My favorite part of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" came when they figured out the paradoxes of time travel and, simply by saying "Must remember to bring a trash can!" one appears in Ted's hands and he stuffs it over a bad guy's head.

Not that you can do any of that in "Chronotron," but the idea is the same, think in the present, giving orders to yourself in the past. Sort of. In Chronotron, the idea is to Clone multiple versions of yourself, using a time machine, to get through a puzzle level. The catch — all past versions will spawn and recreate your actions, so you need to think in chronological order for each step of the puzzle, and leave enough time for your final self to get through the gates and ride the risers to your objective.

It's a hell of a fun flash game — my co-worker showed it to me yesterday, so I can vouch for its productivity killing effect.

Chronotron [Addicting Games]

It's a Saturday, I'm jetlagged, and the internet seems to be blazing with news of nothing but Diablo III; perfect time for a light and cute flash timewaster. This one is called Bowja the Ninja 2, a point and click puzzler that's nicely illustrated and oh-so-cute. Not terribly challenging, but a good thing to spend a bit with on a lazy Saturday.

Bowja the Ninja 2: In Bigman's Compound [Pencilkids via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

The Making Of Puzzle Farter

You may remember our link regurgitation of Puzzle Farter last week, Pet Tomato's debut platformer featuring a farting mechanic that really resonates. Mike Nowak of The-Inbetween, whom we regularly check in with for interesting things, briefly interviewed half the Puzzle Farter team, providing great insight into the Flash-based freebie.

It touches on all manner of interesting topics, such as character design challenges ("We go to the bar.") and plans for the future ("...the next version will also allow people to create and submit levels.") that Puzzle Farter fans will find rewarding. If not, maybe you'll just give the game another go or for the very first time.

Inside ‘Puzzle Farter’ [The-InBetween]

Lately we are seeing more and more online flash games making the leap to consoles and handhelds. The newest addition to that roster is N+, an updated version of a little Ninja action/platformer game called N that took the interwebs by storm last year. The gameplay is simple and addicting. Guide your stealthy Ninja through mazes of obstacles, grabbing gold along the way until you eventually make your way to the exit. Now, Developer Silverbirch Studios is set to bring the title to the PSP and DS with new levels and new game modes.

There will be a total of three hundred and fifty levels exclusive to each platform: two hundred single player, one hundred "co-op" and fifty "versus." Players will be able to download new levels from the N server as well as show off their design prowess with a level editor. In a rare treat on the DS, player designed levels will be able to be shared with friends free from the ties of the cumbersome Nintendo friend code system. Levels will also be able to be previewed before download so you know what you're getting yourself into. Due to space limitations, the DS version will only be able to hold up to eight downloaded levels at a time, but the PSP version will be able to hold as many as your memory stick will allow. There are plenty of unlockables available to access during the game as well such as game skins, level packs, new gold goals and special music tracks. Speaking of music, all the soundtrack for the game has been created by "chip tune" artists using old consoles to orchestrate the tunes.

Pet Tomato's debut indie game Puzzle Farter is as high brow as you probably suspect it is. And if you're still amused by the sound of passing wind as we are, you'll probably find it endlessly amusing, even if the gameplay is rather straightforward. There's not much puzzling to be done, but the farting comes through in spades. No, there's no music and Puzzle Farter is more of a platformer than it is a traditional puzzle game—it's more like N with ninja-strength gas—so I guess we're both guilty of misleading titles.

Puzzle Farter [via del.icio.us]

The Life Love Game Design Challenge named its winners today. The Flash game design challenge sponsored by Jennifer Ann's Group asked developers to come up with games about teen dating violence prevention without using violent content or a violent theme.

The $1,000 winning design "Escape Your Boyfriend's Room" by Jorge Goyco is an interesting point and click game that manages to get both the warning signs of an abusive relationship across as well as how you can get yourself out of the relationship. I loved the look of the game and its approach to the subject matter really impressed me.

The first runner up $100 prize was handed out to "A Walk in the Park by Jared Sain." I loved the look of the game. My only suggestion is that maybe the game could do a better job of explaining how to get out of an abusive relationship. The final $100 runner-up was "Decisions, Decisions by Mark Kakareka"

While I have enough work to kill an ox this weekend, I took some time last night to play with this delightfully silly side-scrolling WoW sendup. Here's one introduction to a quest: "Now that you've begun to get the hang of that most fundamental of skills - killing shit - and started to properly become a bit more class conscious, we can tackle a slightly more disturbing problem." Karl Marx even makes an appearance (never mind the Mario appearance pictured above). It's worth checking out if you've got some extra time to waste this holiday (in the US) weekend.

WTF?! [via Grand Text Auto]

Consoles Are Dead, Long Live the PC?

Wild Tangent's CEO, Alex St. John, made some 'brazen' claims at the ION keynote — one of the boldest being that console gaming is dead and the PC is looking towards a renaissance. It should be noted that St. John has blabbered about this before, so he's just retreading previous ground:

Beginning one of several brazen claims in his keynote, St. John spoke of the death of video game consoles: “Nobody needs a console when a game's value and DRM is defined by community or an input device. Consoles just serve to keep you from playing a game you didn't pay for.”

He asked, “What's Sony and Microsoft's motivation to make another console? It's been so rocky, and it's not about the pretty graphics anymore.” According to St. John, spectacular graphics have become a commodity, and not the platform for games to differentiate themselves. “The Wii is the exception that proves the rule — it's not about the graphics, it's about the input device.

He went on to talk about advertising models and targeting the right audience — but his statements on the console vs. PC pack the most punch.

WildTangent's St. John Declares Consoles Dead, Claims PC Renaissance [Gamasutra]

I don't have time to waste this weekend, sadly, but if you do, there's a challenging little puzzler called Putty Puzzler, found over on the interestingly named 'Coke and Code.' It's putty. It's a puzzle. It's kinda hard. I spent a little bit of time with it and was pleasantly challenged — I'll come back for more after I've got a little time to waste.

Putty Puzzler [Coke and Code via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

I really love the too cute for words Grow games — nothing complicated, but cute and fun to play. There's a new game from the same creator — while not a grow game, it's a cute and quick little puzzle. And if you haven't experienced such classics as Grow Island, there's even more to go and click.

Meet In ver.0 [Eyezmaze]

Interview With Kian Bashiri (You Have To Burn The Rope)

Told you we'd have another Hot Flash. And here's a sweet one right in your hot little hands: Compulse, which excels as only a flash game can: stupid-simple premise, a thought-provoking challenge, addictive replay and best of all, entrancing Asian-theme music. Best of all, it will save your progress (specific to your IP address). And when you start, it tells you "A game has been created in your honour." It's like being pampered at a gamer's day spa.

Compulse [jmtb02 Studios]

Remember the hand-holding satire "You Have to Burn the Rope" from last week? If the game play was a little ... unsophisticated, then at least the soundtrack got a solid thumbs up from the peanut gallery here. "It's like Still Alive epic!" said commenter Bokusatsu_Tenshi. t0yrobo called it "better than the Portal song."

Well, now it's online under creative commons license, which means you can do as you please with it. There are three tracks: "Cave," "Lethal Intro" and "Busta Buss." If anyone cuts a ringtone from any of these, let me know.

(Also, this is not the Flash Game Cookie Break. There will be a regular one of those later on.)

You Have to Burn the Rope - Behind the Music[Reachground]

The Last Canopy Wins Casual Gameplay Contest

JayisGames announced the winner of the Casual Gameplay Design Competition, number five, with more than $10,000 in cash and prizes handed out to indie Flash game developers.

Top of the heap was The Last Canopy, a shump which makes up for sketchy art direction with addictive play and the ability to absorb an enemies attack.

HIt the jump for the full list of winners and make sure to visit Jay Is to check out the games.

And the Winner Is... [JayIsGames]

Teen Dating Violence Design Challenge Extended

The deadline for the Life Love Game Design Challenge, which we first announced back in February, has been extended by a month.

The new deadline for the Flash game design contest, which challenges designers to create a game about teen dating violence prevention without violent content or a violent theme, is May 15.

First prize is $1,000 and judges, besides myself, include Simon Carless, director of the Independent Games Festival; Stephen Totilo, of MTV and huge brain fame, Dr. Ian Bogost, Ph.D., co-founder, Persuasive Games, and Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, a psychologist, Texas Psychological Association Board member, and my mom.

2008 Game Contest [Life. Love.]

Sure, it may borrow wholesale from Independent Games Festival finalist Crayon Physics by Petri Purho, but Magic Pen is much more multi-platform friendly, requiring but a short download via your web browser of choice. Perfect for those of us not willing to walk from our Macs to our Windows boxes. You'll draw primitive shapes—circles, triangles and rectangles—as well as pins, hinges and swing-arms to move a red ball to each level's flags. It's fun and physics accurate and has a very soothing looping guitar ditty.

Magic Pen [Fizzlebot via Jay Is Games]

OK, time for a flash-game cookie break! Know what I like about this one? Even though you get the joke, even though you follow the instructions, even though you do it right with complete and total hand-holding the first time ...

You're still proud of yourself for figuring it out.

Someone stick a walkthrough on Gamefaqs, please. I'm busy posting.

You Have to Burn the Rope

Flash game coders have a shot at some loot and a developer gig in a contest UGOPlayer.com is running beginning April 8. So if you think you've got the next killer office time waster, it could net up to a $5,000 first-place prize and, potentially, a job writing games.

For those of us who don't know how to program, the monthlong UGOPlayer.com Online Game Fest is another useful site for goofing off at work.