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It’s January, it’s freezing and you may be strapped for cash. What better time to indulge your love of Flash games? No downloads, no registration, no payment – just fire up your browser and get stuck in. Here are our top 10 free, open and readily accessible Flash games.
10. QUAKE
Quake has ended up on almost every platform imaginable, so it stands to reason someone would port it to Flash. ID Software’s 1995 follow-up to Doom was the first truly 3D shooter, as opposed to a pseudo-3D world with sprites – back then climbing on top of a building and shooting an enemy from on-high was revolutionary.
You may have a small window, but most people ran the game in 320×240 anyway so it doesn’t really matter. Grab your nailgun, dive into the medieval parallel universe of Quake and take on chainsaw-wielding ogres and psychopathic knights.
Shoot the barrel – shoot the barrel!
9. PORTAL
You may not have GLaDOS throwing insults at you every step of the way, but this 2D Flash version of Valve’s popular puzzle-platformer is every bit as fun as the original Portal. The aim is to make it from one side of the test chamber to the other, using your portal gun to teleport yourself through each level. It’s a little basic compared to the original, but all the mind-bending physics elements are here in full and you’ll be using your own velocity to reach higher platforms and throw yourself over large gaps in no time. Now if only we had some combustible lemon grenades as well…
Now you’re thinking with portals
8. DRAGON SPIRIT: THE NEW LEGEND
This emulated NES version of the classic Namco scrolling shooter from ’87 is fiercely hard and a little flickery in places, but it’s also massively addictive. Unusually for a top-scrolling shooter, Dragon Spirit dispenses with the usual space ships in favour of mythical beasts – you’re a rather fetching winged dragon, fighting a variety of similarly fire-breathing monsters. Particularly cool is the presence of ground-based as well as airborne enemies, along with appropriate weapons to tackle each; loads of power-ups to transform you into a multi-headed beast of destruction and a playable introductory level that serves to reveal the background plot as well as determine the difficulty of the game – it’s harder if you win the introduction and play as a blue dragon. The classic 8-bit music and sound effects are great, too.
Take to the skies as a fire-breathing beast
The Game of Disorientation is not for those of a nauseous disposition. The clue’s in the title, as this top-down Flash game sees you trying to navigate various forms of death-spike mazes while contending with a swirling, zooming and distorting camera. All you need to do is use the arrow keys to find your way through, but you quickly lose track of which direction you’re facing. Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race here, though, as you’ll also be trying to escape from razor blades of doom and psychotic zombie clones of yourself. You’ll die many times, but that’s all part of the fun.
Simples! …Right?
Want a quick burst of Super Smash Bros. but don’t have your Wii to hand? Well, Super Smash Flash is here to save the day. All your Nintendo favourites are here along with unlockable characters and a few extras like Mega Man and Tails, and they’ve all been turned into charming sprites to boot. Two players can even play on the same keyboard. The physics are a bit wonky sometimes, with jumps sending you flying across the screen, but it’s mad, frantic fun that you won’t find anywhere else.
Ready? Fight!
If you’re after something a little more laid-back, this Flash-based visual novel tells a diverting story about procrastination, daydreaming and cats. Each screen gives you a few options to investigate, making this a rich but pleasantly relaxing diversion. Its stylised graphics and gentle music add to the charm.
Hummingbird Mind is aware of your interest in talking cats, internet
Defend your desk from invading creepers! This addictive tower defense game sees you face off ten waves of enemies in each stage, with each one getting faster and faster until the final boss arrives on Level 10. Each dead creeper also earns you coins which you can then spend on more towers and gun upgrades, so there’s never a dull moment in between the rushing hordes.
Kill it with fire!
Quake may have been the more technologically impressive game, but many would argue that Doom, and the Doom engine-based games Heretic and Hexen, were actually more fun.
So why not play all three in your browser and decide for yourself? Everyone knows Doom – the first-person shooter that started it all – but Heretic and Hexen took 1994’s most impressive technology and added interesting level design and bizarre magical weapons.
This dark platformer follows a father’s quest through a grimly post-apocalyptic world to find his kidnapped daughter, the only human immune to radiation sickness. While its graphics are more functional than lovely, the plot, atmosphere, music and brilliantly responsive controls mean that it’s all too easy to burn huge amounts of time with this brilliantly absorbing game. There’s even a fully functional save game feature, which doesn’t require registration to use.
If you fancy a spot of achingly depressing action in your lunch break, this brilliantly-realised platformer is just the ticket
And our favourite Flash game of all?
He’s the Apogee of Adobe, the Pharaoh of Flash. No-one makes Flash games as imaginative, infuriating or hilarious as Bennett Foddy.
From the insane genius of Qwop, where you have to run the 100m by controlling an athlete’s thighs and calves separately, to the two-player pole-vaulting, football and murder simulator Poleriders, it’s keyboard-mashing surreal madness all the way.
These games even manage to make you feel good about losing. Again, and again, and again.
Men, poles, tight shorts – you know it makes sense
