FLASH! Ah Ahhh!

#1: So Larissa Kelly didn't move on Wednesday night. She just didn't have a very good game and then lost most of her money on an $8000 Double Jeopardy! question. She ended her game with $1800 and last to a guy named Pat Roche. Oh well, it was fun to watch and at least she went out with a bang.

#2: FLASH GAMES!
I occasionally find some really fun and cool flash games, but can never find them again after the first few days. I thought this blog would be a good place for links to those games so I would stop losing them. So here are a few games that I really enjoy and hopefully you will too.

Arachnophilia - This is a game that's a little bit educational (click Facts in the Help box), but mostly lots of fun. Play as a web-slinging spider. . . That's it, you're just a spider. No skin tight, brightly colored, spandex costume and definitely no upside-down kissing. Just spin a web and eat what you catch. Not only is the game fun and addictive, but the audio creates a great atmosphere. The music and background noise is very simple and relaxing. If you want to get a really high score, you will also have to employ quite a bit of strategy. If you are having trouble, just read through the comments section on the page. My only real complaint is that I don't think there's a pause button.
8.5/10


Platform Racing 2 - A fun, running game. Get power-ups, dodge mines, customize and upgrade your character. Play as a guest and your experience points accrue as long as you stay in the session, or create an account and come back to your character as often as you like. There appear to be only 9 levels in the "Campaign" (which you will play over and over and over and over. . .), but you can also build your own levels and try out other people's creations by navigating the tabs at the top of the game window. There is a lot of game to be played here. On the downside, as I mentioned, it's very repetitive. Also, there are a large number of people who will forfeit a race if they are obviously not going to win. On the upside though you still get the experience points for winning against them as long as you finish the level yourself.
7.5/10


Ikariam - This one is not actually a flash game. You start with a tiny city, with the goal to grow and expand. It's not going to be fun for most people, I'm sure as it is extremely slow (it can take days for a particular action to finish) and pretty difficult. But you only have to give the game a few minutes of attention per day, and that's a big plus for me. It's still in Beta and there are rules that you will only know about if you check out the Rules forum post. Also, it's originally a German game and quite a bit of text has not yet been translated to English, so you may have to refer to a Babelfish every now and again.
7/10