Flash game news:McPixel

Sorry for not being here last week, wieners; a failed hard drive is bad luck, but two failed hard drives is just plain crappy. Still haven’t gotten that fixed yet, but luckily I was able to borrow my bro’s laptop to give you this edition of FGF.

On tap for today? A few short-but-sweet games featuring action, exploration, and a little bit of terror.

Hollow

Hollow is an eerie platformer by Connor Ullmann that proves that simplicity and bare essentials can create the most effective atmosphere. You appear to be some robot-ghost thing that’s stuck underground with nothing but himself as a light source, and he must jump and headbutt his way through twenty levels.

The creative level design makes for some challenging platform elements as well; you’ll have to use the right combination of jumps and headbutts to get to certain platforms, all while avoiding enemies. You’ll probably blow through it in one sitting like I did, but it’s most certainly a good ride while it lasts. Check it out here.

Reprisal

To call Reprisal a full game would be a lie; in its current beta state only two brief islands are available for play. However, there’s a lot of game in those short moments, to the point where I can’t wait for the full version. I’m normally not a fan of god games, but this one has just enough old-school charm and casual-yet-deep gameplay mechanics to keep me interested.

You’ll control a small village and have them settle on other lands, while attacking other villages and taking over their settlements. Additionally, since you are a god, you have various abilities that’ll alter the landscape, such as terraforming, inserting and removing bodies of water, and creating fires. The beta version doesn’t show much, but it shows more than enough to keep me entertained on a bored work day.Play it here.

McPixel

McPixel may be the briefest game of them all, but it might take you a fair amount of time to actually finish. An obvious riff on MacGuyver, it’s a simple point-and-click adventure that consists of six separate puzzles, each involving a dangerous situation to defuse. It is a mini game, You only get 20 seconds to finish each, and fail or succeed, you’ll move onto the next scenario. This continues until all puzzles are solved, and if you find all the possible endings to each, you’ll get a special bonus ending.

The charm is strong with this one, and all the puzzles are so obtuse, you’ll be chuckling at the solutions, rather than being frustrated at the difficulty. It doesn’t take too long to get the final ending, as all the outcomes are definitely worth seeing.