Wokaysssss... time for some demolishing work! Time to put yourselves into the shoes of a bangla worker.... Have you felt like destroying buildings?! Then this the game for you.

The objective??

Rubble Trouble is a fun, online, building-basher game with the use of the click alone. Its objective is to bring down each structure on every level so that you'd get enough amount of cash for the next level.

You'll be given different kinds of tools to work with at every succeeding level to make it more interesting. Examples of these are nitro bombs, missiles, canons, helicopters with canon balls and even C-grabbers (you'll have to try it out if you don't know what are C-grabbers)!

Some of the tools have limited use because they are more expensive while some are given at your disposal. If you manage to bring the building down and hit the target amount of cash (each time you destroy a part of the building, you earn $$$), you move on to the next level. If you fail, then time to try again.

WHAT is compelling about this game?

1) Simple and straightforward - No complicated storyline, no mess, just a get-on-with-it game that's easy to understand, easy to relate to and simple to play.

2) Aesthetics - The design of the game is cute and quirky. Characters, background and assets all match up pleasantly with just about enough details. Nothing too extravagant.

3) Rules - The rules in this game are not a lot but not too many either. There's the time factor in which you need to complete each level by a stipulated time (note: timer running on the right). Certain tools can perform only a certain type of task so it doesn't mean you'll win all the time. There's a limitation on each tool. Basically the rules enhance the game play.

4) Level Design - Each level provides you with a suitable amount of challenges. After you proceed on to the next stage, the task escalates gently.


FLAWS?

Hmmmmmmm okay lah it's not exactly realistic - the way the buildings are demolished. But I guess it's okay for me! But other than that, it's cool!


Wokays.. moving on... some graphics!

Start!


Choose a level. As you can see, I'm on level 9, hehe.


There's also a storyline along the way... and tutorials on how you are supposed to use the tools






If you hover over a certain tool, a brief description will pop up














Once you get enough money, you move on!



Drill tool



Canon tool



Helicopter tool





All in all.... it's a fun game! Go try!
HERE

Pixel Pop

Website: http://www.nitrome.com/games/pixelpop/
Developer: Nitrome
Genre: Casual, Rhythm game
Platform: PC, Mac

Pixel pop is a point and click, rhythm-based game, illustrated in pixel art. They uses bright colours and retro soundtrack theme which remind me of games in the 80s. There are 4 stages + 1 ( combine of the previous 4 stages) of mini game in each of the 3 levels.

How to play?
The rules are simple, just click and follow the beat, the instruction and the short story is given at the start of the game, which I always fail to reads and prefer to explore the game play myself which is also quite easy. Later in the game, it gets more challenging as you point and click, double click or press and release the mouse while trying to follow the beat.

Gameplay

Like any rhythm-based game, the initial play is always not easy, as you are new to the beat, following the beat is hard. Later when I go more into the game, I realize that without the sound i can still rely on the visual to play, which I felt it failed the purpose as a rhythm game, perhaps the sound track is to accompany the visual to make the game more interesting.

Why am I attracted to it?

Visual
The animation is funny and the use of bright colours make it a good cheerful causal game.

Audio
The sound track used in Pixel Pop started off with an easy and catchy rhythm until the middle part, a change in the beat kinda screw up the rhythmic pattern I had in mind but I guess its this kind of challenge that keeps me playing. And everytimes when you hit the beat, the character give out a funny squeak which I find it abit entertaining.

Overall
This is still a good causal game to play when you are too bored or feeling down haha

Screenshot

Game: Metal Slug X

Platform: ps,psp,pc and arcade (quite a lot of plaform)

Developer: SNK

What is it?

It is a highly action packed game whereby player has to constantly killing enemies and awaiting for more new enemies(monsters, soldiers, aircrafts etc) to appear to fight on. It is a play which requires lots of skills to control the character. In the game, player can choose one to use from the 4 characters(Marco,Tarma,Eri and Fion) at the start of the game. Personally i like to use Tarma as my character.There is no special difference in power of each character. Just that they are each unique personality and they will do unique animation in the game. For Tarma, this character will always smoke (which is cute) as it will smoke even it is half way fighting monster.

What i like ?

-Interaction
It is a highly action packed game whereby player has to constantly killing enemies and awaiting for more new enemies(monsters, soldiers, aircrafts etc) to appear to fight on. Animation is used effectively to show the interaction between the player and the enemies. For example, soldiers / monsters/ aircrafts are effectively animated to show that they are being hit/ destroy by the player to give a better user feedback to the player. Thus, effective animation is used to enhance the interaction between the player and the enemies.
In addition, player can find and obtain weaponry upgrades/ machines/ transport throughout the game whereby they can use these special items to fight against the enemies. Great variety of items (weaponry upgrades/ machines/ transport) can be pick up by the players make the game a more interesting one as player can use these items and see how it benefits them. Thus the collectables makes this game into a more explorative game whereby player will play the game in order to explore new weaponry items.

-Challenging level
It is a game which requires great control of the character in order to finish the whole game with the given life given. The placement of the enemies is carefully though of whereby there will be a spur of enemies charging at the player at certain time of the game. This poses a challenge for the player to be able to fight against the enemies and be able to break through this chaos. In addition, the player will meet different unique boss at the end of each mission (stage). Player then has to figure out how to beat the boss and at the same time avoid the endless and merciless attacks by the boss. In this game, it requires good coordination of the hand and eye of the player in order to win this game. Thus, this game is highly addictively as players will aim to win this highly challenging game.

-Competition
This game can either be player individually or in pairs. Players can work together to fight against the enemies by cooperating seamlessly in their movements. At the same time, players can complete with each other in this game. For example, Players can complete with the number of the POW (Prisoner of war) they can rescued in each mission. Scores will be given to both players based on the number of the POW they had rescued and the lives the players had left at the end of each mission. Thus competition pushes players to complete with each other and it urges them to continue playing the game in order to win one another.

Platform wise?

The first time i played this game is on a pc.Personally i do not like playing it on a pc as i find it quite hard to control the keys movement. I feel this kind of action packed game should be played on joss stick(controller). Perhaps it is due to the arrangement of the keys on the joss controller that make it more comfortable to control.

Life Limit?
I play another metal slug series on a ps and one can choose the life limit to UNLIMITED.

YES!!! This game is seriously VERY hard and challenging. If you want to complete this game, either you have very good skills( limited life) OR you have unlimited life where you can heck-care shotting the enemies and heck-care being dying. The acrade has this game and one REALLY have to spend a lot ot money to complete this game (someone like me). Though this game is highly hard, i find this game addictive and will play it again and again( in a unlimited life mode,of course).

The Sims 3

Website: The Sims 3
Publisher: EA Play
Developer: EA Black Box, Visceral Games
Genre: Simulation
Platform: PC, Mac

After reviewing a bunch of bite-size games, I thought it's time I attempted a commercial game. Back when I actually have time to play games, The Sims was one of my favorite time wasters. I played the first and the second game, now I have the third game in the series and I've got swanky green bling to show for it (i.e. the thumb drive)! I'm clearly not the only fan -- The Sims has garnered an enormous fan base as well as a dedicated modding community, which is a sure-tell sign of a game's success. So what is it that is so compelling about The Sims?

Something compelling... there...

If you've never heard of The Sims, it's a game of simulated life. It's a sandbox game -- instead of playing towards a goal, you simply make up your own goals and your own narrative, even. The player controls a family of Sims, simulated people who listen to your every bidding. If you choose not to control their actions, they act on their own. Like in real life, your Sim could make a meal, have a night out in town with friends, work for a job promotion, settle down and make a family, and many others. Also not unlike real life, your Sim has needs to fulfill and there's rent to pay.

"Picnics mean no dirty dishes to wash. I don't eat at home anymore."

There isn't a "best" way to play the game but if you fulfill your Sim's Wishes (such as going on a date or eating a bowl of mac and cheese), you have more points to spend on Lifetime Happiness rewards, perks that improve your Sim in various ways. A Sim with the Steel Bladder attribute won't have to worry about peeing in his or her pants whereas an Attractive Sim gets a lot of glances in their direction. Then,you could work on your Sim's skills are not only necessary for job promotions but are also useful for hobbies like gardening or fishing. At the peak of your Sim's career, there's is no shortage of cash. When you've turned your Sim into a multimillionaire with a huge mansion filled with designer furniture and made friends with the entire town, what's there left to do?

"Blue phallic sea monsters? Not in my town!"

You could start a family, watch your little Sim babies grow up and repeat the cycle. You could explore the local crypt, become the best cook in town, find the secret to everlasting life (yes, it exists), break a few hearts, become a rockstar, design a Frank Gehry-inspired masterpiece of a building, feed your pet piranha named Pooch, catch a burglar, sculpt a bodybuilder's physique at the gym, punch your arch-nemesis, buy out the local hospital, join in a protest against mysterious sea monsters, steal candy from a baby -- the possibilities are many... but not endless. Eventually you'll play out every possible interaction and then you're left wondering: what's next?

"I could do this all day."

Well, this is perhaps what makes a Sims game so compelling. You could wake in the morning, go to work, come home to your loving family. Or you could commit arson, kick your neighbour's trash can then sleep over at a lover's place. There is a lot of freedom to create your own narrative and huge internet communities have been formed for this purpose. Mod The Sims is a website and forum where anyone could share and download user-created content for their Sims game, ranging from custom eye colors and makeup to beautiful villas and even new objects with hacked behaviors, such as a voodoo lamp that could deliver a fast and painful death to any Sim of your choosing. You could then download Paris Hilton and put her in your game where you film a movie, directing her through a series of unfortunate events eventually leading to her demise. This process of film making with games is known as machinima. The trending popularity of this has not eluded the makers of the Sims -- with Sims 3, anyone could upload the movies they created in-game to the official website. This has resulted in some creative storytelling efforts (but mostly terrible ones). The point is that the experience of creating something of your own is extremely satisfying, whether it's making a short film or hacking a coffee maker object to make it talk. You might have played the entire game inside out but you are only limited by your own imagination when it comes to playing in the sandbox.

"I think Daddy just left me a huge inheritance!"

What's more, the amount of customization in the game is staggering. The wardrobe of clothing by itself has a disappointing selection but every part of the clothing could be customized with a different pattern and color. This also applies to the floor tiles and most of the objects in the game. If you ever want to live in a world with only pink in it, you could. The game allows you to put in your own music which could be played on the radio in-game. The Sim also has customizable physical attributes so you could create your dream man or lady. Something I thought is very interesting is the use of thought and speech bubbles in Sim-to-Sim interaction and Simlish. Simlish sounds like a foreign language that makes no sense. It actually doesn't because it's entirely made up! The speech seems to be intentionally designed to be abstract so that users can fill in their own dialogue. This works extremely well because most of us have a story in mind and making the game narrative explicit will really ruin it for us. For those who are familiar with the Tale of Genji scroll, the pictorial scroll portrays the character's faces in a generic abstract style so that the viewer could fill in with their own images of the characters. Likewise in the Sims, if my Sim burns her omelette, I could interpret it as her being a really awful cook or I could pretend that she's intentionally making a charred meal for her two-timing douche bag of a husband.

"You give me the red crayon now or you'll be playing by yourself in that oven."

"Who, indeed! Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?"

The Sims 3 is a step up from its predecessors in many ways. The graphics are better and the game loads really smoothly. Previously, the gameplay is often interrupted by long loading times as your Sim moves from one place to another but this has been replaced with a vast seamless world where your Sims can move around with much ease. Also, the implementation of the Story Progression feature means that other Sims age with your controlled Sims, allowing for continuity in the narrative of the town as a whole. It's not always great though. For some reason, your neighbors have very low metabolism and hate exercise so the next time Aunt Martha comes around, you might have to widen your front door to let her in. The same wacky humor of the previous games are also present in The Sims 3. You might witness enemies engaging in slap fights, full-grown men playing tag and prancing about the sprinklers, ghosts in the house looking for a night snack, etc.

Get off my lawn!

For all the things they got right, there are still parts of the game that leaves much to be desired. Let's start with the appearance of the Sims. They are downright hideous and it takes a great deal of tweaking in the character creation screen to make them look halfway decent. Unfortunately, this means you're the only good looking Sim in a town full of deformed noses and double chins. Worse still, they are look the same even with that many options for customization.

Needs more anatomy. (Yes, that's a dude.)

Actions have little consequences in the Sim world unlike in real life and that's where it becomes less compelling to play. Most objects in the game serve basic needs like hygiene and hunger and they lack a certain "meaning" to them. It would be interesting to see objects having an effect on the Sims (other than the rather bland Mood level). Come to think about it, I often play the game like this: A beautiful Sim seduces someone with a happy family and destroys everyone's lives. There are several mysterious deaths later and new graves in my Sim's home. It's more fun to play this way because there are obvious consequences resulting from your actions. The thing is when it comes down to it, The Sims 3 is a family game and there is no way the game designers are gonna make it anymore "real" than it is.

"That child eats too much. I knew we should have gotten a dog instead!"

So it seems that the "best" way to play the Sims 3 is to play it like a sandbox game: create a narrative with your imagination and puppet your Sims to realize your story. Children do this all the time when they play with Lego bricks or dolls. The camera in the game allows you to take snapshots or videos to share your stories with fellow gamers. It's unfortunately badly designed which is a pity because it's the best feature of the game.

"And for my next trick, I'm gonna make those shorts disappear!"

A feature that could really change and improve the playing experience is to implement multiplayer. Imagine having your Sim go over to a (real life) friend's place interacting with his Sims. Actions are determined by the players instead of being hard coded into the game. A human aspect creates an experience that is social, dynamic and exciting. Of course, it could turn into a disaster if you have assholes for friends who think it'd be funny to build walls around the pool your Sim is swimming in so that he inevitably drowns.

What burglar actually dresses like that?

The Sims appeal to the basic need in all of us to imagine and to create. Because of this, the game is compelling to even the most casual gamer. It plays on something that people could relate to. Where in real life, we are bound by rules set by society; in the game setting, we are free to act our fantasies and escape. This is perhaps why the games in The Sims series are such a commercial success.

One last witty quote! Ah... nope, I ran out.

-- Benjamin

Oh yeah, thats right! Who have not played this game must have been a loser of the lowest order! Period.
One of the epic games of all times. Need i say more?? Oh ya i do have to say more, else he who must not be named would unleash hell as u know it.

What is it?
It is a series of fighting games, developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own special moves, against one another.

Gameplay
Street Fighter was the first one-on-one fighting game to give players a choice from a variety of player characters with different moves, an option which created hitherto unknown levels of depth and replay value for an arcade game. Each player character had a fighting style with approximately 30 or more moves (including previously nonexistent grappling moves such as throws) as well as two or three special attacks per character.

In the single-player mode, the player's chosen character is pitted sequentially against the seven other main characters before confronting the final four 'boss' opponents, who were CPU-controlled characters not selectable by the player.

As in the original, a second player could join in at any point during single player mode and compete against the other player in competitive matches, with the multiple available characters allowing for more varied matches.

Why i loved it?
Another such game that i grew up playing with. Yeah, i know i'm a sucker for these old school games. I cant help it. It really reminds me of the good old games. The kick you get from unleashing combos worthy of a guiness record and at the same time garnering an edge against your friends. Forcing his ego down his throat. That kinda moment which makes gaming inevitably one of the most orgasmic things in life.

ClickPLAY2
www.ninjadoodle.com

This is one of those games where you will spend at most an hour completing it. It is a visual puzzle game, where, as the captions on the splash screen aptly puts it, the objective of the game is to 'point, click & drag to find the PLAY button!', 'Once you got it, click it to move on to the next level!'. There are a couple dozen levels that
the player will encounter, and have to solve.

The game is simple. There is a 'play' button, similar to the icon in any VCR/CD/DVD players, and you have to find it. The first thing that struck me was the simple rules of the game. In every level, there is an element that can be interacted with: the sun, the clouds, buttons, even inconspicuous looking screws. Once you have found the first asset that can be clicked on, the rest of the game should be relatively simple to solve. There is no clue for each level, and so players have to guess how the level works. For instance, there is a level where 3 ropes are presented. When the player drags the rope, he will find that the rope is tied to an item. Of course, the 'play' button is tied to one of the three ropes. I like how the game designer makes use of real life knowledge to design the levels. For instance, the 4th level called 'Mikado' is basically a version of 'pick up sticks'. The clue to each level, is then the player's daily observations and experiences in real life. However, there is the drawback of the user not having been exposed to a particular set of experiences, be it cultural or economic reasons, and thus may not fully appreciate the level design, may not get the 'clue', and be stuck in a level.

Art style and presentation of the game is really really interesting. I like minimal design, and some levels rank pretty high in that aspect, as can be seen in the screenshots. The lack of other assets allow the game designer to direct the player's attention to the stuff which are most important. The entire game is in black-and-white as well, and adds to the effect. The entire game is presented in simple geometric shapes, but with a cartoony feel to it. I like it that way.

Music is interesting, has a jumpy jazzy feel to it. It is professionally done, with proper real instruments layered over each other, unlike some games which uses synthesized tracks. The music is looped over the entire game, which is a drawback, but I guess it would be too much to ask for multiple soundtracks in that game.

One of the major drawbacks of the game is that the user HAS to use a proper mouse to play the game, instead of using the trackpad. Although most levels can be solved with the trackpad, there are a couple time-based levels which are horribly difficult to pass unless a proper mouse is used. I was unable to pass those levels when I played it with my laptop and had to frustratingly find my mouse so that I could complete the game. I managed to beat those horrendous levels with my mouse on the 2nd try.

Rating: 8/10

Tim.