King's Ascent (Highly Recommended)

Title: King's Ascent

Genre: Platform

Completion Time: Forty-five minutes.

An interesting, challenging platform game that is extremely enhanced by its strong story.

Interesting:

You're being chased by a monster, and different types of platforms do various pointy things to the monster once you jump off of them. If you hit the top of the level without having killed it, you're kind of in trouble, so you have to trade off  dropping as many platforms as possible with efficient movement upwards. I'm not really familiar with vertical-climber games, but JayIsGames assures me that this is a novel twist. 5/5

Fun:

This game is loads of fun. The mechanics are exciting, the controls are pretty smooth, and the difficulty was right in the zone for me. I died a lot, but the quick and smooth level reset meant the flow was never broken. 5/5.

Moving:

The game touches on themes of guilt and responsibility that I haven't seen addressed much in a game. The story is also integrated beautifully with the gameplay. It's a little too rough around the edges to get a perfect score, but I found it extremely compelling. 4/5 

Fantastic little short short story of a game. Highly recommended.

The Onomastica

Title: The Onomastica

Genre: Platformer

Completion Time: Six minutes.

This game upends the concept of "word games."

Interesting:

I would consider this the very model of a game that is more interesting than fun. The mechanic is simple--everything in the landscape is words, and you can push one- or two-letter words to combine them and create effects. However, they do a variety of neat things that made me repeatedly think "Hey, that's clever." 5/5

Fun:

For me to consider a game fun, it usually has to meet one of two criteria--it has to either be delighting and surprising or induce flow. For those who aren't familiar with flow, it is a great feeling that is typically achieved when challenges and ability level are well-matched. While this had some clever ideas, it didn't quite meet the first criterion, and the challenge level was too low for it to meet the second. This felt like a demo for a game that had actual puzzles. 2/5

Moving:

Emotional content is nonexistent. 0/5 

A clever and well-executed art piece, doesn't really qualify as a game.

Don't Escape

Title: Don't Escape

Genre: Point-and-click

Completion Time: I quit in frustration after fifteen minutes.

The anti-escape game. 

Interesting:

The premise has tons of potential--you are a werewolf, and have to close all exits to prevent yourself from escaping the room once night falls. I love, love, love escape-the-room games, so I really appreciated the twist. 5/5

Fun:

The implementation was profoundly disappointing--lots more pixel-hunting and random guessing than actual deduction. I quit in frustration after fifteen minutes. 1/5

Moving:

There's a lot of emotional potential in the idea that you are a werewolf trying to stop yourself from ravaging the town. It would have been pretty neat to see them go deeper with this. 2/5 

A brilliant idea--hopefully someone will be inspired by this and do a better take on it.

Upcoming

Man, JayisGames is on fire this week. Note to self, play the following:

BackDoor Door 1: The Call
Don't Escape
Ghost Party
Labyrinthine Dreams

Moon Waltz

Title: Moon Waltz

Genre: Webtoy

Completion Time: Approximately two minutes per runthrough, I went through five times.

A werewolf-themed webtoy with tons of hidden surprises.

Yes, that is a werewolf in handcuffs.

Interesting:

A simple, one-button premise--hit space to uncover the moon, which turns you into a werewolf. Extremely novel, turns out to have tons of potential. 5/5

Fun:

They put a lot of depth into this--for example, turning into a werewolf right next to someone is different from turning into one a little ways away. For such a simple concept, I kept wanting to play over and over. 5/5

Moving:

Emotional content is pretty minimal, although I am a sucker for games that let you destroy things. 2/5 

A great little webtoy, clearly demonstrating the power of attention to detail.