Clockwords: Prelude, Walkthrough

Clockwords is a hectic word game set in Victorian London. You are a genius inventor who discovers plans for a mysterious machine that runs on the power of language. Then your lab is infiltrated by mechanical bugs that have come to steal your secrets! You must think and type quickly to fend off the invaders.

Walkthrough:

Try to use these words they contain some of the most powerful letters, though they may not be huge:

-Jazz

-Joking

-Jester

-Queue

-Question

-Quest

-Query

-Quilt

-Queen

-The prefix “Extra-”

-Exile

-Example

-Axe

-Oxen

-Relax

-Zany

-Zealot

-Zen

-Pizazz

-Pizza

Those words should really help you out! The next, quite obviously tip, is to use the Word of the Day, from Dictionary.com, these ''Word of the Day''. words are doubled in power for each letter, that also includes doubling the efficiency of letters in the boiler, sometimes creating very strong blitz of attacks! Remember, the Word of the Day is a very powerful thing and can effect nearby enemies when each letter explodes on impact!

If you're looking for some real fire-power, try using some of these words, I highly recommend using these words only when you have some matching letters in the boiler, at least 3 to 4, if you want to use the full potential of these words:

-Overintellectualizations

-Photoreconnaissance

-Extraordinarily

-Pizazz

-Pedophiles

-Personalities

-Rotational

-Pseudonym

-Disestablishment

Those are only a couple of words they can serve you well in later levels! Keep in mind

while you're playing this game that, X, Z, and Y, are going to be your strongest letters, but to get those letters you're going to have to ''Transmute'' some letters to create these odd, new letters, X, Z, and Y. Try to 'Transmute'' some of the weaker letters, to gain more opportunities to score more points and damage. The ''Transmuting'' machine works like so... First place 2 of the same dot value letters, into the ''transmute'' machine, you will now have a more decent scoring or damaging letter. Pretty simple, right? Anyways, remember use this machine when you got a few weak letters you don't need, or just upgrading onto your already strong letter, to get X, Z, or Y.

The boiler, should contain the letters you're going to use the most. For example, if you want to use a bunch of letters that start with ''X'', you should have 4 to 6 ''X'''s in the boiler. Also, create a list of words that you can easily spam containing ''X'', like Extreme, Excitement, Exact, or Pizza, and include some of those common letters in each one of those words into the boiler. An example would be ''E'', ''C'', and ''T'' would all work terrific with these words!

Like any word games, there is always stategies, here are a couple to help you throughout the game!

Good words for freeing up slots:

-Questionably

-Extirpation

These words, like the title suggest, will help you get some slots open. Remember, slots allow you to use words from the boiler, for extra damage. Using these words will allow you to use the full power of some of the larger words such as, Overintellectualizations, or the Word of the Day, words.

Good words for clearing junk letters:

-Realizations

-Internationalization

-Translations

-Seriously

-Strained

-Snailed

Again, like the title suggest, these words are perfect for taking out some of the more weak boiler or for just clearing a lot of letters, to get new words in. Using this stategy you can have more opportunities to use some of the larger words!

If you can add a few ''Q''s and ''E''s to the boiler, to enable a couple of strong words, such as:

-Quixotic

-Quixotically

-Exquisite

-Exquisitely

-Equinox

-Equinoxes

Well, I hope this has helped you! Now, go play Clockwords, it's a terrific game in my opinion!

Infected Fury Month!

From now through November 20, a battle between zombies and trained survivors will be taking place across Kongregate. Anyone recruited to be part of one of these factions can earn up to 3 points a day by spreading the infection or training new survivors to fight the zombies, and slight changes to your profile and avatar will show your friends which team you are on.

Pretty simple concept right, just watch out for me...I'm infected! (By the way, I'm the 27th zombie!) Not to brag or anything, but here's my profile link if you would like to see what an infected's profile looks like, it's pretty cool!

Kongregate, 20,000 games!

Just today we hit the wondrous 20,000 game mark! The 20,000th game is, disappointingly, another dress up game, but let's remember and celebrate, the games that have contributed to the 20K pile, such as Gemcraft, Sonny, all those games that you've never heard of... Though this game is nothing extraordinary, least it's not as bad as a 20,000 Kongregate Birthday game or something and does nothing, eh? Chazie 3D Fashion Show was the game that hit the 20,000 make for Kongregate, so why don't you check it out!

>Play the 20,000 Kongregate game!

Vector Conflict: The Siege, Review

Vector Conflict is an intense 3D shooter set in a bleak, post-apocalyptic retro world. You are in control of the defensive systems for the vast SOTER underground bunker. You are the last line of defense for the survivors taking refuge below – protect them at all costs.

Though Vector Conflict: The Siege has no exact storyline, you appear to be in a post-apocalyptic retro world, in attempts to fight off the 3D enemies and save the small civilization, in your vast SOTER underground bunker. You being in charge of the large defensive systems, mainly the turret, although there are missiles and other explosives, to fend off the blitz of enemies, coming in all directions.

There are 3 different difficulty types, in Victor Conflict: The Siege, each one, obviously, more difficult than the last. There are also a wide variety of enemies, such as planes, tanks, (and automobiles!) any real war vehicle you can think of seems to appear in this game, drop-ships, kamikaze bombers, and the list continues! So really there is definitely a large array of enemies, which is always an attractive feature to a game.

The only problem I see with all the enemies is that most of the time, there is so many coming out at one time, you end up, going in circles, slowly destroying one by one. Sides of War, the third or second level, is when you first going to experience this, though I guess this is what make a game, action packed, the thought of, if your going to live or not. Obviously, this isn't enough of a problem to rate the game down, it just a minor, annoying issue for me at least.

The gameplay consisting of you controlling the defensive systems and operating the large turret through 10 different level, or waves is a enjoyable, simple task. I loved the idea of Victor Conflict, though there seems to be a ton of first person shooters, out there. Victor Conflict, I think, in my mind, is separated from other first persons' mainly because of the graphics, don't get me wrong the feeling is the same, like you could easily compare this to Last Stand 2 or More Mindless Violence, but this game's graphics are that significant of a change or difference you wouldn't normally compare it to a couple of the other first persons out there. If I was to compare this game to any other game I can possibly think of it would be that old Atari game, called Battlezone, another first person shooter with 3D graphics, that was released in the 80's, a lot like Victor Conflict: The Siege. There is no doubt about it Victor Conflict: The Siege is a more modern version of Battlezone, though lacking originality.

The graphics are top-notch in my opinion, sporting a 3D style. There isn't much to this game graphics wise, a couple of enemies and the radar lines are the only things visible in this action packed first person. The only thing that I will criticize on the graphics is that, the game is dark! Literally, you can barely see, well, not bearly see, but let's say it's empty. The game could have done much better in my opinion if there was some sort of terrain, like hills and mountains in the background and a large field or desert were the turret is.

The eerie music playing in the background is some what calming. I really enjoyed it, though it seems at some points it completely stops, leaving you with the roar of the simultaneous homing bullets, fired by by the SOTER bunker defense system. If the music had just continued, it wouldn't have some of the more boring times, compared to when there is some of the eerie rock, going on in the background, while enemies are coming from all side, leaving you in a frantic attempt to survive!

The controls are really simple, rotate with arrow, or WASD keys, and fire with your mouse! Of course there is a couple other buttons to use missiles, and other explosives, though they're all relatively easy to catch onto. You can't really go wrong with the controls in Victor Conflict, or any other first person shooter in my opinion, for they're all simple and easy, nothing you have to learn or catch onto. The only real problem that I faced with the controls were, that some enemies seemed to be right on the line of north and east or south and west and they were practically impossible to destroy, considering the fact, that if you rotate you're going to go exactly 90 degrees! Besides that, the controls work perfect and the I only encountered that problem once or twice...

In Victor Conflict there is a perfect difficulty ramp. Like most games, the first level is filled with the overwhelming crowd of annoying, wimpy, enemies setting the nice and easy feeling. Slowly they introduce some of the more difficult enemies such as tanks and drop-ships as the game progresses. In between levels you can upgrade your weapons, buy some explosives, such as nuclear bombs, missiles, EMP cells, and the list continues, to keep you alive.

The only thing this game lacks is replay-ability. I wouldn't, honestly, go back and play this game through each mode, and actually find it amusing. It's kind of harsh, but Victor Conflict has hardy any replay-ability at all, unless your going for all 8 achievements in-game, which is fun, enjoyable, but not enough for me to play through each difficulty to get a couple of in-game achievements. Don't get me wrong the game is fun, but it's one of those, been there, done that, games.

Overall, Victor Conflict is an amazing 3D first person shooter! I love the graphics and the sound gives an eerie survival mood to the game. >Play Victor Conflict

Meat Boy, Walkthrough and Review

Meat Boy is a quick paced, action platformer game, as you search for the Band-aid girl!

Play as Meat Boy, (Obviously, a piece of meat!) as he embarks out into the forests and through factories to find his beloved Band-Aid Girl! The story goes that an evil professor takes Band-Aid Girl, and you must find her! The storyline reminds me of Super Mario Bros, for the Gameboy Color, your so close to rescuing Band-Aid Girl every times, but she always is taken away at the last second!

Meat Boy is one of the more difficult games, and the controls don't help ether, unless you get used to them, (which really doesn't take too long). Since it so hard, that's what really inspired me to earn that Impossible achievement, it was a tedious game, no doubt about that, but no matter what, it was addictive and a terrific overall. Usually, a difficult game would, make a player give up, because it's too tedious or strenuous, but there's a charm to this game, once you start playing you won't want to stop!

The enemies, being blades, salt, lava, and the list continues, are set up, so that if you don't time your moves correctly be prepared to be sliced and diced, or be someones Thanksgiving roast! I'd worry more about the blades than the lava or salt, just because you have to time everything perfectly, and they tend to be in groups!

I really enjoyed how the gameplay flowed in Meat Boy. The whole game was terrific, although sometimes tedious, it keep me with something to do for days, full of fun and delight! Meat Boy, by far is my favorite platform game, just because I loved it, hated it, it was a mix of emotions, anger and enjoyment of a slick, tedious platform game! The reason why I say ''tedious'' is because, unless you have the reflexes of a cat, this isn't going to be your average 3 hour game, it going to be your not so average 2 day game, full of trial and error, and dying every 30 seconds. This may be due to my experience with the controls or maybe it's the fact that I played for every band-aid, which was still enjoyable, though the person that plays this game and skips two out of 5 levels to beat the game in a hurry is not going the experience the same thing as me.

The graphics are stunning! You can't find much better graphics than this, that is, for a flash game of course. The first time I saw them, I was shocked! I really couldn't believe my eyes, they were wondrous. The thing that shocked me even more is that this game was made with, just about 50 to 60 sprites, (though the background is another story) just goes to show that the game doesn't have to have too much variety, and sweet objects or levers and switches, it just has to look good enough to separate it from the overwhelming crowd of flash games now a day.

The music a fast paced, drum, guitar music, I honesty have no idea what instruments they are or even what category of music you would put it in, all I know is that it sounds good, though it's seems like a 30 second loop, which can get quite annoying. In all reality, turn off the music if you want to have better reflexis, the quick paced techno, rock music will only make the game seem quicker, trust me. Anyways, the music is great, works well with the game, but turn it off if you can't stand it or, as I just stated, realized my therory.

The controls, a much talked about topic of Meat Boy, ... are not sloppy, but definitely could use some fine tuning, though this may have been part of the challenge of the game. Obviously, the controls separate this game from the all the other platformers, but sometimes, not in a good way. According to many people, and Edmund, (the game creator) it is highly recommended that you play this with a Xbox 360, or the original Xbox controller to help improve the controls. I know it would be sweet to play with an Xbox controller and stuff, but seriously, the game creator, Edmund, makes a flash game and then instead of tuning the controls he wants you to use an Xbox controller, it makes no sense. So definitely the controls need a lot of fine tuning, just like an old violin, it won't work well unless you make it work well!

There seems to be no exact difficulty ramp in Meat Boy, unless you count level one to level 5, everything past that is basically the same difficulty, hard. I know there is a couple of levels labeled ''Expert'' though the levels that I actually had trouble with, band-aid wise were some of the earlier levels, such as in Chapter 2, the Factory, I had quite a time with level 9, ''Bipolar''. More than a few times I had more difficulties with some of the earlier levels compared to the ''Expert'' and more advanced levels. So, from my experience there isn't too much of a difficulty ramp in Meat Boy, though each level is unique and difficult, in it's own way.

If you say replay-ability, the first game that comes to my head is Meat Boy. There are 24 band-aids to collect, which the secret ending was removed due to it being inappropriate, (Read the full description of Meat Boy, on Kongregate if you really must see it). There are a couple of hidden characters, unlocked after reaching a set band-aid amount, my favorite character would, by far, have to be Castle Crasher guy, after collecting 4 band-aids (if I remember correctly). There are also 3 more characters after the Castle Crasher guy. These small things such as different characters is what makes a game stand out, make a game original and enjoyable.

All in all, Meat Boy is a terrific game! I absolutely love the graphics, the music and all the small, original touches to the game, like different characters. Definitely play Meat Boy if you have an extra, 2 days to spare, (Hey, least it's not as long as Gemcraft!).

Here is a walkthrough to all 24 band-aids:
(I went back to beat the game, today and beat it in 30 minutes, though getting all the band-aids took a couple of hours. Note: This is from a person that has played and beat Meat Boy multiple times. Good Luch, and I hope this walkthrough helps you a bit!)

Chapter 1, The Forest

Band-aids are on levels:

Level 3, Going Up
Level 5, Windows
Level 7, Daredevil
Level 9, Damage Control
Level 12, The Buzz Cut
Level 14, Cliffhanger


Chapter 2, The Factory
Band-aids are on levels:
Level 3, Salt Falls
Level 4, Flying Meat
Level 6, Shafted Meat
Level 9, Bipolar
Level 11, White Gold
Level 14, Breakout

Chapter 3, Hell
Band-aids are on levels:
Level 1, Easy Peasy
Level 2, Lava Awareness
Level 7, Touchy Feely
Level 9, The Floater
Level 12, Hell House
Level 15, SATANICA!

Expert Chapter
Band-aids are on levels:
Level 1, Urban Decay
Level 4, A Simple Jump
Level 5, No Touching
Level 6, The Kicking Machine
Level 7, Civilized Worm
Level 10, Sky Pup

Meat Boy, Band-aid Walkthrough

Meat Boy is quick action packed game filled with many levels! This is by far one of the harder games (although the impossible badge is a piece of cake, compare to others), but is addictive and has wonderful graphics! >Play Meat Boy

Anyways here's a short walkthrough on how to get all the band-aids, including what level they are on!

Chapter 1, The Forest

Band-aids are on levels:

3

5

7

9

12

14

Chapter 2, The Factory

Band-aids are on levels:

3

4

6

9

11

14

Chapter 3, Hell

Band-aids are on levels:

1

2

7

9

12

15

Chapter 4, Expert Challenges

Band-aids are on levels:

1

4

5

6

7

10

Hopefully that helps you a bit, a full review on Meat Boy will be released tomarrow, along with a more in-dephth walkthrough. So hurry up, go play Meat Boy, and if you get stuck, feel free to check back here!

Atomic Super Boss, Review

Blast the boss to shreds in this intense, retro, shoot them up!

Though this game has no real storyline, all we do know is that you need to destroy the boss! Play as a lone space ship, in the barren wastelands of the dark and mysterious space, in your never-ending fight against the colossus boss. The boss, obviously alien, or a futuristic enemy, has multiple attacks darting across the screen at a time.

There are 3 different difficulties, the normal old ''Easy'', ''Normal'', and ''Hard'' modes, ''Easy'', obviously, is already unlocked, but ''Normal'' and ''Hard'' mode require some skill to get! The only enemy being the boss, is quick and agile as it fires multiple lasers and bullets your way, in attempts to obliterate you. As the difficulty goes up, the boss gets tougher, quicker, and a whole lot more deadly!

The game-play, consisting of dodging the multiple projectiles produced by the monstrous alien (or human) ship, and the small task of collecting points from damaging the alien (or human) craft. As the game progresses, (like I said before) the enemy become quicker with it's attack, leaving you in a frantic struggle to stay alive! Your ship's aiming system, is homing, although your weapons are not heat seeking missiles or some crazy rockets, they will always hit their target, the boss, making it easy to score those points opening up ''Normal'' and ''Hard'' mode.

The graphics, 8-bit retro style, just how I like them are perfectly created, creating a sense that you might as well be playing the Atari, or at an arcade popping in a few quarters here and there. Although the graphics are quite astonishing, the text is sometimes hard to read, at some points almost impossible, besides that the graphics couldn't get much better in my opinion. The sound, your classic adventure game tune, works well with the game once again giving you the old school feeling of this well designed, arcade game.

The controls only requiring arrow or WASD keys and the spacebar (or the ''x'' key) are simple controls allowing you to control your companion-less fighter, as you fight the boss. the gun, (as I earlier explained) is homing allowing you to easily evade the onrush of attacks without aiming!

In Atomic Super Boss, there really isn't a difficulty ramp. If you want the game to be any harder you have to select different modes, I was kind of hoping for the game to slowly advance in difficulty as you are playing ''Easy'' mode or any other mode.

I wouldn't say that there is too much replay-ability in this game, although there are a couple of stats, but they are only for the different ways you've died, percentage wise. If there were also some smaller enemies, for you to destroyed there would be a lot more opportunities for the developer to make achievements for, but I guess that would be straying from the point of the game.

It's pretty absurd that you are awarded things for dying, (like Karoshi). In Atomic Super Boss, after being killed by all of the boss's attacks, enter the ''Options'' menu and hit secrets, it's a wondrous new feature to the game, (I wish I could tell you, but it's most likely more fun if you find out yourself)!

All in all, Atomic Super Boss is your original retro styled game that you find once in a blue moon. The game itself is great, though it has little replay-ability to keep you coming back for more. The controls are simple, and the music is terrific, but might not have been the best choice for Atomic Super Boss. Anyways, be sure to check Atomic Super Boss out it's a fantastic game, taking place in the deep depths of space as you fight an unstoppable force!