Fugdale’s Funhouse

You’re bored at work or you just want some mindless fun, well today’s your lucky day. Below I present six quirky, time-killing games and applications which should provide at least 10 minutes of mindless enjoyment to the most unenthused web surfer. With varying degrees of quality and taste, I’m sure one of these sites will tickly your fancy.

Card Toss - Flick the Cards

Anyone for a round of 52-card pick-up? “Too messy,” you say? With this sweet little flash game you won’t have to worry about the ‘pick-up’ portion. Just grab your deck of playing cards and start flicking them. Try to land each card in a top hat and when you succeed, the top hat will relocate to provide another challenge. You start with just 40 seconds and your time increases for each card you successfully land. You can adjust the direction and the distance of the flick by holding the mouse down longer.

Aside from the detailed card renderings, the graphics consist of squiggly pencil drawings. No music will distract you from the task at hand. You will merely hear a mild ping each time you flick a card.

If tossing cards doesn’t keep you entertained for long, you can explore other card and poker related products on the site.

Home Run - Stumble Home Drunk

Have you ever been so blotto that you can’t walk a straight line? This quick game will recall those bygone days of drunkeness. You play as an unkempt, German man who has had 4 drinks too many. Your task seems simple…walk home from the bar without falling over. I guarantee you won’t get very far. The character will weave and wobble as you move your mouse left or right to keep him balanced. If you tip too far either way, the man will fall over and immediately go to sleep, which cues the end of the game.

The blue and black illustrated graphics provide a crisp and nicely rendered atmosphere and the hilarious sound effects of burping, whistling and snoring provide all the character background you need. The game has text in German, but you won’t really need to understand German in order to play. This game only takes about 10 seconds or so to play, but the better you do at keeping your balance against overwhelming drunkeness, the longer you will go.

Fly Swatter - Splat them bugs

If you feel like getting a little agression out of your system, this game will suit you perfectly. Grab the fly-swatter and start smacking the hell out of the pesky flies that buzz around. Squash ten flies as quickly as you can and the game will rate your performance.

The wooden table top background has a lot of rich graphic detail, complete with french fries, sugar packs and coffee stains. The sound effects provide satisfying splats when you successfully squash a fly. The gross factor bumps into gear when the dead flies continue twitching long after their guts have been spilled. The biggest downside to the game comes from the somewhat clunky aim of the flyswatter. You need to aim slightly to the right of each fly. The effect, however, feels very similar to actually trying to hit a real fly.

This game will provide a few minutes of bug squashing fun, if that’s your thang, missy.

Lite Brite - Lite ‘em if you got ‘em

Adults of my generation will definitely remember the old standby lighted peg board called Lite Brite. You punch different colored pegs through a peg board to create dazzling images full of colored pixels. Now you can revist your childhood online with this simple web application version of Lite-Brite.

Choose from several different colored pegs and plug away. Unfortunately, this version doesn’t supply any templates to provide you with inspiration. You will have to make your own artistic creations from scratch, but I’m sure you can handle it.

While kids will find this somewhat monotonous mode of artwork enjoyable, the online version just doesn’t hold the fascination of the actual Lite-Brite device. The final artwork doesn’t have the same impact as seeing it all lit up from behind and with no sound effects, you never get the satisfaction of experiencing the ‘punch’ of each peg as it sinks into the hole.

Zed - Pig Blaster - Pig Farts for Peace

Got to hand it to this game for it’s gross originality. You must appreciate a little fart humor in order to enjoy this experience. Give your piggy a running leap off a trampoline and soar through the air, propelled only by farts. Collect cans of beans along the way to increase your fart effectiveness and avoid the seagulls (or doves?) as their purity will get in your piggish way. Soar as long as you can for when you land the game ends.

The graphics have a colorful cartoon feel to them and the audio is replete with gasious noises and pig snorts. Juvenile humor reigns here, so have your fun filter set to ‘pass gas’. After perhaps a few attempts, you will feel like someone letting the air out of the tires. The game has an annoying ‘high score’ loading screen before each round.

Bubble Wrap - Addictive ‘Pop’ Culture

The compulsive behavior many experience when unpacking a box and discovering a sheet of untouched bubble wrap finds its way to the web. As simple as pie, this site provides you with a fresh sheet every time you visit. You just sit back and enjoy the novelty of popping all the bubble wrap you want.

Although the textile sensory experience of actual bubble wrap is difficult to recreate in digital format, this application comes very close. Each bubble pops with a satisfying sound effect and the visual look closely mirrors reality. Each bubble deflates into its own realistic-looking pattern. For those who have little time to waste, you can turn on the ‘manic mode’ feature which allows you to pop many bubbles at once by running your cursor over them.

While this doesn’t really count as an online game, it does have a very addictive quality to it and can help with stress relief in your down time at work.