Crazy 4 Jigsaws

I got an e-mail from someone asking me to review the site crazy4jigsaws, and I ended up liking the site, so here's my review.

Crazy 4 Jigsaws is a jigsaw puzzle site. There are plenty of jigsaws to play with high resolution pictures that are pleasant to look at. Each photo can be cut up into little jigsaw pieces, anywhere from 12 to 192 pieces for you to play with.

Move the pieces around with your mouse. When you find a matching piece, let go of the button and it will lock up together automatically. If you register, the time it takes for you to solve the puzzle will be stored and your name can be entered into the high score table for bragging rights. But even if you don't register, your time will affect the 'average time' shown.

I have a critique of the 'average time' shown. It's nice to compare yourself to others, but I was interrupted a few times while solving puzzles, so my time was obviously inflated with down time. That can severely affect the average, especially while the site is new and there are so few people there.

Unlike a lot of gaming sites, I was comfortable showing this one to a toddler, so I would say it's family friendly.

Solve jigsaw puzzles online at crazy4jigsaws

Tactics 100 Live

Tactics 100 Live is a tactical strategy game similar to chess, but set in a fantasy world. Set up your army using 100 points spread across up to 10 pieces to take on your opponent with. Play the single player walkthrough or go head to head against a live opponent.

You play on a 7x7 board and start off facing your opponent. But things can quickly get out of hand if you choose to charge ahead with some of your pieces. Your starting army can consist of wizards, knights, archers and healers.

Play the single player version a few times and play around with your army. You can take the balanced default army straight through the 10 levels in the single player game, but it's only be experimenting with the various upgrades that you can really have fun with this game. Will you upgrade a few to their highest level? Do you want another archer, or do you want the healers abilities? Maybe you want to try out your luck with just wizards on your side?

I'm really enjoying this game. The strategic possibilities are just fascinating.

Some things you should keep in mind. Hitting from the side or back can pay off. But exposing your own backside to a knight can be deadly. Wizards chain reactions can be really useful, but without upgrading his damage potential, hitting the fourth opponent for only 2 points may not be worth it. Knights are great for both dealing and taking damage. Use them for buffers to protect your wizards and/or archers. Archers are cheap and don't do a lot of damage, but they are very mobile (and cheap).

It is possible to beat all ten levels in the single player without losing a life, but you may need to restart a level (without a penalty) to do it. Sometimes luck plays a part, too.

Play Tactics 100 Live at kongregate.

Grow Island Walkthrough

Grow Island continues the fun and exciting games from On at eyezmaze. It is being used to promote the SHIBAURA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, a college information site and so it is not located on the eyezmaze site.

Like the other games in the grow series, your job is to figure out the best order to place new objects onto the field. In this case, the objects are courses of learning. While I think you should go ahead and try different things in an attempt to find the various endings (there are multiple), I'll provide a walkthrough for the basic ending and UFO ending below.

Play Grow Island at shingakunet.

UFO Walkthrough:

1. Aeronautics, marine, automotive engineering,
2. Civil engineering,
3. Architecture,
4. Computer science,
5. Electrical Engineering,
6. Mechanical engineering,
7. Applied Chemistry,
8. Environmental engineering,

Basic Walkthrough:

1. Mechanical engineering,
2. Civil engineering,
3. Architecture,
4. Environmental engineering,
5. Aeronautics, marine, automotive engineering,
6. Electrical Engineering,
7. Computer science,
8. Applied Chemistry

Shield Defense

Shield Defense is a tower defense game, but with a fun twist. You can't shoot back. Your only offense is a good defense, because you can only use your shield to rebound the shots coming in on you.

That makes it a lot more difficult to play and think about. You need to concentrate on your defensive skills more than in other games. Every 3, 4 or 5 rounds (depends on the skill level you choose at the beginning) you get a bonus point. Use those bonus points for bonus upgrades, rather than regular upgrades which cost money.

In between levels, you can upgrade your shield using the money you collect from blowing up the bad guys. Just don't spend all your money because any money you have left over earns interest in between rounds.

Hints and Tips
Get the antimatter shield (cost of three bonus points). At the later levels, you'll be facing fire from several different directions and you can't block them all. Heat seekers is another great upgrade (again, 3 bonus points). After that, increase the interest rate.

Play Shield Defense at Kongregate.

Haluz 2 Walkthrough

Haluz is back (see the original Haluz walkthrough) and slightly better than before. Figure the puzzles out and move your hero along to rescue the girl and get your just rewards. The online version is a teaser for a full version you can purchase (I wasn't tempted, even though it is a good puzzle game).

The graphics are as incredible as they were in the first version and the sound effects are fun.

I'll post a walkthrough below.

Haluz is similar to other mini puzzle games (graphics and puzzle-wise) to Samarost, Samarost 2, and wogger. Other recent point and click adventure games include Smart Stick Adventures 2 1/2, Hapland 3, and Puzzleland.

Play Haluz 2 at haluz2.net

Walkthrough Below

Wait for the introduction to finish and your hero to start off on his adventure. Then click on the lock next to the door. Then click on the raccoon hiding in the lamp on top of the hill. Click on the cord to turn on the light. The code for the lock shows up under the light on the door. Punch in the code and then turn the wheel.

Click on the light switch next to the door. Turn it to the right to move the bat to the right. Turn it back to the left to get the bat to come back. Take the hook up next to the bat and attach it to it. Turn the light switch back the other way to move the bat again. Click on the basket to jump across.

Wait a few moments, then click on your hero to 'pollute' the water. Wait some more for the flowers to grow and expose the man in the mountain. Click on the left most flower.

Take the pine cone out of the man in the mountains mouth and place it under the clock as a counter weight. Click on the clock face until the horse starts coming out (4 o'clock). Your hero will jump on and disappear.

Click on the walkman the old shaman is listening to. Click on the bottom right music code to make him float (looks like an alpha symbol to me). Turn the volume up to make him float higher. Click on his beard to get the key to drop out. Put the key in the lock to get your hero out in his flying boat.

Enjoy the scenery.

To get the snake to let you go, turn on the water (right side, red knob). Turn the left wheel on the pump (bottom middle of scene). Turn right wheel, then turn the left wheel again. Then click the pump. Turn the left wheel again to release the bees. Click on back of boat to get hero on his way.

Wait till hero stops his boat. Click on hummingbird on flower pot above. When the bird comes out to eat fruit, click on plants with eyes above to steal it (may require some timing). Click on eyes again to drop fruit, dropping big bird into pot allowing you to move on.

Click on glass to get your hero to attempt to lift it up off of the girl. He's not strong enough. Halfway up on right side, there is a claw holding an orange ball. Click on it, then immediately click on jar below it to swing it out (requires timing) to get ball to drop into jar. Click on fly on far left. While it is on the mushroom, click on iguana (top left).

Enjoy end scene and sales pitch for full version. (I did say you would get your just rewards, didn't I? That's what you get for stealing a man's mouthpiece!)

The Blade of Innocence

Blades of Innocence is a very simple RTS game. Build up your castle and your forces and attack the other castle before the computer manages to take you down. Your income comes at a steady stream, so no worries about resource collection except to build those things that increase your income.

Not hard to beat at the easy or very easy level, this game becomes more difficult at normal. Be ready for real frustration if you get beyond that (I tend to scream about how the computer is cheating).

I try to build up resources first, then my army. This game doesn't give you much time to do that, however. And if all your footsoldiers die, when you create a new one, it may not go for the weakest opponent (Which absolutely drives me nuts!).

It's distracting to see the directions in two different languages, but I learned to live with it.

This game is not exactly going to tempt you into replaying it again and again, but for those of you who want a taste of RTS...

Play Blades of Innocence at flashgames247. Found via forbored.

Bloons Tower Defense

Bloons Tower Defense, you wanted more bloons? You wanted more tower defense? Well, now you can have both. Use your dart throwing monkeys to the best of their abilities to stop the onslaught of horrific... uh... bloons.

This game isn't hard to beat, but is still fun to play simply because it merges two fun games. It's not something you're going to want to go back to again and again.

To beat it, I used a mass of simple dart throwing monkeys, upgraded to piercing (and distance if needed). Then, when I had enough money, I bought supermonkeys (which are not a joke... well... they are a joke, but the hypervelocity speed at which they throw darts makes them a menace to any ballon) and upgraded their distance to win out. I let one bloon through, which I blame to inattention more than anything early on. See the picture to see placement. I never sold any monkeys, and I never used the freeze or bomb monkeys.

Play Bloons Tower Defense at ninjakiwi.