Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Free Games To Waste Your Three-Day Weekend With
This weekend, our North American readers will join the GI staff in celebrating Labor Day, a day off to reflect on all the hard work we've been doing. What's the best way to reflect? VIDEO GAMES. Rather than force you outside for even a second of your much-deserved weekend of rest, I've put together a list of free games that you can check out from the safety of your computer. From Flash games to free MMOs, there's something for everyone and plenty to help whittle away your weekend.
Downloadable/Flash Games
Charles Barkley's Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
This traditional turn-based RPG calls to mind 16-bit Square classics such as Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. Except it stars Charles Barkley. And it takes place in Neo New York after The Great B-Ball Purge of 2041. I'll let the website's description speak for itself:
"A tale of zaubers, b-balls, and atonement; brave dangers unheard of, face spectacular challenges that even the greatest ballers could not overcome, and maybe... just maybe... redeem basketball once and for all."
This clever puzzle game tasks you with sucking aliens out of your ship and into the cold depths of space while saving as many crew members as possible from a similar fate. GI's Jeff Marchiafava loves it for the old-school graphics and sci-fi aesthetic. And, hey, if you really like it, you can pick it up on iPhone/iPod Touch for $1!
If you want a more mature Flash game that helps make the argument that games are art, look no further than Every Day the Same Dream. This simple title uses its stylish visuals and infectious soundtrack as a gateway to a strange world where you must figure out a way to escape your mundane office job existence.
Whether you view it as a damning revelation of how stale linear RPGs can be or just a fun distraction, you've got to admit that The Linear RPG totally nails the core elements of the genre it's playing with. You move in a straight line from town to town. You grind. You level up. And during it all, an epic plot unfolds in the background. Make sure to read the ridiculous text scrolling behind your character as you play.
The Cartoon Network has done a great job of bringing their quirky Adult Swim brand of late-night weirdness into the Flash games space, and Robot Unicorn Attack is probably the best example. It's one of the simplest games ever -- you only need to figure out two buttons -- but the bright colors, addictive scoreboard, and terrifying soundtrack can easily suck up hours of high score hunting.
Kongregate
A couple months ago, GI parent company GameStop purchased gaming site Kongregate. I've been a fan of Kongragate since before the purchase (genuinely!) and wanted to include them in a way that didn't come off as awkward or forced. So rather than just shove a ton of Kongragate games down your throat, I polled the company's founders and the director of games (as well as the staff of Game Informer) to get picks for current favorite games on the service.
Picks from Emily Greer, Kongregate co-founder
A simple-but-fun take on the tower defense genre, the Bloons series is now on its fourth iteration, meaning they've had time to polish the formula to near-perfection. In this game, you'll place monkeys of various types along a path so they can attempt to pop balloons that are floating by. What do monkeys have against balloons? Fair question, but these things aren't going to pop themselves.
Dolphin Olympics was first described to me as "like Tony Hawk but with dolphins," and honestly, that about sums it up. You jump out of the ocean to do insane tricks and get scored accordingly. You can even gather a small army of fish friends to join you and increase your multiplier.
Don't let the strange name throw you off. Solipskier is essentially a cool black-and-white title that has you creating the ground the skier is moving across. That means you control slopes, peaks, and valleys. Smart players will be able to lead the skier through gates and tunnels that get you more points and leave a rad rainbow in your wake.
Picks from Jim Greer, Kongregate co-founder
Company of Myself is basically the Flash game equivalent of Braid, complete with brain-bending platforming-heavy puzzles, a soft piano soundtrack, and moody (some might say emo) text interludes. If you want to experience more of the thoughtful puzzle-solving that Braid did so well in a slightly less pretty but equally fun package, be sure to check this out.
Another great puzzle platformer! Continuity messes with your mind in a slightly different way: Small portions of the level are placed onto cards. At any point during play, you can pause the game and shuffle the cards around, giving you access to different areas of the level. You'll have to use this skill to find the key and exit each level. Be prepared for some tricky conundrums as you progress in this IGF Student Showcase Award-winning game.
Picks from Greg McClanahan, Kongregate director of games
If you need proof that free online games go beyond cutesy or casual fare, look no further than Elements. This is a fantasy card game with just as much complexity and strategy as Magic: The Gathering, but you can play for free (including multiplayer matches against other players).
This charming game takes everything we love about Diablo-style hack-and-slash games -- dungeons, treasure, constant loot and upgrades -- and boils it down into a simple, easy-to-pick-up Flash game. It's incredibly easy to jump in to quickly explore a new floor of the dungeon for 10 minutes, save your game, and then jump out.
I'm linking to Chapter 1 here, but keep in mind that this epic RPG series is up to its third part now. With visuals and gameplay that recall RPGs from the NES and SNES era, the Mardek series is easily one of the most ambitious titles on Kongregate. The humorous, fast-paced writing doesn't hurt either.
GI Staff Picks
Cursed Treasure: Don't Touch My Gems!
As one of the few tower defense lovers in the office, this pick is all mine. Cursed Treasure may seem like your normal, by-the-numbers tower defense game, but there’s actually a surprising amount of depth and new ideas hidden here. In addition to interesting and increasingly tricky levels, the game has an overarching level up system that allows you to put skill points into several different trees to increase your power. Broadly, the three trees focus on range, damage, and firerate. In the levels themselves, you have a limited number of tower types, but each type can only be built on ground tiles of a specific color, forcing you to strategize based on where you can build which towers. Building on special tiles improves a tower’s range and can provide bonuses such as more mana, which is used to clear tiles for further construction or cast enemy-devastating spells. Basically, it's the addictive tower defense we all know but with some very interesting additions.
GI senior associate editor Joe Juba is a huge fan of Doodle God. It's not a gameplay-intensive game, but it is a lot of fun. Basically, you mix together various elements to see what new things you can make. That may sound boring at first, but when you mix the "Life" element with the "Swamp" element, you get "Bacteria," which opens up a whole new realm of living creatures and crazy combos. My personal favorite that Joe mentioned? Mixing "Human" with "Vodka" creates "Alcoholic." Fantastic!
The charmingly simple Don't S**t Your Pants is a favorite among many staff members here in the Game Informer offices. It uses the text entry style of old-school adventure games, but instead of going on a grand adventure, you need to deal with a more every-day problem. This epic story of one man's struggle to go to the bathroom features multiple endings and a bunch of interesting Achievements to encourage replay.
This one is a personal favorite of Game Informer associate editor Ben Reeves. Upgrade Complete! takes the addictive nature of purchasing upgrades in other games and strips away anything meant to hide how upgrades are put in just to addict you. You'll be paying to unlock everything in this game, from the menu screen to music, to upgrades to the graphics. The game itself is a pretty simple shooter, but if you'll be playing it to earn enough money for the next upgrade -- not for the gameplay.
Free MMOs
Cryptic's second superhero MMO (after they left City of Heroes in NCSoft's hands) didn't totally blow us away when it launched last year. Still, they've had a full 365 days to patch and make improvements. To celebrate the birthday, the game is 100% free for anyone to download and play until September 7. A weekend in Millennium City should be plenty of time to decide if you're interested in sticking around.
Even more than most MMOs, Dungeons & Dragons Online is well-suited to the microtransaction model. It's based heavily around co-op dungeon crawls, so it's easy to call in buddies to check out the free content (of which there's plenty). If you really get into it, you can purchase new dungeons and adventure packs for a small fee.
This free online title from Nexon mixes the leveling up and grinding that MMOs are known for with more fast-paced beat-em-up gameplay. If you need some help, you can purchase potions and other bonus items via microtransaction, but the game is very fun and approachable even without paying.
Though it's still in beta, anyone can now access EverQuest II Extended, a free-to-play version of SOE's biggest fantasy MMO. Many gamers overlooked this one upon release since it came out around the same time as World of Warcraft but was a lot less polished. The years of patching and tweaking have been kind, though, and even if Extended's free content is limited, it's easy to get a weekend or two of enjoyment out of the game before you start bumping into walls that you need to pay to remove.
Final Fantasy XIV open beta (maybe)
Technically, the open beta for Square's latest MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, launched a couple days ago. In reality, the publisher's servers have been slammed, forcing them to stop handing out codes for the game for a while. Still, if you keep checking the official site over the weekend, you may be lucky enough to get in and score your chance to check out a pre-release version of the game.
Have your own personal favorite free game that wasn't in our round-up? Share it in the comments!
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
