Daily Flash: Flur

A game created in three weeks by a team of two, Flur is a "progressive casual adventure with engaging and nonthreatening gameplay.” The only controls are to move your mouse for direction, and to click once you've leveled up enough to use collectable power-ups. I've said before that games today add achievements to try to superficially extend game time, like a cripple hooked up to a machine. Lets just say that Flur has 85 achievements to get.

Presentation:
Visually, the game starts out looking pretty nice. The menu displays a beautiful fairy, with the entire game sticking to a greenish-blue hue that brings everything together. Unfortunately, that's all you have to look at for the entire game. The background never changes, and neither does your character. The only other things that exist are green and red glowing orbs, though they do manifest themselves in amusing patterns.
3.5/5

Gameplay:
The only thing that kept me going was my curiosity. Yes, the glowing lights appear in increasingly complex and elaborate configurations, but that's about all you get. After leveling my way up most of the way, I still hadn't gotten any feedback that I was doing better. Make my wings grow, make me glow a different color, make something happen that tells me I'm getting stronger. The 85 achievements are mostly shallow and pointless. The addition of red orbs makes the game partially interesting, but it's a long time until any of them pose any threat.
2/5

Overall:
Nonthreatening? Yes, they did that pretty well since getting hit only means a temporary phasing out of the world. Engaging? Hardly. As I played, I waited for something fun to happen. The game feels like it's unfinished, like there was some goal to reach or other levels to add, but they're all missing. Leveling is pointless, and gathering orbs doesn't give you any rewards except more orbs to gather. Yes, there are 85 achievements, but I don't expect anyone to get close to getting them all.
2.7/5

Play Flur Here!

Daily Flash: One Button Bob

You're at your friend's house, and there's something suspiciously sticky about his keyboard that tells you that if you touched it, you'll probably have to cut off your fingers. Thankfully One Button Bob brings us a delightful game using, you guessed it, one button. The many modes there are reminiscent of the Wario Ware games, with the difficulty ramping upwards as you go along.

Presentation:
8 bit graphics, simple images for a simple game. The entire game feels like you're playing an old Indiana Jones movie, back before we had aliens and Shia Labeouf. The main character is adorable, and you I feel sorry for all the pain I must have put him through with my failed attempts.
4/5

Gameplay:
For a single button game, there's a deceptive amount of gameplay here. From outrunning boulders to throwing boomerangs, jumping gaps and avoiding arrows, it's all done with one button. If there's one thing I wanted from the gameplay, was more of it. By the time it was over, all I wanted to do is see how much deeper one click could take me.
3.5/5

Overall:
Much shorter than most games, One Button Bob will only last upward of 5 minutes. (I finished the game in under 400 clicks, so there's a ballpark for how look it took.) If you have the time to read this review, you have the time to play the game. It's an amazing example of mechanics so simple a child can understand it, but it takes quite a bit of timing and reflexes to make it all the way to the end. Tell me how many clicks you finished in.
3.8/5

Play One Button Bob Here!