Orient Express Night has fun object finding, some challenging puzzles, and the use of combined objects that you expect from a decent room escape. Add in the atmosphere and the visuals and you have one fun ride, destination Istanbul (or a place more enigmatic).
By now you're an old hand at taking things apart, but can you solve the mystery of... THE BARBER POLE?! (Dun dun dun!) The popular point-and-click puzzle series makes a return with another batch of devious puzzles and mechanisms, this time hiding inside a seemingly innocuous bit of scenery.
It's my unfortunate duty to inform you that GrinnyP has accidentally locked herself in a room and Sonic Lover is trying to help her out with a screwdriver. Therefore I've stepped in to welcome you to Weekday Escape, so let's get right to it, shall we? This week we're going to point-and-click our way out of some underground chambers in Mafia Escape 2, by Wild Harmony Studio.
A nice mix of logic, use of found objects, and strangeness make Stamp Rally Escape 2 a worthy sequel to the first Stamp Rally Escape. Judging by the increasing difficulty of the puzzles the unseen RIDLRIDL (or Cogito Ergo Sum) are working towards something that will challenge Wan and Nyan to their very limits, will drive them further and further into the unknown of puzzle solving, will tax every cell in their bodies as they strive for the elusive prize at the end
Stripped down and basic, lacking music, decor, and some controls, Escape from a Building without Windows is a fantastic way to spend 5 or 10 minutes, and hottategoya is a room escape designer to watch, if only because they have mastered the first basic rule: make it logical, please. If you want to design room escape games or just love playing them give this little gem a try.
Fireplace fits brilliantly into Petithima's ever increasing catalog of escape games, a transition to bigger and better things, we hope. Amusing, entertaining, and original, Fireplace is not only a great escape game to play, it is the perfect mid-week, mid-holiday stress reliever you've been looking for.
Escape from Santa's Room is not Tesshi-e's best, perhaps, but it hits all the right notes for room escaping fun, and may help a little with the post-Christmas blues that tend to settle in around 7 pm or so, depending on when dinner was served. Cheer up, and join the escape!
The best thing about Christmas as a kid is Santa, isn't it? Not necessarily the presents per se, but more the excitement of Christmas Eve. The anticipation, wondering what you're going to get. The excitement of trying to stay up late and catch a glimpse of Santa. But in this great little Christmas escape game by 58 works, Santa does things a little bit differently.
Pencil Kids' new release in the hybrid puzzle-arcade series is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Players of previous games in the series should be familiar with the premise: a trio of monkeys is sad, and it's up to you to make them "go happy." Use the mouse to click on objects and locations, solve puzzles, shoot stuff etc. Some levels are click-fests in the Hoshi Saga model, others act like mini-escape games, others have a hidden object flavor to them, and still others are action-based. There's quite a bit of variation packed into the game's 16 levels and expansion pack. Let's monkey see what you can monkey do!
So what do you do when St. Nick turns your living quarters into a room escape puzzler for the holidays? Naturally, you try to escape. Endless X'mas is a good sample of what room escaping should be like. The puzzles are exceedingly creative compared to most, and the graphics and music are quite nice as well, bringing everything together into a quaint atmosphere.
A brand new Dismantlement game has just been released upon us, and that's usually a red letter day around here at JIG. As it's only just been released, we'll need a little time with it to write up something appropriate. In meantime, help us with a walkthrough, please? Of course we have to get through it first. You can help with that, too. :)
Wan and Nyan, the jumping dog and punching cat, are back for this epic journey to collect stamps in Stamp Rally Escape 1 from Cogito Ergo Sum. The animal heroes receive a piece of mail from a mysterious organization that has created several room escapes just for them to get out of, and at the end are the promised presents. And though at the end all you get is a special gold stamp (you will need three to get the promised cool present), you also have the promise of more to come. So join Wan and Nyan on their quest for consumer goods of an undetermined variety.
Spooky rather than scary, Mystic Asylum is an escape game of chills rather than frights. No jump scares here, just a lot of spooky atmosphere enlivened by the standard conventions of a room escape. Stunning to look at and fun to play, Mystic Asylum is also a nice, creepy escape slap dab in the middle of the holiday season, something to cut the treacle and a relief from all of the frantic shopping.
Who's up for a taste of the Orient? No, not a Yum-Cha banquet as much as I'd like to be able to take us all out for. Rather, a nice little point and click entree from Abroy> games, a delightfully seasoned escape game without the MSG. Golden Dragon Mystery is a pleasurable break from routine, as sweet as ordering Chinese take-out on the weekend.
Contrary to popular belief, it's not true that the Inuit culture has more than a hundred words for snow, but it is true that the Japanese language has roughly fourteen symbols and words for the English word 'perfection'. I bet you're all enthralled at this little piece of trivia, so to avoid contentious discussion let's now turn our attention to Room Perfectio, a lovely, albeit brief, escape game from the creators of the Dismantlement series.
Escape from the Art Studio has a nicely balanced mix of exploration, puzzles, and use of found objects. Even better, the puzzles have become more unique for a Tesshi-e escape, especially the little robots with the moving arms. These escapes continue to evolve, rarely falling back on cliché d, "I've seen this before" puzzles. That is one of the reasons that Tesshi-e escapes are so entertaining.
Dwarf Complete is now available for iOS devices! And best of all it's FREE! For anyone who hasn't been around JIG for a few years, Dwarf Complete is an awesome dungeon escape adventure game from On of Eyezmaze. If you haven't already played the Flash version, or if you don't have an iOS device, you can play the game in your browser.
Modern Mystery is the escape title of the week this time around. The game, naturally, begins with you trapped in a rather comfy lounge-like room. It's nicely furnished—a bit of abstract art on the walls, a potted plant, two leather chairs, a laptop computer—but you still want out by any means. Go around collecting objects, putting clues together, and solving puzzles in order to collect more objects, hopefully at some point getting one or both of those doors open and terminating your confinement.
Long before they discovered a save button, long before they found a competent translator, long before we first featured one of their games, Tesshi-e created this cute little puzzler that deserves a spot in the Weekday Escape spotlight. Give Escape from the Dome Room a try and enjoy playing this early and amusing effort from the brilliant Tesshi-e escape game designers. Despite the flaws, there is a lot of entertaining room escaping to be had.
Fancy Maze is a classic room escape and a fun little time waster in which there are a lot of fun things to discover and puzzles to solve. Wander around, pick things up, see if you are up on the latest (and not so latest) technology, and see if you can find the two different endings in this amusing game.
Not the most difficult point-and-click escape out there, and the pixel hunting can get a little annoying, but Ice Stone Escape delivers some fun logic and puzzles in this compact little game. Cute backgrounds and quirky, logical puzzles make Ice Stone Escape a fun mid-week break, something that will refresh your logic circuits and help you clear your mind for the rest of the week.
A previous work from Rosetta Escape author, Otousan, Enigma is an escape game that takes place in a pretty bare bones room. While not the elusive perfect room escape game we are always searching for, Enigma is still an amusing beginning and highlights the ability of a new talent on the escape scene.
Here are two creepy treats that will have you playing the role of a thief to avoid death traps in a creepy, abandoned house while seeking out some loot. And you might not get out alive. Cat burglars might have nine lives, but common thieves only get three.
Using your mouse navigate through creepy, old houses to find keys, unlock doors, search rooms, and use objects to assist you in your thieving quest.
A lively combination of beautiful scenery, strong puzzle design, and manipulative ability makes Kalaquli a fantastic escape-the-room game. Not too easy, not too difficult, easy on the eyes, and the added bonus of charming animations give this latest game from 58 Works must-play status for any escape game fanatic. Or anyone who just likes point-and-click adventures. Or anyone who just likes Ninjas. Okay, so it's fun for everyone!
Escape from the Same Room 2 contains everything we like about our Tesshikins: photorealistic graphics, catchy music, and logical puzzles. It's four interconnected rooms, all of which look alike at first glance: a little teakettle on a round table, a green box on a square pedestal, a mysterious picture on the wall next to a button that doesn't do anything. Obviously, you've got to solve puzzles that span all four rooms if you're to get out, with or without the usual Happy Coin.
Escape from Mr. K's Room 2 is this week's delightful room escape game and the perfect break for the mid-week. It's a chance to stretch the neurons and take them out for a little walk, and enjoy pure room escaping fun. Stripped of all of the extraneous scenarios of how you got in there in the first place, Tesshi-e proves that they are masters of the basic room escape. Test drive Escape from Mr. K's Room and find out for yourself how much fun escaping a locked room can be.
Original, enjoyable, and in some respects different from many of the samey room escape games out there, Rosetta Escape is a fantastic way to while away your time in the middle of the week. Although the game is from Japan, no knowledge of the Japanese language is needed. Any letter puzzles are in English, and everything else is a complicated code of colors, tiles, symbols, and funky drawings which, if interpreted correctly, will help you get out of the stark space.
Although Camel Eye is not technically an escape game, it does fill the expectations that escapers have when they play. It's a wacky crime caper in which you play Camel Eye, famous thief, attempting to relieve some rich man of his valuables. There are a lot of items to find and use, and a ton of puzzles to crack before you can become a very wealthy person. Fun, tricky, challenging, a good time will be had by all. Besides, who wouldn't like a chance to get rich? Even if it's just a game.
Tone of Vesper is less of an escape from a room and more of an escape to a certain state of mind. Strawberry Cafe has stripped away many of the usual room escape trappings, leaving a game that is more of a point-and-click adventure than an escape. The object, you see, is not to get out of the space, but to explore it and find out what hidden treasures it holds. Specifically, what hidden musical treasures.
Akarimado brings nothing new to the room escape genre; you're locked in a one-view room (with an unlockable side room that's also one-view), and you have to solve many and various puzzles to get out. Although this particular dish of room escape contains few if any unfamiliar ingredients, there's not much to complain about; we enjoy these particular ingredients and we know it. It's a very satisfying journey all in all, and one that should not be missed.
Escape from Restaurant Minshio moves Tesshi-e ever closer to that elusive goal: the perfect room escape. Fantastically fun, challenging, and more accessible than ever, Escape from Restaurant Minshio is about as perfect a mid-week experience as you can get. You even get a yummy meal and maybe even a dessert out of the experience.
So yet another amusing way to waste 5 minutes of your time has dropped in our laps like an early Christmas Present. Dismantlement: Toaster is a point-and-click puzzle that you might find in a larger escape game or a point-and-click adventure narrowed everything down into one simple task: take apart this toaster or die. Simple and straightforward. Intriguing, amusing, and with its own little hidden surprise it's the perfect way to while away 5 minutes of a lazy afternoon.
Escape from the 13th floor is a fun, involving room escape (or a building escape in this case), and is an amusing way to waste a few minutes, unless of course you suffer from triskaidekaphobia. Lots of fun to be had in a building made spookier by the soundtrack than by the actual inhabitants. The game is enjoyable, but it almost feels like you're just getting going when you find the way out.
The latest room escape game from Tesshi-e, Escape from Boss Room is perhaps not that elusive "perfect" escape, but it comes darn close in terms of design, puzzles, and just plain fun. Challenging, beautiful and entertaining, this is the perfect way to waste some time, at work or at home. Put your escaping caps on, guys, it's time to Escape from Boss Room!
Mayan Escape is a fun little classic room escape game. What makes it so much fun is the amount of polish that has gone into such a basic game. Cursors that change to arrows for navigation or gears to indicate objects that can be manipulated, handy inventory control, kicking sound and graphics, this little gem resembles a chapter in an actual download game. In fact, the quality is such that it is perhaps better than a chapter in some recent download point-and-click adventures on the market.
While lesser evil geniuses would be content to tie their nemeses to an assembly line and take an early lunch, this guy knows how to persecute a superspy: Lure him into your funhouse of bizarre puzzles and gadgetry, compel them to collect items, crack codes, shunt entire rooms, and learn to smith keys; then, just as escape seems imminent,...Well, you'll have to play to find out.
Escape from the Big Windows Room is definitely a great break for the mid-week, a fun pick-me-up to get you out of the doldrums. And perhaps even dream of maybe someday being able to afford to live in such a fantastic space. Hey, even in this economy, a person can dream.
Dismantlement: Burger is still a fun way to waste 5 minutes and hey, maybe it'll make you think twice about reaching for a calorie, sugar, fat laden lunch. How about something a bit healthier and less bomb-filled. Like a salad. Unless they've got that planned for later down the line. Remember, Junk food bad!
A Bonte Escape is everything you would expect from Bart Bonte, great production values, easy controls, fun puzzles, easy on the ears music, and logical solutions. This is a man who understands casual gameplay and produces some of the best examples out there.
Dharma Doll is a highlight of Petithima's rapidly growing oeuvre. More complex than the last one we featured on Weekday Escape, showing a progression of more puzzles and more difficult puzzles without losing the charm and design that make the games so great. Sort of an appetizer, where Choc-Mint was an amuse-bouche. Dig in!
Escape from the Garden is an amusing, delightful example of the room escape genre. Amusing gameplay that includes logical puzzles that flow easily from one to another, a charming area to explore, and the added bonus of needing to interact with the garden's animal inhabitants to complete your escape. It does, however, contain some Japanese text, but escape aficionados should be able to reason their way through without being able to read any of the cues.
There's a boulder in your way, but the strange orb in the jaws of the nearby statue may hold the key. But why are you there to begin with? What happened to you? Or... what did you do? Find out in this extremely short but intriguing little point-and-click tale from Rosiana D and her group of talented creators.
Despite its simplicity, Choc-mint is an escape game done right. There is no text to confound the non-native speaker, the puzzles flow neatly from one to the other, and there is the blessed relief of a changing cursor to indicate hot-spots that can be clicked. A little logic, a little intuition, and an experienced gamer could be out in 10 minutes or less, refreshed and ready to face the day. All you escape game designers out there take notes, will you? Slow down, take a few minutes and enjoy the escape from the every day.
Escape from the Rest House is Tesshi-e's most accessible escape to date. Everything you expect from a Tesshi-e game is here: tight design, easy inventory control, a save button that can come in handy when looking for the happy coin escape, occasional pixel hunting, unique combinations and animation, and some very familiar music. The games, though, keep evolving. Play the Tesshi-e games from earliest to latest and you can see the evolution.
Masonic Mystery is a fun little point-and-click escape game. If you're looking for a little mid-week excitement, or are one of those folks looking to prove the Freemasons were behind faking the moon landing, here's the game for you. You won't find any evidence, but you might find a little entertainment, and a pleasant way to pass the time as you try to get out.
If you're into that red/pink/white color palette (as Strawberry Cafe obviously is) and enjoy solving your way out of locked rooms, then this can be a delightful way to waste a few minutes. A light, frothy delight perfect to counterbalance the mid-week blahs and the increasing summer heat. The whipped cream with a cherry on top of room escapes, if you will. Enjoy the refreshing treat.
Although smaller than the previous installment, Dismantlement: HDD packs a lot of punch in a little package. Lots of logic and screws and no controls to fiddle with this time around. Jump in and have fun, this series just keeps getting better and better.
Escape from Piano Room is a fun, logical, challenging escape guaranteed to brighten up the mid-week. Be sure keep the aspirin (or Tylenol) on standby though, just in case, although escaping out into the fresh air should clear that headache right up.
Hey, who turned down the thermostat? Shawn Tanner's challenging plot-less escape series is back, and this time you're stuck in a freezer. Examine every inch of your prison and try to find a way out before you get too cold.
Anonymous is quite a fun challenge, involving not only the basics of room escaping fun; finding items, mysterious clues, headbanging puzzles, but with an interesting twist involving deductive reasoning and co-workers who discourteously leave food to rot in their lockers.
One of the delights of Skull Island is that it is hiding what amounts to a whole second game within its confines. Take your time and really explore and a wide range of exciting new vistas will open up, taking the story in wild directions that have absolutely nothing to do with your original rescue mission and turning the whole game into a very surreal experience. Take the chance, explore the jungle (and points beyond), and immerse yourself in one of the more complex and satisfying escape games we've seen this year.
The Dismantlement series is very popular with our regular visitors, and Dismantlement: Fan delivers the goods with a nice variety of logic, math, and word puzzles that need to be solved before you are left with a heap of, well, components. For anyone who likes puzzles, logic, or just ripping things apart, take a few minutes and have fun destroying yet another common household object.
Now that the Mayan apocalypse is nigh upon us, it is only natural that we doomed mortals should develop a keen interest in all things Meso-American. Tombscape 2 casts the player as an explorer of Mayan ruins, whose quest to understand the mysteries of the pre-Columbian ancients may help you forget the impending advent of the end times.
There's something unsettling about these stark, washed out sterile backgrounds, very typical of the whole series. Yet the look only adds to the sense of mystery as the player works their way closer and closer to the denouement, whatever that may be in the end. Brace yourself for some strangeness, and join the journey to the center of the house, the solar system, or the human soul. You decide.
The house didn't fall on the witch, and we can prove it! She's still flying around out there... or, at least, she was until two kids had a kite flying mishap. Use your powers of deduction to help reach one of two possible endings in the Witch's strange hut in this cute and weird little point-and-click escape title.
The revered series continues directly after your flight in the air balloon from Daymare Town 2. Later you find yourself in a hospital and must get out. New features include a new cursor to show places that you can move, translations and thoughts, and dialogue via pictures. What are you waiting for?! Go play it now!
Dismantlement: Alarm Clock is here and it's dismantling time again! It's always a joy when a new dismantlement game comes out, and Dismantlement: Alarm Clock is one of those great ways to kill a few minutes. Have fun dismantling that annoying clock! Just try not to blow up.
58 Works room escapes are casual gameplay done right. Fun, distracting, logical, and quirky, this is the perfect mid-week escape. Put on your thinking caps and start escaping! And when you find your way out, definitely stick around for the closing credits with the friendly robot.
Have fun wandering in all directions, back and forth, up and down, and see what you can find. It's amazing what can be packed into such a small space and there's lots to see and do before it's all over. Atmospheric, moody, and yet surprisingly cute while simultaneously sending a chill down your spine, Where is 2010? is a perfect way to start the new year right.
It's Dismantling time yet again! Gam.ebb.jp is back with another dismantlement, and this time it's personal! Well, this time it's a mouse, at any rate. Fun, logical, and it appeals to that little part in all of us that revels in just breaking something down to its basic components. What are you waiting for, start dismantling!
Welcome to Dismantlement: Tea Canister, another great point-and-click where you can have once again have fun reducing something to its basic components. Mind you, there's usually not much to dismantle when it comes to a tea canister. Still, it's nice to tear things apart, so go for it. Take a break from the everyday and start dismantling! Just try not to blow up so much, okay?
Adventure/hidden object hybrid Escape the Museum creates a tense, tight, wonderful experience that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Escape the Museum is a colorful, wild ride that tops the original in just about every aspect. So buckle up, find that map, charge your cell phone, unleash your inner MacGuyver, and get ready to navigate your way through a collapsing city. Just ignore the homeless guy following you around like a lost puppy. Really, he's there to help.
Although dark, brooding, atmospheric, scary, or slam-your-head-against-the-desk hard room escapes are always fun, in the middle of the week it's nice to kick back and enjoy something simpler. A nice break from the everyday that won't take up the entire day (or even the entire break, if you're really quick). So sit back, relax, and enjoy a cappuccino of an escape game. With colorful sprinkles!
Created by gam.ebb.jp, Dismantlement is a puzzle game like you might find in an escape the room game. If you're looking for a fun five to ten minute break from the everyday and you are someone who likes to tear things apart to see how they work, then sit back, relax, and Dismantle the Radio.
This time around I scavenged up a pair of small but entertaining room escape packages from a Japanese developer called No1Game. The first, Emergency Exit Sign, tells the story of a Japanese all-night worker who just about lives at his office, which becomes a problem when a monster traps him inside. The second, Game In Game In Game, shows us a rather obsessed escape fanatic who plays a room escape game every day before bed, only to wake up one morning trapped in one.
Sometimes it's nice to kick back, relax, and enjoy the scenery and the truly casual gameplay of a room escape. The puzzles themselves are tricky without being difficult, adding to the relaxation factor. While there is only one way out, there are three different endings based on your methodology. Having trouble getting over the mid-week hump? Then sit down, relax, pour a drink, and spend a little time escaping the Strawberry Cafe.
Although most experienced gamers could blow through this in 10 minutes or less, slow down, take your time. Enjoy the headache-inducing clash of carpeting and wall patterns, contemplate the meaning of the displays, or just gaze at the monkey head and wonder, is that post modern or post-post-modern? Dali or Dada? Stay in the game too long and you will half expect dripping clocks to appear across a landscape. Perfect for casual gameplay, Escape from Blender Art Gallery is a fun break from whatever you are doing. Just remember afterwords, it was only a dream.
The first in a creepy new point-and-click series set in a Wonderland a few degrees off from the one you may recall. A gruesome sight greets you when you open your eyes in this fractured fairytale... but just who are you, anyway? To find out, first you'll have to find your way out and dig a little deeper into the mystery. Provided you're prepared for what you may discover on the other side of the looking glass.
Magical Sphere Escape evokes that Myst-like sensation of not just solving puzzles, but solving history. And despite its flaws, Magical Sphere Escape is one of the best escape games I have played. There are a couple places where you'll need your Veteran Escaper Sense™ to find a clue or item, but the major puzzles are astonishingly logical. But be sure to read our review and consult our translation notes to get the most out of hidden gem.
GUMP has done it again! The boy with the pink hair is back! Uranus picks up where Neptune left off, in that same mysterious ivy-lined passage, only to trap you in yet another strange room you must escape. But not alone! Prepare to meet a most... unusual companion. Uranus is not terribly taxing but still an enjoyable weekday escape.
It's not often that you'll find yourself attempting to escape from an industrial hole in the ground. Unless you went in after your model airplane, and now the ladder is too slippery to let you back up, that is. Welcome to Tesshi-e's Escape from the Underground Space, a fun way to spend a coffee break, or just to take 10-15 minutes away from whatever you're doing.
Boxed Inn: Panic Room is an enormously impressive escape game, particularly considering that it is Samgine's first venture into the genre. While the game does have room for improvement, particularly in regards to the inventory interface and handful of imperfectly logical moments, there is plenty here for the escape game lover to dive into and enjoy.
In the third episode in Zack Livetone's series of abstract point-and-click adventures, you once again accompany a floating crystal through a world of photographic landscapes and chalked-in plantlife, coaxing various bits and tibbles into place in order to solve puzzles. Some objects need to be pushed, some clicked, some nudged. Turn up your speakers for this.
A smooth inventory system, environmental components that are fun to play with despite their lack of function, and puzzles rooted in logic. Yes, it's a brand new point-and-click adventure from Pastel Games! Despite an abrupt ending and a fluctuating difficulty level, this is a fine game to eat up fifteen minutes of your time.
A previous project from FonGeBooN, Purism follows the same formula we're used to: you're stuck in a room, and you have to solve all manner of puzzles to get out of it. Some noticeable features of this particular room include some unusual panels in the walls, a door with no handle, a small chest of drawers, some metallic shelves, and a sculpture with many red, blue, and yellow balls. All of these will be instrumental in your ultimate departure.
The first part of a trilogy, The Freewill Cycle: Volume 1 is in essence a simple point-and-click escape game created in classic adventure game style. You awake in a room. Could be in a spaceship, could be in a space station, could be just a strange building in East Podunk, Michigan. As you explore the story unfolds, giving, in a few short clues, a vivid account of what may have happened and the personalities of the people involved. Who, by the way, are mysteriously missing.
In Kidnapped by Aliens, previously unsung developer Selfdefiant tells the story of a human protagonist who has been kidnapped, and awaits who-knows-what from his captors. By the use of a little ingenuity, our hero manages to escape his cell and explore more areas of the UFO that contains him, with the ultimate goal of returning to Earth... perhaps. The surreal but perfect background sound and puzzles that make sense without being too obvious turn this game into an enjoyable experience.
It's another blast from the past with this week's Weekday Escape. It's an oldie from our friends at Bianco-Bianco by the name of Escape from Dr. Ichie's Factory, another gem in the Dr. Ichie series. The story's a familiar one: you wake up in the middle of an odd factory building, and you find a note from the culprit, Dr. Ichie, telling you that you have to solve some puzzles to escape from it.
Another haunting opening to another superb point-and-click game. New from Pastel Games and Mateusz Skutnik, creator of Covert Front, the Submachine series, and The Great Escape series, comes a sequel to last year's desolate adventure, The Fog Fall. The Fog Fall 2 is set in the same post-apocalyptic warzone as the original and is filled with gorgeous artwork, moody sound effects and frighteningly stark locations.
Neptune is quite different from GUMP's previous room-escape games. It doesn't begin with an interesting introductory movie in which a pink-haired character does not encounter a huge building and doesn't decide to enter it, not passing an enigmatic red ladies' shoe that isn't resting on the ground outside.
Quaint room is a relatively short and easy room escape game, but it is also impressively polished and well-made. The graphics are aesthetically pleasing in a tidy sort of way, and the interface is completely smooth and user-friendly. So, take a break. Relax, step back a few years and enjoy this lovely example of classic Japanese gaming goodness.
Another Room, by Japanese designer Mofuya, is a sweet, semi-short example of classic point-and-click that is executed with near-perfect competence. The game's puzzles are simple but well-crafted; while not wildly creative or different, they nonetheless offer a satisfying variety of problems to tackle. The room's neat, somewhat subdued appearance is pleasing to the eye and makes it simple to navigate the surroundings.
Back to the basics again with Kagi Nochi Tobira 2, the simple and original puzzle game sequel to the very well-received Kagi Nochi Tobira from September of last year. There's not much else to say other than the raw creativity and sense of discovery in these simple puzzle games create an exceptionally engaging and appealing experience. Another example of why simple ideas are often among the most fun!
You're in a cell, seemingly with no chance of escape. But wait, what's this? A letter tucked into a chink in the wall. Apparently your captivity is due to one Simeon Meade, a member of the mysterious Talos Organization. He can't help you escape directly, but it is possible to unlock your door from inside the cell...
The player starts in the present day, but with a push of a button can be transported into the same room some indeterminable span of time into the past; press another button and the operation is reversed. Two separate, subtly different rooms to zoom between, each one affecting the other... interesting, no?
Enter the Kid's Room. You left your myPhone behind when visiting your friend's house, and he hid it in the kid's playroom. You go to get it, possibly to get away from your annoying myRobot for a while, but some prankster locks the door behind you when you enter. Of course. It is an excellent piece of work, with puzzles that make sense, fine 3D graphics, and just the right amount of satisfaction when you figure something out.
Tortuga Episode 2 is an escape-the-room game set on a pirate ship; the second installment of the Tortuga series. You have just escaped the locked room from episode 1 and the pirate is still sleeping off the sleepy spray you got him with prior to your escape, but you are still locked up on the pirate ship. You must look for items and clues to reveal a solution on how to get off the ship.
All room escape games have secrets. Some room escapes, however, keep their cards especially close to their chests, relinquishing their grasp bit by bit; these are sometimes the most frustrating, and often the most intriguing. Sagrario's Room is such a game, and a superb one at that.
An uncommonly lovely escape game that is also, for better and for worse, unusually difficult. We've come to expect great things from Place of Light; their previous games are both excellent and well-executed. With Room Marine, however, they have positively outdone themselves. While the difficulty of the game can be at times taxing, the reward is more than worth it; if you're a serious connoisseur of escape games, you're gonna love this one.
A lovely escape game that does nearly everything right; the graphics are good, the puzzles varied and inventive, the interface clean and user-friendly. Completing Cosmo does take just a smidgen of comprehension of mathematics and astronomy, but it is easily one of the better room escapes to come along recently.
T2B Escape 4 offers all the complexity, creativity and whimsy that we've come to expect from this popular escape-the-room series, with the difficulty ramped up a generous handful of notches. It has simple puzzles, complex puzzles, puzzles that cannot be solved until the very end, puzzles that can be cracked with nothing but a little clever thinking... the number and variety are really amazing.
Terminal House is the first of a series of four escape-the-room adventures by developer, GUMP, that chart your oddly pastel-blue hero's quest to gain freedom from mysterious captors; perhaps the least sophisticated of the group, it is nonetheless excellent. I love the game's quirky sensibility, its commingling of surreal elements and standard escape-the-room tropes.
A simple and charming room escaper from Japan that is just right for an afternoon tea. Filled with objects to find and puzzles to solve, and just a few smallish pixel areas to give you pause. It's simple, short and sweet, like a new year's baby offering promise of a better life ahead. So Happy Birthday 2008!
Cottage is an escape game that manages to successfully combine cleverness with a relatively low level of difficulty; while the puzzles may seem simple, they are still creative and inspired enough to delight even the veteran escape gamers among us. Fabulous graphics, fun puzzles, and an adorably surprising ending... it warms even my cold, grumpy New Yorker's heart.
Rodrigo Roesler is back with the third and final installment of his Trapped trilogy of point-and-click adventure games. Trapped Pt. 3: The Labyrinth puts you right back into familiar territory: you've just killed a man and now you must escape from a strange house. Oh, and it's about 18 years in the past.
Turning Burning, the third in Zibumi's Tom "Tucker" Crubucker series of games, picks up where the last one left off. Tom has just escaped the room he was trapped in, and confronts the mastermind behind it, a bizarre prince who asks him to rescue his rose, which has been stolen by a sheep...
Escape from Test Kitchen 2 is a standard escape-the-room game from Japan, somewhat reminiscent of a game from the gotMail folks. Players must collect bottles and mixers, pieces of a map, safe combinations, and the like to find a solution and escape from what appears to be a small cozy restaurant.
Tortuga Episode 1 is an escape-the-room game set on a pirate ship; the first installment of a series, from Mateusz Skutnik and Marek Frankowski, that promises to be adventuresome, if not epic. Parrots, treasure, peril and puzzle awaits those intrepid enough to brave the pirate ship.
In Charisma, you play an orange-jumpsuited, blue-afroed dude who is trapped within what appears to be a combination living room/recording studio. There is a second gentleman inscrutably watching you from behind a glass partition, his hand poised above two buttons. He, for whatever reason, is not going to be of any help (and, in another departure from reality, smashing the glass and demanding he release you is not an option). So, it's up to you to explore the room, figure out what he wants and, eventually, set yourself free.
Dr. Ichie's Room is a solid escape game experience from Japan with polished and appealing graphics, logical puzzles and no pixel hunts necessary. Although the game is from Japan, there are English translations included for all descriptions and explanations, making this Weekday Escape a worthy investment of your time.
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