Adventure

Adventurous puzzle game

Many puzzle games fall into the trap of becoming repetitive and boring. You play them for a while, and they're fun, but eventually they're just not that interesting or challenging. Jewel Island solves this problem by making puzzle-solving part of a larger journey; you're not just solving puzzles for their own sake, but to move to the next step in the search for treasure.

The object of Jewel Island is to solve progressively more difficult puzzles in order to move to different points on a treasure map, eventually reaching the treasure and winning the game. We've … Read more

Download Tales of Monkey Island (PC), Chapter 1, free

If you like adventure games, monkeys, and/or free stuff, today's your lucky day. LucasArts is offering a free download of Tales of Monkey Island - Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal.

This offer is good today only, and the clock is already ticking, so hurry up lest ye miss yer chance, ye, um, scurvy dog.

(Did I mention today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? That's LucasArts' impetus for the freebie. But I'm going to restrain myself from going all yo-ho-ho on you. Try to, anyway.)

If the name Monkey Island doesn't ring … Read more

Impressive screensaver

While Skeleton Adventures is technically a screensaver, it could more accurately be described as a minimovie. It tells the story of Sly Slim, a mischievous skeleton, in a series of 13 scenes. A series of different endings keeps users guessing after repeated viewings, making this way more entertaining than the average screensaver. The quality of Skeleton Adventures makes it far and away the best screensaver we've ever seen.

The program's graphics are quite impressive, with high-quality 3D renderings. Users are transported into the spooky cemetery where Sly Slim lives (or should we say, "resides"), and just … Read more

EA to take Sims 3 on new adventures

Sims players will soon be able to journey to countries such as China and Egypt, search for hidden treasures, and meet fellow Sims along the way.

Electronic Arts announced Monday that it's developing the first expansion pack for its popular Sims 3 game. The new pack, Sims 3 World Adventures, will take players on a journey to real-world locales, says EA, from ancient tombs in Egypt to romantic getaways in France. While trekking across the globe, players can take on new challenges, develop different skills, and interact with other Sims.

"We're thrilled with the global success of … Read more

Five classic adventure games that need to be rereleased as digital downloads

It used to be that playing classic, out-of-print PC games required you to find shady download sites or old dusty retail boxes on eBay, then hope that your ancient Windows 3.1 game would work under XP or Vista.

One of the most welcome recent developments in gaming is the relatively sudden availability of a huge back catalog of classic games, across multiple platforms.

Like classic films finally being released on DVD, you can now play great (and not-so-great) games from the '80s and '90s via the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, as well as on your PC … Read more

More than a matching game

StoneLoops! of Jurassica is a fun and smartly designed arcade puzzle game, a refreshing, prehistoric-themed take on the now-classic rolling-colored-ball-shooter genre. Fans of similar games will immediately recognize the gameplay: you have to shoot colored balls into a winding column of slowly advancing balls, trying to match three or more of the same color in a row to destroy those balls--ideally setting up chain reactions ("chains") of other nearby matches. In StoneLoops, you move left and right while shooting from the bottom of the screen, with several controls to choose from that incorporate tilt, touch, and touch-screen buttons. … Read more

Adventure classic Myst makes iPhone debut

Everything old is new again. Myst for iPhone and iPod Touch puts one of the best-selling computer games of all time into the palm of your hand. It's in the App Store now for $5.99.

If you're too young to remember Myst (in which case I hate you), it's a first-person graphical adventure that's not unlike dropping into the middle of "Lost." You find yourself on a deserted island (or is it?) filled with mysterious objects, machines, puzzles--maybe even a hatch or two.

The iPhone version looks just like its PC predecessor, from … Read more

Turn the world upside down

And Yet It Moves is a cleverly designed, rule-breaking 2D platformer game in which you rotate the entire game world (basically, changing the orientation of gravity) while moving through increasingly complex levels and solving environmental puzzles. The game's interface is very simple: key commands let you move left, right, and jump, as well as rotate the game world 180 or 90 degrees, clockwise or counterclockwise--and you often have to time your avatar's movement precisely with the world's movement, as you navigate through tight passageways, walk off (and then onto and under) precipices, and avoid falling objects. In … Read more

DSiWare, WiiWare, and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week adds more downloads for the DSi, a party pirate game to WiiWare, and a Sega Genesis remake of the Pitfall series. DSiWare Mixed Messages (Activision, 500 DSi Points): Mixed Messages is a party game all about communication. Play along with up to 21 different users in the game of "telephone" for your DSi. Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games (Nintendo, 200 DSi Points): The Master of Illusion series continues with Shuffle Games. This mini game will allow you to predict what your audience is thinking! WiiWare Party Fun Pirate (TOMY Corporation, 500 Wii points): Exchange turns … Read more