I Love Traffic is a unique take on a flow-management game. In it, you play the part of traffic computer, turning lights green and red to control the flow of traffic. Some roads you have control over, while others are free-flowing. This means that to avoid accidents, you need to carefully manage which lights you turn green, and for how long.

The game view is top-down, and while the graphics are simple, crashes have satisfying skid marks and believable motion accompanied by a solid "crunch" sound. Sometimes it's actually not all that disappointing to fail a level when your mistake results in a multi-car pileup, with cars being bounced into other lanes of traffic. A failed level also results in a random fact being displayed, which is sort of fun until they start repeating and you realize you're having too much trouble with that level.

I Love Traffic is a short time waster, and it should take only about 15 minutes to complete the game. My biggest pile-up resulted in about 8 cars shooting off in different directions. Let us know how badly (or well) you do.

Do you like mind-bending puzzle time wasters? If so, I think you're going to like Magneboy. The game play is simple, but the game quickly becomes a thinker. You play the part of Magneboy, and you have the ability to move yourself over gaps of space to steel tiles using your magnetic ability. Some of the other tiles on the board are moveable using your magnetic powers, and still others have effects that change the direction or effect of your magnetism.

The game has a fun, whimsical look and feel, which makes me feel bad for not feeling as calm as the game appears to deserve. But seriously - sometimes the tiles simply won't move the way I want them to. It's frustrating. I mean fun, yes - fun. Frustratingly fun. That's a thing, isn't it? Now it is.

Magneboy: Frustratingly fun.

While pretty graphics are nice, my favorite time wasters are those that have a great concept, and I'm particularly partial to physics games. Color Infection is definitely one of my favorites.

I was therefore very happy to discover that there is now a sequel, Color Infection 2. The concept and game-play is all the same, but this iteration is a little more challenging. In particular, the later levels start using multiple weighted platforms that have you counting on your fingers and backwards trying to make sense of it all.

If that sort of thing is your bag, you're going to like Color Infection 2. If not, I find I keep coming back to Learn to Fly; maybe that would be a good alternative.

Chain of Fire is a strange time waster for me to write about, because the goal of the game is to kill all of the people on each level by burning them alive. It's sadistic, sociopathic, and yet somehow compelling. I sort of wish the game had a different theme, since the gameplay could have been exactly the same if the game was focused around infection, or some other form of passing along a state.

In any event, it's not - it's all about burning cute little stick figures that are running around with no hope for survival.

Game play is simple - you can choose a person to set on fire by clicking them, then clicking the direction you want them to run once they have ignited. Any person or tree that person comes in contact with will then also ignite. The goal is to burn as many people or trees as possible with the least number of clicks to meet the point value listed for each level. Typically this means you must burn everything in one or two ignitions.

There's so little interaction after lighting off your first man, yet the game is sort of mesmerizing in the same way that the simple computer game Life is mesmerizing to watch play out. The main difference, of course, is that while in Life the goal is to preserve life as long as possible, in Chain of Fire it's the opposite.

Little Wheel is a wonderfully-illustrated puzzle game starring a robot in a city where the power is out and everything is broken and needs repairing. The levels are cast in shadow against a slick sunset background that suits the game's collection of machines perfectly. Little Wheel is also one of the only flash games I've played with a soundtrack that didn't drive me nuts after 30 seconds. Sure, the fun, jazzy music does get repetitive, but it's good enough to leave on for a little while. The sound effects are great, too.

A little while is probably all you'll need to beat Little Wheel. It's a pretty game, but the puzzles are a little easier than I'd like. Wanton pointing and clicking can get you through some levels, but it's worth playing each level just to see what the machines do. I wish it were longer and more complex, but Little Wheel looks and sounds better than most of the casual puzzle games out there.

Here's another physics-based time waster. In Roly-poly Cannon your job is to kill all the cute little Roly-polies, using as few exploding cannonballs as you can. The levels include exploding TNT barrels, moveable objects, and various materials like wood, rock, ice, and metal.

This one is on the brain-dead side as far as physics puzzle games go. If you get frustrated, just start shooting a stream of cannonballs, and in all likelihood you will succeed. Interestingly, it seems that if you shoot enough cannonballs unsuccessfully, you will be mercifully taken to the next level. This one is perfect for when you're up late at night and you don't know why but you can't or don't feel like going to bed but you can't really think anymore and everything's just getting to you and nothing's going your way and you just want to do something mindless and killing cute little characters makes you feel powerful in your pathetic and meaningless dreary existence. Or is that just me?

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

Twitter has a lot of untapped potential in the world of play. A fast, nimble social network could spawn all kinds of cool games, but I don't think it's there yet. Spymaster, a new game that quickly flew up the ranks of Twitter's trending topics this week, lets you play spy and assassinate your Twitter friends, but for those of us who aren't playing, the notifications for it are pretty annoying.

You may have already received DMs from your friends asking you to join their spy rings, or seen level up announcements and assassination attempts posted under the #spymaster hashtag. There's a way to turn the announcements off, but most people apparently haven't found it yet. As for the game itself, you score points and gain power based on the number of people in your Twitter network who are also on Spymaster, and by completing missions or attacking other players.

Spymaster is in private beta right now, but if my Twitter list is any indication, it's not that hard to get in.

Typically, when you're playing a game where the object is to keep the board from filling up with pieces, it's vertical.

Being used to Tetris and all its variants, it took me a second to adjust to Gridshock, a game where you match and eliminate colored lights on a horizontal playing field. It's an easy game to get the hang of, but the lights pile up faster as the levels go on, and it's tough to avoid getting overwhelmed.

As in Tetris, you only get one color to work with at a time. Your job is to decide where to put it for maximum board-clearing effect. Any combo of 3 or 4 matching pieces will disappear, and they can be connected horizontally, vertically, or an L-shaped combination of the two.

A meter on the side that shows you when more lights are going to be unceremoniously dumped into your grid, but there's hardly time to pay attention to it.

Got the Google Earth browser plugin installed? Ever looked at Google Earth and had the burning desire to navigate the landscape by boat or blimp? Well, now you can!

I know, I know. It's really not that exciting as a game. As a glimpse into the near future, though, Ships is undeniably cool. There's also something strangely addictive about tooling around the amalgamation of satellite imagery and 3D rendered buildings.

That's my airship, tooling around downtown Cleveland, searching for a pro sports championship.

For seafaring types, you can choose from barges, cruise, and container ships and peacefully putter along the world's waterways. A cruise ship floating in the middle of Lake Eerie? Sure, why not? That site is at least as believable as the Browns winning the Super Bowl, after all.

Who knows - maybe one day games like this will progress from some kind of Open Arena - Google Earth mashup.

I absolutely love head-scratching puzzle games, and Minim fits the bill. Gameplay is simple: you match connected molecules by number, making them disappear until you clear the board. The levels themselves are not so simple. Once you make it past the basic learning-the-ropes intro levels, you'll find your rotating the board and resetting the puzzle, trying to find the one move that will unravel the whole thing.

As the game progresses, new twists appear in the game. There are blue connections that let you swap adjacent molecules, addition and subtraction molecules that change the numbers on the board, and other monkey wrenches that generally make the puzzle harder. Minim may require minimal skill to play, but it requires some creativity to beat.

Spewer is a platform game -- think Mario -- with a twist. Instead of playing a super-powered plumber, you're a little pink lab experiment called Spewer, with powers of its own.You can run and jump, like you would expect, but your special power is about as gross as anything Mario ever found in the sewer. That's right: you puke.

In order to pass levels and avoid obstacles, you can use a combination of running, jumping, and filling entire rooms with your own vomit so you can swim to victory. The thing, you have a limited amount of the yucky stuff, and you have to suck it back to get the highest score, and to reuse it at different parts of the harder levels. The concept isn't for the easily-grossed-out, but the game is fun and easy to get the hang of, and Spewer's actually sort of a cute little guy in his own way.

If you fondly remember the days before video games when kids went outside to play with whatever was around, you might enjoy Card Toss. It's a well designed, easy to use virtual version of tossing cards into a hat.

You have to adjust for things like wind speed and direction and the distance of the hat from you is constantly changing. It's not extremely difficult, but it does take a few rounds to really master the technique. Once I had the flick or my virtual wrist down pat I enjoyed several rounds of the game.

It's quick and easy to play and good for when you need a break but you don't have time to get really involved in a game.

Thanks to TheLinx!

Catalyst is a web-based shooting game with elements of Bejeweled-style color matching. You play a little color-changing ship that destroys molecules of its own color and steals the color of a molecule that doesn't match. As the enemies keep stacking up, you have to change colors rapidly to clear them out.

Although it's a simple premise, Catalyst is a good time waster because it requires quick hands and quick thinking. You get a higher score if you can manage to get a bunch of matching molecules lined up in a row and take them all out at once, but if there's a different one behind them, you'll wind up with its color. Not to mention that there are some wild-card pieces that appear later on in the game that can slow down the flow of enemies, destroy everything behind them, or randomize colors.

Web-based games have come a long way over the years, and Scarygirl is better than most platform adventures you'll find on a console or desktop. Based on comic by Nathan Jurevicius, this game really feels like you're playing inside a comic or a cartoon. The art is phenomenal, the controls are easy to learn, and the level designs are a lot of fun. You play the title character, Scarygirl, as she attempts to locate a man who appears in her mysterious dreams.

You get help and clues from animal characters like Bunniguri and Blister (who is a giant octopus), as you proceed through treehouses, eel-infested water, caves and other fun levels, completing various mini-tasks as you go. Scarygirl is entirely free to play online, and you can register to save your game. You're going to want to do that, because Scarygirl's world is so gorgeous that you won't want to leave. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bicycle to assemble in level 3.