Fugdale’s Funhouse

Review: This very basic line-drawn game has one of the most clever mechanisms I’ve ever seen in an online game. The game really presents a challenge to climb from floor one to floor sixteen using a single cursor to click on the stairs to rise to the next levels. The cursor only appears on the screen for about 60 seconds, however, so you have to move fast. Mostly you will just click on a stairway to advance up a level, but on certain floors you will have to find the stairway hidden inside boxes or will have to push a button to make the stairway appear.

You will not be able to complete this challenge on your first try. It IS impossible. But, that’s where you will discover the inventiveness this game puts into play. You get 10 cursors. With the first cursor, you just move up as fast as you can until you reach your first obstacle and you will eventually run out of time. When you start the course over with your second cursor, however, a ghost of your first cursor will play alongside you, doing exactly the same moves you did the first time around. So use your second cursor to race alongside the ghost of your first until you reach the obstacle where you got stuck. Then your previous cursors will assist you through the obstacle and onto the next obstacle.

This may sound a little complicated and the first time you play it will seem that way, but you will quickly discover how you must utilize each cursor in order to help yourself out the next time around. For example, on one floor you must find a stairwell hidden under a box in a room filled with boxes. With just one cursor, this will slow you down, but, when you have the previous cursor opening boxes alongside your current cursor, you will be able to locate the stairwell much faster. Later on, you will sacrifice your current cursor in order to push a button to make a hidden stairwell appear. Then use the next cursor to rise up the stairwell. Each time you start the race with a new cursor ALL of your previous cursors will do exactly what they did the first time you played them, so by the 8th or 9th cursor, you will have a screen full of busy cursors and it gets a little hectic to keep track of your current one.

If you make it to the 16th floor you win! It might take you a few full games to meet the challenge, but if you keep at it, you will eventually figure it out and win. Along the way, you will discover a whole new genre of gaming delight, which hopefully other designers will explore. The game has the feel of racing your ghost in console games like “Mario Kart”. This time however, you aren’t just trying to beat your previous time, but are actually using your ghost’s path to your benefit. So think ahead!

Review: This site is a work in progress. As it develops it promises to be a fun online toy to play around with. It currently doesn’t even have a working title, so I am calling it Sketch. Basically, the premise is pretty simple. You draw a shape or line with your cursor and as soon as you release the mouse, your drawing transforms into a weighted, jointed figure and falls to the bottom of the screen. It reacts like a series of attached sticks might react when dropped from a height. The objects have a certain physics applied to them and the more you draw, the more the objects pile up. Use the space bar to clear the screen.

The concept is more difficult to explain than to just see it in action. Try it out. I can’t wait to see what new features the designer adds to the application in the future, but for now, it is a pretty interesting drawing program which allows you to play around with your sketches after you make them.

Review: This inventive puzzler looks similar to multitudes of other puzzle games out there, such as Orbox B or Cubeoban. The difference in this is that you aren’t simply pushing a cube around, but have a ball that bounces off of cleverly placed angled mirrors. The ball starts on the square marked with an ‘S’ and you must maneuver the mirrors so that the ball bounces through the course and collects all the blue coins and then exits the course on the square marked with an ‘E’. On most courses you can start the ball bouncing around and then manipulate the mirrors to guide it where you want to go. However, some levels require you to map out the course in advance because once the ball starts all mirrors get frozen in place.

Each mirror rotates in one of two settings and you can change the angle right before or after the ball hits it to get it to go in a new direction. Some silver colored mirrors are permanently fixed in place. However, each level features unique ways of utilizing the fixed mirrors. In some levels, the silver mirrors stay put altogether. In other levels, a button my auto rotate all the fixed mirrors or they might just rotate on their own at random intervals. To add to the puzzling mix, you will sometimes have other obstacles, such as blocks that move in certain directions when the ball hits them. Each level has a seemingly different strategy involved in solving it.

This puzzler features progressively more difficult levels and each level comes with a passcode so you don’t have to start over next time you play. I found the first 8 or 9 levels pretty easy to get through and then things get a little tougher. The game mechanics feel smooth and responsive and the puzzles aren’t so tough or frustrating that you will give up right away. In fact, they sort of make you want to keep going. Because the courses are contained with boundaries, you don’t have to worry about flying off the edge of the course or ‘dying’. The ball will sometimes get stuck in a holding pattern, but on most levels you can just keep flipping mirrors until you get the ball where you want it to go. On those few courses where your ball gets stuck in a permanent loop, you can always start over by clicking on the start square. This will reset the course to it’s original position.