BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK! BONK!

This week's Mobile Monday highlights one of the most disturbing trends of the 21st century: adding a lowercase "i" to the front of words. Our example: iDracula. Why on earth does the name Dracula need an "i" in front of it? Unfortunately, playing the game doesn't offer any clues, so I suppose we'll just have to deal with it. Or should that be, iSuppose?

Shooters! Shmups! Games where you hit buttons and destroy things! Vertically scrolling, arena, clones, remakes, minimalistic... shooting games! Thusly is the theme of this edition of Weekend Download. Except for that other game at the bottom...

One of my friends can use the teleport. What? You've never heard of it? Then, I'll give you King Banana. That didn't make sense, did it? You're the enemy of all zombies! You monster!

Are you ready for some hilarious multiplayer wordplay? See who can come up with the best acronyms in this resurrection of the classic Acrophobia! To us, Acrobabble represents the finest in CRAB (Creative Reverse-Acronym Building). You might even say Acrobabble is a COWARD (Cavalcade Of Words And Random Definitions). But I think we can all agree it is a DAWG (Darn Awesome Word Game).

A few seriously impressive games on this week's Mobile Monday, with Zombieville USA and Rolando delivering some high-quality visuals to brighten up that tiny screen. And just for contrast, we have Falling Balls... But who says black on white graphics aren't fun to look at?

Four simple but stunning games this week, ranging from strikingly bare-bones to the artistically slanted. Classic Night breathes a rare sense of wonder into a normally stale genre, while Where doesn't pull any tricks and simply drops you in a gorgeously-drawn maze.

Well, would you look at that! This edition of Link Dump Friday happens to be number 101! So, if you've been a fan of LDF since the beginning, you've played over 500 games. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! Feel accomplished? I sure do!

Greetings! Your iTunes App Store-based lesson this week: "simple" doesn't necessarily mean "not fun". All of the games featured this week are rather simple, but thanks to some snazzy design choices, they're extraordinarily fun.

Hello humans, and welcome to the Global Game Jam edition of Weekend Download! The GGJ is a three-day event held in dozens of cities around the world. People show up, pitch their ideas based on a theme, form groups and start making games! The results (of which there are also dozens) range from spectacular to quirky to artistic to downright weird, but all show enormous creativity in one way or another.

It's a super-special Valentine's Day Link Dump! But... Bah humbug! What sort of present do you give when you're happily married to your Ph.D in the digestive function of sub-Saharan dungbeetles? "Here my little darling, I bought you a new statistics package!"

There are no hidden messages in this opening paragraph. It contains no inside jokes, references to external events, or puns. It isn't dedicated to anyone, real or imaginary. This Link Dump Friday paragraph does not taste like butter.

An impressive list of games to start of your iTunes gaming week, and each one does something special in the artwork category, giving you some gorgeous eye candy to stare at while you play. And don't forget: each week on Mobile Monday we offer you the chance to win an iTunes gift certificate that will cover the cost of every game featured in the article!

Hungry for a good, meaty adventure game? We've got three excellent titles that will draw you in with a deep story, keep you hooked with delicious artwork, and perplex you at every turn with some seriously challenging puzzles. They may not be as casual as some might prefer, but they more than make up for it with a heavy-hitting presentation and well-designed gameplay.

If you were looking for the latest edition of Weekend Download, I'm sorry to inform you it's been in a terrible accident involving scissors, a blowtorch, and those annoying little pudding cups in the aluminum tins that, if you snap off the "easy open" tab, suddenly become an impenetrable fortress of pudding protection.

I tried to warn you, Professor. I told you they would try to stop us. The Army. The Air Patrol. The angry neighbors with their grill-bows and lawn guns. But you wouldn't listen. You just had to test your Ultra-Hyper-Matter-Expansion Ray to try and pack more levels into innocent games! You've packed them full to bursting! And now, Professor, now… a second Link Dump is upon us!

It's Link Dump Friday, ANAGRAM EDITION! Because it's fun, here are nine other ways to express Link Dump Fridayage without straying from those 12 delicious letters: Midland Fury Kip, Kinda Lid Frumpy, Pilaf Muddy Rink, Fairly Kind Dump, Armful Kiddy Pin, Milady Drip Funk, Rapid Mind Fluky, Farm Kiddy Lupin, Amply Druid Fink.

More games, yay! We're still touching and tapping our way through the iTunes App Store each week, digging up games that are worth getting into. This time around we have a port of a favorite Flash game along with some puzzle action, fast-reflex tilting, and an Egyptian-themed dice-based poker game! Be sure to comment and check back next week for a chance to win an iTunes gift certificate!

It's a weekend of power-hitting downloads! *shock and awe* Four huge games lurk below, each bearing the hopes and dreams of a different set of gamers on its respective creative shoulders. It's enough to make a grown gamer cry. *sniffle*

With a nearby volcano threatening my loved ones, I thought it might be a good time to let off some steam. This week's Bonus Link Dump is all about shoot shooty shoot bang thwa-bam! Use of your mind is discouraged, but your lizard brain may come in handy.

This week's Link Dump Friday is infested with puzzle mites! Yes, the rare puzzle mite, a creature so small, so insidious, only I know it exists. Puzzle mites like to crawl under keyboards and infest internet circuits, turning ordinary games into puzzle games! No one is safe from their wrath. Not me. Not you. Not even your pet kitty!

After much deliberation and discussion for our largest annual "Best of the Year" feature yet, we have just published the results of the audience voting, along with our own picks that will serve to represent this year's "Best". Thank you again for participating in the Best of 2008, and here's to another year of great casual games!

Another Monday, another wide range of iTunes App Store games for your amusement! From the frantic shooter to the calm and collected poker table with a little critter munching and physics toppling in-between, you won't have any trouble passing the time on train rides, car trips, or the annoying space in-between breakfast and lunch most people call the "workday". Check back weekly for a chance to win an iTunes gift certificate!

Two tiny games and one behemoth in this edition of Weekend Download. Aquarium and Little Ghost Joe are both rather cutesy and simple, whereas Nexuiz is gritty, serious, and all shooty with guns and stuff. Variety's neat, innit?

Sometimes I wish I could switch some of the elements of each Link Dump Friday game. For example, what if you had to deliver food to a hungry robot in a bubble? Or match a bunch of shapes so a poor little MS Paint detective could solve a mystery?

Just a quick update to mention that voting for the Best of 2008 is now closed. Thanks to everyone who participated and voted. We are now tabulating and preparing the results for publishing, so please check back in a few days for a list of the winners.

Greetings mobile gamers! Did last week's article help you sufficiently smudge your iPhone/iPod Touch? Good, because here are four more games to help rid your hands of that pesky finger grease. We also have a fun announcement to celebrate our new column: Each week we'll be giving away one iTunes gift certificate you can use to purchase every game on a Mobile Monday article! All you have to do is sign in with a Casual Gameplay account and leave a comment on the article telling us something you liked/disliked about one of the games. A random winner will be chosen and announced the following Mobile Monday, so be sure to check back to see if you scored some free games!

We polled over 800,000 random people on the street and asked them one simple question: are you a squid, or are you an octopus? The response was overhwelmingly the former, prompting us to re-evaluate our personal belief systems so that squid occupied the highest echelon of importance.

First, I believe that this website should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a Link Dump Friday on the moon and returning it safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

Welcome to a brand new feature here on JayIsGames: Mobile Monday! Since the launch of the iPhone and iPod Touch App Store this previous summer, mobile games have not only been easier to come by, but far more plentiful. An explosion of content has flooded our way, drenching us poor gamers in a cornucopia of gaming choices. So, rather than buying all 80 bajillion iPhone games yourself, we'll cover the biggest and the best releases so you can spend your gaming budget wisely.

Serious question: if you were a failed experiment of genetic engineering, what would be your weakness? In the case of the poor critter from this week's game Abandoned, it's a limited supply of oxygen. Personally, I would be unable to comb my hair without first dislocating my left shoulder. Think about it. That'd be a rough life.

A peculiar phenomenon manifested before my eyes while writing this week's Link Dump Friday. When examining the titles for each game, I realized they were remarkably interchangeable! With a few minor alterations of my own, of course.

Once again, a year has passed. We've tried our hardest to recommend the very best online games and downloadable casual games available on the Web, and now it's time for you to have your say. Yes, it's time for the fifth annual Jay is Games "Best of" feature. Help us out by voting for your favorite games of 2008! Vote now, and vote once per day during the voting period!

If you ask me (trust me, you did... and if you didn't, you know you wanted to), the selection of games on this edition of Weekend Download are some of the most well-rounded and fulfilling titles ever to grace a single article. We've got a pixel-perfect 2D platformer, a 3D spy game, an old favorite RTS title re-imagined in open source, and the classic mahjong puzzle game. Can I get a "YAY!" along with a few high fives?!!

The first Link Dump Friday of 2009 also happens to set another impressive record: the first intro paragraph on JayIsGames to contain the word "bacon"! Remember this moment, as you will no doubt wish to tell your grandchildren where you were when this monumentally important event transpired!

Casual sim/strategy fans (and anyone who enjoyed Virtual Villagers or My Tribe) take note: Westward III: Gold Rush has arrived! Following last spring's release of Westward II: Heroes of the Frontier, the third installment in the series continues the new 3D visual style and basic premise introduced in the second game. Take control of three new heroes as you collect resources, construct farms, saloons, granaries and more to keep your settlers happy and healthy.

The recent TIGSource Commonplace Book Competition has ended, yielding heaps of creative, unusual, and slightly dark games. Entrants were challenged with using a line from H.P. Lovecraft's "Commonplace Book", a notebook of disjointed, cryptic ideas, and create a game around these snippets of text. Below are a few of the top picks as chosen by the TIGSource community.

Descending from a holiday-induced sugar high can be tough. Especially when fudge, pie, fudge, and fudge have been the staples of your diet for the past 24-48 hours. At least there's Link Dump Friday to encourage you to stop running around flapping your arms pretending you're a really cute bumblebee and sit down for more than five minutes.

On virtual housetops, gamers pause. Out jumps dear old Santa Claus, through the skies on his rocket sleigh, writing yellow messages along the way. Ho, Ho, Ho, throw a ball of snow. Ho, Ho, Ho, it's a link dump, you know? Games for the holidays, Click click click! Look through our list and take your pick.

His consequent newspaper exceeds orange juice after a patronized disclaimer. The vehicle concatenates soil. When can soil compose above an individual? A deserted outline ministers to soil past a rotten attribute. WEEKEND DOWNLOAD WOOOO!

Here is the story. Of a Link Dump on Friday. Who was showing off some very lovely toys. All of them had fun things to show, like the others. The final one in— baaaah. I never liked the Brady Bunch theme song anyway!

The Guardian (UK) has just published a list of the "100 top sites for the year ahead" and we're proud to report that JIG is included in that list, and we are one of just 5 gaming sites mentioned(!) Say the Guardian folks, JIG is "passionate, well-designed and knowledgeable." We will do everything we can to make sure 2009 meets or exceeds expectations!

This edition of Weekend Download answers a question that has been plaguing mankind since 1984: who ya gonna call (especially if there's something strange in your neighborhood)? The answer is, unequivicobaly, QWAK. Wait, no, the other thing. Ghostbusters. Yeah!

This special edition of Link Dump Friday features a selection of traditional spot-the-difference games with a pleasing presentation and a story to tell. Coincidentally, each of the following games also contains something I have an irrational phobia about, and that's how I've listed them.

Rainbows. Unicorns. Fluffy bunnies. Smiling baby seals. Cotton candy trees. None of these things are featured in this edition of Link Dump Friday. Instead we have binary puzzles, meat-based action heroes, and a game centered around tossing people into buckets!

Winda Benedetti writes the Citizen Gamer column for MSNBC.com, and she just published two articles today that you may find good reads. Both articles give us a mention and recommend some of our favorite games here at JIG.

Did you know that the original meaning of the word "weekend" referred to the time from noon Saturday to Monday morning? Did you also know the word "download" seems to have originated in 1980? AND, did you know I spent a little too much time reading about the etymology of these words?

Link Dump Friday noses throughout a physic electron. A carrot reflects Link Dump Friday under the wound. Link Dump Friday sweeps behind the obnoxious comedy. The tax courses an encouraged pot within this joke. How can games caution within Link Dump Friday?

Hotel 626 is an amazingly innovative, beautifully-produced nightmare of a game. After "checking in" (giving the website your name, email and creating a password), you are immediately whisked away into the opening movie: your awakening, in the middle of the night, in your room at this hellish hotel.

While playing all the games that I do to find something worthy of a Weekend Download, I get to see a huge variety of wacky, creative, strange, bland, and forgettable game titles. Not featured in this edition of Weekend Download (nor in this plane of existence): The Dentist is Fun, Party Games for You and Your Ex, Three Reasons Tofu is Evil, Help! I've Swallowed an Ant!, Give Me Some Cake, and Super Reptile Diploma.

Life is better with corny jokes. Especially when they're about produce. What I mint to say is it's good to laugh. Even if you're laughing for no raisin. Give a good chortle as often as you can and you'll live a happy, healthy life. Do we have a dill?

Last week, on Weekend Download, I had the tiny problem of listening to the constant drone of a leaf blower somewhere in my neighborhood. This week it was back, with a vengeance, and it directly affected my downloadable game playing experiences. When I was playing Oxyd, all I could do was smash into walls. When I played IVAN, I couldn't kill a bat. I couldn't explore all of Elona because focusing was out of the question. And zombies in Rock Boshers took me out a few times too many because my mind was elsewhere. Maybe I should take a hint from the protagonist in Violet and start eliminating the distractions by any zany means available?

So what if I told you I know a secret that you don't know? And what if I told you there was no way you could ever find out? Not even if you played every game below to completion, found some sort of hidden message at the end, compiled them into a single word and wrote that word on a piece of paper and put it in a bottle and tossed it out to sea. Nope, that would never work. The secret is mine!

HipSoft has just released Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe, the latest installment in the excellent Build-a-lot series of tycoon-style real estate sims. The series has found the sweet spot between keeping a successful formula the same and adding new elements to bring players back for more. I've already spent some time with this game and it's just as addictive as the previous titles. Look for a full review this weekend. In the meantime, start playing!

I compose this edition of Weekend Download with the sound of leaf blowers screeching through my windows. Not only does half my neighborhood believe leaves in their yard are evil, but apparently creating hours of noise pollution for everyone in the area is an acceptable price to pay to shove them in the street. I miss the good old fashioned, non-air-and-noise-polluting leaf rake...

With such an amazing week of free browser game releases, it's a wonder anything is left over for Link Dump Friday! Thanks to my armies of trolls, hermits, little bits of aluminum foil and people I've set on fire (you know who you are), we've come up with a nice list of games to keep your Friday from getting boring.

Along with three slightly crazy games, in this edition of Weekend Download we have a few games that have gone through a metamorphosis of sorts. World of Goo is now available for Mac (!), and one of my favorite resource management games, Now Boarding, has had a significant upgrade.

This week's Link Dump Friday reminds me of baking soda, white vinegar, and a dab of dish soap. Well, not so much the concoction itself, but its many varied cleaning uses. Well, not really the cleaning part, more of the-- you know, I just saw the word "bubble" and thought about the mixture. There, I said it. I feel better now.

The following message was stolen from artbegotti: This episode of Weekend Download has been brought to you by Triangles. Triangles are three-sided shapes that have three corners with internal angles that add up to 180 degrees. Triangles come in several varieties, including right triangles, equilateral triangles, isosceles triangles, obtuse triangles, and more! Triangles are also well known for their structural stability in architectural design. So go out and try some triangles today! "Triangles... We're Not Square!"

Celebrating 0.25 years of Link Warble Dump Friday, bringing you banana boxes full of games wrapping 6.5 times a year. (Note: Due to an unfortunate alignment of Jupiter and Mars, you must multiply every calendar-based figure I speak of by eight and ignore all words that begin with the letter 'W'.) Oh, and happy Halloween!

Now it's time to break the rules. A little. This edition of Weekend Download highlights winners of the 2008 Unity Awards, games created using the Unity plug-in that are playable right in your browser window. Technically they're browser games, but since you have to download and install something, they're downloads, too.

Four very different games in this edition of Link Dump Friday, enough to appease the hungry appetites of RPG fans, tower defense masters, action gamers and anyone looking to give their reflexes a little test or two.

Some odd news to go along with your games: Recently the American Heart Association announced that the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive" provides the perfect beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim. While this will certainly help save a number of lives, I really don't want to see disco (or qiana shirts) make a comeback.

I'm going to preface this Link Dump Friday with a stern warning: there's a pun at the end of the article. I know I know, puns are like kryptonite for some people, but I just couldn't resist. You know those moments when you're writing, a sentence pops into your head and immediately afterwards you realize you were being "clever" without even realizing it? Yeah, it was one of those. So read on, play some games, and when you reach the end, don't say I didn't warn you.

Look! Over there! It's a giant robot alligator with a bunch of little drills going out to get some sushi! Before he sees us, reload your grenade gun with cherries and tap the appropriate key when his sushi order floats over the red zone!

In this blue-colored world (you know, 'cause of oceans and stuff), we have people that bake bread, people who build buildings, people who stack things on top of other things. We also have people who make games. Everyone fills their little niche in the grand scheme of things, but only one of the above listed folk have a Link Dump Friday. Can you guess which one?

Sometimes indie game developers really impress me with their rampant creativity. This week, for example, we have a surprisingly deep strategy game from Chronic Logic that looks like it was stolen from 1992, a fighting game starring rabbits, an unfairly tough platformer called Love, and a physics-based racing motocross racing game. When "Hey, I have a neat idea!" is the driving force behind a game, you know you're in for a good time.

If you ever sat outside on a warm summer's night (or a cool winter's eve, I suppose), stared up at the sky and thought "Boy do I wish I was that big ball of rock in the sky!", this edition of Link Dump Friday helps fulfill that wish!

More games to make you scratch your head, this bonus edition of Weekend Download features a few titles that caught my eye in one way or another. I especially enjoyed G2: Geeks Unleashed, not only for its corny references (every one of which I understood!), but for its unique strategy/puzzle gameplay.

Two really fascinating blasts from (or to) the past this week: The Lost Snowmen, which spiritually resurrects one of my favorite games from the 90s, The Lost Vikings, and Cavern of Doom, which takes pixelated graphics to an almost painful extreme.

As promised last week, I now present to you Link Dump Friday: IDUNNOWHATEVERLOL Edition! I apologize if a very light arcade/mouseplay feeling comes across when you play these games. Rest assured, however, that it's not a theme. Just a... flavor.

And really, that's what this delectable duo is: delicious, unpretentious, snack-sized games just bursting with escapey goodness. Are they remarkable? Not really. Satisfying? Absolutely. And as a plus, they won't leave grease stains on your couch.

This edition of Weekend Download highlights some of my favorite entries in the recently-ended (and completely awesome) TIGSource Bootleg Demakes competition. Designers were challenged to remake a game for a system released before its time. So, for example, creating a Super Smash Bros. knockoff for the NES. Nearly 70 games were entered in the competition, so be sure to check out the competition page and try some more on for size.

The plan for this week's Link Dump Friday was to have a ball/bouncey theme. Then all these non-bouncing games came along, I got carried away, and suddenly we're left with a set of games that are great fun but, sadly, do not adhere to my original plan. Next time I'm shooting for a theme along the lines of "idunnowhateverlol"!

This week we have what is perhaps the strangest Weekend Download offering of all time: a sequel to a ten year old game originally packaged with Chex cereal. Yes, it's as odd as it sounds and yes, you have to have some pretty serious nostalgic yearnings to really get into the game. But hey, Chex cereal looks like miniature waffles, so how can that be a bad thing?

Look into my eyes. THESE eyes: O_O You are getting sleepy. Very sleepy. Soon, you will be under my complete control. Ok, you are under my complete control. Now I will snap my fingers and you will continue reading this screen. Then you will click and play every game below. And you will enjoy each one. Snapping my fingers........ NOW!

The intro paragraph to this edition of Weekend Download was delayed in an unfortunate airport scheduling conflict. Lacking the teams of writers normally required to complete this task, we have instead substituted the introduction with a single character, printed here:@. We hope you enjoy it.

This week on the official LDF Paragraph of Miscellany, I would like to discuss an advertisement poster I saw in a mall over the weekend. Pictured was a fancy hotel room with every amenity you could want, and just below, this simple phrase was printed: You see a room. I tried typing "enter room" (you know, in my mind), but apparently the door was shut, locked, and the key hidden so well no amount of drawer opening could uncover it. Darn.

In this world of change, however, there is one constant. Come rain, come sun, come snow, there will be rooms to escape from. When the glaciers melt and California falls into the sea, there will still be screwdrivers and scraps of paper to collect. And in billions of years, when the sun finally blooms into a red giant and consumes the Earth, we will be here, faithfully, delivering Weekday Escape to you every Wednesday. ...Well, ok, maybe not then. Definitely up until the week before, though. After that we'll be updating from Mars.

We have just finished a massive walkthrough guide for Azada 2: Ancient Magic. This guide will help you through any of the books should you get stuck while playing. Be warned: This guide does contain spoilers, so proceed with caution and use only as a last resort!

There you are, standing on the precipice. Your pixelated toes hang over the edge. Taking a deep breath you move forward — and fall, cursing the heavens and hoping that the louder you say "But I pressed jump!" will make a difference. Such is the fate of all characters at some point — they fall. Some games take the idea of making that perfect jump and dare you to try hard at every turn in order to make every single jump count, and every miss hurt.

Ta da! Back with another Link Dump Friday! Showing you our collection of fabulous games this week will be me, the guy whose face is trapped in a square to the left. Playing the part of the contestant will be you, people reading this text! We still don't have any volunteers to play the excited armadillo sitting in the corner eating cereal, though...

Today I would like to use this space to address a horrible error made just one week ago: I neglected to mention the previous Weekend Download was number 50! That means we've placed over 250 downloadable games before your eyes, which is... well, plenty of excuses not to do your homework or fill out your TPS reports.

Just like the previous two Link Dump Friday features, this week we have a boatload of games to keep your fingers twitching. Unlike the previous articles, however, this one has a tasty breakfast treat I have long been calling for: WAFFLES!!! *confetti*

In the simple and kid friendly Tree House Defense, another fun game on Whirled by Three Rings, made by Bill Robinson, protect your tree house from bullies, skateboarders, skunks, and other assorted neighborhood menaces. If you find that some of the elaborate tower defense games are bit too eye glazing and forbidding to get into, then this cute and simple game is a great place to start. So, it's probably not for the seasoned tower defense veteran.

Each week we churn through dozens of downloadable casual games searching for just the right ones to feature. Is it interesting and fun, or is it just another clone? Does it have pretty pictures? Much like our weekly Link Dump Friday feature, this edition of Weekend Download highlights some of the games that, for one reason or another, didn't quite make it to a full review but are still unique and worth playing.

Eels, phonic substitutions, time-traveling groundhogs, and a game that lets you beat up Kirby-like avatars that represent people from around the world. Let's all join hands and sing a song of — OH MY OMELETS THE EEL IS EATING ME!!!

In last week's Link Dump Friday, I thought it was a phenomenal feat to feature six games in one article. Well, looks like we've done it again, and this time there are pirates and aliens, too! Still no waffles, sadly...

Surprise! Suspense! A scintillatingly superb set of sequels, specifically suggested by your escape specialists for another Weekday Escape. Sequester yourself away, take a sabbatical from the scathing stupor of your work week. Salud!

You like it old-school? That's good, because on this edition of Weekend Download, we've got a healthy dose of retro-style gaming ready to throw you back a decade or two!

Link Dump Friday? More like Link Deluge, AMIRITE?! Six really great games, a few of which are heavy-hitters and will take away your afternoon without apology, and a fun Flash animation. Could Friday get any better? Well, maybe if we had some waffles...

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. Yes! It means we're half-way to another Weekend Download, two days shy of a Link Dump Friday, and smack-dab in the middle of a Weekday Escape! So grab your mouse, your point-and-clicky finger and let's escape some rooms!

If I were made of LEGO-style bricks, I would have an extra arm at the center of my back. Sure, it would make sitting down awkward, my shirts would never quite fit, and buying gloves would be kinda pointless, but... Please? Can I have it anyway?

We have a very special Link Dump Friday this week! Why? Because... I said so? Or is it because it's the first day of August? Or is it because we have games about math, ninjas, circus performers and cannons all in one article?!

Along with our usual smattering of games, this week we're featuring one of the games from the recent Toronto Independent Game Development Jam (TOJam), a three day gathering of game makers held every year to inspire creative ideas. Be sure to check out all of the TOJam entries for more experimental gaming goodness!

While crafting this week's Link Dump Friday, I uncovered a mysterious pattern that could be a sign of greater things at work. On a standard North American QWERTY keyboard, 33 of the 47 letters used to write the names of the five games below (numbers don't count) can be typed with the right hand alone. In fact, Starwave doesn't need the right hand at all! Government conspiracy? Alien intervention? Or does my being a lefty subtly influence the games we feature each week? You decide!

What do robots and exotic birds have in common with stop motion animation? They're all components of this week's selection of Weekday Escape! Featuring three worthy escape games for your weekday escapism.

The moon disappeared from the sky on the night of April 10, 2008, and the public is in disagreement regarding why or how it disappeared. Several stargazers ... claim that a giant spaceship came by and "swallowed" the moon.

Good day and welcome to Weekend Download! For your comfort and ease of existence, we promise that Weekend Download will never say it's going to call you after work and never do so. Weekend Download will also keep its promise and get you that extra cash when it does your taxes. Weekend Download is also low in calories, low fat, and high in FUN.

When asked which toothpaste they preferred over the leading national brand, four out of five dentists chose Link Dump Friday. Their reasons included arcade-style shooters, puzzle games, and physics-based webtoys. What that other dentist was thinking, we have no clue...