Kiteretsu: Zookeeper is an updated version of the perennial favorite with several changes that would please fans of the original. Tiles can be moved without the wait for combos to end, plus the help button shows all possible matches instead of one chosen at random.

There's a pause and mute option included as well. Definitely a page to bookmark.

Name: Kiteretsu: Zookeeper
Developer: ROBOT
Category: Puzzle
Type: Flash
Size: 1MB

Kiteretsu: Solitaire is a very good Mahjong solitaire clone with cute graphics and colorful tiles. Standard features such as continues, password saves, hints, shuffle and a useful undo option are all available in this package.

Name: Kiteretsu: Solitaire
Developer: Zip Bear Town
Category: Puzzle
Type: Flash
Size: 1MB

New objects and backgrounds were recently added to Ad Nauseam.

Titanion updated to version 0.3. Changes include:

- Basic mode, which is the original gameplay from version 0.1.
- Visual effects adjusted.
- The provocation beam is brighter when used on larger enemies.
- '-bgmvol', '-sevol' and '-randomized' command line options added.

The full list of finalists for the IGF Main Competition, all of whom will be showing their games at the IGF Pavilion during Game Developers Conference in March 2007, are as follows:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Aquaria, Armadillo Run, Bang! Howdy, RoboBlitz, Everyday Shooter.

Best Web Browser Game: Bubble Islands, Gamma Bros, Samorost 2.

Design Innovation Award: Armadillo Run, Aquaria, Everyday Shooter, Toblo, Toribash.

Excellence In Visual Art: Castle Crashers, Golf?, Aquaria, RoboBlitz, Samorost 2.

Excellence In Audio: Bone - The Great Cow Race, Everyday Shooter, FizzBall, Aquaria, Racing Pitch.

Technical Excellence: Arcane Legions - The Rising Shadow, Armada Online, Bang! Howdy, Blast Miner, Bugs Of War.

Shih Tzu informs of a new release from Pixel entitled JiLJiL. The game involves protecting your tail from a cat's pawprints and bouncing the sliced fruit around to increase your score.

Here's a list of game engines for budding developers.

Adventure gamers rejoice! Here are two freeware AGS games that will send your pulses racing.

The first is entitled Fester Mudd and the Curse of the Gold, a comedic western tale featuring more than forty screens worth of exploration.

The story: A poor lonesome farmer by the name of Fester Mudd lives an unexciting life in his isolated cottage in the middle of nowhere. Fed up with farming, he spends most of his time either taking naps or talking to himself.

One faithful morning this all changes, however, as he receives a letter from Bud, his long lost brother. Bud tells he has found gold in a valley located near a small town called Loamsmouth and wants Fester to join him. Not needing to think twice, Fester packs his belongings, hops on his mule and heads to Loamsmouth. And so the adventure begins...

Legend of the Lost Jewel is an upcoming AGS game that features only sixteen colors per screen.

The story: Hundreds of years ago, a jewel existed that was held by an ancient tribe called the Rannu. It was a jewel that they believe held the universe into balance. The tribe was destroyed by conquistadors and the jewels were scattered through time.

Happenstance causes Derek, the main character into a modern day story of murder, deception and adventure. He looks to find his way home from an archaeology expedition and ends up entwined in the middle of blood-thirsty power hungry people seeking to find the gem in their own desires of greed.

Warning: May contain potentially provocative or offensive material.

Reactor 09 is the latest AGS adventure game by Bernie in which you assume the role of a prison janitor originally convicted of murder. Much like the Monkey Island series, a verb coin is used for interaction with objects or other characters.

The story is rather short but there are four endings to discover, each with a different set of requirements to fulfil.

Name: Reactor 09
Developer: Bernie
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Packin Plax is PC Zone's Game of the Month. [Packin Plax review]

A full world map for Knytt is available here. [Knytt review]

Here's a very useful resource about accessibility in game design.

ScummVM now supports Future Wars, an adventure game by Delphine Software.

Crazy Bumpa was made available as a free download recently.

Warning Forever is a decent shooter by Hikoza T Ohkubo which has remained as his most popular work to date.

The objective of the game is to defeat a seemingly endless number of huge motherships, with every successive boss encounter harder than the previous. Surviving each battle will net you an additional thirty seconds to add to your initial three minutes of play time.

Name: Warning Forever
Developer: Hikware
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

N is a platformer featuring a ninja with the ability to climb or slide down walls and run at amazing speed. The basic objective is to survive five rooms filled with traps and danger in each episode, with a different maze design introduced in every level to challenge the player's reflexes and quick thinking.

Collecting a piece of gold increases the allowable episode completion time by two seconds. Progress is automatically saved when an episode is completed. Tutorials and help sections are supplied to assist beginners, plus a healthy and active community continues to provide a continous supply of new content and custom creations.

A worthy successor to Lode Runner.

Name: N
Developer: Metanet Software
Category: Platform
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

A 20MB demo for the horizontal shooter entitled Magical Amber was recently released by First Step. It has the same contents as Tobi Tsukihime, and there's not much difference except for the addition of a new menu.

To play, select the cat, choose your difficulty setting and stage by using the arrow keys, then press the Z key when the joypad twinkles. Holding down the primary shot button will allow you to fire rapidly. A small target indicating your hit point will be shown as well when you have the shot button depressed.

Name: Magical Amber
Developer: First Step
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 20MB

Here's the first and second gameplay videos from the upcoming Cave Story-like platformer entitled Underside. Preview also available.

OMEGA page updated with new additions.

Bone Director's Cuts now available.

The Highway Encounter remake was recently updated.

Charlie Foxtrot announced, a work in progress. [The Winter Rose review]

Another animated gif added to Paul Robertson's Journal.

New FTG art added. [The White Chamber]

Sketchfighter 4000 Alpha, eat your heart out. Here comes the freeware arena shooter entitled Eraser, featuring some dastardly level designs which can be used as cover to get out of tight spots. Four combination of control options are available, although there's no support for analog controllers yet.

Requires the installation of several additional files with links conveniently provided in the game folder. Only fifteen stages are implemented, but more might be designed in the near future.

Name: Eraser
Developer: BrownBot
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Beats of Rage is an open source arcade engine inspired by Sega's Street of Rage, but featuring ripped sprites from the King of Fighters series. Interest for Senile Team's debut effort is picking up again due to the excitement generated by their upcoming release, Age of the Beasts which will feature original work.

The Windows executable should be downloaded from this page and used to play Beats of Rage, since running the DOS version on a modern PC will cause sound problems.

Name: Beats of Rage
Developer: Senile Team
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 50MB

Red Valkyrie is an interesting top-down action game in which you have to explore large space stations with airlock doors serving as checkpoints. To uncover new areas, the player must first activate switches which are usually surrounded by enemy robots or defense turrets.

Pretty fun, though the textures are slightly dated. The same airlock gameplay concept can also be found in Mutant Storm Empire.

Name: Red Valkyrie
Developer: Chromatic Games
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Marble is a recent addition to OMEGA's game listing page. The objective is to knock a marble towards another with the same color in order to make them disappear, until the entire board is cleared. There are several game modes available with a level editor to preset the number of objects before playing as well.

Name: Marble
Developer: OMEGA
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB

Knytt is the latest platformer by Nifflas, a developer who gained much fame after the release of Within a Deep Forest.

The story begins with an abduction and a crash landing on some unfamiliar planet, which means plenty of land to explore although there's hardly any interaction with other creatures. Save points are easily accessible, Knytt will glow red when in danger, and the shining beam of light will assist your search for the necessary repair items.

There's about sixty screens worth of adventure which equals to roughly an hour or two of play. Of course, This isn't a Nifflas production without several unlockables and secrets to reward the curious. A worthy tribute to Seiklus.

Name: Knytt
Developer: Nifflas
Category: Platform
Type: Freeware
Size: 20MB

Not related to EA's Strike series, Siberian Strike X is a decent vertical shooter which resembles an updated 1942 remake. Frame rate is rather low though the gameplay is intact, with three planes to choose from and standard power-ups to collect.

The demo showcases too little content to warrant a purchase, plus only half of what is playable involves shooting enemy fighters down. A trial version for the PC is available for download.

Name: Siberian Strike X
Developer: Gameloft
Category: Shooter
Type: Demo
Size: 5MB

Wolverine releases a new screenshot from the sequel to Hero, a work in progress.

Finalists for the 2007 Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition have been announced.

The list includes Base Invaders, The Blob, Book and Volume (IF), Braid, Castle Crashers, Cultivation, Everyday Shooter, flOw, Once Upon a Time, Plasma Pong, Steam Brigade, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, Toblo and Toribah.

The Archaist updated to version 1.1. Now includes a save function. [change list, The Archaist review]

Spark Spectra is a new vertical shooter from the developer who provided us with YSG2000: Barrage Simulator of Hibachi. Unlike his previous effort where the screen is practically filled with enemy projectiles, this latest release showcases colorful enemy sprites and three types of shots controlled by holding down the Z or X key.

Press the C key to launch a bomb, and collect power-ups for weapon upgrades. Boss encounters are included as well, with indicators showing the amount of health left for each weak point. Screen size is much wider than standard scrolling shmups, though the ship moves fast enough to cover the entire area when no shots are fired.

Name: Spark Spectra
Developer: AIK
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB

Square Cell is an original puzzler by JaJ Productions. Essentially a match three game, but with a twist.

Only horizontal rows will disappear, and the player only achieve this by clicking and stacking rows of blocks in an attempt to arrange them in an order that will cause this effect. Includes an online high score submission feature, implemented seamlessly into the game. A recommended download.

Name: Square Cell
Developer: JaJ Productions
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB