Star Wars Pit Droids! 

Hear me out on this one.

Star Wars Pit Droids! is a kids game based on the widely panned pod-racing segments from Episode I. If this game was produced by serial rapists, it could not have any less going for it. You’d be excused for passing it over.

Against all odds, buried beneath a vile exterior, some designer at Lucas Learning put together a decent Lemmings clone. Read more »

The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain 

Quick, name the best edutainment game.

No, not The Oregon Trail again. Think harder.

The game you just thought about probably taught a single subject really, really well. Classics like Carmen Sandiego, Math Blaster, or even (god forbid) Mario’s Time Machine all focused on a single topic  – geography, math, history, etc. – and drove it into children’s skulls with the forcefulness of a car salesman, hoping they’d absorb even a glimmer about life in ancient Peru.

The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain is a little more ambitious if generalized in scope. It tackles the subject of brain functions, trying to expand players’ minds in comprehension, logic, spatial cognition, and linguistics. Not only does it work, it’s fun, and I had just as good of a time playing it as a twentysomething as I did as a hyperactive kid. Read more »

Ladder Man 

ex·cru·ci·at·ing /ikˈskro͞oSHēˌātiNG
1. Intensely painful.
2. Mentally agonizing; very embarrassing, awkward, or tedious

Example:
Ladder Man has an original idea, but it’s so painfully slow to play that it is excruciating. Read more »

Tubes 

Anyone remember Klax? In the age of Tetris clones, Klax stood out with its unique tile-dropping gameplay. Like all successful games, copies were inevitable. Enter Tubes.

Despite the upgraded aesthetics, Tubes plays nearly identically to its inspirational source. The wave system and the pacing are lifted directly. The game of course provides a few tweaks – extra difficulties and a new mode being the most significant – but little else shakes it from feeling like a knockoff. That is, unless you count the special pieces. Read more »