Remember Arkanoid and Breakout? Those use a paddle to reflect a ball that has to hit all bricks in a level that can be destroyed to reach the next one type of games? I always liked to play those games if they would feature enough extras and interesting levels to make it worthwhile.

Many clones nowadays come without extras and boring levels. Aztec Bricks brings some fresh content to the paddle-ball-brick genre by introducing a different sort of bricks that can be destroyed. It’s basically what you see you can destroy with beautiful levels that resemble structures of the Aztec culture.

The game has been created by the same company that created the Eldorado Puzzle game. You can expect a high quality game with unique ideas. I like puzzle games that lock levels until the user reaches a certain point in the game and Aztec Bricks does a very good job at it. The user has to beat levels before new ones are unlocked, that’s great for motivation.

The paddle of the player can be moved with the mouse and the ball plus extras are activated by the left mouse buttons. You find your usual assortment of extras like smaller and bigger paddles, sticky balls, multiple balls and cannons. A unique idea is that they stack with each other which means that you can catch an extra to extend the paddle and the next extra of the same kind would extend it just a bit more. Same works for pretty much all the extras like multiple balls. Becomes a bit complex if you have 10 balls flying around in the level though..

You see lots of effects on the screen up to the point where it’s to much, at least for me. Witness lightnings, fireballs and other effects that ripple through the screen. Oh and yeah, it’s another one of those girlfriend games.

A Game About Bouncing is a stylish action game where the player takes the role of a a ball that moves by grabbing bumpers while dashing to avoid missiles. The game got the People’s Choice Award at this years Toronto Game Jam where developers try to create games on a three day deadline. Sounds like lots of fun, don’t you think ?

Tons of polish, stylized graphics, a soundtrack that elevates the gameplay, and an original mechanic that takes time to master. Incredible.

Wonderful game and if you are at the website make sure to check out the other 34 games that are available as free downloads there !

Lionheart was a game for the Commodore Amiga back in 1992. It was developed by Thalion and some dedicated folks have decided to create a remake of this side-scrolling jump and run game.

The game did push the limits of the Amiga computers a bit further and was one of the best looking titles for the Amiga back in the days.

I remember that I found the controls a bit awkward and clumsy which could probably be attributed to the fact that most processing power went right into graphics and effects.

The remake of Lionheart is well done and can be played on most Windows computers. The interface is English / French and it is possible to set the controls for the game in the Options. There are not a lot of them though. Up, Down, Left, Right, Jump and Attack that’s it.

There is some attack variety because pressing the attack button alone does nothing. An attack needs a direction before the character moves his only weapon, a sword, into that direction.

Music and sounds effects are very nice as well and absolutely Amiga like. I still love those !

B shooting is a Japanese Tetris clone that puts the player in control of a brick shooting cannon at the bottom which he has to use to fill the lines that are slowly dropping from top to bottom. Once the lines reach the red line the game is lost.

It sounds pretty easy but the game is actually difficulty. Not only because it is extremely hard to correct a shot that failed its target but also because of an alien ship that is placing additional bricks on the screen. And if you thought you can shoot that sucker think again, it’s not possible.

The game is completely in Japanese but the controls are easy to understand. Enter makes a selection on the screen, the arrow keys move the cursor in the menus and in the game while space shoots a brick with the cannon. I’m not sure if there is another key configured that has another effect, does not look that way.