Minecraft

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Now nearly 6 years old, Minecraft is still the most popular game watched on YouTube.  Originally developed by Markus “Notch” Persson in 2009, this sandbox game was recently acquired by Microsoft for $2.5B.

As one of the most innovative games of the decade, Minecraft gained a large user base in a short time due to its innovative crafting mechanics and customizability.Yes, the game looks like it was made in the 90’s for children, but it’s actually more complex than you would think. There are two basic ways to play this game:survive against monsters and other players or freely build whatever you want.The environment is completely made of 3D cubes that you can break and place.

You could think of this game as an open-ended RPG, where players can mine resources to upgrade weapons and armor, farm for food, take out enemies for new items, raid other players for their loot, and so much more. The Minecraft community is always releasing new maps, mods, texture packs, skins, and tools that allow players to customize their game and add other game modes such as Hunger Games, Capture the Flag, and mini games like in Mario Party.

Since there are so many ways to play, the replay factor is amazing. Did you know that each world you create is uniquely generated, spanning hundreds of thousands of blocks wide? Although the game is available on consoles, PCs and mobile devices, you can play Minecraft free from your browser without having to install anything besides Java.

Wolfenstein 3D

Wolfenstein 3D honored its 23rd birthday just last month, and their developers at ID Software allowed all episodes to be played for free. You can play them all from your browser and the game only requires a few keyboard keys to play.

You’ll start off trapped in Castle Wolfenstein where you will attempt to escape and take out all of the Nazis before they dominate the world. In the first level, players must take down annoying guards in order to escape the solitary dungeons. The game takes a swerve in the next level and suddenly you’re fighting against mutated corpses made by a mad scientist. In the final level, players are forced to demolish the main bunker and take out the boss, who has striking similarities with Hitler, plusa futuristic combat suit and machine guns.

Often cited as one of the defining games of the FPS genre, Wolfenstein 3D has a fast pace and a ton of action in a near 3D environment. A lot of people still refer to Doom as the game that made FPS, but it came out a year after Wolfenstein 3D and is debatable. Yes, the game might be 23 years old, but it’s still a very fun and addicting game that lets you blast your way through guards, canines, and a bunch of other enemies with a variety of weapons that become available as the game progresses. For the hardcore gamers, you could even hunt for Easter eggs such as secret areas filled with extra Nazi-slaying goodies.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Text-based adventures have existed since the beginning of PC gaming, but The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an old favorite of many old-school gamers and certainly deserves a spot here. The game was launched in 1984 by Infocom’s Douglas Adams, who did not anticipate its rise to popularity until it sold 350,000 copies.

In the most recent update, the game features a fresh interface with a new HTML5 build along with many other innovative features. For example, there’s an “Any” key and a Twitter account that sends tweets as a response to player activity. As a retro game, it is definitely not easy to play as there are so many ways to die. Not to worry though, there is a save feature so you won’t have too much trouble. The most interesting part is how the game tries to kill you, and most of them will have you laughing out loud.

The only downside to this game is that you will require a BBCiD, which you will need to create on the official BBC website. Once logged in, you’ll have access to achievements, new graphics that bring more life into the game and a sleek inventory to help you organize your items and gear. Another great feature in the revamped version is the compass and directional keys, which makes it easier to navigate since you won’t have to constantly type in the directions in order to move.

Spelunky

As the game’s title might suggest,Spelunkyinvolves a lot of spelunking, also known as cave exploration. The main goal of the game is to explore the caves and collect as much loot as possible to get a high score. As you go deeper into the caves, you’ll find a wild combination of deadly traps and explosives, but also great opportunites to find shops to recover hit points and ammunition. An annoying but addicting feature of this game is that if you die, you’ll start at the very beginning, with one exception. On each death a new level is generated, allowing you to play through a fresh, unique cave, which boosts the game’s replay factor.

Spelunky is also available on the mainstream consoles, as well as Steam for PCs. However, there is no need to install any software on your PC to play, as a new HTML5 version was released. The best part is that this version is lightweight and won’t eat up all your PC’s resources. Now you can now experience awkwardly placed booby traps and exploding reptiles conveniently from your web browser.

Superhotline Miami

What would happen if you mixed together the up-down shooting gameplay of Hotline Miami with Superhot’s slow-motion style? You would get a small indie game that you can instantly play.

The gameplay involves the standard FPS controls like the WASD keys and a mouse to move your character around small places to wipe out a bunch of enemies. The most interesting part of this game is that when you stand still, time moves very slowly. However, when you move the character, time would be restored back to its normal speed. Well, what would be the point of moving then? There’s not enough ammo for you to go Rambo against the bad guys, so you’d need to constantly wipe them out and pick up spare ammo that they drop. This means that the player would need to dodge bullets and shoot opponents at the same time. If you move too fast, it will be near impossible to avoid the barrage of bullets, and if you move too slowly, you won’t have enough firepower.

There are a total of six levels that continually get more challenging as enemies get better weapons. For example, shotguns will send a spray of shrapnel that spreads out in a weird pattern that makes it hard to avoid. Although it will be irritating at times, Superhotline Miami is definitely a worthy way to kill time.