TEKK

Blacksmith Lab'

'Blacksmith Lab' is a clicker game, but though it does have an idle mode, you are best served when you are actively playing it. You own a smithy, and your goal is to make things, fill orders and upgrade your smith so you can upgrade and fill more orders.

All the while there are other things going on in the world, like thieves that steal your money, investments you can make in town, gifts you can receive and so on. The more you actively play, the more you can do things like put out literal fires in your forge or take advantage of lower risk investments at the bank but you can't do those things if you are just forging idly in the background.

Kongregate's Best Games of 2015

These weekly wastes of precious time are incredibly fun for me to seek out and enjoy long enough to put forth a decent review, whether that involves playing games, watching a YouTube series or finding that odd webpage.

One of my favorite Flash game sites is Kongregate. Some people don't like to play games on sites I do. For me, playing on my work computer, when I play on a site like Kongregate, Armor Games or NewGrounds, I feel more secure. Additionally, they have meta-games. You can earn points, level up, get badges and, in the case of Kongregate, Kongpanions little pets that are cute. A game about playing games is nothing new. But Kongregate took it a new level with their Best of 2015, encouraging players to fill in badges they may have missed last year at the beginning of this one.

Cats are behind the invention of the internet. This global network of computers exists to look at cute pictures of cats. And boy, do we! But sometimes you want more than just looking at cats. You want to pick them up with chopsticks and drop them on adorable anthropomorphized sushi so you can win a video game!

Well, that's what you do with the Sushi Cat series. This series has just added another to its repertoire. I can't really satisfactorily explain my love for this game in a way that makes sense. I mean, if you were to think about it logically, it wouldn't wash, but dropping a bouncy blue cat on adorable sushi(s) and watching him get super-fat and bouncier is just awesome to me.

Have magic wand, will travel. Something like that. 'Paladog' is set in the far future, after humans have been eradicated from the planet. Sweet little animals have been beset by demons and undead minions. The only thing between the cute critters and a gruesome end is Paladog.

As Paladog, you summon brave critters to battle the forces of evil, purchase upgrades, magical weapons and rings and fight! You have to destroy your opponent's lair that allows the evil demons to spawn in your forest. Additionally, there are some puzzle levels to mix up the action.

Mochigames's latest offering combines a turn-based fighter with gem-swapping action. You can play as either Ryu, an adorable space-puppy who dishes out some Kung-fu action; or Pixel, a kitty of the future who slices and dices enemies with her claws.

The action is meted out by swapping gems, matching three of a kind will grant your avatar certain powers basic attack, power attack, healing, counter-attack or defense. If you match four of a kind you get an extra turn. Match five on a corner and you get a black hole that sucks in surrounding gems and allows you to use all it hits (it makes sense when you do it, and it's awesome). And if you match five in a row you get a rainbow black hole and allows you to take all gems of that color off the board.