Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Web
Nanowar and Galcon Flash - multiplayer space-conquering Time Wasters
by Jay Hathaway Jun 9th 2009
I absolutely love the iPhone version of Galcon, and the couple of weeks when I played it obsessively on the subway were worth the cost of the app. The object of the game is to defeat your opponent by sending ships from your planets to enemy planets and overwhelming them with your number, while your opponent tries to do the same to you. Galcon's fast pace and multiplayer mode add to the fun.Now, in addition to the iPhone and desktop versions, there's a Flash version of Galcon in beta. It's hard to find opponents for multiplayer right now, but it otherwise looks just like the Galcon we know and love. Flash Galcon has a competitor, though, and it's called Nanowar. Nanowar is the same basic game as Galcon, but it only has one mode in single-player, containing 14 preset maps, versus Galcon's infinite randomly-generated boards.
Nanowar has a couple of things going for it, though. First, there's a level editor, which gives you the opportunity to create and save your own boards. Second, the multiplayer games on Nanowar are currently very popular, drawing players from around the world. When they work, that is. Both the level editor and the multiplayer support in Nanowars have been a bit buggy. With Nanowar not yet at 1.0 and Flash Galcon still in beta, it remains to be seen which will attract the larger horde of space-battle-enthused gamers.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
