Flash Games Reviews / Compendium

Introduction

I have a working theory that there is a spectrum of art disciplines that fall in between two major categories: money before medium and medium before money. Now, this scale does not have direct correlations on how good the art is (except for fashion, fashion is the worst), but sometimes you can kinda just tell. Look at a game that I adore, Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong is beautiful and entertaining, but this is with a modern lens, in 1983 I would have paid 25 cents (~85 cents today) for a chance to play just one round. Old arcade games have a lot of beauty and love put into them, but you cannot forget that the point of the arcade game was to have you waste away your weekly allowance.

I was raised on flash games. Probably not the golden age, but perhaps the second most notable boom from 2009-2012. I spent a lot of time on miniclip, playing their main collection (although, I did not play shooters I was always too afraid to venture into newgrounds or the like because of the percieved violence that I was not allowed to engage with at such a young age (fair)). Some games I will look into will be from my favorites of days past, but I am currently open to taking reccomendations, because I do feel like I missed out on a lot of the notable flash games. But to connect these two paragraphs, Flash games are a little about the money (there are ad breaks in many of them) but overall it is about as independant and free-form as it could possibly be, at least compared to a time when EA bought out NFL rights to monopolize football video games, and new xbox 360 games cost about $50 a pop. Good games! Often fleshed out and made with love! but not free!

I have free time at work, and I have realized that I can focus pretty easily on these flash games, which is nice in a time when I feel like I have trouble focusing on literally anything at all. At the end of the day, yes maybe I could be more productive in other ways (read more, write more, learn french for reading, sneak my laptop to the front and make ambient) but I will write this experience off as a cultivation of artistic merits of independant gaming, and I now seem to be very in touch with the vox populi. Let me know if you think I rated something too low, I probably did. ALL ART IS GOOD IF YOU GIVE IT ENOUGH TIME!


Duck Life

STATUS:
completed

Duck Life is the first installment in, well, the duck life series. Compared to later entries (which will obviously be expanded upon) it is relatively simple: you train the flying running and swimming, you get to level 150, and then you beat the super duck or whatever. At work, I played this game twice, and I loved it. You can beat it in less than 20 minutes if you know what you're doing. The flying minigame takes no skill at all, but it is entertaining to see the bars go up. I find that I love incrimental progress games like this, because they scratch a certain itch and I feel like I can focus on them with a lot of ease, as opposed to most other things.

★★★★


Duck Life 2

STATUS:
completed

NOT an improvement on the game as a whole, hot take. Certain minigames are better (flying, mainly) but the running one literally blocks your progress to a point, like I was unable to jump past. The incrimental buying of levels was also annoying for me. I think food is nerfed like crazy in this one, so buying energy feels unneccesary. I am also not huge on any of the customizations, but they were all free on my unblocked one? So what's the point of the money at alL? I liked the countries skins, at least. Also played this one twice but it was more annoying. I am a sucker for the climbing minigame

★★★


Duck Life 3

STATUS:
completed

The evolution concept is alright, but fundementally the same game as the other two (who is shocked?) what it lacks in originality it makes up for in progressive minigames for the skills, which I like. Would play it over 2 for sure.

★★★½


Duck Life 4

STATUS:
not completed


Raft Wars

STATUS:
completed

When i was like eight years old, I LOVED raft wars. Playing now I am certain I never made it past level four. Even back then, I would find myself in a loop of liking the idea of something more than the thing itself. The game is not very forgiving to mistakes in the later rounds, but you can beat it in like a half hour so this hardly matters. The charicatures are very 2007 in the sense that the only seemingly black guys are referred to as "thugs" and there are asian characters who throw ninja stars. Ends before it begins, but I was ready to be done after the pain in the ass penultimate round. The storyline at the end made me chuckle at work, at least

★★★


Learn to Fly

STATUS:
basically completed

Games like this thrive from a good balance of complete-ability and payoff when you're moving your little fuckin bird around the screen and getting points, or whatever. This was decent but I spent like 20 minutes trying to reach 6000 feet and could not even come close, even with everything unlocked, so I gave up. Other than that, pretty worthwhile. Thanks for the rec charlie.

★★★½


Learn to Fly 2

STATUS:
completed

Improves on the predecessor overall, except I thought they went a little too crazy on upgrades, especially when the base style items were clearly better than the spring or whatever. The achievement system and bonus point allocation make this one more engaging to spend time with.

★★★½


Into Space

STATUS:
completed

I love the art style on this one. The game itself looks normal but I love that creepy ass scientist man. Played some of two but then decided to go back to basics. The achievement system is alright, but not as fleshed out. The progression is a little slow but the gameplay itself is very rewarding, especially when you can finally make it past the space tier. I am a sucker for incrimental games like this.

★★★★


Into Space 2

STATUS:
completed

Improves on the first one in every functional way: more gratifying to complete, more rewarding to maneuver, more achievements, missions that add another dimension to the game, a section of the game that takes place in space. I have like four missions before I 100% the game. Absolutely glued to the screen for this one, I was imagining the slow day in front of me yesterday, with fields of "into space 2" ahead. boredring on a 5 star flash game genuinely.

★★★★½


Skywire

STATUS:
completed

you know, honestly, not QUITE as good as I made it out to be in my mind. Don't get me wrong, still a perfectly excellent game, but felt very bare bones compared to what all those colors meant to me when I was seven years old. levels are interesting, but many can be beaten with certain navigations of losing passengers on purpose. the last level was butt booty hard but I eventually got it.

★★★★


Skywire 2

STATUS:
completed

I got through level fifteen before realizing that the point of skywire is not to beat it entirely, it is to get a high score, which differs from a lot of other flash games I have been playing over the last couple of weeks. This means that the game is kind of easy when you allow yourself to lose all your passengers and try again, as opposed to high scores which are far more rewarding, but dont stack when you fail. I wish it had a monkey ball like system of continues. The levels are clearly better than the first game, and I remember this one way more than the other one. I don't think I ever got passed level 21 in childhood. Wish they made a third.

★★★★

to be played: