Lunch Time Game Time

I work in an office. Granted, it's not your typical office with a steno pool and men wearing suits and whatnot but it's still an office. One of the benefits of working in an office is that you get about 30 minutes every work day during which it is acceptable to eat food and/or surf the internet. We call this daily ritual "the Lunch Hour."

[Why the average Lunch Hour is only 30 minutes long is a mystery to me. I can only guess that it's some sort of cosmic balance for the fact that "Happy Hour" runs from 5-7.]

Not surprisingly, I like to spend at least some of my lunch hour looking at non-work-related websites. However, there's only so many times one can check one's personal webmail, and I've refined my webcomic reading down to about a half-dozen that I look at regularly. This often leaves me with anywhere from 15-20 minutes left in the hour and nothing to click.

That's why I was delighted to find Jay Bibby's site. "jay is games" is a regularly updated blog that reviews mostly Flash-based web games. Some are ports or remixes of classic arcade games, while others are completely new creations. Either category of game makes for an entertaining 20-30 minutes, but I find myself drawn more and more to the new stuff.

Take "Ray Ray Parade" for example, a simple puzzle game in which the "pieces" are cartoon schoolboys that look like the offspring of Chairman Mao and a Precious Moments figurine. The basic concept is simple, click on any one of the li'l commies and he'll stand up. If any of his immediate neighbors are crouching, they'll stand up too; if those comrades are already standing, however, they'll crouch back down. Get all of them standing at once and they'll flash their tummies at you and scamper off the screen. You're graded based on how many clicks it takes you to get through 5 levels. (The best I've done so far is a "B.")

Jay's site is, quite literally, a treasure trove. I suspect I'll be able to occupy my lunch hours for at least the rest of 2005 just digging through the archives. Check it out during lunch if you work in an office with computers and not too many rules about the Internet.

[Edit: Thanks, Jay, for helping me fix my links!]