Friday Flash: Dice Wars, Sling, and POOM!

A never-ending game of Risk, adventures with a ball of snot, and a dizzying 3-D game are all part of this week's Friday Flash.

Every Friday I present three web-based games for you to play, most of which (all of which, so far) require Adobe Flash Player. I test every game on both Mac and Windows, and I'll let you know if there is sound so you can adjust volume settings to play quietly.

By the way, I'm certainly not going to run out of games anytime soon, because they seem to be written at a rate of more than three per week, but as a few people have already figured out, you're welcome to send suggestions of new games to pwinnski (at) gmail (dotcom), and suggestions often jump ahead in the queue.

It's not exactly the game of Risk. It doesn't even claim to be anything like it. It certainly doesn't look like it. But despite the randomly-generated maps and dice instead of little plastic counters, Dicewars feels a bit like Risk, as I'm sure you'll agree.

You choose how many players there will be, and then it's you against up to eight computer-controlled opponents. You're all randomly assigned colors, play order and given final approval over a randomly-generated map, and away you go. Your goal is to take over all the countries on the map, which you do by "rolling" a higher number than the current occupant of that country. If you have more dice, you're more likely to win, but it takes a seven to one ratio to be absolutely sure. I've seen a single die come up six while the attacker rolled four dice that all came up ones and twos, for a six. Defender wins a tie.

It can be really hard, even nearly impossible, or it can be really easy, like a cakewalk. The beauty of online play is that you can play again nearly instantly. No boards to set up, no recruiting disinterested players, nothing!

There are subtle and simple sound effects, with no in-game volume control.

Sling starts with music, as well as a nice menu, so right away it's obvious this is not your average Flash game. It's one of the most impressive games I've seen online, in part because it's somewhat unique. It's a two-dimensional platform game with fifty levels, which isn't so unusual. But your character is a ball of snot, which you control by swinging, snot-like, from object to object.

Article Author: Phillip Winn

Phillip Winn is the Chief Geek for Blogcritics, and a blogger since 1995. He may currently be found and followed as @pwinn on Twitter.

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