Skylanders - Must have toy for Christmas 2011

Every year at Christmas there is one toy that all the kids ask Santa for.
There was cabbage patch dolls, Tickle Me Elmo and who can forget Furby.

It looks like this year it’s Skylanders.

Skylanders is a video game for all of the major platforms (XBox, PS3, Wii and DS3D) the twist on this is that it is also a toy (or miniature if you will) in that there are 37 different figures available.  Each figure has it's on set of powers that the game gets from an embedded chip.  The figure is placed on a base that connects to your game system via various methods.

The figure is then playable inside of the video game environment.  The figure also comes with a code that can be used on the internet to allow you to play various internet games with your figure for added content.

This is going to be a huge hit.  It's got everything.  It's a video game, it's a toy, it's a miniature, it's a collectible.  There are boy friendly figures, girl friendly figures and neutral figures.

Unfortunately I cannot play the game myself until Christmas, but I am working on getting the complete collection of figures for my daughter (because she, like me is a completeists).

I've created a check list because a good one was not readily available online, feel free to print and use freely.

2011 Skylanders Checklist

[ ] Spyro

[ ] Double Trouble
[ ] Wrecking Ball
[ ] Voodood
[ ] Slam Bam
[ ] Zap
[ ] Wham-Shell
[ ] Gill Grunt
[ ] Legendary Spyro (Toys R Us Exclusive)
[ ] Dark Spyro (3DS Exclusive)
[ ] Bash
[ ] Dino-rang
[ ] Prism Break
[ ] Terrafin
[ ] Hex
[ ] Cynder
[ ] Chop Chop
[ ] Ghost Roaster
[ ] Legendary Chop Chop (Toys R Us Exclusive)
[ ] Legendary Bash (Toys R Us Exclusive)
[ ] Ignitor
[ ] Sunburn
[ ] Flameslinger
[ ] Eruptor
[ ] Whirlwind (Target Exclusive)
[ ] Warnado
[ ] Sonic Boom
[ ] Lightning Rod
[ ] Legendary Trigger Happy
[ ] Boomer
[ ] Drill Sergeant (Wal-Mart Exclusive)
[ ] Drobot
[ ] Trigger Happy
[ ] Camo
[ ] Stump Smash
[ ] Zook
[ ] Stealth Elf

The Resurrection of Online Flash Games! Week 18: Fishy

Sorry for my long delay in putting up another review. Nevertheless, I'm back with another online game you can play for free online. Now it shouldn't be a secret that I favor strategy games over any other genre. So today its time to delve into the realm of Action games. And while I like this game, I'm not quite sure how Fishy counts as an action game. But thats beside the point, lets get it on!

In fishy, you start off as a small fish. But you have big dreams, for yourself anyway. The objective is also simple; all you do is eat fish that are smaller than you. You also have to avoid being eaten by bigger fish, something which I will get to later. Also, there is NO saving; you either get so large that you take up the entire screen, or you die. You use the directional buttons for moving around the screen. For those out there that prefer AWSD, I tired it and it will not accept them.

Now as I mentioned you die by being "eaten" by any fish that is larger than you. However the game seems to have a different deffinition of "eaten" than I do. If you die by being eaten, to me that means avoid the mouth. But not in this game. If you so much as come in contact with a bigger fish, even its tail; you die. Just thought that was some helpful advice.

All in all I do enjoy this game. But it certainly doesn't make my top 5. Its very simple but suprisingly hard to complete. You could put 15 minutes into this game and then die, forcing you to restart. Some people would not be discouraged and keep on going, and to an extent neither am I. But there comes a point where one finally says "ok, I've had enough" and finds something else to do; and there isn't a good chance they'll be coming back.

Fishy was created by XGenStudios

Play Fishy for free at Addictinggames.com: www.addictinggames.com/action-games/fishy.jsp

Leave a comment or send me a message on Facebook for any online game you would like me to review.

Online Flash Games, Week 13: Penguinz

This weeks game involves penguins, eskimos, and a maner of other wildlife. Sounds like a nice, peaceful game, right? Well you must not know I'd never waste my time on a crappy game like that. In Penguinz, you kill other creatures that attack you from 2 sides. How does a penguin kill other creatures, you ask? With guns and, if you get far enough, a chainsaw. Yes, it is a very bloody game, so I would say anyone under 14 sound not play this game.

From what I can tell, every other animal has been brainwashed by an evil animal and serve him with the intention of controling the entire frozen world. And it is up to our hero to stop them. You start off with a simple pistol. You must shot and kill every enemy in that level to advance. Health, Ammo, and Money are dropped by enemies. A boss appeares every few levels. The farther you go, you come across new and tougher enemies.

In between levels, you can upgrade your weapon or buy ammo and health. The weapon system is pretty good, as you can either buy a new weapon or upgrade the one you have. You can also switch between the weapons you currently have during the game. Depending on which level of difficulty you are on, supplies will be more scarce on a harder difficulty level.

While I like the game, there are 2 glaring problems I have with it. The first and most obvious is that it is just too bloody. There is too much effort put into making the game look gory. There doesn't need to be so much blood and penguins falling into two pieces. Its just not needed. The second is the lack of attention to the game itself. There is no introduction to what is going on in the game, and when you beat the final boss, it just restarts without telling you. So essentially there is never an ending.

Penguinz is a violent, unending, simple game. Which is why I both like it and hate it at the same time. Mainly because it could have been much more than what it is if someone else had made it.

Penguinz was made by LongAnimals and Jimp

Play Penguins by clicking the title of this post.

Leave a comment on this post or message me if you have a game you would like me to review.

Online Flash Games Week 12: Gluey

After reviewing Cofffee Shop last week, I remembered another game me and my friend used to play called Gluey. Once again it was a game he could never beat my high score in, so there's lost of good memories of swearing and frustration from him and a cocky smile from me. Good times.

In Gluey the objective is to score points by clicking on blobs of the same color of glue. The colors are red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. The larger the blob, the more points you earn. You have to get a set number of points to unlock the next level. You are awarded 200 points if you can clear the entire level.

On some levels blobs contain different colored blobs inside them. Removing the containing blob unlocks the contained blob. Blobs can hold + that add new blobs, and arrows that reverse the gravity. The shapes of the levels can influence how they move and make it easier or harder.

I thought that I would have still liked this game like I still liked Coffee shop. But this is not the case. I feel that this is more up to chance than skill. The blobs stack on top of each other, and can fall in any direction. So planning on where they will fall is almost impossible. Its also somewhat stupid and really not as entertaining as I remembered it. So while you may like it, I've played plenty of this game.

Gluey is made by CoolMath Games.

Play Gluey by clicking the Title of the Post.

Comment on this post to tell me about a game you'd like me to review.

Online Fash Games Week 11: Coffee Shop

This game was recomended to me by my friend Groupe. It was a game we both played while in Computer Literacy when we finished our work. It was a simple game, that he could never beat my high score. Coffee Shop is one of those games that you play to kill time, unless you have asperations of opening a coffee stand . Then take this as a tutorial.

The goal in Coffee Shop is to make as much money from your coffee stand as possible in 14 days. To do this, you need to buy ingredients and to set the recipe. You must buy cups, sugar, milk, and of course coffee. Your recipe determines how much coffee, sugar, and milk goes into each cup that is made. The more ingredients you have, the more people will like you coffee, and the higher you can charge for it. But this means you need to buy more ingredients as well.

During the game, several factors impact whether people will buy your coffee. The price of your coffee, the temperature, and your reputation. Your reputation can rise and fall depending how people like your coffee after they have purchased it. If they cost was high and you don't have many ingredients, they won't like it. But if you have alot of ingredients, then they'll like it. The better the reputation, the more people will want to buy your coffee and the more you can charge for it.

There are some gripes I have with this game. First, they don't give some kind of idea as to what people would find as acceptable for ingredients or for prices. Though this is a game that figuring this out is part of the fun. The other gripe is where in the name of God is this town? The temperature goes from 85 degrees down to 26 in 1 day! There must be something wrong with the town, since the pope shows up once in the later levels sometimes.

But I do feel this is a good game.While the genre isn't really up my alley, its still a fun and somewhtat challenging game. Its deffinatly enough fun when stuck inside school. If anyone can break my high score of $425, let me know! I'll make sure to tell Groupe how much he sucks at this game.

Coffee Shop was developed by Armor Games Inc.

Play Coffe Shop here at: www.coolmath-games.com/0-coffee-shop/index.html

Leave a comment on this post or send me an email or Facebook message if YOU have a game you would like to see reviewed.

Online Flash Games, Week 10: Kitten Cannon

First off, don't judge me. Just because I like this game does not mean I am cruel to animals. Just because shooting a kitty out of a cannon and him hitting explosives and into spikes or venus fly traps is amusign to me, it doesn't meanI'm sick. I'm just a tiny bit twisted in my sense of humor. Just try it and I'm sure you might like it. But sadly you can't turn off the sound effects, which might be the worst part.

In Kitten Cannon, you shoot a kitten out of a cannon. The red bar on the side of the cannon shows the force to be used in the shot.The barrel of the gun can be raised and lowerd to how you see fit. After that, the game randomly generates objects along the ground or in the air to help you or stop you. The goal in this game is to get the kitten as far as possible, which is very much in the hands of the game after firing.

There are five types of objects in two catergories. The ones that help you are boxes of explosives, bombs tyed to balloons in the air, or trampolines. The other two that stop you as soon as you hit them are spikes and the venus fly trap. Avert you eyes if squeamish of blood, because there's alot of it when the kitten hits the spikes. In addition, hitting the bare ground slows you down.

While I like this game, there is one major problem I have with Kitten Cannon. And I don't mean the moral one. This game is ver ymuch up to chance after playing it. So you just sit back and even if you got a creat shot the game can spawn a fly trap and snatch you out of the air after 50ft. There's a game similar to this one that lets you through some things at the target to keep it moving. This game doesn't let you do that. But it was made in 2005, so I guess that idea hadn't crossed the developer's mind. As I said, its a fun game. But parents, I'd say not let you children under the age of 6 play this game. Scott, that means you.

Kitten Cannon came from the sick mind of Dan Fleming.

Play Kitten Cannon (for all you dog people out there) at www.addictinggames.com/arcade-games/kittencannon.jsp

Send me an email of message on Facebook if there's a game you'd like me to review.

Online Flash Games, Week 9: Territory War

Sorry about this week's late post, but what's one day between friends? Anyway, this week's game is about territory, war, and stick figures. Territory War on Addictinggames.com has been played 36,675,613 times in the 5 years since being created, and I was one of the first to play it. Its a trip down memory lane for me.

The objective in Territory War is to kill the other team's players using an infinite amount of grenades, bulles, and boots. Each stick figure can either move or stay for their first action. If move, they move wherever the player wants and then attacks for their second action. If you chose stay, then you just attack. The grenade is useful for lobbing long range, the gun for medium range, and kicking for close range. Each character has 100 health, and depending on how and where they are shot health decreases.

There is no score or points in this game, you just play for the fun of it. You can play the campaign and unlock all 10 missions, a challenge, or a custom battle where you can play against a friend. The instructions are underneath the options bar. The game does a great job of explainging the game, flashing a white bar where they are explaing what it is or does.

There are a couple problems I have with territory war. It might just be my comupter, but the controls don't always respond exactly. This can be a major pain in a heavily movement based game. The other problem is that there is no overall goal to accomplish. No score, no points, nothing. That could be an issue with some people.

But as far as I am concerned this is an old favorite of mine; so long as the controls work. There is one objectiveI can think of though: to have stupid, violent fun. If you don't understand that, then I think most video games are not for you. And we clearly have different ideas of fun.

Territory War was created by Shawn Tanner and produced by Afro-ninja.com. Territory War was sponsered by ArmorGames.com

Play Territory War here: www.addictinggames.com/adventure-games/territorywar.jsp

Online Flash Games, Week 8: Metalix TD

Ask anyone who frequents flash game websites and they'll probably say that Tower Defence games are some of the most common kinds of games out there. But this week's game is unlike any Tower Defence game I have ever played. Scott asked me to play this game and review it this week. And while I'm on the subject, anyone who wants me to review a game by all means send me and email about it. I'd be glad to.

Metalix TD is at its core the same as any tower defence game. You use different types of towers, in this case canon, laser, and fire towers, to prevent something from getting to whatever you need to protect along a clearly shown path. Like other game you can upgrade your towers with points you earn during the game to give them greater power, range, quantity, and movement. Wait, movement?

In every other TD game I've played, the path never changes and the towers don't move. But not Metalix. After every level the path moves around a little. If your towers are on the path they can be damaged. So you need to move them off the path. The more movement you tower has the faster it moves. You can move towers along the entire length of the path if you want, though moving isn't free.

The tutorial has the same setup that Railway Valley did, where it tells you what the game play items are in general, not in the context of the game. But Metalix succeeds where others have failed. It tells you what the vocabulary means in relation to the game.

But where I have an issue with Metalix is that the simple act of making a pathway move changes the game drastically from the TD genre. Instead of setting up a system of towers along a set path, you have to move them around. This really can through someone out of their element. I only got to level 16 and I feel terrible about a score like that. Maybe as I play it more I can get the hang of moving the towers around, but it takes some getting used to.

However, despite this change from usual TD game setups, it is still a fun game to play. Maybe you can get used to the game quicker than I did, and to that I say more power to ya. Scott told me that this was his favorite online game, which I can see why, though it isn't my favorite. But I know the real reason he likes this game. Every TD game has some type of target, whether it be balloons or Japanese soldiers. But this game has small, robotic animals. Scott burning small defence animals; says alot doesn't it?

Metalix TD was produced by POintZero Co. and manufactured by Masateru Umeda.

Play Metalix now: www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/metalixtd.jsp

Online Flash Games, Week 7: Pandemic 2

One of the leading causes of the zombie apocalypse is a world wide disease. A bacteria or a parasite that takes over the body and makes you hungry for human flesh. Well in this week's game, you can't turn people into zombies. But you can unlease a disease that kills the entire human race. That's close enough, right?

Pandemic 2 is a game where you goal is to infect and kill as many people as possible across the globe. First you begin by selecting whether to play a realistic or relaxed game (The differences are explained in the game). Then you chose to be a bacterial, viral, or parasitic disease. Each has its own advantages and disadvatages. After that you come up with a cool name for you disease and away we go.

First you are alerted to where you begin on the left hand column of the screen. Important news like where your disease has spread and what global and regional leaders have done to stop your spread can be found. You evolve and get stronger and deadlier using evolution points to buy new traits for you disease. Some you already have unlocked. You get these points by infecting and killing more and more people.

On the map are several different icons. These show ports, airports, water reservoirs, and hospitals. Your disease can infect people by traveling by airplane or boat depending on what traits you have. Infected water reservoirs can get alot of people infected. Governments will later shut down these facilities as your disease becomes more deadly and noticeable. Eventually the United Nations will try to create a cure for your disease. If successful you cannot infect any more people. If it fails, you can keep on infecting.

This game requires a bit of a twisted sense of entertainment as you can tell. After all, you are trying to wipe out the human race. But I don't find fault with that. What I do find fault with, although it isn't much, is how exactly you get evolution points. I assume its from infecting and killing more people, but the tutorial never explains.

Pandemic 2 is gameplay wise the best game I have found. The tutorial is a seperate page you can read which is well written and neatly laid out. There is a reason this game has been in the top 10 stratagey games for Addictinggames.com since it was posted in 2008 and played over 11 million times. It is in depth, fun to play, and despite it being complex, it isn't complicated or frustrating. This is my absolute favorite online game and will probably stay that way for the for foreseeable future.

Pandemic 2 was created by Dark Realm Studios and sponsored by CrazyMonkeyGames.com. Music by GlobeXDesigns.

Online Flash Games, Week 6: SteamBirds

Its no secret that most of us here at KGS are fans of the game Wings Of War. So imagine my delight when I found a game on the internet that is almost identical to it. So I gave it a try and was blow away, quite literally, with how similar it is to Wings of War for all the right reasons. In fact the team who made Steambirds probably played Wings of War and decided to make a game just like it, except its free to play.

Now because gameplay is very similar to Wings of War, I won't be as thorough as usual. Before each round has a planning phase and an executing orders phase. You drag the arrow from the front of your plane to where you want it to, instead of using movement cards. If you come into range of another plane you shot at it and it shots at you if the enemy plane has you in range.

Steambirds has an excellent tutorial level which explains the how to play very well. The game is set up so you go through a story line set of missons progressing through time. On each level you are awarded 1-4 stars based on your performance. The more stars you have the higher you get promoted. I wish that this game let you have games just between you and a friend or the computer and not in a mission.

One major problem I have with SteamBirds is that the game does not show you the enemy's guns. Neither where they are or what they're arch and range is. This can be a major pain when trying to attack a blimp and not knowing where the guns are. It seems like something obvious that you would put into a game like this.

While SteamBirds may have the advantages of being free and taking up much less space to play over Wings of War, it doesn't make it better. The reason being that you can't play SteamBirds with friends, but you can with Wings of War. Steambirds is fine to play on your own, and it is a good game. But Wings of War is simply better.

SteamBirds was made by Andy Moore, Daniel Cook, Jordan Fehr, and Danny Baranowshy.

Online Flash Games, Week 5: Railway Valley

Sorry about this late edition. I was at a baseball game yesterday with skybox seats so posting slipped my mind. But I know how to make up for it. Over the last few weeks I have been reviewing games that I like to play. But as you can imagine, every game cannot be good. And so this week I have a game i tried awhile ago and never played again; Railway Valley.

You are in charge of a railway company. The object is to build rail lines from certain buildings to others and deliver them to get money. Over time new buildings appear and you have to extend the line to get to those building. Sounds very simple, right? But then comes the first snag.

The instructions are useless. Instead of telling you how to build track and make junctions, the instructions just tell you what they are. They don't tell you gameplay mechanics, just describes the game. Perhaps they're definition of instructions is different from mine, but instructions to me means explaining how to play the game, not a biography of the game. And when you hit new game, then it explains the buttons and what they do. But still not how to play.

The game itself is too complicated and the game gives you very little time to set up tracks. It might be easier if it would tell you how to play, but I don't think so. Its a good idea and I know that simlulations similar to this have worked., take RailRoad Tycoon for example (a PC game, not an online game). This game simply is far too difficult for me and the majority of those who have played it on addictinggames.com. The website has a poll under the game of who like and and who hate it. A good game would have above 60% like. This game has a terrible 38%.

I think that however made this had a good idea for a game and could have made a great game. But this is a complicated and frustrating mess. Maybe someone enjoys a really complicated game. But I don't like a game this complicated. The descrition of the game says "train wrecks are everywhere". Well I disagree. There's only one train wreck here, and it isn't on track; its online.

Online Flash Games, Week 4: Sugar Sugar

Before you ask, I am not gay. This is actually a fun game, despite the rather homosexual title for a man to play. And who doesn't like sugar? Sweets as we know them would not exist without sugar. With this kind of connection its no wonder some gamer made a game revolving around sugar. And by sugar is this game interessting.

Fill up a cup with sugar. Sounds easy right? At first, it is very easy. But then you must fill up two cups with sugar. Later on the game adds different colored cups which you must put some sugar through to get it to count in that cup. There is also a button on some levels that reverses the gravity.

What you do is draw a line from where the sugar comes from to the cup. The sugar comes from the comma after the first sugar. This is a game mechanic I will talk about later. Each cup must be filled up with 100 of the correct color of sugar cubes. There are special dotted lines that change the suagr's color when they pass through. After a few minutes, the sugar stops coming out of the comma, and if you have not filled up the cups, you lose. On some levels you only have 1 sugar cube that foes in a cup that needs 1 sugar cube. Other levels will require you to switch the gravity, which the level provides you with. The key to this game is drawing lines that allow you to fill up a cup and change the flow toward another cup.

Now about the comma. This reveals a mechanic I have not experienced before in a game. The text the is on the screen in the level can affect the sugar coming down. This can impact the game in a big way if you don't know that the text blocks sugar. I fell for that when I realized the text doesn't disappear after a few seconds. This is the first game I have encountered that has this kind of interactive scenery. I say interactive because I don't want to call in intrusive. Once you get used to this, you have to play keeping that in mind. And all this culminates to the skill of the game's creater, Bart Bonte.

Now either this is an old game or he made this in some kind of cheap game maker. Either way te options for making complex games is difficult and a more resourceful mind is needed. I find it sheer genious the Mr. Bonte has taken such basic elements and made such a complex and challenging game. Out of any game I have played so far, this one has stuck out from the rest, and I tip my hat to his game making abilities. And again, I am not gay, though it seems I just kissed his but 5 times just now.

Sugar, Sugar is made by Bart Bonte and available at Armorgames.com

Star Wars ~ The Old Republic trailer

Set a time 3000 years before the Star Wars that we know Star Wars The Old Republic is a Massive Multi-Player Online Game where you'll be able to play out the role of you self made hero of old.

Need a teaser:

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/return?sourceid=eag3006

Watch that and you probably be wondering how you can play. Well you can't. If your not lucky enough to be accepted for the Beta testing, going on now, then you'll have to wait like the rest of us for the release date to be announced.

Wander around the site ( www.swtor.com ), none of the videos disappoint and the spaceships are incredibly cool too! Be warned though, if you start browsing around the site your only going to make yourself want to get a better computer and sell a first born child to get into the beta.

Super Mario Bros. on the PC

Do you like Super Mario Brothers but don't currently own a Wii or DS? Then check out http://www.supermariobrothers.org/ which gives you the chance to play fan-made games based on the famous franchise. And when I say based on, I mean "almost exactly the same in every possible detail." You can either download games or play flash versions on the site. I've played the download version and it is superb though I do sometimes struggle playing it with a keyboard instead of a controller. The games are a lot of fun and get me my nostalgia fix for free. Take a look for yourself.

Online Flash Games, Week 3: Bloon Tower Defense

Popping balloons is always fun. Whether it be at a carnival game or at a child's birthday party. But what if there was a game that let you pop balloons in a tower-defence style game? Then I have so good news for you. And that good news is Bloons Tower Defense.

The game gives you 5 different types of towers. A dart tower, tack shooter, ice, bomb, and a Super Monkey towers. You can buy these towers and upgrades with money which you earn for completing a level and from popping balloons. If 100 balloons get past you in total, you lose.

There are two kinds of upgrades for each tower. One deals with range and the other amplify's the effects of the tower. There are many kinds of balloons. Red ones are the slowest. Then there are blues, which are faster, and have a red balloon inside. Between levels when the game is paused, the game will give you tips and information about the game that is apporpriate at the level you are about to do. Essenctially, most balloons have more balloons inside of them and have to be popped serveral times to degrade it to a red balloon. Some balloons are immune to certain attacks, like lead balloons are immune to darts and tacks.

There are many strong points to this game. It is simple to understand and challenging. You need to stratgically place you towers to get most out of their abilities. The hints in between levels is unique and helpful. Sometimes the game is just telling you what is heading your way next. You could say it ruins the surprise, but if you have nothing that will affect what's coming up, you're in trouble.

But then I realized something. That while having gameplay adive between levels is unique, is it better than just having a screen that tells you how to play. Like an instructions or a tutorial page. The problem that comes with telling the player in between levels is that they have to survive the level to get it. And about halfway through the game this could be a challenge, when you could have told them before.

But there is a reason why there are three new versions of Bloons tower defense that NinjaKiwi has made. The game is great. And there is alot of room for expansion in the number of towers and balloons there could be. I find this series of games to be a personal favorite of mine that I go back to again and again for free fun.

Bloons Tower Defense is made by NinjaKiwi.

Online Flash Games, Week 2: Demolition City

Dynamite. Explosions. Buildings falling down into a pile of concret. What more can a man ask from a game? Don't answer that. This week I'm reviewing Demolition City by Armor Games. There is only one objective in this game: make buildings fall down. Apparently buildings that never were finished, since you only blow up hollow skeletonns of buildings. Perhaps there was some kind of terrible design flaw. But don't dive too far into why, just blow crap up!

There are twenty levels in all. Each one is about the same. You have a set limit of dynamite to put on different parts of the building. You have to make sure it falls below a certain height limit. You may only place dynamite on concrete, not steel. And you may only place one package of dynamite on a piece of concrete. There are also some levels in which there is a second building which you cannot let a piece of debris touch. If you fail to bring the building down, you must restart and no dollars are awarded for the level.

Points are awarded in three ways. Through am explosive bonus, height bonus, and dynamite. I have played this game many times and still for the life of me I have no idea how points are awarded for the explosive category. You get height points by how far under the target height you are. This is judged by the piece of debris closest to the minimum height line. You get $1,000 for each package of dynamite you do not use in a level.

This game is not a simple as you may think though. The trick to this game is physics. Randomly placing dynamite is not going to work everytime. So you have to think as to where you will place you dynamite to get maximum effect.

I find the game easy to play and challenging. I have no real fault with the game, but I do have two small grievences with the game. First, it has the most God awfull sound effects to explosions I have ever heard. And the music is annoying. The second is that if you fail a level, it give you three options. One is the walkthrough. It takes you to two videos showing you how to do levels 1-10 and 11-20. It's as if the game is saying "Its ok that you suck at this game. Here little baby, this is how you do it. Course you could never figure this out." It only aggrivates the player when you give them the easy way out if they are angirly trying to figure it out for themselves.

All in all, I found the game very fun to play and challenging at times. I recomned it to anyone who wants to blow up buildings while listening to crappy music.

Online Flash Games, Week 1: Downhill Snowboard 3

Have you ever wanted to snowboard, but been afriad of being killed in an avalanche or snapping an appendage? Well, Downhill Snowboard 3 offers just that, only your ragdoll character takes the pain.

In this game, you try to pull off insane jumps and tricks. On some levels there are rails you can grind on to get extra points. Others will have an avalanche to contend with while you ride down. You get points at the end of each level, according to the number of tricks you did. These points are used to unlock new boards and boarders who have increased attributes. These attributes are jump, speed, and rotation.

The controls are simple. They are listed in the upper-right corner of the map select screen. You only get points by sticking the landing. If you snap a leg or neck, you don't get the points. Or if you simply don't stick the landing, oyu lose the points.

This is one thing I found confusing and frustrating at times. The game is not consistant when it comes to determining tif you have stuck the landing, getting you the points. If you get 5,000 points, and the game thinks you landed incorrectly, even you landed the exact same way as last time, you lose them.

All in all though, I find the game fun and interesting to play. It gets to be a bit of a grind later on, but it's still fun. I recomend this game for just about anyone. Even if you only want to play it to kill you ragdoll character.

This game is produced by Armor Games and is free to play.

Who Says Video Games Make You Lazy?

Who says video games are bad for you? For these teens it inspired them to make an absolutely unbelievable tribute video to Guitar Hero - BIKE HERO! This video is a you-gotta-see-it-to-believe it all in one take wonder. The sheer logistics of working this out must have taken months. Why aren't these guys running NASA.... or the government?

The Great Gatsby: The Video Game

You know, sometimes even reading the CliffsNotes is too much effort. Rejoice, high schoolers everwhere! I present to you: The Great Gatsby: The Video Game! How do you turn a literary classic into an 8-bit video game? Who knows. WHY would be a better question. Check it out at http://greatgatsbygame.com/. Below is a screenshot:

What's crazy is that this isn't the first Great Gatsby video game! THIS is:



You could play these games and try to pass the test in class but I strongly suggest you actually read the book. It really is a classic for a reason, you know.

Angry Nintendo Nerd - Warning ADULTS ONLY

Have you ever been frustrated by a video game? Was the game too hard to beat or simply not worth the money you paid for it? Well, meet someone who can sympathize: The Angry Nintendo Nerd. Yes, he's ANGRY and very, very vulgar. Some of his favorite words are curse words we don't say here at KGS.

Ironically, the Angry Nintendo Nerd actually loves Nintendo. The Angry Nintendo Nerd has EVERY game and accessory for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). He posts video reviews of NES games to YouTube - but only the horrible ones that infuriate him. His hyperbolic responses are fantastically hilarious if you can stand the profanity. But he does make quite a few valid points that make old NES fans like me feel both nostalgic and empathic.

His videos are very well produced. The opening credits have a very catchy theme song which aptly sets the tone (He'd rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in his ear...). He illustrates many of his points by showing the actual action on screen from the NES game.

I won't embed the video here because of the vulgarity, but if you wish to check it out, there are dozens of videos from the Angry Nintendo Nerd on YouTube.

Hmmmm.... Angry RPG Nerd.... I could be on to something....