PN's Unofficial Online Arcade
 | Ahoy, matey! Ye find yourself in charge of a small pirate brigand, desperately racing for safe haven, besieged by constant annoyances such as unwanted reefs, enemy ships, starvation, random leaks, and etcetera. Fortunately, ye also have a crack-crew of *eight* excellent hearties, each skilled in a specific trade. The challenge? You're only allowed TWO crewmembers on deck at any given time. Can you make it home in one piece? | |
 | These are an ingenious variation of crossword puzzles in which filling in the clues below help to reveal a quote above, which in turn helps to reveal more clues, until finally the quote and author name is complete. | |
 | Arguably the greatest non-sim helicopter game ever made for 8/16-bit platforms, AA takes direct inspiration from classics such as Choplifter & Rescue Raiders. The idea here is manifold-- to pilot a chopper, successfully attacking enemy installations, whilst also calling up the right mix of troops & reinforcements in order to hold off the enemy, and finally, to blow up the enemy base on the other side. A brilliant mix of action, strategy & tactics, this masterpiece is heavily recommended. | |
 | What's the difference between the right-side & left-side sets? The answer is usually quite simple, but identifying it can be... elusive. ~400 unique problems await the logically-minded solver.
In this example, it's 'convex-style' vs. 'concave-style' shapes.
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 | Risk-style strategic conquest game, but with special temples that add new abilities. This is an optimised, welcome update to the classic game, great for killing 5-10 min at a pop. | |
 | One easy, intermediate, & advanced puzzle per day, with hints & an archive. Also includes the mighty Shredder chess engine to play full games against.
The answer here is Q-b6+, wiggling out of white's knight-fork.
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 | Sixteen creative chess variants, ranging from the hilariously ridiculous to the wonderfully sublime, oh yes. Also includes two dozen "Chessformer" problems, which posit: what would chess be like with physics and simple barriers? | |
 | In Solitaire Battleships, you're challenged to figure out just where the enemy fleet is hiding, based on the row & column clues. In Masyu, you must draw a single, connected path through the playing field, based on the B&W markers. In Tents, the challenge is to correctly place the tents next to the trees, based on the numbers along the edges. There are 25 games total in this wonderful collection, including Nurikabe, Light Up, Hashi & of course.. Sudoku. | |
 | Here's a modern game somewhat reminiscent of classic Q*Bert. The idea here is to keep oneself alive, advancing down the mountain, dodging all kinds of threats & disasters, for as long as one can. Fast-paced, cute, dangerous, fun... it checks many boxes.  | |
 | Pleasant, real-time game in which you rescue stray ducklings to build up your reputation & 'grand-duckling amusement park.' Be careful of passing boats which can crush you, and other ducks out to rustle your ducklings! | |
 | A deep collection of isometric, simple-action & puzzle games to not just kill a minute, but also to chip away at over time, unlocking new levels and new minigames bit by bit. Note: also available on mobile via app, and doubles as a free game-dev platform, for those who'd like to create their own minigames. | |
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| Sadly, flash games no longer run in browser, but most of them do still run in Adobe's free player. Follow the link to enjoy a curated 'best of' collection, with more added over time. | |
 | Here's a little board game for fans of pure tactics. In each level, you maneuver your hero around the paths such as to ambush enemies & prevent them doing the same to you. With each level passed, the enemies increase and become more dangerous. The goal is to avoid an early death and defeat the evil king on level 12. If the game becomes a bit tedious, know that there's a handy autosave. | |
  | Geography & city-guessing games that can be played solo, vs. friends, strangers or bots. Choose between global, regional or national maps. If you use an ID your scores will be tracked, and there are various leaderboards. | |
 | Here's a nifty, puzzlish Wild West roguelike, in which you're challenged to defeat five waves of bandits, each trying to kill you via bullet, mantrap, or dynamite. You counter the galoots by a toolbox of tricks & special moves. Beware though-- the final boss is a true black hat! (game credit to the prolific, brilliant Arnold Rauers) | |
 | Clever, original game in which you must find a way to reassemble a broken-down bot in each level. Gravity, special tools, buttons & gates all must be contended with. | |
 | A Clue/Cluedo-like variation of the popular game Wordle, which is itself a version of the classic Mastermind. In Homicidle, one tries to guess the murderers, location and weapon, all in the correct positions, in six guesses or less. | |
 | A no-frills version of the classic TV game show. Thousands of puzzles and themes to mix n' match. Play as a solo puzzle (as in the pic), or in the traditional format, with teams. | |
 | A collection of classic physics / logic puzzles in which one must place blocks & gadgets so as to get the ball 'home.' | |
 | A minimalist puzzle-platformer with nice physics and a super-cool feature-- i.e. a spear that can speed across a room and whisk your hero to the opposite side. Of course, you'll need to time your jumps well and make the right moves to defeat the enemies, blow up barrels and exit each room. (note: the volume's set a little low, so turn it up!) | |
 | An excellent collection of Japanese-style escapes, cleanly-rendered, featuring intermediate-level challenges. | |
 | A beautiful little puzzler in which you plant mushrooms, garden, and move objects around in order to escape each level. Hazards must be dealt with, such as ravenous snakes, poisonous 'shrooms and deep waters. There's hours of brain teasing fun to be had here. | |
 | Dozens of charming games built in a simple, lighthearted rendering style. Games of this type are sometimes dull & technical, but these break that mold in creative, humorous ways. Note: As of 2023 these are no longer playable in browser, but via Android / Apple / Amazon app. Fortunately, they're packaged together in collections. | |
 | A scaled-down version of the classic Advance Wars tactical wargame franchise. The link offers a full campaign mode, and there's a sandbox version here. | |
 | Race a turn-based clock against two competing swashbucklers, gathering locational clues in order to discover the buried treasure first. A clever, simple logic / strategy game which deserves special recognition. Note: you'll probably want to check out the map details (scroll down) in order to correctly interpret the clues. | |
 | Pounce on your invisible opponent before they do the same to you! You each get a clue about what type of tile the enemy just stepped on, and vice-versa. Randomly-appearing special tools can help, but can also be risky to use. This is a smart, head-to-head, spiritual successor to the classic Stop Thief! board game. | |
 | Dozens of original, creative Sokoban+ variants, each with a unique theme and set of rules. Don't mind the retro-simple graphics-- there's some super-good games and ideas here! | |
 | A lovely sokoban+ puzzle adventure from underground gaming legend Anna Anthropy. One of your robots can push crates horizontally, and the other, vertically. Can you coordinate them successfully through all the levels? | |
 | A lovely, modern roguelike-RPG that can be completed in an hour or so. Using the mouse works great to help with aiming archer & magic-user spells. Huge variety of enemies & environments to keep things interesting across multiple plays. | |
 | Ever asked yourself what a bullet-hell shooter would be like if it was turn-based? This game answers that question in fascinating style, featuring an upgrade system and a set of unique endings. | |
 | An "endless runner," in which you jump & maneuver your skateboarder across three lanes filled with vehicles & obstacles, whilst grabbing coins to upgrade your permanent abilities. Light-hearted, colorful & intense, it's a nice little way to spend a couple minutes. | |
 | In this terrific little gem, you and a partner must cooperate to do things like shut off power, disable alarms, break windows & lockpick doors in order to get inside buildings and steal whatever you can. Dodging guards & avoiding detection can be a delicate thing, sometimes going horribly wrong. At the end of each day, you'll balance your newfound loot against your expenses to see if you can continue your crime spree. NOTE: can be played solo, switching between thieves, or with a hotseat friend. | |
 | Here's a legendary platformer, sort of 'Indiana Jones meets Prince of Persia.' It's also a "roguelike," meaning each playthrough will generate a unique layout & set of challenges. There's endless amounts of technique, gameplay & depth to discover, and a handy guide there. Controls: Z-jump, X-whip/run, A- bomb, S- rope, arrows - move & look around. Note: For some reason the web versions are a touch wonky, so if you like this game, you'll want to play the downloadable version, and maybe check out the sequels. | |
 | Stratego (Master of the Flag) | Play the classic board game vs AI. Hit "Setup" until you find a configuration you like, modify as you choose, then hit "Start." The game keeps track of pieces seen by the opponent, and you can choose whether to display the piece strengths highest-to-lowest or vice-versa. |
  | These FPS's (first person shooters) contain an amazingly novel twist-- it's that time runs SUPER-SLOWLY when you're not moving, allowing you to plan your violence ahead. Of course, when you do move, the enemies move in real time as well. This makes for quite the 'James Bond bullet-time' experience. | |
 | TCavanagh's masterpiece of a turn-based stealth / heist game. The goal here is to collect loot & artifacts to successfully make a helicopter escape from the roof. Dying is certainly much easier. Lots of fun Easter Eggs in this one. | |
 | A cute, retro, isometric, puzzle-ish dungeon-explorer. The trickier levels require good timing and awareness to complete. There's also a simple loot system that allows you to make fun upgrades to your weapons & gear. | |
 | An ingenious, addicting mashup of match-3 & tower defense, this one has surprising depth, and a nice leaderboard / clan system, plus weekly, special battles. | |
 | ASteed's wickedly-cool sequel to Ending, a unique, puzzle-ish, stripped-down 'roguelite,' with all kinds of features, interesting enemies & hazards to outwit. Unending adds better animations, more cool stuff, and greater complexity. | |
 | Watabou is the progenitor of the legendary modern roguelike series, Pixel Dungeon (Android link) Here he's sharing his lovely, extensive collection of small games & sandbox graphics generators. | |
 | Here's two fascinating, social-experiment sandbox games. In the first, we take a snapshot of a member of the population, then that snapshot gets turned in to a billboard, followed by the rest of the population reacting. Then we repeat, and see how society turns, over time. In the second, we discover what happens when we apply different strategies of stealing vs sharing in a cooperative game show setting. This one's quite the statistical eye-opener! | |
 | A retro-collection of IBM-ASCII style roguelite / sokoban+ games in which one solves puzzles & collects treasures so as to fulfill mini-quests. |
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