Fugdale’s Funhouse

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: This game follows in the tradition of similar collect and avoid games. You control Blobber, a cute smiley faced green bubble. Move him around the screen with your mouse and collect all the small green dots floating around the screen. You can also catch a somewhat elusive green star which appears briefly once per level. If you miss the star, you can still progress, but you will lose your bonus points.

What would any collecting game be without having to avoid something along the way? In Blobber, you must avoid a collective of mean baddies. Various numbers of them float about the screen. Some float randomly in ping pong fashion and others slowly follow you about the screen.

As you collect dots and stars, your Blobber will grow in size making it both easier to collect the other dots and at the same time, more difficult to avoid the enemies. After you have collected all (or sometimes most) of the green dots, some of the enemies will turn into friendly bubbles. When that happens you need to collect them as well. Sometimes enemies won’t change until you’ve collected other friendly bubbles and some enemies will never change to friendly bubbles.

This game proposes, on the main screen, that you won’t be able to play just one game of Blobber. Due to it’s cute graphics, nice sound effects and easy game play, I would be willing to agree with them. This game definitely has some charming aspects to it. Just make sure your connection is fast and you don’t have a lot of other internet related downloads going on in the background as it tends to slow the action down.

Review: There’s gold in them thar hills! It’s your job to mine it out. You play as an old bearded miner who sits at the top of the screen with a swinging claw. Below you, buried in the layers of terra firma, lie various sized chunks of gold, ore and diamonds. As your miner swings his claw toward a chunk you want to collect, press the down arrow key and he will drop the claw and grab it. He takes longer to reel in the larger chunks, but they have a greater value. Gray rocks don’t command much money, so try to avoid those if possible.

You get a target amount of money for each level and you must collect enough gold, rocks, or diamonds to match or beat that amount. You can also collect grab bags which contain random cash or special items. Although the target goal increases steadily with each round, the money you collect will carry over, so the more you can mine in each round, the easier time you will have meeting your next goal.

Additionally, after each round you will visit the general store, where you can use some of your earnings to purchase helpful items. Dynamite allows you to blast undesirable objects you grab by accident; Clovers increase the value of grab bag items; Strength Drink allows you to drag heavy items faster; the Book of Rocks increases the value of rocks; and Diamond Polish increases the value of diamonds. Different items become available as the game progresses and sometimes you may want to curb your spending habits in order to keep some money in the bank for the next round.

Along the way various critters show up and crawl about the screen. They have value like anything else you mine, but tend to just get in the way. However, sometimes the creatures carry diamonds with them, in which case they provide lucrative rewards upon capture.

The game mechanics won’t win any awards for excellence. Your attention to timing and aim will increase your score. The hit area on each target seems liberal enough that you don’t have to tear your hair out while racing against the timer. However, later levels get a little more difficult as more useless rocks and animals get in your way.

If you enjoy the basic version of this game, you can increase and extend your fun by downloading the full version. The full version includes pesky bats and elves; more items; more levels and even a gambling game to increase your money.