I decided that this week I wanted to show you all a freeware game that could rival those to be found on shelves or Xbox Live. The problem however wasn't that I couldn't find one, but rather that I had difficulty choosing between them. There are several that I'm quite fond of, but finally I decided on the one that I felt was the most inherently addicting (when all else fails look to the series title eh?). That game is simply titled N.

N, sometimes refereed to by its tagline "The Way of the Ninja," is a simple and slickly designed 2D action puzzle flash game in which you don the role of the Ninja, a tiny ninja man with a metabolism so fast that he's capable of performing amazing physical feats. The down side to this ability is that his life span is measured in mere minutes unless he can accumulate gold, of all things, which increases his stamina. Collecting gold though is not his main objective. Instead the goal of each level is to quite simply reach the exit. Thats simpler said than done however as the exit is usually guarded by a layer of switch activated doors, machine guns, lazier turrets, hovering mines and mindless automatons. Its your job to run, jump and wall slide with exacting precision to avoid each trap, flip every switch and reach the end goal all before the clock runs out. Oh, and the timer caries over so if you only just squeak a level in under the wire, the next level will only be that much harder.

This game can be brutal. For all its simplicity the levels are expertly designed to constantly provide new challenges. In one level you be climbing up level after level crawling with motion detecting robots to reach a switch only to be forced to climb your way back down again to reach the door, in another you be leaping from one precarious rounded perch to another all under the constant gaze of a lazier turret. And during all of this you'll be trying to weigh the benefits of trying to reach that next out of the way load of gold to help ease some of the time pressure you're always under. The controls are equally simple and responsive with the traditional WASD setup and one button for jumping. The entire game simply oozes polish and its simple design combined with constantly evolving challenges (there are roughly 400-500 individual levels in the game) will likely keep anyone glued to their computer once they start playing. If you want a simple game to play between bouts of Bioshock or Halo 3 this is definitely a good option.

-Fade2Gray

Update: While I'm talking about excellent flash games I though I'd mention a particularly good looking flash game still in development called Aquaria. In short, its a free roaming Metroid ****game set in an under water fantasy land... I mean sea. No, This one wont be free. You'll probably find it running about $20 online (I'd guess somewhere like steam). I've been watching this one fairly intently and have high expectations based on what I've seen. Speaking of what I've seen, They just released a fairly long gameplay video on Youtube. Notice how good the music and voice acting is. Wow!

Update to Update: S T Y L E is a censored word!? Give me a break!