Fugdale’s Funhouse

Review: Let’s take a cosmic trip to outer space, shall we? You start out as a tiny meteor floating around in the cosmos. As you move next to smaller meteors, they will gravitate towards you. When you collide with a smaller planet or rock, your meteor will absorb it and grow a little larger. Eventually, your tiny rock will grow to the size of a small planet and you will be able to absorb planets that are a little larger. On later levels you progress to the size of the sun and even bigger.

You must, however, avoid the gravitational pull of larger planets (which tend to collect in the middle of the playing field. If you get too close to one of them, it’s gravitational force will start to suck you towards it. If you hit a larger planet you will revert to your original size and will have to start the level over again.

As a strategy, I found it easiest to float around the edges of the screen at first (near the white borders) and absorb as many smaller rocks as you can. Then when you have reached a medium size, start to move toward the larger planets. You will probably find that the gravitational pull of the larger planets will have you pressing the arrow keys very hard trying to avoid the sucking power. Just remember, you only need to press them softly and just avoid close proximity with huge planets until you can match their size.

After you have cleared all the planets on a level you will progress to further levels with even larger planets and stars to contend with. The game is little more than a collect and avoid challenge and you will find it’s pretty easy to pick up if you just take your time and move slowly around the screen. If you aren’t sure which planets are larger or smaller, just stop moving for a moment. If a planet is larger, you will start to move towards it. If it is smaller, it will start to move towards you.

Review: This little treat for the holidays has a magnificent design and easy intuitive game play. Guide your frisky polar bear into the air. He will springboard even higher every time you touch a falling ice cube. The ice cubes with items inside of them bump you higher and the flying airplanes even higher. The path of ice cubes keeps on coming down and you can easily get your polar bear to nose bleed heights in no time. But take care as he starts to fall, once an ice cube drops off the bottom of the screen it disappears, so make sure you leave a few ice cubes below the bear so he has a little safety net.

This game only plays once…a test of flying skills and then you receive a final score. The graphics and sound effects are splendid. The Polar Bear reacts just like a flying polar bear should react. When he eventually takes the massive fall to the ground, never fear. He will land with a plop and spin around completely unharmed.

Review: I’ve seen quite a few clever golf games online, but this one definitely has some extra appeal. This game of mini-golf includes 18 holes. You can play the front 9, the back 9 or all 18. The unique aspect of this game lies in the fact that the courses exist on the desktops of various office workers. The edges of the desk and various office supplies, such as pencils, envelopes and keyboards all provide the boundaries of each course. Cliboards and envelopes provide some ramps and spilt coffee and soda create a few water and sand traps. Additionally, various other objects, like cellphones and mice (computer mice and actual mice), move about each course creating moving obstacles.

The game allow up to four different players to compete and each player gets his own choice of initial ball placement before the first swing. The play mechanism feels very easy and intuitive to use–perhaps a bit too easy. Just click and drag the cursor back and an arrow will form. The longer the arrow, the harder the hit. Making par on most courses won’t give you too much trouble, although the pesky obstacles sometimes make you have to settle for 7 strokes or more on a course. Despite the fact that some levels may challenge you, the game plays very quickly. You can make it through all 18 holes in little over 10 minutes…so, no worn out feet or aching shoulders here.

Although the game doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of more indepth golf games (such as Tiger Woods or Super Monkey Ball Golf), it does provide an enjoyable atmosphere in which to kill a few minutes and it will certainly appeal to anyone who has ever gotten bored at the office and created a little course to distract themselves.