I found Wik to be initially difficult, but once I got past the beginner's learning curve I was flabbergasted by just how fun and interesting this game is. You have to do a few loops for yourself before you can start to appreciate this one, but beyond the graphics and sound, which are clearly amazing, the actual game play of Wik sets it far above all its foes! This is a definite buy!

Reflexive continues to set the bar in indie production values. Beautiful graphics, amazing sound and sweet physics make this a great gaming experience. I want to see more quirky games like this. It's heartening to see Gollum still working again after LOTR. Jar-Jar on the other hand…

This game combines a unique and fun control scheme that is very hard to learn with a lot of dull and repetitive goals. This results in an odd situation of the game being too easy and too hard at the same time – it asks you to accomplish simple tasks, but accomplishing them is difficult due to the controls - making the levels, after the first few, just... sort of unpleasant. On the other hand, it's extremely polished and artistic, and I also give props for making something original!

So hard to judge here. I really liked this game – fun strategy gameplay, similar to Heroes Of Might & Magic, but with a simple card-based combat system. The downside? The text reads like it was run through Babelfish, and the interface is confusing and awkward, and when I finished the tutorial, it crashed. None of those are good things... but I really liked the gameplay!

There are flashes of brilliance all throughout this game, but unfortunately it comes off as somewhat unfinished. The English in the game is awful and I ran into an area where I had to restart because I did something in the wrong order. However, on the other side I thought the graphics were quite interesting for the old 2D style, and enjoyed the battles (other than my men always leaving me just when I need them most). Probably worth downloading the demo if you like RPG games.

This is an interesting kind of hybrid RTS RPG where you run from village to village demanding cash until you have enough to hire mercenaries to fight someone. Despite feeling like a creep demanding money from peasants all the time I couldn't seem to keep my men paid and they'd leave as I went into battle which unfortunately (for me) doesn't allow you to run. Oh, one more thing, the English translation needs a lot of work.

This cave-based shooter has all the right ingredients including a sexy voice and 24 weapon types – but something about the control and game play didn't really do it for me. Maybe I need the level and spacecraft to be more visually interesting. Maybe I needed a bit more action and better looking explosions. I don't know. Loved the destructible terrain though.

This is a pretty blatant clone of Bookworm, with the obvious and quite major twist of using numbers instead of letters. What it has going for it is a large number of very useful powerups and a solid, polished feel. What it has against it is that math isn't as fun as making words, nor as intuitive, so you can find yourself floundering or clicking randomly, something that would never happen in a word game, since words are recognizable at a glance.

The name really says it all. Can't fault them on that. I imagine the game design document looked similar, only with the order switched around a little: “You push cubes.” There is only one thing to do in Cube Pusher, and that's push cubes. It's Sokoban. There is nothing more to be said for or against it. It is what it is. Cube Pusher. Push the cubes. If you want to push cubes, you have found your holy grail.

This is a pretty average breakout game with some fairly big pluses and minuses. First, the coolest powerup in Breakout history, the Ball Gun, lets you fire an unlimited number of new balls into play. The Ultra mode levels are fun to look at with their 3D layouts. The minuses are an extreme imbalance to play – you slog along slowly until you get the right powerups (like that Ball Gun!), after which you buzzsaw through the level instantly. The Ultra levels are particularly bad, with many hundreds of bricks to individually crack until you get the right powerups (and very few powerups!).

I like to put the noggin' through a workout now and again, but this word game is just too hard for me! After you use up your five �"hints' you have to restart the game and re-enter the letters you had figured out, eventually solving it. This game seemed more tedious then fun for me; but if you're a smarty (or know a lot of obscure quotes) give it a shot.

If you own a Windows PC, which is required to play this game, you already own a free version of this game... with more features than this version! Yes, Ghost Manor has cuter graphics than Minesweeper, but it offers only several fixed level sizes instead of the freedom to pick your own, and it won't auto-clear an area by clicking both buttons like Minesweeper will. Play Minesweeper.

Minesweeper with a haunted house theme. It's done ghoulishly well and is a lot of fun to play. I can't give it a higher score because, well, it's minesweeper. An errant click will scare the pants off you with screaming and ghost flying so I recommend playing with the volume at 10.

This game was at once both frustrating and boring. It features good graphics and music, but the gameplay is just... well, lots of work! It also lacks any sort of tutorial, although a couple seconds of play and trying out the mouse buttons makes the gameplay fairly clear. I think the fundamental gameplay premise is a bad one, but that's just my opinion – you may enjoy it! It is certainly a well-produced game.

What can I say? This game is wacky and I like it. It's a little like the game Space Station Manager except cartoony and easier to play. Don't think it's going to be a walk in the park though; it gets tough later!

I am tempted to give out the elusive 10/10 here... but I shall resist. It's close though! The interface is incredibly simple, the gameplay is simple in the best possible way, and it's just plain fun. The graphics, sound, and cartoon style all add to it. It's just a total package! Great game, one of the best of the year.

This is one of the more thoroughly entertaining indie games this year, and it is so well put together it doesn't even resemble an indie game. This one is another definite buy! It plays something like Roller Coaster Tycoon meets Space Station Manager, and comes off better than either of those two games in many ways. Top it off with great humor throughout and it left me going back and forth on whether or not to give it a 10. Either way you should own this game!

This game is centered around an extremely simplistic idea – every few seconds you can launch yourself (a ball) to hit another ball into your goal. While this is ok and surely could be fun (especially 2 player mode) I don't feel like there is enough there. No power-ups, no other levels, no tournament ladder and no obstacles. One cool thing is sometimes the strange looking bystanders throw confetti on you.

The “sport” being played in this game is a pretty fun one when you get the hang of it. The semi-turn-based, semi-real-time action is interesting. But in the end, this feels more like a prototype than a game. The sport itself is interesting enough, but there's only one way to play it - no tournaments, no special players to recruit and trade, none of the extras that round out a sports title and give you something to come back to again and again. And nitpick, but I don't know how “pool” this is... it's more like turn-based air hockey!

This is another one those pop three of a color games. I know what you're thinking - but what could have been horribly boring is saved by a pretty neat puzzle mode that will keep you thinking.

Pop 3 or more of the same color. You've seen this four thousand times before. Competent. Next!

This is a very solid pool simulation. Nice GUI, nice controls, fantastic lighting and runs well. However it did fail my PPP test. (Personal Pool Physics) As much as I tried to angle my stick and adjust the ball contact point I just absolutely could not hop the ball off the table or get any air at all; most players probably wouldn't care but it matters to me. No tournament modes.

This is a really solid game of pool, although I felt like there should've been an option to swap the left/right mouse movement, as it kept confusing me! There are very few options in this game at all, actually, and what I found the biggest lack: as someone who doesn't play pool, I was completely lost with some of the fouls that I constantly incurred (“Object ball not hit first”? Which one's the object ball?). I could've really used some direction on what the rules of play were, but maybe this is aimed at people who play the game in real life.

This is an original puzzler that has you matching items but with a twist - right before you click, you must scan them for numerical values to see if it will raise or lower your bottom line. One major problem is the random �"market price' generator seems to be able to go to town and in some cases the game was virtually un-winnable. In its current form I don't think this game really works for me.

This is sort of a basic matching things puzzle game, but as the name implies, there's a market value angle to it which makes it unique. It's fun! There's not much to it, as all you can do is play the basic game and just see how long you survive, but it is unique and has a fair amount of strategy to it. It also has a large amount of rather vicious luck, when suddenly all the items drop to near-zero value.

Despite a clunky interface I had some fun with this word game. It's kind of a single player scrabble in 3d space but with unlimited letters. Strong dictionary.

This is a very odd game... at first, it seemed nearly impossible to lose (in Thinker mode), then I reached a level where it required me to come up with a word beginning with I, ending with G, and 4 letters long. Now, I checked - there are no such words in the English language. Other than that total dead end, the gameplay was trivially easy. It could be because Beginner is the only difficulty enabled in the demo, it would be interesting to see what higher difficulties are like!

Color matching meets pachinko. This is a neat, beautifully polished logic game that is definitely worth downloading. Gripe: So let me get this straight. You'll put an icon on my desktop, main start bar and quick launch bar but you won't bother making a start folder with an uninstall option. Uh-huh.

I give this game good credit for a simple sort of gameplay that is easy to understand and unique, and a beautiful and well-done presentation. Where I give it demerits is in difficulty! While the beginning levels are manageable, the next set immediately becomes totally overwhelming, requiring you to think ahead logically while simultaneously using very quick reflexes, timing, and memorizing what you have set up offscreen (the fact that the level even scrolled in the first place was an unexpected shock!).