[Game] Garden Gnome Carnage

It's Christmas! Okay, if you never heard about GGC, you could think on it as a delightful mix of... actually, forget it. I can't remember of any game that is at least similar to "Garden Gnome Carnage". Just give it a try and be amazed by such a piece of randomness and destruction.

Garden Gnome Carnage

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★★★★★ 4/5

You're a gnome with a thirst for elf blood. Not really, but it could also be the actual plot and absolutely nothing would change. Your main character is a garden gnome, tied up to the chimney of a building with an elastic rope or something. It's Christmas and you hate Christmas. Santa sent an army of elves, ready to deliver this building's children a gift or two, and they are willing to give their lives on this mission. In fact, they are prepared for resistance: flying sleds, explosive bricks (?!) and an enough number of elves to take Isengard into madness.

You control the building. Moving it left and right you'll help the garden gnome hitting the nonstop elves that are trying to reach the chimney. You can also command the gnome to take bricks from the building and throw them on the enemies. The bricks explodes. Combos are made. You can control the wind for even more combos. Fun, fun, fun!

Doing enough combos, someone appears on the screen and yells "Whoopee". Do this a lot and eventually a bonus will appear. I won't describe the bonus because you'll have to see it WITH YOUR OWN EYES. Otherwise you won't believe me.

The game art isn't a big deal. It's just fine, but it could be better. Still, its simplicity helps on the gameplay. You'll see, there are moments that the screen will be filled with flying sleds and elves thrown to the air. Crazy, crazy stuff, really. And nothing better on the Christmas day than a bloodbath with holidays themes on the background. Really, it's a lot of joy.

Enough talk. Download the game. It's very worth. Still not convinced? Okay... you can see it for yourself:

[Game] Level Up!

There is a limited number of Flash games that really impress me. Mostly, Flash games are poorly done games that may draw your attention for a minute or two. But sometimes you may find something else - something impressive and creative, like "Level Up!".

Level Up!

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★★★★★ 5/5

This game can't be explained or compared. It's a platform RPG, but there is all those skills and characteristics of your mysterious female character that can be upgraded and acquired. This might be what differs this game from other games if his genre. You can run and jump, and those motions can be leveled up. You take damage and your defense level rises. You can stop and heal yourself, and those will also gain experience and upgrade. You can chat to the young male character that falls at your fence and asks for gems, and your relationship will level up too! Amazing!

The gameplay cycle is also very interesting. Instead of the "mission-style" structure (Megaman) or the conventional "all-forward" (traditional Castlevania), you have a huge area to explore and a limited amount of time. When your character gets tired, the mission ends and you get into a nightmare (a boss fight!). If you lose, you'll come back to the beginning with your levels back to one. Insane? Not quite! It actually adds some difficulty, but you'll realize that it's no big deal. And when you manage to defeat the boss, it's really satisfying.

The game has some beautiful pixel art graphics. It's not something impressive like Braid or others, but it fits well and it's quite pretty. Some might complain about the character art, but the character animations are marvelous, and really works on the game. The chip-tune musics are splendid too, and adds to the exploration feeling on the gameplay.

I wouldn't say that this game is perfect, but it really touched me. This game is creative and different, the creator really put some game design skills on the conception and it worked amazingly. They included trophies on the game, what increases the replay value... By the way, have I mentioned that there's a sequel being developed? Play it now, it's great.