Currently the most anticipated and talked about free online flash game is without question Gemcraft Chapter Zero: Gem of Eternity. Over the last few years, tower defense games have become immensely popular and the end of the craze is not in sight. Let’s have a look at the origin of these games and find out which games contributed to its success.

For those not familiar, tower defense or simply TD is a subgenre of real-time strategy computer games like Starcraft. The aim of the player is to try to stop enemies from crossing the map by building towers which shoot or affect them as they pass. Enemies and towers usually have varied abilities and costs and these get better and higher as the game advances. When an enemy is defeated the player earns money or points, which are used to buy or upgrade towers. The choice and positioning of the towers is the essential strategy of the game. The enemies usually run through a maze, which allows the player to strategically place towers, but there are also versions of the game in which the user must create the maze out of their own towers, such as Desktop Tower Defense. Some versions are a hybrid of these two types, with preset paths that can be modified to some extent by tower placement.

Tower defense finds its roots in the strategy classic Rampart, an arcade game from 1990. The game involved defending a castle by placing cannons and making repairs between several rounds of attacks. Its success resulted in the game being ported to a number of platforms including Super NES, Game Boy, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and most recently to the Playstation Network to offer multiplayer action. By the new millennium, tower defense games began to appear in user-created maps for Starcraft, Age of Empires II, and Warcraft III. Using defensive buildings or units as towers, these custom maps filled the online lobbies.

Eventually, independent game developers began using Adobe Flash to make stand-alone tower defense browser games, which led to the influential release of Desktop Tower Defense in March 2007. Hundreds of themes and gameplay variations have been tried out over the last few years including space and medieval settings. Child friendly versions appeared where players popped balloons or protected a picnic from ants. Protector was released late 2007 and was immediately ranked among the best, offering classes and specialization upgrades. More recently it was Gemcraft Chapter One: The Forgotten that took the crown by offering a new twist to the gameplay, the ability to combine towers.

The future looks bright for this genre and upcoming titles such as Gemcraft Chapter Zero: Gem of Eternity, Bloons Tower Defense 4 and Pirate Defense will surely set the bar even higher.

Once in a while a game is released which outclasses the vast majority of all other games. Berzerk studio had been making this revolutionary game for months and it’s finally finished. Hero’s Arms looks like the start of a new success series, but as with all other games, only time will tell. Already named the Zelda of free online flash games, Hero’s Arms does set the standard even higher.

The story is about ‘Gordzak and his dark minions, who have been bullying the inhabitants of their land for a long, long time. But everything is going to change when a young kid named Rix shows his little brat’s face in the neighbourhood! Rix sets off for an adventurous journey to challenge the mighty Gordzak in his dangerous lair.’ From here on you begin on an epic journey lasting ten to twenty hours! The scale is immense compared to any similar game and that’s not all. The artwork is superb and presents a colourful world filled with beautiful enemies and backgrounds. Throughout the game you’ll be collecting money to buy better equipment and experience points to raise your character’s level. The story is pretty straight forward but interesting enough to keep you going till the end.

Apart from all the positive aspects, there are some shortcomings. Firstly, some quests are dull and too repetitive. Killing another 30 zombies to open a door is not something you’ll enjoy after doing the same for the previous door. Secondly, for the love of your ears after some hours of playing, please give us a mute button.

Make sure to try it if you’re into adventure games, or any genre for that matter. This is one of those games you must have played. It seems like Kongregate have another great game to add to their exclusives list!

Click here to play Hero’s Arms at Kongregate

GP Studios kept their promise and made the deadline for their latest game: Bunny Invasion: Easter Special. It is in fact an extended version of Bunny Invasion 2 featuring some Easter themed enemies and storyline. Simply put this means more evil bunnies to shoot.

The game introduces a whole new host of bunnies, some more weapons and upgrades to play with, a whole new plot along with new characters and cut-scenes, loads more extras to unlock, new bosses, 40-60 more more blood spurting waves of bunnies and an Easter theme! Clearly, this game is more than a simple Easter re-release.

Meanwhile the original Bunny Invasion 2 has had more than 3.5 million gameplays worldwide. We are quite confident that we’ll be seeing Bunny Invasion 3 jumping along this year to become a worthy sequel to its predecessor and reach an even bigger audience.

Click here to play Bunny Invasion: Easter Special at Kongregate

The upcoming two sequels to Battalion: Nemesis have received a completely new user-interface. Developer Urbansquall wasn’t pleased about the interface of their last game and fixed it by making a gorgeously nice looking one out of scratch.

Fans of the series can get ready for two new installments in the Battalion universe. Battalion: Ghosts and Vengeance will continue the story and of course they are packed with new features. The new user-interface supports larger maps without overlays, the recon panel is bigger and shows more battle information, improved player portraits and revamped action buttons. Underneath is a screenshot showing the new UI with the rest of the game blurred out.

Urbansquall will be releasing new gameplays features weekly and the coming weeks we’ll hear more about the new units, terrain tiles, scenarios and how they will be integrated into the story and what sort of gameplay opportunities it will create for the sequels and the multiplayer modes. If you haven’t already, read our earlier announcement of the new Battalion sequels! We’ll keep a close eye on Urbansquall and cover all the updates on Battalion!

Welcome to our first attempt of Golden Oldies! Here you’ll occasionally find the games that you should’ve played at some point in your vast flash gaming career. Old jewels which are getting dusty in the forgotten corners of the net will be polished here and regain their shine. Just a little bit more attention for games that deserve it years after the initial release.

This time we have chosen a game that’s several years old and enjoyed millions of gameplays and enthousiastic reviews all over the globe. You start out as a simple digging machine and as you discover lost treasures and gems your machine can be upgraded. As you dig deeper and deeper the plot will unfold and great evil awaits. Of course we’re talking about Motherload, developed by XGen Studios! Over the years various updates have been released for this game and for a while it was possible to buy and download the entire game. The online version which is linked to below is the official full version.

If you’ve never played this game before, don’t hesitate and click the link below. If you have, feel free to bring back those moments of the past and be nostalgic. Enjoy!

Click here to play Motherload

The wait for Gemcraft Chapter Zero: Gem of Eternity is becoming endless. Initially the game was planned for the end of January, but all we got was an unpleasant silence. Several weeks ago we posted about the delay, on which developer Game in a Bottle commented saying the game is only weeks away.

Three weeks later we are still empty handed, but new rumours have spread on the web. Some sources say it will be released at the start of next week when the GDC 2009, which included the Flash Gaming Summit 2009, is finished. Other sources suggest an early April release as polishing the game takes longer than expected. Another assumable story is that the game is being pushed back because of the release of other anticipated competing titles and this would decrease the attention Gemcraft receives.

We say that nothing can divert the attention of this game. Millions are eagerly awaiting its release and we predict massive gameplay numbers on the first day of release. Take a guess and leave a comment with your predicated release date!

The two biggest arcade websites are visited by millions of players each month. To no surprise these two are Armor Games and Kongregate. Yesterday at the Flash Gaming Summit 2009 some interesting things have been said by both camps. One thing is clear, competition to attract the casual gamer is fierce.

Jim Greer, respresenting Kongregate at the event, stated that ’20% of the over 20,000 games played daily at Kongregate are multiplayer’ and ’60% of Kongregate customers use credit card and that most others use PayPal’, John Cooney from Armor Games revealed the fact that Armor Games makes 4 to 1 more ad revenue from website ads compared to in-game ads. Furthermore, he reminded us of their achievement banner which players can put on their myspace and similar community profiles.

Both Armor Games and Kongregate offer quality free online flash games and a thriving community. Their features are very similar and what especially keeps the players coming back are the scorboards which makes it possible for players to advance in levels as they play more games. Once you start leveling up an account at either Armor Games or Kongregate, you’ll most likely play there most of the time and that’s exactly the reason these systems are implented.

However, the content is different. It must be said that Armor Games has the exlcusive rights for some of the highest rated games. Series such as Sonny, Gemcraft and The Last Stand all appear on Armor Games exclusively for weeks before any other arcade website can use it. In deciding where to play and start an account it often comes down to the preference of the player which is influenced by small details. In a recent survey it was shown that on average, Kongregate’s website is more user-friendly than any other arcade website.

All in all, both of them offer great games and a lively community. It will be interesting to see how upcomng features will affect their popularity. This will most likely be crucial to win the preference of the millions of casual players. Vote now in our new poll on this subject!

The Flash Gaming Summit 2009 is underway and we’ll cover it for you! Throughout the day keep checking this article for live updates and announcements!

We’re on the lookout for sequels and release dates of your favourite games as well as news on brand new games. For the finalists of the Mochi Awards, which will be awarded later today, see our Mochi Awards article!

3:03am: The conference has SOLD OUT! Unfortunately we are not accepting any more attendees or on-site registrations.

11:08am: The first speakers have had their speech. Paul Preece of Casual Collective said ‘co-operative mulitplayer flash games are more successful than head-to-head ones’. Jim Greer of Kongregate says ‘that 20% of the over 20,000 games played daily at Kongregate are multiplayer’.

1:31pm: See the links below for freshly made pictures of the event!

3:37pm: We can expect easier multiplayer integration from adobe in the near future, thumbnails for games are crucial to get you all playing supposedly and we play 5 minutes per game on average. Enough facts for now, the Mochi Awards are starting in 5 minutes!

3:57pm: Most creative game goes to auditorium, best family game is Skywire 2, Mastermind wins best strategy game, Minions takes best multiplayer game, best game art goes to Questionaut and the winner in best Indy game is Fancy Pants. The People’s Choise goes to Platform Racing 2 and finally the best sponsor game goes to Starland. Congratulations!

8:21pm: The conference is over. For all the details and subjects, see the Twitter link below. The video link does no longer work and has been removed!

Click here for a complete round-up of the event at Mochiland

Click here to follow the Flash Gaming Summit 2009 on Twitter

Click here for pictures of the Flash Gaming Summit 2009

The Several Journeys of Reemus Chapter 3 will see its first daylight around the start of April. Developer Zeebarf is nearly done finishing the game and indicated early April as release date. Question is whether they’ll make the deadline, as they failed all on almost all attempts in the past. Nothing new to flash developers and no big surprise to us, as long as the game is polished upon release instead of rushed.

Chapter 3 will continue where the previous chapter ended and that’s good news as we’ll finally be able to advance in the story, one of the competences of this series. Together with the splendid visuals and the enjoyable point ‘n’ click approach, it is what makes this game unique. The reemus games have had millions of gameplays worldwide and millions are eagerly awaiting the release of this next adventure.

Click here to play The Several Journeys of Reemus Prologue: The Lair of the Ant Queen
Click here to play The Several Journeys of Reemus Chapter 1: The Royal Journey
Click here to play The Several Journeys of Reemus Chapter 2: The All-Knowing Parasite

Bloons Tower Defense 4 is in the making. Although not officially confirmed by developer Ninja Kiwi, they have released some hints about their upcoming releases and projects.

‘At present we have several all new games in the works, as well as a couple of exciting sequels on the drawing board. Tune in again for further updates!’. Of course one of these exciting sequels must be Bloons Tower Defense 4. With the previous installment having more than 32 million gameplays worldwide, it would be silly to come to any other conclusion. As for the other games, we can only guess.

Click here to play Bloons Tower Defense 3 at NinjaKiwi