TAMAGO

Sometimes aimless and absurd is the way to go in an industry run by inertia and greediness. This time it's all about existentialism and concept, and it works exceptionallly well. You break the egg shown on the screen by tapping it exactly one million times.- a feat  requiring a few months of your waking hours. Call it novelty or curiosity or plain love for the absurd or stupid, but this game has already had more than 5 million users. The mystery behind the 1mil mark made people use cheats, hacks and even mechanical screen tapping devices to achieve it.

The game grants them a "So What?" sign above the egg upon completion of the task, and though it could be construed as an extremely mean gesture on the game maker's part, it might entail a more serious issue of modern gaming, be it casual or hardcore, and call for a more serious debate on free time and gaming as a meaningful undertaking.

Curiosity killed the screen and made an omelette.

EPISTORY - TYPING CHRONICLES

There have been other typing games so far, yes, but none so elaborate, original and as beautifully programmed as Epistory.You do get incrementally better at typing  as you progress with this title, but the way the game unfolds  and the joy you get from playing the game is magical! You help the narrator of the story by running a girl riding a 3-tailed fox using only your keyboard. By following the narrator and helping the story unfold, new terrains and landscapes reveal themselves and your wisdom and magical abilities increase. You engage the enemies and manipulate  objects by typing out letters of the words that appear above them, and it plays a hundred times more exciting than it sounds. If you look at a game while it's played by someone else you do not get the feeling of experiencing a typing game at all.

Papercraft and origami designs were a clever addition to the "search of knowledge" premise behind the game, though largely introduced due to Unity's Tiled Map Editor's limitations.The exploration is easy, battles pose a real challenge to your  typing skills and you're presented with many tactical choices at each point in the story.

The fox/kitsune character  derived from Chinese/Japanese mythology was an incredibly clever thing to introduce, as the general non-conformity of available tales and myths surrounding kitsune through ages lend themselves beautifully to using the 3-tailed fox as a more generalized symbol. With a hundered years for each tail to grow, our fox has grown much wiser and powerful  and has already unlocked a number of magical powers that come of age (mouths or tails generating fire , lihtning, ice) , yet she has a lot to go to see all of 9 tails  grown on her, and this makes her a suitable companion to the main character.Kitsune also manifests itself in dreams and create illusions one cannot tell apart from reality. Should this be taken into account while playing Epistolary? You could , but being completely igorant of the story behind kitsune won't spoil the enjoyment of playing this wonderful game for you.

Oh, yes- the game's available in 9 languages and supports different keyboard layouts.

NEBULUS

I loved having someone else play this game while I observed Pogo the main character always being at the centre of the screen with everything else moving around him. The fake 3d looked pretty real to me and it was one of those c64 titles that you were bound to play for the value of graphics alone. Sure, it was all about memorization and you were supposed to learn where all the tricky bits were , but the experience of playing this "tower toppler"  was incredibly fun..It was only later that I learned that Pogo and Populus were beloved by people owning other home computers at the time , and that other ports were equally entertaining and pleasing to the eye. The rising platforms, the simple form of sprites and the sense of depth in perception combined with decent game mechanics on both the towers and the bonus levels made this title a gaming delight.

It might have failed as a sci-fi title if anyone considered this to be a sci-fi game to begin with , but it is an absolute classic of a platformer.  It did not spawn a host of clones and new games, but those that appeared (Phatasmagoria for dos!) were always eagerly played by yours truly/

SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS

What a befitting title for this ingenious piece of gaming software. Whether you consider this to be a proper game or not, the idea behind it is absolutely unique,  no doubt about it. And the gameplay is very much true to life, as the trolling and fighting for and against social justice takes place in virtual space, just  as God intended. Progressivists troll, regressivists troll , trolls troll for the fun of it, and everyone looks exactly the same as everyone else , all in a world where it's ok and not ok to have an opinion on anyone and anything and run people down by use of cars if they disagree with the car owner. In a world where fascism is sold as freedom of speech  and the double standards are employed throughout the globe by big players, it is hard even for a politically-minded individual to keep track of what might be going on in this confusing new world.The aptly used pejorative term stresses this feeling  and gives the player a hint of what to expect from the game itself. The game does what it says on the tin, you engage in outwitting trolls until they go online and another troll takes their place, recreating and reliving "real-life"online experiences that are immediately identifiable. Expecting anything else from this game would mean steering away from its intent and purpose, if there be one.

The question is -why would anyone go through such lengths at recreating unpleasant trials and tribulations that everyone of us has experienced online? Is it meant to make us realize  people can't change and that  trying to prove otherwise is a complete waste of time? Does it make us rethink the agressive posture we sometimes assume when talking to a complete stranger or casual acquaintance we're never likely to meet offline anyway? I guess it's about preserving your sanity and reputation , online and offline.

OPERATION WOLF

I was so impressed by this game and played the proots out of it and dreamt it and dreamt of taking it back home with me (or at least  ripping out the massive machine gun and taking it home).All other FPSs I played never got even remotely close to this gem in terms of their hold on me. The detailed graphics, the moving screen and the magnificent sprites, a difficulty level on a par with Green Beret's- any one of these characteristics would have won me over. It had the 80s-Rambo-like-soldier-plowing-through-some-third-world-country-boondocks grit and exaggeration written all over it, and an impressionable kid like myself was instantly hooked (Little did I know my country was going to become a third-world country in just a few years after that). There are 6 stages  the completion of which bring their respective goodies, with  on-the-go energy and ammunition boosts you would snatch off the screen as you enjoy the feel of a cold machine gun in your 8-year old hands.Lovely. All the Dooms,Bloods,Quakes, Half-Lives appeared  after the novelty wore off for me. I'd still pay for the arcade cabinet to own and have displayed in my room today - a subtle reminder that wargames leave a nasty taste in one's mouth after shite hits the fan and  the war appears on your doorstep when you're a teen.