Fugdale’s Funhouse

Object: Press the spacebar as many times as you can in the allotted time. Then try to beat your score.

Review: I figure it’s time to give the old brain a rest and throw up another time killer. These sorts of games don’t require much thought or skill, just do one simple task and then do it again and again until you get tired and move on to something else. In this game you simply choose a time frame (5, 10, or 20 seconds). And then start hitting the spacebar as fast as you can. The application counts how many times you hit it and then displays a comical graphic with your score (this is the cutest element in the game, by the way).

Then you can try again and try to beat your own score. There ain’t much more to report than that. So next time you have a little time to kill at work and your co-workers aren’t around to hear you slapping your keypad repeatedly, give this little test of speed a try. Who knows, you might end up the spacebar slapping champion of the world and win a million dollars and get to meet Ryan Seacrest.

Object: Be the first to lay all your cards in sequence on the two piles.

Review: Most people have, at some time in their lives, played fun little dueling card games such as War, Slap Jack or Speed. Now for those who lead a solitary life or who can’t afford a real deck of cards, I present to you today an online version of Speed. You play against the computer (who plays at the pace of someone’s great grandmother). The game deals both players a stack of cards, five of which are visible on the table. In the center of the table, lie two face up cards and two draw piles.

When the game starts each player scrambles to place a card of a rank one higher or one lower than either of the two cards on the table. If you perform fast enough, you can run a string of cards up or down. But, the computer player will also try to stack its cards on the same piles. If you have a quick finger, you can usually slip in your card before the computer has a chance, but even at a slow pace, you will sometimes find the computer can easily beat you. If both players have no playable card, the two draw piles will turn red, so you can flip up new table cards.

The online game doesn’t have the frantic pace of the real version. On the other hand, it doesn’t have all the bent cards or bruised knuckles that accompany the real version. But, for a quick and easy diversion that only lasts a few minutes, give this game a try. Unfortunately, after each round, the game sends you to an inactive web-page and you have to click the back button in order to play an additional round-a minor glitch, which may get fixed at some point or not.