Crostar returns with another gem entitled Round and Round, this time it's a variation of the Game Boy classic entitled Kuru Kuru Kururin. Your task is basically to guide both protagonists towards the end of the level while avoiding collision with baddies and inanimate objects.

Collect at least one flashing item with each character to enable the shoot action. Shots will be fired towards the white dot, so you need to navigate and position the enemies in the right place to harm them.

Press the Z key to do damage, or hold the X key to slow down the rotation speed.

Name: Round and Round
Developer: Crostar
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Santaro is another 3 Minute Competition entry which showcases a rather annoying gameplay flaw made into a pretty decent game. The objective in each level is to make your way to the Christmas present, with your path usually hampered by icy-cold water, polar bears and other strange anomalies. Features nine stages in total.

Name: Santaro
Developer: Cheese
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

After slaving over the keyboard for an entire day, I've finally sorted out the site display problems (nearly). It should now take advantage of the entire screen no matter what your screen resolution is set to.

Tested on both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but do let me know if any problem crops up. Still some minor alignment issues to fix, which I'll sort out this weekend (hopefully).

About time I get off my lazy ass and do something in return for all the support I've been getting from everyone. Hope you like the changes, more goodies coming soon!

Oh no, it's raining plants! You'd better catch them with your Extendo-Tongue before they break into your car outside your house in Mildura.

This is a remake of the game Pyoro, from WarioWare on the Gameboy Advance. You may be shocked to hear this, but Nintendo didn't steal the idea from me - I stole it from them. This is in no way affiliated with Nintendo, so you won't be able to play it with the Power Glove.

Name: Pyoro
Developer: K-ero
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

Alien Breed Obliteration is an update of the original top-down shooter in which the player has to find the exit-lift out of each maze while blasting aliens bent on halting your progress.

Hold the control key to shoot, tap the shift key to change weapons or press the space key to access Intex Terminals whenever one is found. More instructions can be found in a manual which is included in the zip file. It's also possible to save at any point by pressing the escape key.

The game is a little old but nevertheless works well enough on modern PCs, plus a cheat code is posted on the front page together with a nifty level creation tutorial. Definitely one for the collection.

Name: Alien Breed Obliteration
Developer: FlashJesterPunk
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB

HitBlock is a decent remake of Crillion with updated graphics and adjustable difficulty among other options. The objective of the game is basically to break all destructible blocks using the perpetually moving ball. The player has to change the color of the ball often, avoid steel, collect keys and more, depending on the level requirements.

The gameplay may be archaic but anyone who enjoyed the classic will be delighted with this remake.

Name: HitBlock
Developer: Georg Rottensteiner
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 3MB

La Soeur de Barrage is a pretty decent shooter with emphasis on boss fights and accessible controls. Use the mouse to move the character and hold the left button to shoot.

There's plenty of save points and unlimited continues to assist beginners, plus a super easy mode has been included which allows the player to resume a game with twenty-four lives. Three long stages.

Name: La Soeur de Barrage
Developer: Tocoroten
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 50MB

Senior Year is an English visual novel created by Ewan Grantham for BkLovr Games. Visual novel fans might be slightly disappointed with the lack of nicely drawn anime underage girls in student uniform, plus Japanese dating sims are practically a dime for a dozen though this particular production does have its own merits with some decent voice work by a group of serious aficionados.

Worth a look if you're a casual follower with an interest in the genre, but everyone else might want to give this a miss. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Name: Senior Year
Developer: BkLovr Games
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 80MB

Melty Blood is an immensely popular doujin 2D fighting game for the PC, widely considered to be one of the best of it's genre ever made, on par with other commercial fighting games like the Guilty Gear and Street Fighter series.

The short demo features two characters to choose from.

Name: Melty Blood Act Cadenza Ver.B
Developer: Ecole
Category: Action
Type: Demo
Size: 50MB

Much like Jetro Lauha's Racing Pitch, Opera Slinger is an IGF student showcase entry that requires the use of a microphone to perform certain actions in the game. Step into the shoes of Forte the opera singer as he attempts to win over his fans in a singing duel with an evil adversary.

Make your way towards each spotlight to initiate the singing sequence. A slick production showcasing good 3D modelling and textures but the gameplay is a little lacking.

Name: Opera Slinger
Developer: Treblemakers
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 120MB

This is the sixth in a series of Slamdance Finalist reviews.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (SCMRPG) is Danny Ledonne's attempt to explore the 1999 Columbine High School massacre with a video game. In his artist's statement, Ledonne writes that he "wanted to make something that mattered" and that he "wasn’t willing to put months of scant free time into an easily forgotten adventure set in a mythical realm of dragons or spaceships." You can read his statement in full if you wish (and I would recommend that you do), but I'll distill one point from it for the purpose of this review: he was apparently aiming high with SCMRPG.

What Ledonne has given us is a full walk through the morning of the shooting, but one in which we are doing the walking as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. You start out in Harris' bedroom with a wake-up-call from Harris' mother. Then you head to the basement to gather your gear (picking up duffle bags and propane bombs). At that point, Klebold joins you in the basement, and you move through most of the game controlling both boys as a team.

I see the game as being comprised of three distinct "acts." During the first act, the goal is to gather the gear, drive to school, and plant bombs in the cafeteria without getting caught. This act plays much like an adventure game---you pick up necessary items, bring them to prescribed locations, and avoid run-ins with hall monitors and security cameras. None of the standard role-playing game (RPG) elements, such as experience points, are prominent during the first act.

I would say that this first part of the game is the most successful in terms of emotional power. There's something quite disturbing and moving about carrying out these preparatory actions yourself. I've watched a movie that explores Columbine (Elephant, 2003, d. Gus Van Sant), but it didn't snag me in the same way. Just hitting the spacebar to pick up those duffle bags in Harris' basement---there was an inescapable feeling that I was doing it. The sadness, loneliness, despair, and fatalism of those preparatory activities could not be ignored. Perhaps nothing could really put us inside Harris' head on his final morning, but SCMRPG sure comes close.

Read the full review at Arthouse Games.

Name: Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
Developer: Danny Ledonne
Category: RPG
Type: Freeware
Size: 27 MB

Streets of Rage Remake version 4.00 is out. [Streets of Rage Remake review]

Super Jazz Man demo now available. [direct download link]

A walkthrough for The Winter Rose was recently posted. [The Winter Rose review, Charlie Foxtrot preview]

Merry Gear Solid reviewed by Clickzine. [Merry Gear Solid: The Fallout]

For fans of Knytt, here are some screenshots from several abandoned projects.

Here are some screenshots from the upcoming racing game by Senile Team. [Beats of Rage review]

The Design is a 2D shooter with some unique quirks. You control two dots on a design, which can shoot at the angle from one to the other. New figures on the design appears and you earn points by removing them. This is what the shooting is for.

Note that the enemies can only be killed while they're white. If you shoot an enemy while it's red, the bullet will turn against you. Aside from the normal shooting, you also have three upgrades that'll help you with getting a highscore.

Name: The Design
Developer: cactus
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB