Category: Games

HEX EMPIRE is a Risk-like strategy game, where the object is to destroy your three computer opponents and take over their capital cities.

Unlike RISK, each map is randomly generated, which tends to keep the game fresh.  At the beginning of the game, you select which of the four capitals you want to defend.  Your capital, and every other city under your power, will automatically generate new armies each turn.

Each turn, you can move up to five army units.  You can move a unit up to two spaces away from their current location (either to an empty space or to initiate a fight by moving onto an enemy-occupied position), you can combine units into a larger single unit, or you can move units onto or off of a boat if you would like to attack by sea.

Each unit can grow up to 99 strength. There is also a secondary number associated with each unit: courage.  You will win a fight if your strength is higher than your opponents’, but if the opponents have more courage than your units have, then you may find yourself in trouble.

The gameplay is fairly straightforward, but there is a little strategy involved with how to best use your five moves each turn.  You’ll often find yourself with a bounty of 99-sized units sitting in the back of your defense area, but not enough moves to get them where they can be useful in a fight.

Still, if you’re looking for a few minutes of diversion, it’s a good implementation of a turn-based strategy game.  Each game can take up to 20 minutes or so to play.

DISINFECT THE CORE is a quick little brain teaser/game that should keep you occupied for a few minutes over your lunch hour.

Your opponent is the red “virus” that has infected the computer’s core.  You are the green “antivirus” trying to prevent the red virus from taking over the 300+ spaces on the game board.

Each turn, all you have to do is click on one of your arrows.  The arrow will rotate clockwise 90 degrees, changing its connection from one dot to the next.  You can only click on arrows of your own color (neutral or opponent arrows won’t move for you).  Every connection you make has the potential of expanding your green influence across the game board – but remember, red is doing the same thing with its arrows.

If you run out of green arrows to click on, or if the gameboard turns completely red, then you have lost.

Strategy?  Make sure you always have an arrow or two pointed 90 degrees away from the red infection.  That way, you won’t waste a turn or two merely rotating an arrow into position.

Totem Destroyer 2

TOTEM DESTROYER 2 is a Flash puzzler that asks you to destroy different types of blocks in such a way that the golden idol will land on the final black block.

Some blocks are normal, some explode things around them, while others want to follow their own laws of physics. 

The nice thing about this game is that it resets each level for you automatically, so you don’t have to continually go back to the level menu to select your starting place.  And if your idol starts to fall the wrong way, you can just press R to instantly reset the level.  It’s a good game design for puzzles of this type, as it helps to eliminate that do-over frustration that some puzzles have.