MELISSA is another shooter by Weva which configures your joypad automatically but features bland sprites and a snail pace.

Hold the X key to shoot, or press the Z key to change your weapon assuming that at least one power-up has been collected. Definitely a labor of love but one that will be overlooked by shmup veterans with an acquired taste for frantic action. A download is located right after the section which explains power-ups and their effects, while the default unzip folder is in C drive.

Name: MELISSA
Developer: Weva
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Pronounced Z-corb, Zcorb is an action game that arrived on the scene twenty years too late. A mix of Pac-Man and Qix, your objective is to collect all the chips on screen while dodging other moving objects.

Use the arrow keys to move Xippie around, and hold the shift key to accelerate. Press the O key to bring up the configuration menu when the title is shown. The download page has an online high score table that you can submit your best achievement to as well. A cncs232.dll file has to be placed in the same folder for it to run properly, fortunately it's available from the same location.

Name: Zcorb
Developer: Acoders
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Decontrologic is another short but sweet adventure game by cactus. Any clues or description would probably dilute the experience, hence no spoilers will be mentioned.

Name: Decontrologic
Developer: cactus
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

Vector is another game by that is based on an interesting concept but flawed in execution. Your ship can be moved around using the W, A, S and D keys. The player is required to draw a line in order to fire a shot, which can lead to an undesirably high number of random mouse clicks.

There's a unique boss encounter in every fifth stage, though implementing dual analog input should have been the developer's main priority. Innovation is great, but going against standard control method preferences for the sake of accomodating a streak of ingenuity will always be a risk. In this case, alienating most of the target audience and discouraging many from playing further than the first few levels.

Name: Vector
Developer: DS
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB

StarTag is a decent Thrust variation with emphasis on mini-games. Sprites and level designs are pretty enough, plus several multiplayer modes are made available for some party fun. Only four keys are required to play, with one button reserved for special moves.

Tasks include navigating mazes, collecting coins, flying through hoops, popping bubbles, avoiding bombs or being tagged by your opponents. Only three of these can be accessed in the demo.

Name: StarTag
Developer: Straylight Studios
Category: Action
Type: Demo
Size: 20MB

Bad, Bad Bots is a decent 2D platform puzzler which requires no precision jumps. Instead the player has to figure out a way to reach the exit in each stage by unlocking doors, disabling fans, activating teleporters and pushing crates amongst other actions.

The first few levels act as tutorials, providing hints and explanations on every gadget to be encountered in your journey. Another quality entry in this year's IGF competition.

Name: Bad, Bad Bots
Developer: Medium Edge Games
Category: Action
Type: Demo
Size: 10MB

Cramgene is a pretty interesting puzzler from Yamisoft Entertainment. The objective of the game is to feed your pet before your opponent does, by splicing genes and creating a creature which matches exactly the one they're thinking of.

Choose creatures from your stock to examine their DNA strands, then pick the traits you need to create the right meal for your pet by determining matching genes. The gameplay system is a little complicated but fortunately the tutorial offers proper guidance to get any player started in just a matter of minutes.

The difficulty can be adjusted from the options menu, plus the trial version is not time limited. Don't be fooled by the graphics, even for grown-ups the game can be quite challenging.

Name: Cramgene
Developer: Yamisoft Entertainment
Category: Puzzle
Type: Demo
Size: 5MB

Dizzy has had it's fair share of halfhearted remakes. With Spud's Quest, fans no longer need to endure such indignity though our lovable egg has now been replaced with a protagonist named Spud.

You can only carry three items at any time, so expect a lot of backtracking in this game. Items are regularly placed inside houses, while grabbing the pliers require an incredibly precise jump. It's left to the player to figure out that Spud can stand on clouds.

A walkthrough and world map for Spud's Quest was released recently.

Name: Spud's Quest
Developer: Chris Davis
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Trick or Treat is an alright action game made by Dustin Gunn and Steven Burgess for a small Halloween competition. Featuring mostly ghouls and skeletons, the sprites looked pretty decent but gameplay itself is rather mediocre after the initial excitement fades off.

Still, it fits well with the holiday theme and there's nothing wrong with a free platformer spanning five levels. Note that swinging the chainsaw is slightly more effective against skeletons in some cases.

Name: Trick or Treat
Developer: Dustin Gunn
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

Anyone looking for their common casual matching variety will be fairly suprised with D.N.A as the gameplay in this one requires a lot of thought, especially if you're not very good at recalling color combinations.

The player has to match at least ten proteins to burst a cell, a task made harder by the fact that they don't stay still in one place. There's a quota to fulfill in each level, and time ticks away for every second the player spends on mulling over their next move.

The puzzle mode is much more relaxing as the time restriction is removed, but one mistake means repeating the whole challenge all over again.

A fairly notable entry with an extremely slick presentation, something that would have been expected from a Japanese game development studio. Definitely a publisher to keep an eye on.

Name: D.N.A
Developer: 5th Cell
Category: Puzzle
Type: Demo
Size: 12MB

From the creators of Professor Fizzwizzle comes FizzBall, an effort which probably comes the closest to replicating BreakQuest's success but with it's own gameplay mechanics. The puzzle element has been ditched by Grubby Games, in favor of an action game to draw in more players. Essentially a Breakout clone, the comical style from it's predecessor has been retained and improved in this iteration with more animation and additional characters.

Professor Fizzwizzle has to capture animals by bouncing the FizzBall his invention and trapping them inside the bubble after it gains a certain size. The ball can be used to smash obstacles, shake trees and grab bonus items among other things. One talking point is the contraption's ability to blow the Fizzball upwards, it's use only limited to the amount of energy left as displayed on the right.

Features over a hundred and eighty levels, complete with over fifteen types of power-ups to collect.

Name: FizzBall
Developer: Grubby Games
Category: Breakout
Type: Demo
Size: 10MB

Developed by Reflected Games and BlitWise Productions, Neon Wars is another arena shooter that will only run properly if you have OpenGL 1.2 or above installed.

Your ship can only be moved around using the mouse, plus the primary weapon is fired automatically at the nearest enemy. Nevertheless, the one level included has no time restrictions and replayable at any time even though several power-ups have been disabled. A recommended download if not a purchase.

Name: Neon Wars
Developer: Blitwise Productions
Category: Shooter
Type: Demo
Size: 3MB

Reviewed by Maenny (www.runtime-hq.com)

This great 3D RTS game is one of the kings in the freeware community. Glest could easily overrun the popularity of one or another commercial game, having a superb design and astonishing possibilities concerning modding. Play it, and you know what I am speaking of.

At the moment, there are two "races", both humans, but one time based on magic, the other time based on technology. The tech-trees differ, of course, and there are different units in each of the clans. While on the one hand you have sorceresses and wizards being able to summon powerful creatures like dragons, on the other hand the humans defend themselves with "robotics", a kind of mech-like, human-steered war-robot (three double words!). By building the library/blacksmith you can either build new units or upgrade existing ones to more powerful warriors or wizards.
Resources are being gained as usual: Peasants don't hesitate to follow your command when you are in need for wood, stone or gold. Energy resources are gained by contructing a kind of manafountain for the magic people and a farm for the technology people.

Glest is an ambitious project. From their homepage: "Glest is a project for making a free 3d real-time customizable strategy game." That means, the units can be changed, that is you can easily replace the models and script (with XML) new behaviours for them. Like that you can create a 3D RTS game with your own models and your own artwork. No surprise, the community is growing fast.

Read the entire review at www.runtime-hq.com

Name: Glest
Developer: Glest Team
Category: Strategy
Type: Freeware
Size: 50MB

In Packin' Plax, the player has to stack colored plaques on a table so that three of the same color are connected either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. This is done by catching the plaques using the loader object controlled by pressing the left or right arrow keys. Tap the space key to drop an object onto the table.

You can only fail to catch up to five plaques, though it's possible to replenish your chances by increasing the current level or collecting power-ups. An excellent Klax clone, with only bland textures and absence of gamepad support as minor disappointments.

Name: Packin' Plax
Developer: xCept
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB

Dimension Diver is a decent abstract shooter that does everything well enough but never quite extraordinary. Gamepad is supported, plus four difficulty levels have been included to provide a challenge for both experts and beginners.

The Z, X and C keys are mapped to different types of shots. Press the C key to bring up a pause window. One for the collection but the fun doesn't last longer than an afternoon or so.

Name: Dimension Diver
Developer: TILTO
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

Super Nova is a decent shooter by Virtanen Games, in which you can use the left and right arrow keys to move around while shooting at enemies appearing from a distance. There are quite a number of power-ups to collect but difficulty is rather high and it can be tough to stay alive for longer than a few minutes.

Hold the control key to shoot and use the left shift key for a boost which slows down the speed of all objects temporarily.

Name: Super Nova
Developer: Virtanen Games
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Joakim posted a teaser image from the next platformer project on his site. [Noitu Love, Tripline review]

A new AGS adventure game entitled The House That Ate My Soul was released today. Still buggy unfortunately.

bob recently did an interview with PC Zone about Grid Wars, Bizarre Creations and remakes in general. (Warning: strong language)

Here's a list of casual game portals compiled by Logler.

Blue Tea Games (Cactus Bruce and the Corporate Monkeys) will release a Breakout clone entitled Crazy Critters next month.

danjo of Acoders fame is currently working on a secret project entitled Alien Shooter. Currently undergoing beta testing. [LadyBug 2k6, Pacman EX 2 review]

News of a Spindizzy remake had recently surfaced over at the RetroRemakes forums.

The original is a C64 game which was compared frequently to Marble Madness. In it, you control a craft named GERARD (Geographical Reconaissance And Land-mapping Device) on a mission to explore new dimensions and collect energy levels.

Planned features:
- Full 3D OpenGL graphics
- Original game map plus new ones
- Isometric and first-person viewpoint
- original and new soundtrack

The game will be released sometime in February 2007 as open source for Linux, Windows and MacOS X with a map editor included.