Seeing as I went in a different direction the other day, reviewing a f2p mobile game when I prefer to stick to console and PC games, I thought that whilst I was having this mid-life crisis, I’d go all in and review online browser games.
So over the years, the trend has been that online games have strayed away from being developed as flash (shockwave for those old enough) games, and use some form of Java and html5 to provide a gaming experience that allows for multiplayer cross action gaming, with the games also now being much more complex and allow for a greater use of controls. They do in some form now resemble actual fully featured PC games. It is also no longer popular for individual games to be hosted from just one site, instead each game now having it’s own domain, so that they do now become taken more serious than a 5 minute mess around.
Only problem with this though is that, you that unless a game becomes viral on YouTube, such as Slither.io and Agar.io, some lesser games can miss the spotlight when having their own domain, as they become more difficult to find on the Internet. Doing a quick google search, I managed to come across the site iogames.ninja. It’s an online directory of pretty much most of the io games currently available to play on the Internet, in which you can play the games on the website, just like the old gaming websites allowed you to do. The site is easy to navigate, looks good, provided a brief analysis of the current game being played and instructions, there was even some instructions that the games themselves don’t mention in the tutorial, so that was all a great help in being able to jump between different io games and just have a quick go at. I also have to highlight the animated ninja logo, quite comical to watch.
So of course I was previously aware of such titles as Slither.io and Agar.io, but I was interested to see what else these new gaming platforms were capable of. So a quick look on iogames.ninja, and these were the top 5 that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Orn.io
Up against the big boys *gulp*.
It’s Agar.io, but in 3D. Rather than a circle, you get to traverse the playfield as a sphere, eating the smaller orbs and enemies to grow, whilst ensuring to avoid anyone larger than yourself. You can make yourself smaller to throw yourself at other players and move faster, with which I actually had one niggle with, in that when up against the edge of the map, you can clearly see that the massive spheres are rebuffed by the invisible walls on the map, leaving a gap underneath that, that I thought clearly as a small ball, I could just pass through with plenty of room to spare, but regardless, still managed to get swallowed up. I think this is something that could be included to allow for an additional strategy for the small players. There are also spikes along the ground that you have to avoid to being made to split into smaller balls. When you are a group of smaller balls, your camera point is only from one ball, so you do lose sight of any of your ‘balls’ behind you, which someone could be gobbling up, so try to merge yourself back into one ball as soon as possible.
Kugeln.io
Quite an intensive 2D platform shooter for playing what looks to be as a Pokeball. I think it’s actually the flag of Poland, in which you choose any flag as a skin, as you jump and ninja rope as a ball around the map, picking up weapons and ammo, wiping out opposite teams or individual opponents depending on the game mode. The map is destructable, allowing you to forge paths through to enemy bases, as well as also being able to reinforce and block areas using bricks. It’s not actually that hard of a game, the ninja flying combined with shooting is fun, and you can just camp at the enemy base and shoot when they respawn. Capture the flag is the most fun, having to traverse to either side of the map and defend. It has that Worms vibe to it, which I always enjoyed.
Brutes.io
The 3D visuals of this really impressed me. The graphics look really good, only issue being that there is no camera control. I think you can reach different areas if you level up enough, but I didn’t manage to get to that point without dying. The aim of the game is that your a brute, looking to punch the lights out of other brutes, absorbing any orbs that are dropped to grow bigger, making it easier to take on others still. Combat is essentially just punching out, in which you can also power up punches and just running around the map to evade your enemies jabs. There’s quite an area to explore in the first level, with some hidden areas also. The soundtrack is nice and bouncy, not something I expected to be well tailored for an online game. The game says that it’s still in beta, so it will be interesting to see what does eventually come of it.
Flaap.io
This game is recognisable to anyone who wasn’t living in cave back in 2014. Flappy bird unofficially makes its return via web browser, this time with support for competing with others online. You can either play against random strangers, or send a link to your friend to play against. This was something I actually really wanted in the original game. Other than that, it’s essentially flappy bird, clicking the mouse button to gain height past the Mario-inspired pipes. It’s now a classic, along the lines of the old helicopter game that was another favourite of mine, essentially something that you should only play for 5 minutes, could last for hours trying to beat friend’s highscores.
MooMoo.io
In some way, very similar to Minecraft, but just in a 2D, top down view. You collect resources like wood and stone, and use these to build yourself a farm that will then acquire gold for you. The gold can then be later used to buy tools and upgrades. You just have to defend yourself and your base from other players and animals, which you can do by attacking with weapons or laying traps. The longer you survive, the stronger you will get, so be prepared to spend some time in this if you’re aiming high. This game seems to be gaining in popularity, so it’s one to watch out for. As seen in the picture, things can get pretty lively.
Well that does it for our top 5 from iogames.ninja. There are a multitude of games over there, that can be played on most systems that might not even be that powerful and you wouldn’t have previously considered playing games on. Plenty of fun games to fill in 5 minutes if you’re looking to kill time. I recommend that you go over there and check them out yourselves. As for me, whilst these online games are ok for short goes, I do prefer playing something that’s a little more substantial with a campaign and 3D graphics, so I’ll be sticking to console gaming still.
