The Island: Castaway

The Island: Castaway is a new sim-meets-RPG game from Awem Studio, creator of the hidden object game Golden Trails: The New Western Rush. The game combines a Virtual Villagers kind of atmosphere with gameplay reminiscent of Wandering Willows, putting you in the role of a castaway on a lonely tropical island. Gather tons of items you'll use to hunt, fish, build, cook and more, all while fulfilling the needs of your friends and uncovering mystery after mystery on the fog-shrouded land.

You only control one character in The Island: a poor chap named Tom who spends his time running back and forth fulfilling the requests of everyone else on the island. The game progresses through a series of small missions that start off very simple and gradually become more involved. Using just the mouse, click on items to pick them up and store them in your massive inventory. When someone needs something from you, he or she will light up with an exclamation mark over their head. Simply click and your new task will be added to the checklist at the bottom of the screen.

At first, missions are straightforward and must be completed one after another. Soon, though, you'll have more objectives than you can complete, allowing a bit of wiggle room as to which order you complete them. You can push the story along, or you can run around picking up twigs and making fruit salad all day, it's up to you!

Speaking of fruit salad, The Island: Castaway is packed with diversions that play a strong role in the game. Recipes are one facet of this, allowing you to use fruits and meats to create meals that restore large chunks of your health. As you jog around doing your thing, your health gradually decreases, so it's always nice keeping a few meals stashed in your inventory. New recipes are gained through side missions, and they come in handy in a pinch. You'll also learn to fish, hunt, chop trees, plant things and more, all unveiled via new tools as the game progresses.

Analysis: While the visual set-up may remind you of most simulation games on the market, don't let the looks fool you. The Island: Castaway is far from your usual village sim, as it focuses on mini-missions and expanding gameplay as opposed to building a collective, central town. Unlocking trophies is also a big part of the game, and there are 15 to find in all, each with bronze, silver and gold levels.

The story plays a large role in The Island, and while it's not the most original piece of writing this side of To Kill a Mockingbird, you'll feel drawn in by the ever-expanding level of intrigue introduced by island natives, strange languages drawn in the sand, and statues hidden in bushes. Exploration and discovery are strong parts of this game, and you'll always feel like there's something new waiting around the corner.

Awem went to great lengths to make the interface friendly, and everything responds to your needs without a hitch. Feeding Tom to keep him healthy is easy, working with recipes and your other tools is simple, and the mini-map (along with the task list) makes it easy to see where characters are located and who wants your attention at the moment. Unfortunately, you can't manually scroll the screen, which is a bit of a letdown, but after a few minutes you won't really mind.

If The Island: Castaway has any faults, it's with the voice acting. The first lines you'll hear spoken will probably make you shudder. Later, the readings improve, but you still get the impression the actors were only allowed one take for the script, so everything sounds stilted and contrived. Casual gamers don't expect perfection from voice acting in our games, but sometimes it's just better to leave it out.

The Island: Castaway will absolutely steal your afternoon away. The combination of quick missions, exploration, discovery, and a seemingly endless supply of items to find, makes you constantly curious as to what awaits you around each corner. Play it casually, but be prepared to sink a lot of time into this excellent game!

Windows:

Download the demo

Order the full version

Mac OS X:

Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.

FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple

Everybody knows that fire and water don't mix. But sometimes they can work together, grabbing gems, flipping switches, pushing blocks, and adjusting mirrors. When does this happen, you say? Why, in Oslo Albet's follow up to last year's FireBoy and WaterGirl, of course. Now his cute, anthropomorphic elementals leave the Forest Temple and take their incessant diamond collecting to the fabled Light Temple. Here they discover new challenges across 40 new stages of brain-bending, keyboard-taxing action.

Like its predecessor, FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple is a platformer that has you controlling not one, but two characters at once. Both FireBoy and WaterGirl have their own controls (the [arrow] and [WAD] keys on the keyboard) and can be moved independently of each other. Your goal is to use both characters to grab as many gems as possible while leading them to their respective exits. In your way are various traps and switches, as well as pits filled with fire, water, and well, deadly black stuff. FireBoy and WaterGirl can walk in pits made of their own elements, but will vaporize if they touch their opposite element or fall into a black pit. As before, stages include a series of time-based runs, an assortment of levels designed for simultaneous character movement, and more crafty and devious stages requiring the duo to grab a single diamond before exiting.

Most levels involve some elements of teamwork between FireBoy and WaterGirl. Usually one character has to stand on a pressure-sensitive button that raises a wall to allow the other character to pass. Other levels require both characters to push a heavy block, or operate a see-saw to reach higher areas. There are even a few tricky stages that require you to move both characters simultaneously, with FireBoy and WaterGirl jumping on the same platforms or running to areas that are otherwise inaccessible.

While much of this sounds familiar to Forest Temple fans, the Light Temple has a few new surprises for unsuspecting visitors. Some levels are pitch black, illuminated only by a glow around the main characters and nearby platforms. Other stages require careful manipulation of light beams to trigger photosensitive switches. There are even special movable blocks with mirrors on them that reflect the light 90 degrees. These mirror-blocks require precise placement to allow a light beam to reach its intended target.

Analysis: FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple is a tricky title, but it's also quite fun once you get the hang of it. The game's dual-character control is one of its most challenging aspects, but once you understand how it works, there's satisfaction in busting through a level with both characters blazing. I especially like the levels that were made for simultaneous two-character play, some of which have a mirrored design to help our addled brains cope with the game's unique challenge. If done right, beating one of these levels not just feels satisfying, but it might even look pretty impressive to someone watching over your shoulder. The mechanic aside, I'm impressed with the number of levels and their variety. The light-manipulation and darkness stages are some of the game's more entertaining ones, though also a bit trickier.

While the level design is clever, the game also has a few issues that make things a little difficult at times. Your characters are pushers, not pullers, so on levels requiring block and mirror movement, an accidental shove can wedge an unfortunate block against a wall or another block, forcing you to restart the level. It can also be a little maddening to go through a whole elaborate sequence of movements, switch hits and button pushes, only to find that you're trapped, or discover that a block you need to move is suddenly inaccessible. The keyboard controls themselves (which still only works for QWERTY layouts) also occasionally like to respond a little too late when you're trying to make critical jumps over deadly pits. Thankfully, most levels take between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, so even if a restart is necessary, it's not the end of the world. Usually the second or third time around, you can go through a sequence much faster, and before you know it, the level's complete.

While FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple has its share of challenges, ultimately the game's clever level design, fun control mechanic and effective use of two characters makes getting through the levels feel like an accomplishment. Fire and water may not mix, but you and this game might be a match if you are looking for a platformer puzzler with novelty and plenty of variety to satisfy.

Play FireBoy and WaterGirl 2: The Light Temple

Glorg

Glorg, Grapefrukt's new one button hack-n-slash RPG tribute, has some great hilariously misleading faux-box-art, and an interesting premise. Glorg is the story of a warrior whose unibrow is small but whose heart and courage are large. Glorg finds himself in a dark, deep dungeon. At first, Glorg is scared, for Glorg was surrounded by monsters, Glorg's least favorite thing. But then our hero sees that also surrounding him are treasure and weapons; Glorg's favorite things! Striking out with his mighty stick of bashing and shield of blocking, Glorg heads out to explore. Will Glorg ever see the light of the surface again? That's up to you! You control Glorg just by clicking the left mouse button. The green circle next to Glorg will tell you what will happen when you click; it's used to explore areas, loot treasure, walk, and, most importantly, fight.

Battle is real-time, so you'll need to pay attention to the prompts that appear on your green circle. Click when it says "Block" or you'll take damage. You can click fast to attack rapidly, or you can hold down the button to charge up a powerful attack, which has a chance of stunning an enemy if it hits. If you defeat your enemy, you'll not only earn EXP, but you'll also occasionally get treasure that you can use to purchase portals. Portals let you skip levels if you die, so you'll learn to love them fast. As you explore, you'll uncover new areas in the dungeon; you can't choose the direction Glorg moves when presented with multiple paths, unfortunately, but if he runs into a dead end he'll simply head back the way he came.

Analysis: Since the release of One Button Bob earlier this year, platform developers have tended towards increasing innovation with ultra-streamlined control schemes, but Glorg is the first time I've seen this kind of simplified structure applied to an RPG framework. Reducing any genre to minimalism is going to come off as perhaps overly artistic, but fortunately, Glorg, with its adorable aesthetic, humorous asides, and sense of dreaminess, is as entertaining as it is experimental.

Naturally, streamlining a genre can mean sacrificing quite a bit: in this case, story, customization, and any sense of non-linearity. And I don't mean it's "linear in the sense of "it only has one ending." I mean linear. Lin-E-Ar. Super-Linear. Ultra-Linear. The kind of linearity that would cause a straight line to say "Boy howdy, that's linear!". It turns out removing most aspects of the control scheme really limits player-freedom. If you've ever wondered whether Nethack could be reduced to a series of quick-time events, wonder no more.

Of course, ultra-linear quick-time-event-based games can be quite entertaining, if often repetitive (...I'm looking at you, Dragon's Lair), and by removing the illusion of choice, Glorg allows for a subtle parody of most RPG player behavior. For instance, at first I found it frustrating that Glorg always took the most circuitous path through the dungeon, never finding a staircase until he had explored all the rooms. Then I realized: when crawling through an RPG dungeon, and having barely explored it before finding the staircase to the next level, does any self-respecting gamer immediately take it? Of course not! The designer wouldn't have included the other rooms if they didn't contain some awesome loot! So every room ends up explored anyways. Likewise, I thought it a little strange that you had no say over what weapon Glorg used. Then I remembered that 95% of the time the only thing you ask about a found weapon in an RPG is "Is it stronger than the one I already have?", even if that means replacing your broadsword with a sharpened umbrella. Grapefrukt clearly understands the tropes and player behaviors of the RPG enough to poke fun by making them automatic.

Glorg is a unique experience. At first I was drawn in by its charming style and music. After playing a while, I thought it more than a little monotonous. Yet I kept coming back to it, using the check-points to get further and further, five minutes or so at a time. Glorg sometimes feels like a mini-game (if a high-quality one) expanded a little further than its mechanics could handle. Still, Glorg is an interesting twist on the RPG formula and quite worthy of your time.

Play Glorg

Link Dump Friday

Whether they're shedding on your carpet, peering at you distrustfully from beneath a warming rock, or vomiting on your shoe in the middle of the night so you don't discover it until you put your foot in it the following morning, there's no denying animals are rad. That's why it's a creature feature on this week's Link Dump Friday, which features all manner of animals, up to and including two birds, a fish, and two cats. Variety! Featuring avian dexterity, exploding marine life, lost kittens, and more, this week is dedicated to all the animal lovers out there.

• Temple Glider - Apparently, this bird's definition of "walk like an Egyptian" (waoooh, waooooh!) is different than ours. Press and hold the [arrow] keys in either direction to take off, and you'll gain height as long as you're flying that way. The goal is to make your way to the sarcophagus at the end of each stage, flying through glittery rings to increase your score, and not destroyed by any number of pitfalls that await. If it helps, you can pretend you're Star Fox.
  
• Squawk - Real parrots are absolutely terrifying, what with their beaks that can cut through bone and whatnot, but you'd be hard-pressed to be intimidated by the roly-poly bird in this little game of avoidance and reflexes from Nitrome. Using the pegs that pop up around the screen, help your little ball of beak and feathers roll around the screen, staying away from obstacles and collecting coins. Gosh that's cute. Almost looks as though he wouldn't rather bite of your earlobe as soon as he would look at you, doesn't he?
  
• w00t Fish - The touching, Oprah's Book List story of some chat speak, a fish, and the pink goo he wants to bathe in. Although he looks rather rubbery, the fish himself is actually fairly explosive, and bumping him against any surface results in disaster. The goal is to carefully use his rockets to propel him into the pit of pink stuff. Requiring a light touch and a lot of patience, it's an exceptionally good looking little avoider, but potentially a very frustrating one.
  
• Stray Cat - Minoto has a history of making weird, silly, and even downright baffling games, but this one tackles a very important issue; lost kittens, which is always serious business. It also involves a devil under a rain cloud, a suspicious individual, and a... uh... mole (I think) in a hard hat. Which is actually one of the most sensible things to come out of a Minoto title. Featuring the trademark charm and obscure (read: barely there) logic we all know and love, it's another short, abstract puzzle apparently designed solely to bring a grin to your face.
  
• Yura&Myu Escape 1 - Continuing our all-of-a-sudden tradition of offering escape games whenever possible with your Link Dump Friday brew, we bring you this short little gem about a pink cat who's been locked in a room because... uh... well, I don't honestly know. Although it's not translated into English, you don't actually need to read anything to be able to complete it. We're just going to go ahead and assume that the cat is actually a super secret spy cat, and was locked inside by his arch nemesis Colonel Fluffbottom. (Pink Cat to be voiced by Sean Connery, Colonel Fluffbottom to be played by Steve Buscemi.)
  

Corporate Climber

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, kid! The corporate world takes no prisoners and even you won't escape in Corporate Climber, a new platformer from PixelJAM and Adult Swim. You begin as a lowly poop-shoveler and eventually work your way up to becoming CEO of your company... meaning you're shoveling an entirely different kind of poop but making more money while doing it.

Move around with the [arrow] keys, press [X] to jump and press [Down + X] to hop down through platforms. This is a frustration platformer, so one hit will kill you and there's plenty of stuff out to do just that. The object of each floor is to get to the elevator on the opposite side of the screen, though sometimes you'll have to fulfill special conditions like firing employees to open the door.

This game features a unique layout where you climb up your company's office building floor by floor. As a result you can see the next level you'll be facing, plus certain levels will include dangers coming at you from lower floors. Even being able to see what's coming isn't much help, though; prepare to die quite a bit as you try to reach the top.

A word of warning: there's a bit of objectionable content near the end of the game, but it's nothing you wouldn't expect to see on Adult Swim. This also isn't a very long game; you can expect to be done in about fifteen to twenty minutes on your first time through. All in all, though, Corporate Climber is a solid game for anyone who enjoys frustration platformers, and the online leaderboards definitely give you incentive to keep improving your time and score.

Play Corporate Climber

In3structoTank!

Hey there, Tanky boy, flyin' in the sky so fancy free... If you're been sitting there, thinking to yourself, "This day isn't explodey enough. It could be explodier." then you might want to pay attention because this is serious business. In3structoTank! is bringing you a whole lot of arcade action as you fight to save the world from the Evil General and his legions of deadly, determined, and (might we add) highly explosive baddies. You didn't really think this one through, did you, Mister Evil General?

You (as Dirk Danger) pilot an indestructible tank. You might think that means you automatically win the game, but since the tank has no weapons of its own, you have to get creative if you want to fight back against the hordes of determined enemies. Move the tank with the [arrow] keys and steer it into enemies or bombs; explosions hurl your tank into the air, where you can guide it into enemies to make them blow up. For each enemy you destroy as you bounce through the air, your combo increases, and when you hit the ground, you'll gain EXP based on how many enemies you destroyed.

Leveling up usually causes the enemies to appear even faster, which is fairly important. Since you can't be destroyed, most levels will only end in failure if you don't complete an objective within a time limit, or if enemies succeed in theirs. Of course, even an indestructible tank needs fuel, and if that runs out, you'll blow up. And you thought gas prices were the worst thing you had to deal with! Fuel depletes slower when you make things explode, and refills completely when you level up. As you destroy enemies you fill up your BOOM bar, which can be activated when full by tapping [up] to trigger a small explosion to help you jump. You also have a nuke at your disposal, which you can activate with the [spacebar] when ready to clear the screen.

In3structoTank! isn't that different from its predecessors. Even the new leveling system and nuke don't make many changes to what is essentially the same game as before, just shinier and tweaked a bit. The standard action is still as fun and bouncy as you've come to expect, and the bosses you'll encounter in adventure mode add a welcome challenge that keeps the game from becoming too repetitive. (Yes, I just called repeated and multiple explosions "repetitive". I have officially become jaded.) While not exactly what you might call deep, In3structoTank! is fun, silly, and just what you need to relieve tension in a cruel world that doesn't actually allow you to blow people up. Life is so unfair.

Play In3structoTank!

You Are Games: Babylon Sticks Caption Contest

You can tell by the banner above that, after almost a year's hiatus, you are, once again, games! You Are Games is our way of inviting you to become a more active part of the Jay is Games community, join our little family, be a part of the team. Okay, given the nature of this edition, maybe "team" isn't as accurate as, say, "viciously competitive mob of chaos." But who cares? It'll be fun anyway.

We're offering up a caption contest, but you wouldn't expect us to do a caption contest like any other web site, would you? Of course you wouldn't. You can go anywhere to see adorable baby animals or politicians in uncomfortable situations. When you do a caption contest here at JIG, you're going to do it for an original comic drawn by our very own James Francis, creator of the excellent Babylon Sticks.

Simply submit your funny bone tickling, game related captions to this Halloween themed comic in the comments section below using a Casual Gameplay account (we'll contact the winner via the email address you have in it, so make sure it's up to date). You'll have until 11:59PM (GMT-5:00) on Monday the 25th to submit the best one-liners you can come up with, the more the merrier. And remember to keep your entries game related! We'll choose one winner to become the official caption for the finished Babylon Sticks comic next Thursday!

Just a few things to keep in mind before you stun us all with your comedic genius. Don't forget that this is a family friendly site, so please refrain from profanity and do your best to keep it clean. Also, the boys in legal tell me I have to inform you that:

• All entries submitted to this contest become the property of Casual Gameplay.
• You must be at least 13 years of age to enter.
• Void where prohibited.

Finally, we'll contact the winner via email once the final decision has been made. With all the boring fineprinty stuff out of the way, you can now turn on the funny switch and open the laugh sluices. Immortality awaits!