The Arcade: A Monthly Roundup of Freeware Games (April 2008)

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When I was in college, there was an enormous uproar when late night comedian David Letterman left NBC, and moved his show to CBS. Everyone wondered whether the show would be the same. Would he be able to maintain what he had started? CBS was a different environment and culture. Would the David Letterman formula work there? Of course, we know now that he thrived at CBS.

Why am I telling you this? Well, longtime readers know that this is not the first installment of The Arcade. I created this feature over at Just Another Mobile Monday, where I published and refined it for well over a year. When I left JAMM, I determined that The Arcade was something special that I wanted to take with me wherever I might land. Obviously, Patrick was kind enough to agree.

So, here I am. After a brief hiatus, I am bringing my show to My Today Screen (though technically I suppose, this whole dang site is my show…but you know what I mean.)

For those of you who followed The Arcade over at JAMM, welcome back. For you newcomers, let me explain how this works. Each month, I scour the web, searching for free games. There are a lot out there and finding good ones is rarely a problem. Then, at the end of each month (on my calendar, it falls on the fourth Sunday), I post a roundup of five free games. Of course, I do take suggestions and recommendations, so if you have a favorite, please let me know. And if you are a developer, and you have a free game available, I am happy to feature it here.

So, with all of that having been said, welcome to the first post of the second edition of The Arcade. Today, we will be looking at five fantastic games:

1. CardHue

2. ArithmeTick

3. Xump

4. Creatonia

5. Clickball

Cardhue: Once again, we find ourselves with a fantastic, free puzzle game from Jean-Francois Mainguet. Like many of Mainguet’s games, this is a grid-based puzzle game. The size of the grid changes based upon the selected difficulty level. On each of the four edges around the grid is a symbol (you can also choose to use letters or numbers). At the end of each row or column associated with that symbol, there is a number. This number tells you how many of each symbol appear in that row or column. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to place all of the symbols in the correct spaces. In addition to placing the correct number of symbols in each row or column, you must also watch for identical symbols (or blank spaces), which may not be adjacent to each other vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. This is another one of those games with deceptively simple rules, just place the symbols in the grid. But the more you play, the more complicated the game will become as you learn all of its hidden intricacies.

ArithmeTick: This is a game which I had been planning to include in The Arcade for several months. Every time I receive a newsletter from Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, there is an add included for Space Time’s free game, ArithmeTick. Seeing this ad time and again, I knew this was a game I would have to try and eventually include in The Arcade.

The concept behind this game is simple, just solve the given math problems. Put your addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills to the test with three different levels of difficulty. While some of the problems presented may appear easy, you will need to move quickly with only 30 seconds on the clock (but don’t worry, each correct answer will add time back to the clock). Despite the fact that this game was everything I hated in second grade: row after row of math problems, it is extremely addictive in its simplicity. Oh, if only Mrs. Harper could see me now.

Xump: Here is another game that ended up being much more difficult than it initially seemed. All you have to do is maneuver your ball across the track in order to destroy all of the blocks. When you begin, there will only be two different blocks:

• gray blocks which are indestructible islands
• blue blocks which are destroyed by a single touch.

Before long, however, you will encounter several more complex block types, including:

• dark blue blocks which require two touches to destroy
• arrow blocks, which will always slide you in the direction of the arrow, as soon as you touch them
• warp blocks, which will transport you to another section of the maze.

This is a game which sounds easy, but can become frustratingly difficult. Xump will have you wracking your brain for hours at a time, trying to figure out how to get that one last square and move on to the next level.

Creatonia: This is another game from Inscenic which spent most of its life as a commercial release. A few months ago, however, Inscenic announced that Creatonia would be joining Galaxy Gate and Retro Detonation as free offerings. And really, I have to applaud Inscenic for the doing so.

Creatonia is a role playing game, focused on the Great Gods Uprising Tournament, a series of physical challenges designed to crown the best of the best. You play an aging warrior, who has already achieved greatness by winning this tournament. Now, it is your focus to train the next great winner of this competition. At the beginning, your apprentice will be unskilled, making frequent mistakes. The more you advance through the game, however, the more skills and abilities your apprentice will acquire. So, select your novice pupil and get started, you have 150 levels through which to guide him along the way to victory.

Clickball: The other day, when Brian reviewed Smartbox’ Farkle, he carefully drew a distinction between two-minute games and games which will take you days, if not weeks, to complete. Clickball is the ultimate two-minute game. Each level consists of a single screen. On that screen is a bouncing white ball. All you have to do to move on is tap the white ball. Sounds easy enough. But watch out for the black balls. They will be bouncing across the screen, trying to block you. Tap one of them and it is game over. A complete game can take as little as only a few seconds. But once you start playing, you will frequently find yourself muttering, “let me give that another try. I know I can do it.” The only frustration I found was once you miss and hit a black ball, you have to start all the way back at the beginning. It would be nice if you could start from any completed level. Like most basic puzzle games, it is simple in design, complex in game play, and completely addictive.

When I left Just Another Mobile Monday, a number of our devoted readers inquired about this column. I received quite a few emails asking about The Arcade, and I have to admit, I had many of the same questions. This feature has always been a labor of love for me. I really don’t think, after all this time, that I could stand to see someone else take it over. At the same time, I was not sure whether I would be able to find a new home for it. Of course, in the end, everything worked out, and here we are with The Arcade (v1.2) at My Today Screen. I hope you enjoy playing these games as much as I enjoy finding them each month.

As always, if you have any freeware games which you would like to see me highlight in this space (or if you are a developer of free games) just send me the link via the contact form on the front page, or send an email to dsgoldring [at] mytodayscreen.com (replace the “at” with a “@”. And if you are just joining us, be sure to check out our archives both here at My Today Screen, and all of the previous editions over at Just Another Mobile Monday.

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