Straw Hat Samurai is a freeware flash browser game with both arcade and RPG elements. You use the mouse to direct the eponymous Straw Hat Samurai using slashes of the mouse cursor to deliver rapid slashing killing blows to your enemies. As you progress you can also find other weapons such as a bow and arrow, and encounter increasingly varied enemies.
Not to be mistaken for Penny Arcade’s carbdoard tube samurai 
Space invaders, the absolute grandaddy of all video games, can now be played online, courtesy of spaceinvaders.de
Some history:
Space Invaders was designed and programmed by Toshihiro Nishikado for Taito, Japan in 1978 and remains one of the most popular arcade games ever made.
Space Invaders was originally going to be called something completely different as the aliens were originally soldiers which you had to shoot down. They decided that it was politically unwise to encourage killing humans so changed the people into aliens.
The game was licensed from Taito by Midway for production in the US. In 1980, the game was licensed by Atari for the 2600 game system and was the first arcade game ever adapted for Atari’s home system. The Space Invaders franchise has flourished for more than 20 years and according to Taito, the game has generated more than $500 million in revenues over multiple platforms including coin-op, the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo. It was based on a 8080 CPU, had muffled analog audio, and simulated color by putting a transparent overlay on top of a monochrome display.
Space Invaders was the first arcade game before Pinball Machines and Slots came along to work its way out of seedy conservative adults who were certain the games soured the minds of their youngsters. Residents of Mesquite, Texas pushed the issue all the way to the Supreme Court in their efforts to ban the illicit machines from their Bible-belt community. The game was so amazingly popular in Japan that it caused a coin shortage until the country’s Yen supply was quadrupled. Entire arcades were opened in Japan specifically for this game. Space Inavders was released in Japan for the Super Famicom, to my knowledge its the same thing as Space Invaders for Super Gameboy. Many incidents of juvenile crime surrounded the release of this game. A girl was caught stealing $5000 from her parents and gangs of youths were reported to have robbed grocery stores just so they would have money to play the game.
Space Invaders was followed by several sequels as Space Invaders – Part II, Space Invaders Deluxe, Super Space Invaders 91 (Super Space Invaders has also another name… Majestic Twelve Space Invaders Part IV. Everything is the same as in SSI ’91 except for the title screen. It was released in the US and Japan under this name, and SSI ’91 was only released in Japan under as SSI ’91), Space Invaders DX followed up in 1993 (a modern and 100 percent faithful JAMMA version of Taito’s classic Space Invaders, but with a twist. There are several different games available to choose from: the upright and cocktail versions of the original plus the “colour overlay” versions) and in 1999 Space Invaders attacked once again from Activision.
Here’s a fairly amazing demo from Alternativa 3d showing their 3d in-a browser technology. The nicest thing about it is it runs via flash, straight on your browser without having to muck around installing programs or plugins.
While I don’t enjoy the idea that gimmicky flash websites might become even more gimmicky, the possibilities are, like they say, endless.
Nanaca Crash is a cute little flash game where you control a girl who crashes into her schoolmate with her bicycle and sends him flying into the air. You control the initial angle and force of the impact and as the unfortunate flies through the air and bounces off the ground he can come into contact with several other characters who will either stop him (Ending the game) or propel him further with a variety of strikes and punches that can be affected by timed clicks of the mouse. Additionally you can use the title character, Nanaca to teleport in and crash into him again propelling him even further forward or strategically pushing him into other characters that will trigger bonuses.
It’s really quite addictive and the music is catchy as hell.
The original creator’s site is here but you can play a local mirror of the game here (If you save the file to your hard drive you can save your high scores more permanently)
A cool little offbeat game in the spirit of Metal Slug, it’s CANNON CROTCH! versus Hitler. Fun!
Faith Fighter, from Molle Industria is a cool little funny fighting game where you can control your deity of choice: Jesus, God, Buddha, Ghanesh, Vishnu and even Mohammed, though you’re given an option to hide his face (Don’t think that’s going to save you guys if the fundies get a hold of this, but at least you tried).
And if you get to the end, your fighter gets to oppose the great lord Xenu in hand to hand combat!
A clever little parody flash game from atom films, Kung Fu Election
pits all the candidates of the upcoming (US) election in Mortal Kombat style deathmatch fighting.
MazeFrenzy.com – Online Maze Game
This is a cool flash based test of your steady hands as you have to guide a red dot through a moving maze in order to reach the end without touching the sides. It’s trickier than it looks at first!!
This is a flash based browser game where you’re supposed to move the floor, made of changing tiles with various effects to catch a bouncing ball and stop it from falling through to the hole below. A clever twist on an old concept.
Travian – Browser Game – Romans, Gauls, & Teutons
Travian is a browser game with a world full of thousands of users who all begin as the leaders of small villages.
 Here is how it plays out |
 Your village could look like this later |
At the start, you have only a small village with a single building.
You will find out how you upgrade your village to become a powerful and flourishing city.
The game plays directly from the browser without any downloads, and is a live persistent world with thousands of active players . Give it a try!
