The Gaming Grid

If you can’t see it, does it exist?

Does willful ignorance allow you to overcome otherwise insurmountable challenges?

Why is total darkness so terrifying?

When will gaming grow out of this emo phase and get a haircut?

Closure is another artsy puzzle platformer in the vein of Braid or Portal. In the interests of evangelizing this little indie title I’m tempted to gush at length about the startlingly cool game mechanic, but spoiling the experience of discovering it for yourself would just ruin the fun. What I can say is that if you enjoyed the new directions Portal explored in terms of first-person jumping puzzles, you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised by what Closure does with traditional key-hunting platformer motifs.

Unfortunately Closure isn’t nearly as polished as either Portal or Braid (you get what you pay for) so unless you really fall in love with the art style or game mechanics it’s probably not a Flash game worth finishing. There is a story (though it’s so subtle as to be almost unrecognizable) that slowly unfolds as you traverse from one map to the next, and you can expect to perish at least once figuring out every new puzzle. Death is cheap in the minimalist world of Closure, so don’t fret or play any longer than necessary trying to hold out for some big narrative payoff; the game does one thing (innovative puzzle-platforming gameplay) and does it well. Check it out.

I won’t lie, I’m a little drunk this week. I know St. Paddie’s isn’t ’till Tuesday, but we’re in the middle of midterms here and it’s important to start celebrating early. In the interests of keeping things light, pretty and browser-based I’d like to draw your attention to the recently release Death vs. Monstars on Kongregate. Death vs. Monstars is apparently what the cool kids might call a 2D arena shooter, similar to XBLA titles like Geometry Wars or Everyday Shooter on PSN. Having never played either, this was my first chance to hop behind the sticks since 1943: The Battle of Midway, which is why I was doubly surprised to find there’s no second stick involved thanks to DvM’s innovative (and slightly loose) control system.

It’s difficult to describe (so I really recommend you hop in and give the game a shot,) but essentially you move little Death around the field with your mouse and control your weapon with the left mouse button, occasionally triggering a special bullet time or rage effect (you gain money to improve your character’s abilities and weapons) by tapping keys on the keyboard. Rather than determining your firing direction with a second input source independent of movement Death fires continuously in a direction determined by how you move him, and you hold the left mouse button to lock in your firing direction and keep it constant.

See what I mean? What that means for you the player is that after a few minutes of practice on the first level you’ll find yourself at the helm of a quirky and thoroughly enjoyable sh’mup with great music, plenty of colorful explosions (the game displays 40-50 enemies on-screen in a Flash player with no slowdown, an impressive feat) and the freedom to play with one hand. What you do with the other one is up to you.

Oh hey, if anyone’s interested I’m Seraph621 on Quake Live. Let’s get together and eat some buckshot, suck down some plasma, ride some rockets and generally try to couch a deathmatch in the most homoerotic terms possible.

We do our best to bring you quality content on a regular basis here at the Grid, but even our indefatigable team of globe-trotting vagabonds occasionally comes up short. Drunken roustabouts, shanty-town pirates, feisty schoolmarms with a taste for forbidden love; none of these packs the sort of game-killing power contained in a single hellish college Rush Week. Powerful enough to lay low a veteran team of gaming trailblazers, your poor fresh-faced penniless pundit was lucky to survive with his morals (and liver) intact. Thankfully we’ve built a small reserve of gaming goodness for just such an occasion, a backlog of little games that really deserve your attention but were consistently pushed aside by their flashier brethren. So throw on a little Barry White, change into something more comfortable and join me as I highlight the mellow side of complimentary casual gaming.

Fly Guy

This is my go-to game whenever I need to relax and decompress after a long, long day of being ridiculously awesome. Eight gallons of whimsy in a five gallon hat, the quirky little Flash experience has been on the Internet for years. If you’ve never seen it before, take a chance on fun and give it a few minutes of your day.

Dino Run

Another low-res Flash game that’s long been fellated by snobby indie game fansites like ours, Dino Run thrusts you immediately into the tiny reptilian brain of a lone velociraptor trying desperately to outrun extinction at the merciless hands of a tsunami-sized wave of molten lava. As you play you may find yourself struck with the uncomfortable parity between your tiny digital dinosaur’s breakneck race for survival and your own hectic workweek; too bad you can’t avoid morning meetings by leaping over your supervisor’s head.

I Wish I Were the Moon

Hosted on excellent freebie site Kongregate, I Wish I Were the Moon is the flat-out ridiculous title for a quixotic point-and-click indie game. I wish I could give you a bit more background on the experience before tossing you headlong through the Internet, but the game defiantly resists a simple description. The only carrot I can offer is that there are at least eight different endings, possibly more. That may not seem like much of an achievement when you realize the story can end in less than thirty seconds, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Since it’s hosted on Kongregate there’s a live chatroom attached to the game that you’re forced to take part in, so feel free to let everyone know about your own secret wish in excruciating detail. Me, I wished for legwarmers.