The newest Mystery Case Files is Return to Ravenhurst. It’s bigger, with dozens of new puzzles, an immersive soundtrack, and adventure-style play. And, as a bonus, you can get it for 50% off until December 27th! Just type in code RAVEN50 when you buy the game, and get it for half off. Happy Holidays!

Some background on the game: Emma’s soul is free. But her ghost has delivered a dire warning: evil still lurks in Ravenhearst Manor. Experience Ravenhearst’s spectral halls as never before with new immersive adventure-style gameplay and an epic original soundtrack. Feel the floorboards creak as you move from room to room solving puzzles and seeking out clues in over 150 detailed scenes.

Download the free one-hour trial or buy the game for half-off here.

Righteous Kill has a violent premise for a game, but it is a good hide and seek with some interesting police-themed mini-games. 

Step into the shoes of Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in New York City. It’s a man hunt for a vigilante on a killing spree through 16 locations containing over a thousand hidden objects. With the help of Sergeant Vasquez, Erica will use clues she collects in a number of detective-themed mini games. Inspired by the motion picture film, Righteous Kill features clips from the movie and 15 animated levels.

Although it is “inspired by” the movie coming out in September, Righteous Kill has mostly women in the story (as opposed to the movie, which stars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. The production values are good, including the sound and the visuals. Interesting mini-games include a fingerprint search, stopping a computer trace, and determining differences in a crime scene photo. 

Download the game free for one hour or buy for $19.95. BigFIshGames is also running a 40% off back-to-school promotion until September 3rd. Find out more about Righteous Kill here.

Rooms: The Main Building is actually a sequel to a free game released in 2006. In it, you are stuck in a mysterious town with lots of locked doors. Your only hope of escape is to play slider games, and win objects and keys. If you can find the 4 puzzle pieces hidden in the rooms, you can escape the town.

The sliding puzzles are clever. You have to get from where you are placed to the exit door in a set amount of time by sliding squares around a board. The only clue you have is in the background of the puzzle - if the background looks correct, you can get from one room to another. There are obstacles: you need to go up and down using ladders, and there are blocks on some of the pieces. But you also get a few nifty helpers, such as a teleporter and a wardrobe that switches squares.

As you solve the sliding puzzles (80 in all) you also collect items that will help you solve the other part of the game. This is the adventure mode. The street you are on has locked rooms. Once you get the keys to the rooms, you must solve a small adventure-like puzzle (use inventory object A on B, etc.) to find the puzzle piece you need to escape. Both parts of the game are a good mix - challenging and fun, but not too frustrating. The sliding puzzles go from very easy to harder as the game progresses.

One nice feature is there is an option to make your own level or to add a level from someone else.  If enough people play, this could lead to a fun extension of the game, and a chance to be creative with a level.

The production values are good on this game. The audio is very good, with a haunting soundtrack. The video is very nice, although a little dark. The game is made by a Korean company, HandMade Games, and that adds the only flaw to the game: the English translation is a little off, so there are some phrases that took me out o the game. Other than that, however, the overall look and feel of the game is great.

Overall, I liked this game, both because it is different from other games and for the nice way it is set up.  Download a free hour trial of Rooms: The Main Building or buy it for only $19.95.

The original game (called Rooms) is freeware. It is short, and the production values aren’t as good, but it is a good way to extend your sliding game fix. if you want to download it, click here.  Be prepared for a sort-of slow download.

I love the hidden object game Forgotten Riddles: The Moonlight Sonatas! It’s a twist on the traditional seek and find, since you have to solve riddles in order to find out what you can cick on. There are also many challenging mini-games scattered throughout the rooms of the Opera House that you are exploring. This is the second game in the Forgotten Riddles series, but it is, in my opinion, better than the first. The puzzles are good but not too frustrating, the story is engaging, and the technical effects (visuals and sound) are top-notch.

Francis von Amadeus was a child prodigy and talented composer. The city of Godesberg has given you access to his journal filled with secrets and riddles. Use the clues to detect hidden objects within the many chambers of the Moonlight Opera House. You`ll notice a gaunt, ghostly figure still graces the second floor balcony. Can you solve the mystery behind the Moonlight Sonatas?

Click here to download the game for an hour free, or buy it for only $19.95.

Are you ever in the mood for low-budget murder mysteries? The Stickman Murder Mystery site may be just the place for you. Sure it’s violent, but the victims are only stick figures.

You play a homicide detective who solves crimes for the town of Stickville. You interview suspects, collect evidence, examine the body, and profile criminals. Then, when you think you’ve solved the mystery, you submit the evidence to your boss, the Chief. If he believes you, you’re a star! If not, oh boy, do you get humiliated.

It’s a combination of campy detective stories, juvenile humor, and clever stories. All done with bright colors, and stick figures. Now, the graphics aren’t the best, and neither are the sound effects. It’s almost like a trip back to those text adventure stories, with some interactive features thrown in. i happen to love nostalgic games, so I was in detective heaven.

Another caveat: sometimes you have to answer a question to get through a certain point. For example, in order to use the MRI machine on a body, you must answer a question about gambling, pharmaceuticals, or something else. I think that orginally (or maybe even now) this game was used as a way to get people to click on links and sell stuff. I just treat these questions as a way to hone my research skills and be a better detective.

With titles like Stabbing in Stickville,  Drowning in Stickville, Cadaver at Stickville Dump, Arson in Stickville, and Manslaugher in Stickville, you’re in for hours of detective fun. And best of all, it’s free!  Click here to go to begin your detective adventure.

If you liked Brain Age or Big Brain Academy, then you’ll love Brain Spa. Train your brain by helping the colorful townsfolk of Brainville in a variety of mind-building challenges. A truly fun way to maximize your memory, improve your perception abilities, power up your language aptitude, and fine-tune your logical thinking skills! Eight separate mini-games plus bonus quizzes, trivia challenges and more!

• Daily tests can assess your overall Brain Power.
• Collect keys to the city to unlock additional bonus quizzes.
• Watch the town expand and flourish as you sharpen your mind.
• Internal time tracking allows you to see your best scores and track your progress over time and also compare results with other players.
• Dynamic leveling system allows the game to customize the difficulty based on your skill.

Train your brain today! Click here to download or buy Brain Spa.

I love the movie Dirty Dancing. Of course, in the 80s, I got burned out when my best friend had to listen to the soundtrack EVERY SINGLE DAY and watch the movie at least once a week. Even so, with classic lines like “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”, great couples dancing, and intense (and sometimes cheesy) acting, this is one of my favorite time-waster movies.

Well, Codemasters has taken the world of Dirty Dancing and made it the backdrop of a really fun casual game. You play a guest at Kellerman’s. Like the Sims, you create an avatar and furnish your cabin with furniture and accessories. The avatar choices are limited, although you do get to wear the outfits that Baby sported in the movie. Choose from her classic pedal pushers to the dresses she wore for the dance competitions.

To earn money to furnish your cabin, you need to take on odd jobs around the camp. These jobs combine some of the classic casual game standards - match 3, search for objects, time management, and more. There are 10 games in all, and there are various levels to each game. You can also unlock more locations to furnish, and many extras.

One of those extras is, of course, a dance competition. You need to earn enough money to enter, and then take dance lessons. The lessons are a bulls-eye type game that’s a little difficult, but not too bad. You move up in rank until you can enter the big dance contest.

The music, sounds and cartoon animation and backdrops are first-rate. I loved that they included some 50s songs, and the Kellerman theme song in the game. I really enjoyed playing this. If you’re a fan of the movie, or love variety in your gaming, give it a shot. Click here to download for a free 1-hour trial, or buy the game for $19.95.

Want to solve a puzzle without any clues? With this Crossword game, you’re given letters, and you have to add them to the crossword correctly so that all the words match up. Sounds easy, right? Well it is, in the beginner level. The game gives you lots of “starter” letters that help you solve the puzzles quickly.

However, if you go up to expert level, the number of starter levels decreases dramatically. It’s a fun puzzle that tests your word skill.

To play, click on the empty white square, then click on a letter to fill it. All the other squares with the same letter will automatically be filled. If you make a mistake, click on the box with the letter you want to remove, then click on the space bar image.

Click here to start playing this challenging flash game.

Azada has become one of my favorite games. Why? Because it combines many different puzzles and it takes a long time to play. With over 40 unique puzzles, including hidden object, matches, mazes, logic, word, and jigsaw puzzles. These are all combined with great visual style and haunting music.

The background story is that you are trying to release the hero, Titus, from an enchanted room. But the backstory is just a setup for some of the most interesting games around. I played this game with my family, and we all enjoyed it very much. The puzzles were easy enough at the beginning for my 10-year-old son, but they eventually got harder so that they challenged me and my husband.

The puzzles also played to different puzzle-solving strengths. There was also a maze/dexterity puzzle that my husband could finish, but that really frustrated me. Lucky I had help.

This game is definitely worth the $19.99 that you pay for the full verson. The puzzles are good, and the game lasts a long time. To try a free hour, click here.

Another great game from Gamedesign, Peg Solitaire is simple. Jump the pegs over one another so that the last peg is on the black circle. Easy, right? Well, at the beginning, yes, but after a few levels, you’ll be using the “reset” and “undo” buttons a lot.