World 2-42: DuckLife2: World Champion

DuckLife2: World Champion
http://www.kongregate.com/games/sims5000/ducklife2-world-champion

This is the second installation in the duck training sim series by sims5000. Basically, your goal is to make the meanest, baddest, most leanest duck the world ever did see (and of course, pit him against other mean ducks). You can accomplish this goal by working on four different aspects of your duck: Climbing, Flying, Swimming, and Running. To improve each skill, you are given a minigame to play, and depending on your own performance during the minigame, your duck will gain points towards that skill. You can also collect coins inside the minigames, which you can use to improve the energy of your duck (to ensure that he has enough stamina to last through the entire race). Once you feel your duck is strong enough, you can start racing!

Each race takes place in one of five countries, starting with Scotland. You begin with a cliff jumping race, which will test your swimming skill, and must be completed (along with the secondary rock climbing race) before attempting the area final. For completing each race, you are awarded cash and things like paint which is used to alter the colour of your duck. After completing an area race (which combines all of the elements you've been working to improve), you are awarded money, paint, and even hats to decorate your duck with.

If you're looking for a way to feel better about doing nothing today, I highly recommend DuckLife2: World Champion. As an added bonus, you can turn off the music and listen to this while you play:

World 2-41: Sierra 7

Sierra 7

http://www.kongregate.com/games/simonhason/sierra-7

Usually I wouldn't pick a FPS game unless somebody told me I'd really like it, but I stumbled across this one, which was featured as the badge of the day, so I thought I'd give it a chance. It actually turned out to be pretty good! It was short and sweet, taking me about 35 minutes to complete. 

Overall, I appreciated that Sierra 7 had lots of serious features, such as proper gun names and locations by geographical coordinate. The colour scheme was completely black and white, with red thrown in for blood splatter. It looked very sharp, and added to the intensity of the game. I also really liked the voice over, which gave the perfect amount of guidance without droning on.

World 2-40: Space is Key

Space is Key
http://www.kongregate.com/games/Slasher145/space-is-key

This game reminded me a lot of The Impossible Game on Xbox Live, but rather toned down. Basically you control a square, and the only objective in the game is to jump over and through the gaps at the correct time. In order to keep things fresh, the timing gets changed up at regular intervals; just when you think you've adjusted, the timing is changed with the addition of a speed upgrade, followed by a jump upgrade which actually reverts your speed to the base speed you started at. 

While it only took me 11 minutes to complete this game (and 407 deaths), I found it lightly entertaining. It was also less frustrating than I expected it to be. While Space is Key is nothing spectacular, the bright colours and simple contrast, along with the decent and catchy music, made this game worth the 11 minutes.

January 2013 update: Played the game again to verify my earlier review, and ended up with this score in 8 minutes:

World 2-39: Bullet Heaven

Bullet Heaven
http://www.kongregate.com/games/kupo707/bullet-heaven

I really enjoyed this game. It was fairly long, as most shooters like this one tend to be - mostly because as the levels progress; you become too weak to move forward without grinding at some of the earlier stages for spare cash to upgrade your weapons and defense. But such is the genre.

I enjoyed Bullet Heaven because it had decent graphics - nothing looked muddy or blurry, the music was catchy but not obnoxious (I didn't even mute it - that's saying something), and the upgrades were simple yet effective. The enemies were fairly creative in their attack patterns, and as with most shooters that came out around this time, the bosses were ridiculously overdone in their attacks. The screen is literally filled with bullets at every second of the fight, and even though in this particular game your hit box is just one pixel, it's still a rather hefty task to take on. I find it adds to the excitement, and it's an awesome feeling when you manage to pull off a huge maneuver without taking so much as a single strike.

Overall, I'd give Bullet Heaven:

(Oh, and in case you're wondering: No, I didn't use the cheats. And it was in fact a very hard game to complete).