egg and drag the mouse down; let go and watch the egg hit the stick. Repeat as necessary. | fast | Oct 12, 2005 |
| Escape from Rhetundo Island | Intriguing sequel to Hapland and Hapland 2, both listed here on 13 July 05. | long | Oct 12, 2005 |
| Kurnik games | (List) Many free multiplayer games here - Chess, Hearts, etc. as well as Pencil Soccer, a new one for me. | fast | Oct 3, 2005 |
| Troyis | Puzzle challenging a chess knight to jump onto certain squares. | fast | Sep 28, 2005 |
| Hangman | Elegant version of the classic game. Well done. (Thanks to Sean himself for the pointer.) | fast | Sep 19, 2005 |
| Professor Fizzwizzle | Very well executed puzzle game. Download the demo for Mac or Windows. | long | Sep 19, 2005 |
| Ant Kendo | Simple interface, cute graphics. Also try Luke's Aqua Massaqua and the bizarre Lost Aliens. | fast | Sep 17, 2005 |
| Type Crime: Italics | Exceedingly simple game that is worth mentioning because the theme is so unusual: protect your letterforms from being distorted by the flying gremlins that turn them into something that is not italic. In other games you can save curly quotes or watch helplessly as letters get distorted. Ahh, typography. | fast | Sep 16, 2005 |
| Infocom text games | (List) Eighteen classic Infocom text adventures, ported to Java in their original from. Straight from the 80s! (Thanks, Phoebe.) | long | Sep 14, 2005 |
| Shooot | Quick shooter game - a bit like Galaga. Click Shooot to start, and then just hold down the mouse button. | fast | Sep 14, 2005 |
| 3D Ping Pong | Nicely done interface, including spin and lobs. | fast | Sep 8, 2005 |
| Telephone Pictionary | (Offline) This isn't an online game - it's one of those old-fashioned in-person party games... I like it because it's an elegant design, requiring only pen and paper; and as a bonus, the website has some funny examples of past rounds. | varies | Aug 31, 2005 |
| Fishy | Excellent game design. Just use the arrow keys to eat anything smaller than you; that's the whole game. I've played Fishy on and off for years, and it's still a fav. (This is Fishy Classic; don't bother with the newer version.) | fast | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Samorost | Fun find-the-click game. Cute graphics, not too hard to progress. In my Safari Web browser I find that typing Tab is like a hint key, displaying the available click points. (Thanks, Stevan Baird.) | long | Aug 23, 2005 |
| Peekaboom | You get partnered with an anonymous player elsewhere on the Web to play this image-guessing game. Good design, but too much clicking. (Thanks, Jay) | fast | Aug 8, 2005 |
| Pitch N Put Golf | Good mini golf game. (Thanks, kottke) | fast | Aug 5, 2005 |
| Don Pixel | (List) A selection of "only the best free online games for all the family." También en español. | varies | Aug 2, 2005 |
| Entrapment | Not exactly a game, but an area for play. Explore the rules and the interface of this environment and see what you think! (Hint: Draw a big "6" or "G" shape to trap most of the critters.) | fast | Aug 1, 2005 |
| Kingdom of Loathing | Adventure game featuring stick figures, cartoon drawings, and silly writing. Well done. | long | Jul 27, 2005 |
| Grow | Drag the items, one by one, into the middle of the circle. Do it in exactly the right order and they'll all achieve their maximum potential and you'll win the game... | fast | Jul 25, 2005 |
| Just Letters | A real-time, communal scratch pad. The "game" is whatever you make it. I challenge you to write something intelligible before someone steals it... | fast | Jul 22, 2005 |
| Sugar Crash | An homage to Breakout, starring a sugar cube (you) and a bouncing baby. Great sound effects. | fast | Jul 22, 2005 |
| Kill Time | Very fast game. Don't let him get your mouse cursor! (Just move the mouse; no clicking required.) | fast | Jul 21, 2005 |
| Gyroball | Similar to the 80s coin-op game Marble Madness, but with no sound. A bit clunky with arrow keys instead of the trackball, but then it's not as hard as MM was. | fast | Jul 21, 2005 |
| ProgramGeek Arcade | (List) Use the text links at the bottom of the page to choose any of hundreds of quick Flash games. Varying quality. | fast | Jul 19, 2005 |
| Mini-putt | Good execution with an elegant interface. | fast | Jul 19, 2005 |
| Lightforce games | A couple dozen puzzle and tile games from Lightforce. | varies | Jul 15, 2005 |
| Box Up | Reminiscent of Sokoban. Simple implementation and quickly very difficult puzzles. Nice feature is that you can click to any level you'd like to see at any time. | fast | Jul 15, 2005 |
| Guess-the-Google | Grant Robinson's clever game of guessing the search query that yielded a set of images. Especially clean execution that reminds me of the outstanding "You Don't Know Jack" from the mid-90s. | fast | Jul 15, 2005 |
| Poom | Inverse of Breakout. The ball is a given; you move the board. Thanks to Jim C. | fast | Jul 13, 2005 |
| Dodge | This is a devilish little game. Just try to keep your red block away from all the floating blue blocks. Worthy of study - how often in a game do you get a good chase sequence? (Thanks to Andrew K.) | fast | Jul 13, 2005 |
| Orisinal | A collection of visually beautiful games and puzzles, which include Bottom of the Sea, linked below. Thanks to Marc C. for recommending Floats, which is similar to Loop. (Loop has the superior interface, not requiring clicks; Floats has a better soundtrack.) | varies | Jul 13, 2005 |
| Hapland | Don't be thrown off by the simple 2-D graphic. This is a well-designed puzzle that challenges players to explore the world, figure out what the question is, then slowly discover the answer (a particular sequence of clicks). There's also a sequel. | long | Jul 13, 2005 |
| Jay Is | (Blog) Jay Bibby has written about his favorite online games for years. Don't miss the "recommended" and "classic" sections on the left side of the page. | varies | Jul 13, 2005 |
| Games for the Brain | (List) Several games that require the player to think a bit. Includes Dragger, linked below. | fast | Jul 13, 2005 |
| Planarity | Great topology game with an especially clean interface. Addictive, though it gets very difficult by level 4. | varies | Jul 12, 2005 |
| Dragger | Clever game: drag the pieces into place to reform the picture. One of the several entertaining Games for the Brain. | fast | Jul 12, 2005 |
| Loop | Another gem from gameLab, it features the unusual interface element of looping the mouse; no clicking or typing needed. Well worth playing. (Brings to mind the old Mac classic Boogaloopers, which is "out of print" now.) | fast | Jul 12, 2005 |
| Tea Games | (List) A couple dozen quick Flash games. No sound on most of them. Thanks to Mike G. for the pointer. | fast | Jul 12, 2005 |
| Chaos Theory | Really quick game - click to see how many explosions you can set off with one click. A bit of "Missile Command" in this one. My three-round best is 121. | fast | Jul 12, 2005 |
| Proximity | A sort of cross between Othello and Go, with a twist. Fun. | fast | Jul 11, 2005 |
| Food Force | (Requires big download) Adventure game showing players what it's like to rebuild a poor country hit by the tsunami. 198 megabyte download for Mac or Windows. | long | Jul 7, 2005 |
| Diner Dash | Great game design, as always, from the crew at gameLab. Play free (for awhile) online, but I'd recommend paying the $20 and getting the full downloadable version to play all the levels. Fun and addictive. | varies | Jul 1, 2005 |
| Panda Pang | Fun shooter in the style of 80s arcade games. Sort of a cross between Galaga, Space Invaders, and Xevious - starring a panda. Hint: hold the mouse button down, rather than shooting individual shots. | fast | Jun 28, 2005 |
| Lost Your Marbles? | Fun quick game. Use the mouse to avoid walls, but feel free to bump into anything circular. | fast | Jun 21, 2005 |
| Micro Pac-Man | Just for novelty appeal: the world's smallest Pac-Man clone. It's so small, there's no room for a score, or more than one ghost. Only for those with good eyesight. | fast | Jun 18, 2005 |
| RayRay | Simple but challenging puzzle: get all the RayRays to stand up. Anywhere you click makes adjacent (not diagonal) RayRays to toggle their sitting/standing. | fast | Jun 15, 2005 |
| Helicopter | Fun quick helicopter game. Use the space bar and arrow keys - it's designed well enough that you don't need instructions. | fast | Jun 12, 2005 |
| No circles | Very well done Flash game. Figure out what the visual puzzle is on each level, then solve it. | long | Jun 10, 2005 |
| Neave Games | Classic arcade games free on the Web! Tetris, Asteroids, Pac Man, Simon (remember that?), Space Invaders, and more. | fast | Jun 8, 2005 |
| Don Pixel games | (List) Several "free online games for all the family." Nintendo Super MonkeyBall fans will be happy to find a version of MonkeyBall there. | varies | Jun 7, 2005 |
| Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide TTG | Yes, it's the original Infocom text adventure from the 80s (linked from Douglas Adams' site). Another reason to love the Web. | long | Jun 4, 2005 |
| Comboling | Great puzzle. Try it without reading the directions first. | fast | May 27, 2005 |
| Cave 3D | Fly in the middle of the cave (or is it the Death Star tunnel?).. Hint: press the space bar. Warning: addictive. My high score: 1031. | fast | May 23, 2005 |
| Levers | One of all-time favorite online puzzles. Brings to mind Myst and other fun puzzle games. | fast | May 22, 2005 |
| Crypt Raider | Kind of a 2D Sokoban version of Tomb Raider. Funny soundtrack between levels. | long | May 17, 2005 |
| Maxwell's Demon - Balls | Segregate the bouncing balls by red and blue. Simple and addictive. | fast | May 15, 2005 |
| Games for Change | (Blog) A group creating and advocating for "serious games" that teach about issues around the world, like Food Force. | varies | May 11, 2005 |
| Bottom of the Sea | Frogger meets Donkey Kong, under the sea - kind of. Fun concept, fairly difficult to progress far. | long | May 10, 2005 |
| Frogger | The original arcade version. Great soundtrack, and in such a small amount of memory. (Kids, this is what quality looks like under tremendous constraints!) | fast | May 7, 2005 |
| Missile Command | Yes, the original arcade version. Even improved over the original, since you use the mouse (and it knows which of the three bases to shoot from). | fast | May 7, 2005 |
| Reflex | Fun geometric puzzle. | fast | May 2, 2005 |
| Snood | The one and only Snood, the beloved PC game. Not online; it requires download onto a Windows or Mac machine. But well worth checking out. | varies | Apr 25, 2005 |
| Hungry Spiders | Sort of Missile Command meets Little Miss Muffet. (Muffet Command?) Not for arachnophobes. | fast | Apr 24, 2005 |
| Super Mario Sunshine | (Console only) My favorite recent adventure game - for Nintendo GameCube only. Full review in Uncle Mark 2005. | long | Apr 20, 2005 |
| Udder Insanity | An oldie-but-goodie, sort of a farmer-remake of the 80s game Tapper. It's rated "R" by the creators for "violent content." (Exploding cows (and imploding, too).) | fast | Apr 15, 2005 |
| Tonypa's Flash games | (List) Set of creative, if occasionally bizarre, Flash games. | fast | Apr 15, 2005 |
| Crash | Good one from the designers at gameLab: the elegant interface makes for especially good game play. | fast | Apr 11, 2005 |
| Super Smash Brothers Melee | (Console only) One of the best multiplayer games ever. For Nintendo GameCube only. The unique handicapping system makes the losing player stronger; why don't more multiplayer games do this? It makes it possible for new and experienced users to compete. Full review in Uncle Mark 2006, and in this blog post. | long | Apr 8, 2005 |
| Nucleus | Devilishly simple yet addictive online game. | fast | Apr 4, 2005 |
| What's That Song | Type a band name in the upper-right search form, and then try to name the tunes that the server plays. | fast | Mar 29, 2005 |
| Snowcraft | Interesting gameplay for a snowball fight. Apparently part of a bygone holiday greetings card. | fast | Mar 27, 2005 |
