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.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
