Fugdale’s Funhouse

Object: Get the Adachi Family to the giant Glass of Milk on the 3-D Island while avoiding the cops.

Review: This game is one of the most amazing graphical board games I have ever seen available for free online. The four members of the criminal Adachi Family are on a hunt to steal the large glass of milk stationed at the top of the island’s central mountain. After all, they need milk for strong bones and healthy teeth and the authorities don’t want them to have it.

This is actually a giant board game with looks reminiscent of the Game of Life by Milton Bradley. The family are in a miniature van which you control by rolling a die. The van moves forward along a path of spaces. Each space is either a fortune space, which moves you forward; a misfortune space, which moves you back; a challenge space, where you have to answer a trivia question quickly to advance; or a Hot Pursuit Space; where you must complete a challenging mini-game to avoid being captured by the police.

That’s right, the police do not want you to get to the milk and they are hot on your tail from the beginning of the game. The luck of the die and the extra spaces on the board will hopefully set you far ahead of the police car. The police car gets a chance to roll the die every time you roll it, so you have to roll high or they will catch up. When they catch you they helicopter you off to Milkatraz Prison where you must make bail, serve your sentence and lose a life, or risk escape by spinning a giant wheel of fortune.

If you manage to make it through all the areas of the board you will win, but this game requires a good deal of luck and a lot of various skills and brain power. It doesn’t seem to have any save points, so you must play it all in one sitting. The game doesn’t always seem fair. The first of the Hot Pursuit Challenges is enough to make you give up altogether and the Milkatraz Prison happens far too often and you almost always lose a life when you go. You only have 3 lives and the police can catch you so easily.

However, this game has the most beautiful board, the playing cards are elegantly tucked under the board and pop out when you need them. The cut scenes are amazingly detailed and have the look and feel of Pixar’s The Incredibles. The rolling of the die is nicely animated. This game deserves the highest marks on overall design, audio and technical implementation. It makes it worth the demanding effort involved in winning the darn thing.

Please let me know what you think of the game?

Object: Move your ‘Quickling’ through all four seasons and destroy fairies along the way.

Review: This game by mofunzone.com has a great visual design. You control a tiny little quickling which looks a little like the Red Deviled Ham character. Leap and summersault from various suspended patches of ground as you climb your way through each level. When you start the game you will meet a little Yoda-like guide who gives you your instructions. Moving left will take you into the Autumnal area and moving right will bring you into Spring.

Your first task will be learning how to master the jumps. Jumping seems scary at first as the quickling packs quite a spring in his step. The platforms are often high above or just off the screen where you can’t see them well, so you have to take a few leaps of faith and hope you land correctly. The game’s jumping mechanics work really well (for having to use the arrow keys) and you will soon discover that the quickling just has to touch any area of a platform and he will grab on and climb on top. However, it is still pretty easy to overshoot your target and fall off the edges. If you fall or otherwise die, you will be transported back to the last runic portal you have touched.

There are also a variety of fairy sprites randomly scattered about the area. They take the shape of tornados, tumbleweeds, bunnies, birds, scorpions and more. Use the ‘A’ key to snap the cute little buggers into oblivion. You have four purple dots to begin with. If you touch an enemy you will lose a dot and if you lose all four, you must go back to your last save point. As you progress through each level you will meet more guides who will give you keys to unlock locks which are placed in obscure areas of each course. Once the locks are unlocked you will face a boss on each level. After defeating the bosses you will acquire another super power which can be activated with the ‘S,D,F’ keys.

The design of the game is gorgeous, with great attention to detail (leaves float through the air and the seasons change as you move). The soundtrack has a sprightly new-age sound and doesn’t get annoying. The controls are responsive and err on the side of too touchy at times. It took me a good half hour of play before I could reach my first ’save’ portal, so don’t give up too easily, or you will miss the fun of the game. The only drawback for this game is when you hit an enemy or fall off a cliff after going through the whole course you must start over and that can get infuriating. So I recommend mastering the jumping and whipping actions by playing around with it for a while and then come back to your saved game after you’ve had some chill time.

Quickling, quickly, without thinking…buy some stuff. The items below and more can be found in my store. Click on “Shoppe” in the menu bar for other items.

Object: Gather evidence on infidelity cases by finding clues and solving puzzles.

If you were the kind of super-sleuth kid who always carried a magnifying glass and finger print powder around with you or you love to delve into Sam Spade novels or even if you secretly enjoy watching the reality show Cheaters, then you will surely enjoy this new adventure game from Kayo Games.

You play as a private dick investigating infidelity cases. After getting a briefing on a client and their spouse, you investigate the area neighborhood collecting clues and evidence. Along the way you will find puzzling mini-games, which when solved, will provide you with cash to purchase new investigation tools. Tools will allow you to make phone calls, take pictures of suspects, eavesdrop on conversations and gather deleted text messages. You can even perform lie detector tests on suspects.

Private Detective: Heartbreakers has just been released for Windows (Mac, Linux, Palm and other OS coming soon). Right now only a demo version is available for download or online (Windows only), but a full version with 17 playable cases will be available for purchase soon.

The Funhouse will give a full review of this game once it has been released for Mac, but we wanted to bring it to your attention now so Windows players can get started.