It's not Monday, so no Monday Mathematics. Nor Tuesday, so no Tuesday Tonsillectomy. Nor is it Wednesday, so no Wednesday Wedding. And it's obviously not Thursday, so no Thursday Thimblerig. That must mean it's time for Friday Flash!

Or it could be a weekend, but where's the fun in that?

Every Friday, I supply three (or more) online games suitable for and tested with both Windows and Mac OS X. All are played in your browser, and all require the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player. Sensitive to the needs of those who are playing these games in class, or at work, or when their significant others are sleeping, I'll try to let you know if there is music or sound, so you can make appropriate adjustments ahead of time.

This week, as promised, we're taking a trip around the world.

Let's start in Germany, with Atome. (You probably expected me to start with Japan, since I've featured that country so often already, right?) Atome is a puzzle game with all of the instructions in German, but it's easy enough to figure out. You simply assemble the molecules into increasingly complex atoms, and you're reward with a password (or "Levelpasswort") to jump directly to that level in the future.

Unless you speak German, the help (or "hilfe") probably won't help you much, but it doesn't seem necessary.

There are sound effects, and they're largely unnecessary, clicking when you place pieces, and a swoop when you clear a level.

No, still no Japan. Instead, we'll visit France for
Jeu Chiant, which I'll let you translate for yourself. My French is quite rusty, but I think I just made this article unsafe for French-speaking children. If the title means what I think it does, it's highly appropriate, because this is the most difficult game I've seen in a long time.

It's a combination of two tasks in one, either of which would be simple on its own. You move left to right to keep a ball in the air, Breakout-style. You also move left and right to balance another, larger, ball on a tilting platform. And of course, you use the same mouse to do both, so as you attempt to hit the little ball, you lose the big ball over the edge.

It's maddening. It took me more than a few games to exceed 20 seconds, and even then, it was close. The physics in the game are quite impressive, but it's difficult to evaluate them dispassionately.