Acidic

I'm a huge fan of side scrolling space shooter games. I find the arcade action of these games highly addictive. Lunar Strike is a space shooter built on OpenGL which has resulted in crisp smooth gameplay and amazing graphics.

And the graphics are, without a doubt, this games strong point but as everyone would agree, graphics aren't everything. For a game to hold your attention gameplay needs to be a feature. Sadly Lunar Strike falls a couple steps short in this department.

The gameplay isn't bad but it's not what you'd expect from a space shooter. Now I'm not one to punish creativity but sometimes improving on something is better than changing it. The game feels more like a simulation than an arcade game. The limited ammo and difficulty you will have in aiming will aggravate you if you were looking for a fast action packed space shooter.

A really good game, none the less.

Sqidge is a well made, simple platform game that requires some quick thinking and dexterous keyboard abilities. The aim is simple: guide a voilently bouncing yellow blob from one site of each level to the other. This mission is made slightly more difficult by an array of spikes, holes and dissapearing platforms.

Each level requires some carefull initial strategising to decide the best way to tackle the level. This is followed by the quick thinking and dexterous keyboard abilities mentioned earlier, when you put this plan into action. The main difficulties are choosing the right time and how high to jump.

You can either cruise through each level as quickly as possible or you can go for a high score by collecting as many coins. This really does add a few noches to the difficulty scale.

Sqidge isn't as addictive as some other similar puzzle type games but it's still fun for a couple of games.

I don't really know where to start with my review for Glace, I feel rather intimidated writing a review for what I consider one of the greatest freeware game of all time.

The story is set in a far away galaxy inhabited by a number of strange alien creatures. The game starts with 2 mad scientists, named Dr. Frog and Dr. Slagg, as they try to create a creature that will help them control the universe. Experiment number 4,286 is a failure, all the mad scientists are able to create is a small, cute, blob creature. The scientists order that the creature is destroyed but something goes wrong and our soon to be hero escapes.

The game follows the adventures of our blob as he aims to prove that he is more than just a failed experiment. His adventures take us through 4 distinct platform environments. Each environment features unique scenery and new enemies.

Our blob has a few of his own abilities including wall bouncing and super jumping. Both of these are useful skills when it comes to getting around but his true power comes from the magical beads that he finds (and every one else wants). These beads are Glace's only offense. He throws these beads at his enamies but because of their mystical magic powers they are attrackted back to him, ready to be thrown again.

The game manages to perform 3 balancing acts which I thought would be impossible for any game to achieve:
The first is the balancing of the games appeal to both young and old. The cute characters in the game will keep the younger audience entertained. The gameplay is challenging enough to keep older gamers in front of their keyboards but it should not be too difficult for younger players.

The second balancing act is story line to gameplay. The ever present story line will keep you attached to the characters but you wont be bored with endless cut scenes and dialog.

The third balancing act is multimedia to download size. The music and graphics in this game are phenomenal. The original music creates a very fitting atmosphere and the unique raphics are crisp, clean and interesting to look at. Despite all this multimedia the creators were still able to keep the game under 5MB.

I can't think of any good words to accuratley describe how amazing this game is. All I can say is hats off to the creators. You all did a really wonderful job in creating a truly amazing side scrolling platform adventure game for both young and old.

The Aliens have landed and they're karting around Roswell!

In Roswell Racer you race other Aliens around a beautifully rendered 3D track, Mario Kart style. The game features some interesting power ups including missiles, speed ups and time slow downs. These power ups are vital if you want to win the race.

There are 3 tracks in total, the first one is unlocked when you start the game. The other 2 are unlocked as you win races. This gives you a healthy dose of winning incentive.

3D graphics as good as Roswell Racer's are rarely seen in home-made freeware games. They are truly awesome, playing this game was a visual treat all the way. Unfortunately the graphics have pushed up the games requirements fairly high but this was to be expected.

Roswell Racer was ShellShocked Entertainment's entry to TheGameCreators Alienware competition of 2003. It deservedly won 2nd place, as soon as you start playing you will see why. It has very simple gameplay but is really addictive.

Another major plus for Roswell Racer is it's really small download size, a mere 15MB. For what you are getting that is really nothing.

The shortfall that made me rate this game 95% instead of 100% is it's bugs. There are so many of them and this can really effect gameplay.

Small download size, addictive gameplay and awesome graphics. This sounds like the perfect freeware game to me! Well it's not perfect, but it comes pretty close. Download it if your PC meets the minimum requirements.

Edit
At first I rated this game 95% but I have been playing it some more and the bugs in the game are really getting to me. Rarely a race goes by without you getting stuck in something. So I've changed it's rating to 80%. It's still a really fun game but only when you're lucky enough not to be effected by any bugs.

Who would have known, our Yeti can surf! In this Yeti Sports, entitled Bigwave, our Yeti has grabbed some of his penguin buddies and a new yellow surf board and headed off to Hawaii.

Yeti Sports: Bigwave has the same simple yet additive gameplay as the five games before it. There really is nothing complicated here, even if you don't know the first thing about surfing you will be able to get into the game within minutes.

The aim of Bigwave is to hit penguins, that are jumping out of the waves, with your surf board. The higher the penguins are when you hit them the more score you get. The faster you are going when you launch your self off the wave the higher you will go. You gain this speed by moving around the wave.

Just like most of the other Yeti Sports games it won't keep you addicted for that long but don't get me wrong, it is great fun to play.

Everyones favorite Yeti joins us once again in this, the fifth installment of Yeti Sports. In this Yeti Sports game you use a flamingo to play a quick round of golf with a penguin across the Sahara desert. It should be clear to everyone why these Yeti Sports Games are so popular.

As would be expected there are giraffes, elephants, snakes and trees in along the way that can either help or hinder your drive distance. The more you play the better you will get at using these African creatures to your advantage.

The nice thing about this Flamingo Drive is that it is more a game of skill than the previous Yeti Sports games. The harder you practice the luckier you will get.

It's a simple game with cute sound effects and good graphics. The game play can get a bit repetitive, but it's a good way to whittle away the early hours of the morning.

This is the third Yeti Sports game I am adding to Acid-Play today, so please excuse any lack of originality in this review.

In this installment of Yeti Sports, our great big, fluffy white friend has made his way over to Australia to help an albatross carry a penguin across a great golden Australian beach.

The Yeti has very little to do with this sporting event. He simply mans a seesaw with which he launches a penguin into the air. From there an albatross grabs the penguin and it is your job to time the albatross' wing flaps to perfection, making sure that it preserves enough to keep on flapping for as long as possible.

Albatross Overload offers the same simple, fun, be it short lived gameplay as the other Yeti Sports. The graphics and sound are also both as good as ever.

Be sure to download this and all the other Yeti Sports Games.

The Yeti is at it again in "Seal Bounce", another installment of Yeti Sports! Once again the yeti, with the aid of a number of small arctic creatures, pushes himself in his own personal Olympics.

This time the Yeti wants to throw a Penguin as high up as he possibly can. He does this by swinging the penguin wildly around his head and then letting it go at the right time, then relying on a group of seals to nudge the penguin up as he comes flying past. It is your job to decide when he lets go of the penguin.

Yeti Sports: Seal Bounce is really nice, well made game but it does not offer much in the area of replayablity. It's a game of luck not a game of skill so you probably won't feel very motivated to play because the hight you achieve is mostly due to luck of the bounce.

The Yeti Sports games are made in Flash and are generally better suited to the online games arena than the downloadable games one. It's quick, simple and easy to get into but don't expect to be playing it for more than 10 minutes.

Lincity is a city simulation game following in the footsteps of the 1989 Maxis classic: Simcity.

The basic aim of Lincity is similar to that of Simcity. You have to look after the residents of your city by feeding them and providing them with jobs. At the same time you have to maintain you city’s economy, while always looking after the needs of the environment.

Little has been updated in this remake but that's more than likely what all nostalgia seekers are looking for, so this can't be looked at as a problem.

Lincity is still DOS based, with low colour and equally low resolution. Your city is built from a bird’s eye view, not from the appealing isometric view that was found in later versions of Simcity.

The range of building available is impressive. Nothing obvious has been excluded. It is because of this completeness and attention to detail that I am giving Lincity 70%.

Lincity is a worthy download, especially for fans of the original Simcity.

Your hometown has been overrun with zombies! Your friends are busy being converted to the side of the undead! Now it's up to you to use your brains and save them!

Zombiepox is a mildly entertaining, high quality freeware game. It was originally made in only 48 hours, which isn't long in game making terms but despite this chronological challenge the creators where able to put together some fairly solid gameplay.

You proceed through each level by converting all the undead back into your fleshy human friends by feeding them a fresh, pulsating human brain. This task is made slightly more difficult by your friends who seem completely oblivious to the imminent danger and are quite happy to wander around the brain hungry undead, putting themselves at risk of getting turned into one of the undead.

Zombiepox features similar cartoony graphics to the rest of Free Lunch Design's games, which are in my opinion very appealing and effective. For Zombiepox to have joined my list of favorite freeware games it would have needed some really great sound but, sadly, it's in the audio department that Zombiepox falls short. The zombie's annoying mumble of BrAiNs and the funny farting sound the brains make when you throw them to the floor are both far from inspiring.

All you have to do is turn the sound off and what you have is a great way of killing some time at work or at school.