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The Prince of the land is looking for a bride. But not just any bride. A bride who will be wearing the legendary wedding dress last seen in the deepest darkest dungeon. Clearly he's giving such a quest to find one kick-butt wife, and Umbrella is ready to leave her wicked stepmoth... er, I mean, Aunty, and prove that she is that crazy of a woman in room6's free puzzle platformer for iOS and Android, Tottoko Dungeon. The only problem is Umbrella is so gungho there isn't any stopping her! Charging forward our heroine will bounce off walls, snatch up treasures, and try to cut through any baddie that has the misfortune of standing in the way of her rampage. The problem is the dungeons are a big place and not very linear, and while Umbrella can always make it to the exit on her own, there are things she needs that are not on her path, or things she should avoid that are in her way, and that's where you come in. You are only given only two options for actions to use with Umbrella, and though you'll gain lots of abilities you'll need to decide what two will lead you to more gold and more treasure in your pockets. Collect all the treasures to unlock a hidden level, find weapons and outfits for her to use and keep her alive so she can keep going on her crazy wild adventure.

In Peter Achberger's physics puzzler Icesters Trouble these ice cubes jut want a normal life, sitting on the cold frozen ground and preferably not melting. While they are not the only inhabitants in their chilly world, to us they are the only ones that should matter. Similar to great games like Red Remover, you need to remove the right blocks by clicking on them to have the ice land safely on the ground and not flying, rolling, or shaking off into the endless abyss that is the rest of the screen. While all removable blocks start out purple, new colors with different attributes start taking their place in later levels. Explosion blocks, orange blocks that shoot off like a rocket, and green blocks that shake like a toddler after an espresso shot, are going to do their best to take the ice with them when they go. But it's not as simple as that as pretty soon anthropomorphic boxes join the fight. When one is removed the remaining swap colors and bring chaos into your careful plan to reunite ice with ice.

It might be a little hypocritical of me to tell you to "rise and shine" today, since I'm writing this while half awake and it took me six tries to spell "hypocritical", but, well, do as I say and not as I do. RISE AND SHINE! You're alive, and it's another beautiful day on this spinning rock, alive with the potential... to play escape games! This week! Esklavos might be able to pull a bunny out of a hat, but a magician probably can't cure the common cold. And a double dose of Vitamin Hana sends you both to the world's smallest butterfly garden, and then to a tiny deserted island for complaining about it.

Everyone knows that the very best get-togethers are always decorated liberally with iconography made up to look like a royal version of your host, so Funkyland's escape game Alice House 2 No.09: Alice's Dinner Party shouldn't come as much surprise. To leave this royal banquet, you'll need to find five items bearing the image of Queen Alice, and as usual, some of these are hidden behind puzzles in a crafty manner. Just click around to explore and interact, and keep an eye out for the items and clues you'll need to crack the puzzles in your way. Though not as chaotic as the "real" Wonderland, Funkyland's Alice House games are all still pleasantly weird while rarely veering into illogical territory, making Alice's Dinner Party an appealing appetizer of a game that'll whet your appetite without filling you up. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go order a bunch of decorations and flatware with my face on them for Thanksgiving.

Play Alice House 2 No.09: Alice's Dinner Party

[Note: Please be aware that this game deals with subject matter some may find upsetting.]

A Normal Lost Phone might possibly be the most immediately suspicious thing to call a phone, but here it's the title of this intriguing interactive narrative, created by the team calling themselves Accidental Queens for Global Game Jam 2016 in France, where you must try to figure out what happened to the phone's owner, a young man named Sam. You interact with the phone as you would any smart device, by clicking on icons and dragging the screen to scroll, and you'll need to search through old messages, calendar events, and more to find out the truth, as well as how to unlock certain functions. A Normal Lost Phone is largely a simple, personal narrative that will connect more with some than others, but one told in a creative way.

In GrandMA Studios' hidden-object adventure Whispered Secrets: Everburning Candle, asylums continue to prove that they are a lightning rod for supernatural activity and shady dealings in pop culture. The one in your town has just gone up in flames that can't be quenched by water, which is a pretty good indication that you're dealing with something weird even before the giant fist of flames starts smacking the firemen around. It's up to you to figure out the source of this supernatural, fiery fury before the blaze reaches the town, and what do you want to bet there's some sort of shadowy secret behind the asylum? With an interactive quick-travel map, Dark and Distressing Secrets(tm), optional match-3 minigames if you prefer instead of hidden-object scenes, and a serious amount of eye candy, Whispered Secrets: Burning Candle is a creepy but lovely casual adventure that might be a bit predictable, but still makes for an engrossing game.

Some escape games feature elaborate stories, or at least a clearly identified reason as to why you're trapped. And then there's Lu-taru's Tsure Game 6.3, which plops you down in front of some sort of freestanding vanity without so much as a "hi, how are ya," folds its arms, and stares at you expectantly. Though it does seem like the faucet is leaking, so maybe you should do something about that? There's no changing cursor, so click on everything to find out what's interactive and what isn't, especially since you never know where an additional hotspot might be hidden to help you advance. The Japanese-only text isn't necessary to solve the game, though combined with the lack of a changing cursor to find what you may be missing to click on, some players may find the lack of helpful feedback frustrating. If you take your time and think things through, however, Tsure Game 6.3 has some clever puzzles up its sleeve, though... you probably still won't be qualified for any real home repair when you're done.

Play Tsure Game 6.3

The end to the mysteries of Zombie Society is finally here. With the last adventure being filled with a crazy theory from a mad man- er zombie, a list of suspicious names, and Detective Margh struggling to decide who to trust, we are all excited for this grand finale. Franceso Del'anna Muja's interactive comic Zombie Society - Death After Death 3/3 comes to a close, but there are still choices to be made that will change the ending and write a slightly different story just for you. It is really recommended you play the first two parts (found here and here respectively) for even if you don't have an ID account to save your actions from one game to the next, you can have the clues and the people fresh in your mind. While it does have a few moments of some pretty heavy stuff it still has its cheesy humor and lighthearted approach to the zombie world that will have you quietly chuckling to yourself. The episodes aren't very long so anyone can still try out this humorous yet peculiar story.

Able Black hates his Mother, but this puzzle-based, narrative-driven experience for iOS by Scott Leach isn't your average tale of teenage rebellion. Able's an android, but currently he's languishing away in the dark loneliness of Ark 19, an underground habitat created to save humanity from destruction. To avoid being shut down like so many that came before him, Able must take and pass the Citizenship Exam... but what is humanity, anyway? Why is one thing considered alive, and another isn't? Told through a series of chapters interspersed with puzzles, Able Black is a short but thoughtful story with an elegant presentation and an engrossing mood.

[Note: Please be aware that this game contains reference to subject matter some players may find upsetting.]

If you live in the West, you might only know February 14th as the traditional consumerist expression of affection. But in some Asian countries like Japan and South Korea, White Day, a month later, is just as big a deal, and in a lot of cases, it's about boys giving gifts to the girls they like. Lee Hui-min just wants to sneak into the school after hours to leave some candy for the girl he's crushing on, So-yeong, but finds himself trapped inside instead. After witnessing something horrible, it quickly becomes apparent that he can't be found by the janitor patrolling the halls, and he'll have to find a way out himself... but the school isn't as empty as he thinks. Originally released in 2001, this horror adventure has now been remade and re-released by ROIGAMES for Android and iOS, featuring revamped visuals, more spooks, improved content and more. Though some issues still need to be patched out, it's a remarkably well done remake whose demo you'll want to check out... though maybe not in the dark.

The Tantalus Theater Troupe aren't your ordinary actors... on the eve of a great celebration, they plan to use their performance at the castle to kidnap Princess Garnet. It just turns out, the Princess wants to be kidnapped, and that sounds just fine to brassy, self-confident Zidane, who's smitten at first sight. But this isn't an ordinary fairytale about a princess who's bored with royalty and wants to see the world... Princess Garnet is out to save it, even if it means defying the woman her mother, Queen Brahe, has become. Classic RPG adventuring from Square-Enix makes a return in Final Fantasy IX, available both for iOS and Android, and Windows through Steam to boot. With a very "old school" design compared to its grittier predecessors, Final Fantasy IX weaves storybook visuals and powerful themes of identity and self-worth for a captivating experience that makes the leap to modern devices with surprising grace.

Keybol's Another Pretentious Game is a minimalistic puzzle game that, depending on how you choose to interpret it, might either be about the way people hurt each other and themselves when they dance around what they really want to say and how they really feel... or a gentle jab at similarly artsy games. Much like Pretentious Game, play and objectives are simple. In this case, you're clicking and dragging to draw a short, wavy line on screen that, when released, will undulate along in a path that touches both large coloured circles onscreen. Once you release the line, it can't be altered, so it's about figuring how to draw it so that its wrigglings get it where you want it to be, without touching any of the grey circles in the way. It can be a little hard to get the hang of at first, if only because figuring out how long or short of a line you need in order for it to keep its shape or move the way you want it to takes practice. But despite that, the way the gameplay illustrates a couple dancing around obstacles and each other is nicely evocative... though how you react to the ending and whether you feel it fitting is entirely up to you.

Play Another Pretentious Game

Pine Studio's Firefighter Escape, also free for iOS and Android, is sadly not a game in which one must escape some sort of murderous, fire-axe-wielding fireman, but rather about helping a fireman find a way out of a fire department building that is currently on fire. Having your place of work go up in flames is probably not a good look for firemen as far as public perception goes... just sayin'. To play, just click to interact and move around the area. The fist in your inventory at the bottom of the screen represents trying force on things, while many items can actually be combined with one another, so experiment! The cursor will change if it passes over something you can click on, and the white text at the top of the screen as you mouse over things will tell you what you're looking at or about to do. As with a lot of Pine Studio titles, Firefighter Escape looks and plays pretty darn good, though is hampered by a tendency to make items you need teeny-tiny or otherwise hard to see, or having some unintuitive logic surrounding their uses. Still, it's a fun few minutes while they last, even if it looks like firefolk could probably do their jobs better without complex puzzle locks on all their equipment.

Play Firefighter Escape

Firefighter Escape (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)


Firefighter Escape (Android, Android Tablet)

Doing what I do here, I periodically get invitations from friends to try out those real-life escape game scenarios, but sadly, it's not something I'll ever go for... both because my tendency to get shrill and demanding under pressure would mean ending a friendship as soon as someone fumbled solving a puzzle, and because "Hey, come and play this totally legitimate game where I lock you in a room full of elaborate puzzles," sounds exactly like something a friend would say to enact some sort of bloody Jigsaw-style revenge, and I can't pretend I probably don't have it coming. So let's enjoy these games instead! This week! Amajeto wants you to celebrate the changing seasons without the hayfever. Detarame Factory has one weird but cute wedding for you to attend. And MayMay thinks a little menial labour is in order.

If all the world's a stage, then Rusty Lake is putting on some seriously weird play, or at least playing with your brain. Good thing that's the way we like it! In creepy surreal escape game Cube Escape: Theater, also free for iOS and Android, the lake draws you deeper into the past of its tormented protagonist... this time to a small theater in 1971. As you might expect from a Rusty Lake game, however, things are definitely off, and the more you start to poke around, the weirder things get. There's no changing cursor, so you'll have to click around and explore on your own to figure out what's interactive and what isn't. Unlike some escape games, the Cube Escape series has always operated on its own logic, so don't be afraid to experiment with item combinations or using things in unlikely places if you get stuck.