The Pxl Lab is a blog dedicated to writing about the great games, software, and the stuff you can do with them.
Posts tagged flash
Desktop Tower Defense – The Best TD Game on the Web
03 years ago
I discovered this little game while surfing the net today. Desktop Tower Defense is a flash game where you have to protect your desktop from invaders by spending money on attack turrets and building a maze for the invaders to go through. It’s strangely addictive and before you know it you just want to play more and more. I really enjoyed seeing other people’s mazes and how many points they scored with it. You can play the game on Kongregate with achievements, or just play it on the creators’ website, HandDrawnGames.com. Check out the videos below for some awesome in-game action.
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Bubble Tanks 2 – Message in a Bubble
03 years ago
Bubble Tanks 2, sequel to the excellent Bubble Tanks, is an incredibly creative shooter. As the name implies, you play as a Bubble Tank in a bubble world flying around shooting other bubbles so as to absorb their bubbles to make your own bubble bigger and better. The game has a lot of bubbles, to say the least, as well as many improvements over the original Bubble Tanks, and is easily one of the best Flash-based games this year.
In Bubble Tanks 2, the tutorial has literally not changed at all from the original. This is quite a blessing, actually. Bubble Tanks and Bubble Tanks 2′s tutorials consist of writing on the background of the first couple bubbles. That’s it. Also the core gameplay is virtually unchanged. You still move from bubble to bubble using W-A-S-D and aim and shoot using the mouse. BT2 also adds an entertaining “Arena Mode” in addition to normal mode. In Arena Mode, you can choose to do battle against any of the bubbly foes you have previously encountered, as well as start your bubble off at any stage you unlocked in normal mode. This brings me to my next point. Players of the original Bubble Tanks probably noticed that there are literally no customization options. Now in BT2, as your tank “levels” up, you can choose which specialization you want. You can go as an agile Fighter Tank, a slow powerful Heavy Tank, or a nice balanced Balance Tank. It adds a nice level of customization to the game, in addition to adding a lot to the replay value. There’s also a new Secondary Weapon feature, which affects your overall strategy in the game. If you’re playing as a balance tank, for instance, shields are useful for fighting bigger enemies so you can block their attacks. Though there are also plenty of useless secondary weapons as well, such as mines. No enemy ever ran over any of the mines I ever laid down, ever.
Overall, Bubble Tanks 2 is a huge improvement over the original Bubble Tanks, which is saying alot because Bubble Tanks is one of my all time favorite flash games. The only real problems I have with the game are the lack of balance between the classes, with many profoundly useless classes such as Sniper, as well as absolutely no carried over traits when you upgrade your tank. The customization really ends with which tank you pick. Also, it ocassionally has lag spikes when there are a bunch of enemies on screen. Overall, however, I’d say this game is an excellent way to spend a little time while in the interwebs.
HomestarRunner Is Still Going Strong
13 years ago
HomestarRunner is a wonderful site that caught my eye many years ago. When I first discovered the site, the graphics were on par with Pong. Over the years it has developed into what we it now is today. After a very long break from this site, I returned only to find a million new games, stories, and great new graphics! When I used to regularly visit it, there were a few games, extra videos, and a weekly Strong Bad email. The basis for this site is a group of 11 characters who are the only apparent residents of a town. The original producers Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel created HomestarRunner in 1996, and later in 1999 Mike’s brother Matt joined the crew to assist in the production of the site itself.
The site itself has 6 main sections: Toons, Games, Characters, Downloads, Store, and Email. Toons consists of a collection of random flash videos put together for any reason whatsoever. The videos range from exploits of an R-Rated movie by Strong Bad to the famous Teen Girl Squad episodes. But even more famous than TGS is the weekly Strong Bad Email. This is one of the original features of the website that many remember from years ago. There are also many games like Peasant’s Quest and Trogdor. Most of the games originated from previous Strong Bad Emails. A lot of these games are purposefully horrific looking, to impose an old school feeling to them. They are rather fun to play, however. Peasant’s Quest is perhaps the most famous of the games on HomestarRunner. You are a peasant whos cottage has been burninated by Trogdor. You must walk around and become a hero by acquiring items and typing “look” and “search”, etc, to be allowed up the mountain before your impending doom. The Character’s section just gives a video description of each character presented by themselves. Downloads is where you can get all of you Homestarrunner sounds for your computers and desktop icons and such. You can get into the “secret” section by clicking on the “0.00 dollars” in the “$” area, dragging the credit card into the slot at the top-right, and typing in 5675 as the pin code. The Store is an external link where you can buy t-shirts, hoodies, dvds, posters, and many more things to keep the website going! All of the merchandise also originates from toons on the site. The Email section is where you can email them with questions, or complements, and also for the F.A.Q. of the site.
HomestarRunner is a wonderful site that makes me laugh everytime I visit it. Its definitely worth checking out whether you have an hour or ten minutes. Most of the toons run under 3 minutes if you don’t have much time to watch.
P.S. Firefox users can view the site in full screen with the addon known as “Full Screen Homestar Runner“.
OneBigGame Has One Big Idea
03 years ago
by Pxl_Buzzard
in Gaming
One day some veteran game developers got together and asked, “Why doesn’t somebody make video games for something other than profit?” This question is the foundation for OneBigGame, a non-profit organization that describes themselves like this:
Our mission is to bring together some of the most famous game designers and major development studios to create a number of unique games, specifically developed for OneBigGame, with all the proceeds going to children’s charities around the world.
The known developers that are working with OneBigGame at the time of writing are: Charles Cecil (Revolution Software), Eric Zimmerman (Gamelab), Ernest Adams (International Hobo), Avalanche Studios, Relentless, Kuju and Freestyle. The first games being made for OBG are likely going to be flash games, but the founders of OBG hope that one day console games will be made too. If you are good at any game developing skill, you can send an email over to OBG and volunteer your services.
You’ll likely start seeing games with the OneBigGame logo on them in the latter half of 2008, so keep an eye out and make a contribution to world by playing video games.
Bowman 2 Lets You Arrow Your Friends
33 years ago
I pulled up Addicting Games today and while looking for something to do, I rediscovered Bowman 2.
Bowman 2 is a well-made flash game in which the player’s job is to kill the other player without moving. You use the mouse to create an angle with the bowman’s arm and bow, and then let go and fire. It usually take about 3 hits to take down an opponent, or 1 hit in the heart or head.
There are multiple modes for Bowman 2 in addition to the original Bowman. There is a target practice in which the player shoots at a non-moving target. There is also Bird Hunter for those people who want to shoot at moving targets of different sizes.
While playing single or multiplayer, there are new editable features. You are able to create a wall between the two opponents, and change wind speed. These allow for a slightly more difficult game.
Though slightly on the easier side, Bowman 2 is an improvement over the original, and is great if you have another person breathing down your neck who wants to take a turn on the computer. Just tell them, “Hey! Lets play Bowman 2!” and maybe you can buy yourself a little more time in that comfy computer chair.
It’s Time for a Halo Flash Knockoff
03 years ago
by Japanerd
in Flash Games
I loaded up Addicting Games today and once again began rummaging around for a halfway decent flash game. In a desperate attempt to avoid another stupid stick figure flash game, I decided to play Vulcan. To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t finish this game. It was horrific. At first glance, it seemed promising, then I noticed the blatant Halo rip off. They basically come out and say it’s a Halo rip off. If you shot this game, it would bleed Halo rip off. The main character is a blue spartan-esq soldier named “Vulcan”. In the game you trapsing through the top-down world of narrow hallways shooting Covenant cop out aliens.
The game itself started off on a sour note. Incredibly bad dialogue along with subpar animations made the introduction quite unbearable. Then they thought it would be a good idea to give you every weapon right at the start of the game. Now, let me tell you my beef with this strategy. It may make it easier for the programmers, but it gives the players of the game no sense of progress whatsoever. They have nothing to work for except killing the next enemy in exactly the same way that they were able to kill the enemy on the first screen. They also made this game ridiculously hard. All of your weapons are completely ineffective until you’re almost in point blank range. The aliens begin shooting the second you step out of cover, and their aim is impeccable. They can hit you from the other side of the room the moment you poke your badly animated self out of cover. Along the same line, the game lags terribly whenever there are more than 2 or 3 people shooting at the same time. This makes the game incredibly difficult to play, considering after the 3 or 4th room you can reasonably expect 4 or 5 aliens to be shooting at you at the same time. The weapons themselves are also incredibly poorly designed. The Battle Rifle, my favorite gun from Halo, is about effective as throwing a dead rabbit at the enemies. Then the SMG’s are incredibly over powered. You can basically one shot every enemy using the SMG’s. And the Shotgun is entirely useless. The only way you can get it to work at all is if the muzzle of the shotgun is firmly placed against the targets chest. Also, the levels are designed in such a way that at least half the time every one of the enemies onscreen can shoot at you while you can hit maybe one or two of them. How did the designers manage to make it that way? I haven’t the slightest idea. It’s some sort of chaos theory engine, I guess. But I digress. Onto the finale.
This game sucks. Not Dane Cook suck, or even Superman for the N64 suck. This game achieves its own special level of suck. Dante’s Inferno will be rewritten to include playing this game forever as the ninth level of hell. This game has absoultely no redeeming factors. Stay away from it at all costs! I think I made my point.
Sniper Assassin- How Many Stick figure Sniper Games are There?
74 years ago
After many hours of searching for a somewhat enjoyable flash game (which is quite hard to find these days) I found Sniper Assassin. Sniper Assassin is one of the many stick figure shooter games, and I had the displeasure of playing it.
According to the games description, it’s “a job that requires finesse and nerves of steel”. Instead, all it requires is the ability to read, and rudimentary clicking ability. The very unoriginally titled Sniper Assassin presents you with a small area with 5 or 6 same looking stick figures at once. Your job is to pick out which one is your target. This would have been a solid concept if the mission briefings didn’t slap you upside the head with the targets flawless description. This takes away any challenge the game may have previously presented in locating your target. It’s easy, boring, and frankly annoying. I appreciate the attempt to create atmosphere with the music, but it was terribly annoying after the second loop. Game play, it’s solid, but boring. Nothing you haven’t seen in games like Tactical Assassin 2. It’s a repetitive, predictable, and criminally short game with mediocre gameplay. You’d be best off avoiding it.
Now that thats finished, lets take a moment to discuss something. Why are there so many freakin’ stick figure flash games out there? At one point, I would say they were rather enjoyable, but its getting ridiculous people! This is like the fiftieth stick figure sniping game since tactical assassin, and I’m getting tired of it. Are you people too lazy to come up with something new and original? You want a fun, different game? Try The Sniper. At least it doesnt use stick figures. Come on, flash creaters. Please switch up the usual, don’t copy the originals like Tactical Assassin or Thing-Thing, (which are both excellent games), make your own, unique, fun game.
Line Rider 2 Beta- A Flash Game to Remember
24 years ago
by Genesis
in Flash Games
Line Rider 2 Beta is a flash game that you find yourself playing again and again. The objective of the game is prevent the little man on the sled from falling off of the lines you draw for him to ride along. Want him to fall straight down at 356 MPH? Go for it. Want him to fly off of gravity defying loops? You can do that too.
Line Rider 2 has many advantages over the old version. The most obvious addition is the eraser tool. It allows you to erase lines if they happen to make your character fall off his sled. He is very fragile, and will fall off sometimes at the slightest bump. Which brings me to one of the next additions, the sled rider is now harder to throw off of his sled, allowing people with no previous experience in the Line Rider Beta game to be able to pull off cool tricks with ease. You now also have the ability to draw scenery lines. These little lines are lines that the sled will not touch. He only passes though them, as they are used to add a background to your track. If your sled was not going fast enough, then another useful addition is the acceleration lines. These increase the speed of the sled dramatically. They let the user make line rider go up 45 degree angles, but if you get him going up much further than that with only acceleration lines and no natural propulsion, then you will find him flipping backwards over himself. Another new tool in Line Rider 2 is the flag tool. When you are creating a longer track, then you can use the flag tool to change the point at which line rider will start. This saves time, because you don’t have to wait for your character to travel the entire length of the track when you are testing new additions to your track. The magnifying glass tool is another useful addition to Line Rider. It assists you in finding the pesky problem areas. The new additions make Line Rider 2 far better than Line Rider Beta in terms of ease and entertainment.
Now that Line Rider 2 has been out for a while, fans are awaiting the new Line Rider game, and some may be surprised to hear that the popular pc game is coming to Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS in the form of Line Rider 2 Unbound. Line Rider fans are excited about what is to come in Line Rider 2 Unbound. It adds the element of art, which allowing you to create amazing tracks.
All in all, if you are looking for a challenge, give Line Rider Beta a chance, but if you just want to take the time to create an amazing track with a slightly easier interface, play some Line Rider 2 Beta.
Hell of Sand – A Good Time-Wasting Flash Game
134 years ago
Hell of Sand is a flash game located at Andy’s Life. Though Andy’s Life should not be your one stop for flash games, I would highly recommend that you check out Hell of Sand. Actually, the game has almost no point other than to have fun and waste time. You set the rules, you set the conditions, and you have more fun. You can create pictures, and do things such as creating large explosions and seeing which kinds of substances explode, or melt, or do other things in relations to the plant, the fire, and the water. Everything is shaped to be like sand, but most substances follow realistic patterns, such as gunpowder exploding and plants flourishing under water.
If you are one of those people who have to have some kind of goal to meet, then this is not the game for you, but if all you want to do is make something that you can enjoy for a while and then delete, or you just need to blow 10 minutes and don’t want to get too deeply involved in a good flash game, play Hell of Sand. If you need to meet some kind of requirements, then go play something else like The Last Stand 2, otherwise Hell of Sand is your game.
Drawball Brings Out a New Type of Artist
14 years ago
Drawball is not just some paint program. Drawball is a massive canvas where anybody can add their own piece of art. Every user is given a set ink amount, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Artists can choose any color they like, zoom into a specific part of “the ball,” do a little puzzle to make sure that you are really a human, and draw away for the world to see. You’re probably wondering what’s possible in Drawball, so here are some pictures to awe and amaze you. You can click on a picture to enlarge it.
These are just a few examples of the great art that you can find at Drawball, so head over there and see if you can be the next great artist.