I've actually spent some reasonable time over the last 13-14 years playing online flash games at this website. Having witnessed it grow and improve over the same period, it occurred to me to write something about the same. So, this is what I have to say.
ABOUT MINICLIP
This website is mainly headquartered at Neuchatel, Switzerland although it has centers spread across several countries. Founded in 2001, by Rob Small (a game enthusiast) and Tihan Presbie (an entrepreneur), it proved to be a successful venture now being a recognized frontrunner in producing its own games, publishing games and distributing games (their own and others').
Now it attracts investment from a lot of gaming leaders in the games entertainment industry like 'Tencent'. It has over 45 mobile games of its own and over 1000 online games. It provides a good Platform to independent game developers to focus only on the game development while Miniclip focuses on distribution and giving it an audience. It also offers independent game developers to focus only on the core game development, offering its own attractive solutions for commonalities like ranking, high scores etc.
LAYOUT OF THE WEBSITE & FEATURES
One could play as a guest at the website or sign up to get additional membership privileges like having your own avatar, registered highlighted high scores, rankings and awards.
One also has the common social networking fad of 'favouriting' games for easy accessibility. There is also an activity log synonymous to timeline on social networking sites.
The games are nicely categorized based on type for the benefit of the users like racing, puzzle, action etc. There are various other categorizations like 'Top 100 Games', 'IOS Games', 'Android Games' etc also highlighting its linkup with partners if applicable.
To start playing a game, one just has to click on one and follow instructions if given or just feel your way through it using your keyboard. Generally, some basic instructions are always available if one chooses to avail the same.
SOME LIKEABLE GAMES
There are many. Hundreds or thousands! But to name a few I quite liked.
Anagram Magic:This one basically pertains to forming words with letters at your disposal with different weightage allotted to the same. 2 rounds each of you selecting letters and 2 rounds of letters being given to you by the other player. And the last round is a bonus round where you have to compulsorily form a 9 letter word with all letters.
It has commonalities with 'Scrabble', 'Words with Friends' except that one has to do it within a period and no maze or horizontal / vertical lines have to be formed. Not really about your vocabulary. Of course that helps, but essentially about maximizing unraveling of things. Kind of depends on your state of mind.
Table Tennis Tournament: This is a 4 round tournament of ping pong with 16 players (something like top seeds).:D Objective is to figure out opponents, keep sight of your own strengths and win the tournament. Your victories are celebrated at the end and your records documented. Nice little game with both action and strategy.
Golf Ace: Like the name suggests, this one's about playing golf with a partner of your choice. One has the option of fast forwarding through opponent's moves to save time if one wishes to. It's a normal grassy golf course with trees, vegetation, lakes and sandy bunkers in between.
The aim is to select the right golf club which decides the base distance coverable. Then, one just has to take into account the general direction of his shot, the power, the wind direction and the wind speed before aiming for the hole. Not without considering the environment though. Your powerful and terrific shots are well received and are duly categorized.
Happy golfing! Eagles and birdies if you do things really well!;)
Golf Ace Hawaii: This is similar to the above game in terms of how one has to aim for the holes. But the terrain is different. Hawaii like setting with lots of coconut trees and a different golf course with different water bodies. Slightly more cluttered than the previous golf terrain in 'Golf Ace'. Different partners too. But nice all the same.
Soccer Champ: This one is basically about international soccer. One can play a one off friendly match or a world cup tournament. One has to select one's team at the start. And an opponent team if one is playing a one off match. If it's a tournament, one works one's way through a the group stage, round of 16, quarters etc till the world cup is yours! The usual drill.
One has to control a team of players or a single player depending on need and situation to win matches and tournaments. One has to have one's own strategy and then also adapt to opposition team's strategy if applicable although mostly, a general strategy works. No real strategy could also work, depends on mood and need.
Tanks 3D: This is exactly what it sounds like. One has to travel through a given terrain in each round with your tank and aim for designated objects with basic aim being to take down necessary objects and wipe out the opposition where necessary. All this without losing your life in given scenarios where you may have to take down one or more at a time. Sort of like a series of cowboy duels, just with tanks. Noisy, but good action game to while away time.
Cricket Defend The Wicket! This is kind of strange. But nice. This is about protecting the batsman's stumps in a game of cricket, except it's not really cricket. While defending one's stumps, one also has to hit the ball in a certain way, in a certain direction and speed to achieve points or runs. So, one has to maximize the points scoring while defending the stumps in a closed environment where there's no bowler. The ball rebounds off the wall and comes at the wicket with only the batsman to protect it. The real challenge here is that the limbs of the batsman you are controlling are too flexible. He's like jelly, as if he has no bones. So, its about making him successfully defend the wicket. Good luck doing so.:)
Monkey Kick Off: This is one of the simplest games out there. Yet it has its appeal. There's a monkey and he or she has to kick a coconut like ball as far as possible. The distance covered matters here. The only strategy is to time the kick properly and to estimate whether one wants to go for more height or a flat kick with less bounces. During the course of its travel, the ball travels woods, villages, forest with various environments. Interesting to watch!
Flip Diving: This is one of the latest ones out there, reaching good levels of popularity too. It's about different kinds of diving from different heights with different divers. One has to collect coins too while doing so. Upon collecting enough coins, one has the option of adding some new feature to his / her repertoire. Like a different kind of dive, diver or environment. Also, on completing each round in a given environment the space in water within which one has to dive becomes shorter. Sort of like scoring soccer goals from varying distances with the length of the goal becoming shorter. One can do forward dives, back dives, straight dives with the option of flips (like somersaults) before hitting water. Nice concept. Fun to do.:)
Conclusion: The list just goes on. There is polar bear jumps, pirate chains, baseball, basketball and bowling among many, many others. Nice little games which have the provision of appealing to your grey matter or hunger for action. Playing games on the website also acquainted me with several live action games I may not have had an actual chance of playing, in real life. Nice interface to acquaint yourself with a given game and maximize fun while playing it. I have actually played on some other similar websites. But this one sort of stands out. I would recommend it to anyone with similar interests.
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