Beep beep boop

I've really liked a few of the games Jay Is Games has reviewed recently. They're easy to get into, quick to play, and satisfying to finish, plums of the video game world.

• Super Serif Brothers is an excellent ASCII-based platformer. It looks like Nethack, plays like Lode Runner. It starts out very simple, with training levels, but becomes surprisingly deep quickly. And if you want to create a new level, you just type it in! Use the arrow keys to collect all the £'s, which will make the exit (e) open (E). Part of the fun is figuring out what all the characters do; they interact in fascinating ways, and are amazingly flexible tools for level design.


• Dice Wars is like stripped-down Risk. Roll all the dice in your territory against all the dice in an adjacent enemy territory, and beat their roll to move your dice in (leaving one behind in your starting region). Get a new die for every contiguous territory you have in your largest connected region at the end of your turn. Pretty easy to master, but fun getting there. You're always purple.


• Uchuwars is an insanely addictive old-style top-scrolling shoot-em-up, a lot like Xevious. Collect powerups to boost your lasers; bombs destroy everything on the screen (including enemy shots); click the rectangles on the splash screen to start at the highest level (and powerup level) you've reached.


• On the homepage of Uchuwars is the Babarageo STG Banner, an absolutely adorable 15-pixel-tall (more or less) side-scrolling shooter. Move and fire with your mouse. Every thousand points, the illustration below the banner changes; find and click the hot spots for ship upgrades.