Browser Game Roundup: Best of December 2009

Because of the productivity-deficient holiday season, December isn't usually a very prolific month for new browser games. This year was no exception, but a few good offerings found their way onto the usual sites anyway. Some were very clever, some were quick electronic toys, others were just nice additions to a full genre. Let's look at one from each category.

Infectionator: Christmas Edition

Indonesian game developer Toge Productions has spent the past year milking the admittedly played-out zombie genre with limited success. Their mainstream debut was Days 2 Die, a survival shooter that paid homage to one of the best games of the past couple years but was crippled by a sudden, frustrating leap in difficulty and some lackluster art. When Toge went back to the well for a pixel strategy game called Infectionator it seemed like they were repeating the same mistakes. The original version of the game was glitchy and didn't exactly reward strategy, but the Christmas revamp significantly improved on a number of design flaws. Infectionator: Christmas Edition is challenging but not cruel and its gory take on the typically cheery holiday season was a welcome distraction. Here's to a strong sophomore effort.

Alter

Pixelante Game Studios is a producer with a real eye for style. Their games are fun and creative, offering simple premises with deceptive depth and acceptable difficulty curves. Their most recent game is Alter, a puzzle platformer that is equally satisfying as quick jaunt and as a complex collect-a-thon. Players control a stylized sprite who wakes up one day with the ability to change the size of things using a mysterious magical energy. Smooth, intuitive controls and a partially linear world make this potentially convoluted game easy to manage. Alter has a sense of humor and a storyline that is as engrossing as a browser title ought to be (which is to say enough but not too much).

Fly Hard

Alright, designer EmitterCritter may not have the strongest sense of originality (let's hope Matt Groening and FOX don't sue him for his character design), but that doesn't mean that Fly Hard isn't still a fun, if inconsequential, game. Everybody has a favorite overdone variety of browser game and while I'll be happy if I never have to sit through another tower defense title, I'll probably indulge in progressive flying games as long as designers keep making them. Fly Hard does some new, interesting things in the genre by incorporating a multi-stage rocket and a clear incentive to actually slow down your ship by colliding with obstacles. It's a short, sweet take on a frequently entertaining platform. I wish I could say the same for its spiritual cousin Shopping Cart Hero 2, which does little to improve upon the original and has a downright lazy approach to visuals. Fly Hard isn't perfect and some of its ideas (like the nonsensical squares of extra fuel) are less than inspired, but it still fits alongside Hedgehog Launch and Learn To Fly as a strong progressive flying title.