Free For All #005 — Super Crate Box

Super Crate Box is an action-platformer taking place on small stages where your objective is to collect crates which contain random weapon pickups while avoiding being killed by enemies spawning in from the top of the map and working their way down to the bottom. Once they reach the bottom they fall into a fire pit and will respawn back at the top, colored red and in a faster moving “angry” state. You collect the crates and avoid/kill the enemies for as long as you can and along the way you’ll unlock new characters and weapons once you hit various crate total goals.

There isn’t a lot of content contained in the small download, but what’s there is a fun distraction for as long as you can retain interest in the pursuit of a high score. The game uploads your scores to an online leaderboard for those of you who are competitive enough to care. Worth checking out at the very least and maybe worth keeping around for those times when you need something to do for a few minutes.

Official Website: http://www.supercratebox.com/

Braid Review

At its heart Braid is a puzzle game with light platforming elements in which the flow of time is the primary game mechanic. However, it’s also driven by its narrative which tells the tale of a man named Tim who is desperately seeking out a Princess that seems to always slip from his grasp.

The games title screen and the start of Tim's journey.

The game doesn’t waste any time by making you navigate a traditional title screen. As soon as you start you will find yourself in control of the main character on a dark street. You move to the right to find a house which you must enter. Inside you will see five doors with large canvases next to them, with a sixth door in the currently out of reach attic. During Tim’s journey you will find yourself traversing these six worlds, all of which contain a series of puzzles that must be solved in order to collect – fittingly enough – puzzle pieces. After collecting all of the puzzle pieces on a world you can then assemble them into the completed painting that accompanies the world the pieces were found in.