The weather outside has insured that today is one of those days where I'll open the door, take a single tentative step, survey the situation, and decide "NOPE!" and retreat back inside to where there are things like fire places and casual games. So let's stay inside the cozy confines of The Vault with a few physics, interactive art, and puzzle games from the JayIsGames archives, until the outside decides to add a few colors other than snowy white to its palette.
Splitter - I must admit, if I were granted the power to cleave things in twain, merely by drawing my finger over it, I'd probably be misusing that power like nobody's business. It's a good thing, then, that Splitter, a 2008 physics puzzler from Eugene Karataev, exists only in the realm within my computer screen, no matter how top-notch the presentation, or how cool it is to see time reverse when you hit the reset button. It's the start of a wonderful series of Splitter games, and great way to whittle away the hours without actually whittling.
The End Of Us - No, this isn't the one about the guy and the girl and the zombies and "who are the real monsters?" This is the 2011 piece of interactive art by OneMrBean and Chelsea Howe about meteors laughing and crashing and playing together! Of course, any anthropomorphism is up to the player to decode, as The End of Us has no dialogue or explicit goals in its unique narrative. Some would probably say it's not a game at all. I don't care, though. It's lovely.
Warp Forest - Getting exactly the right mix of puzzle and action elements in a browser game can be as difficult as getting the right ratio of Nesquik to milk in your hot chocolate, but Arseniy Shklyaev has always managed it with aplomb. Case in point: 2006's Warp Forest. Like in many of Shklyaev's works, the joy comes from how a series of simple puzzling elements can come together to form amazing complex and satisfying challenges as you get deeper and deeper in the game. And, of course, how you are driving a laser car to fight explode dragons in a magical forest. Let's not discount that.
While we welcome any comments about this weekly feature here, we do ask that if you need any help with the individual games, please post your questions on that game's review page. Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there and rediscover some awesome!
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