Flash Favorites

Flash games were a big part of my childhood. I know you can still play them in programs like Flashpoint, but I miss when you could go online and find dozens of games and fun websites to look through. Nobody gets excited to go online anymore. Maybe I'm blinded by nostalgia, but I think some things were actually better then.

I've made a list of some of my favorite games from my childhood, listed from A-Z. I hope you like them!

A: Anika's Odyssey

Anika is a girl who sets out on a quest to retrieve her stuffed rabbit from a giant bird. The game is a point and click with no dialogue at all, just ambient sounds. You guide Anika through a beautiful forest filled with strange creatures until she eventually reaches her goal. I would definitely recommend this, I love the backgrounds.

B: Bloons

In Bloons, you are a monkey who throws darts to pop a specific amount of balloons. Some of them give you special abilities. My favorite is the Pac-Man one!

C: Colour My Heart

I guess this is more like interactive art than a traditional game, but I really like it. You play as an unnamed character searching for the one they love in a world that forbids it.

D: Dress-Up

I don't remember playing this specific game, I just chose it to represent the genre as a whole. Like the name implies, these games focused on dressing up a character. I loved the ones where you actually got to drag the clothes onto the model instead of just clicking a button. I played a lot of them on GirlsGoGames.

E: Escape Games

This was a genre of point-and-click puzzle game where you had to escape from a room. You would have to look for clues and items that would help you. Pictured above is an entry in AN Escape Series by Afro-Ninja. Those games are really good!

F: Fancy Pants Adventure

The Fancy Pants series focuses on the titular Fancy Pants Man and his many platforming adventures. The 2nd and 3rd ones were my favorite because of how well-made and complex they were for a free game on the Internet. I loved finding the secrets hidden in each level!

G: GROW

In these games, you had to click icons in a certain order to make everything "grow" correctly. The second one, GROW Island, has a secret ending that's very "out of this world" ;). GROW Tower was one of the first puzzle games I figured out on my own.

H: Homestar Runner

Toons! Games! Characters! H*R isn't a game, it's a cartoon, but it was made with Flash and is really good so I'm putting it here. I think about quotes and songs from this series constantly, it's really funny. If you have time, look up "Strong Bad E-mails" or "Teen Girl Squad". You won't regret it!

I: IQ Ball

In this game, you clicked to guide the titular IQ ball to the target by stretching out his arm. The amount of clicks you made would either increase or decrease your IQ (basically your score in the game). There is also a weird alternate version where the main character has a different design.

J: JMKit Play Sets

This is a scene creator with LOADS of content to explore. You can even dress up the characters and give them different poses as well as change the season and weather! As a kid I loved making up different stories in this game. I usually had the dinosaur portray the only adult for some reason.

K: Kaya's Mountain Escape

This was a tie-in game for the American Girl dolls and books. It followed Kaya, a young Indigenous girl, trying to get home safely while avoiding enemies looking for her. I think it was based on the plot of one of the books, and the gameplay is kind of like Oregon Trail.

L: LEGO City Coast Guards

In this game you piloted a helicopter and rescued drowning LEGO guys with your winch. I remember I liked to drag them around in the water.

M: Metele Al Ordenata (Bash the Computer)

When I was 6, my parents saw me playing this game and thought it was inappropriate for me because it encouraged destruction. I wasn't the kind of kid who destroyed stuff on purpose, so I think their fears were irrational. I'm 21 now, and I can bash a virtual computer as much as I want to!

N: Ninja Painter

I struggled to think of any games that started with the letter N until I remembered Ninja Painter! I used to play it on Coolmath Games. Basically, you had to move the ninja in the right directions so he would paint the correct spots. It was fun!

O: Office Kissing (オフィちゅラブ)

One of the titles that started the weird "don't get caught kissing!" genre of Flash games. You had to make the guy kiss the girl while the boss was distracted to rack up a high score. If he catches you, it's game over! Li Speaks on YouTube talks about the game here: click me!

P: Penguin Diner

Penny the penguin needs to work at a restaurant so she can raise money to get home! You control her as she skates around serving customers and collecting tips. I really liked this game, but I somehow never finished it. Penny is a great character and deserves more recognition.

Q: Quest for Milk

This game was one of my favorites! You played as a knight who sets out to get milk for his mom so that she can make dinner. Unfortunately, none of the stores in town sell any milk, so you have to complete a lot of silly tasks, including answering quiz questions from a bodybuilder ghost and finding frogs for a witch. I remember after you completed the game you could unlock literal hidden Easter eggs that transformed the main character. I remember one turned you into a butterfly and one made you a ghost (it was poisoned!)

R: Run 2

This was one of the Coolmath games my class was obsessed with in 3rd grade. You controlled the alien as he ran/skated through 3D environments and avoided falling off the stage. I would always pick the skater.

S: Super Mario Bros. Crossover

It's the original Super Mario Bros. with a twist: you can play as other iconic characters from the NES era like Samus, Link, Simon Belmont, and Mega Man! The crossover characters control like they do in their original games, so if you wanted to you could shoot a Goomba with an arm cannon or stab a Koopa Troopa with a sword. The characters and levels even have all these different skins. Definitely check out this game if you're an NES or SNES fan, you'll love it!

T: The World's Hardest Game

When I first saw this game as a kid, I thought it was literally the hardest game in the world. The goal was to move the red square to the end of the level, but if it got hit by a blue circle or other hazard you would have to start over. I've never completed it because of how difficult it is! Look up any video of it if you want to see just how punishing it is.

U: Use Boxmen

Use Boxmen is a puzzle-platformer about, well, using Boxmen. Specifically you use them to pull levers, jump long distances, and reach the goal at the end. I remember one level being so hard that I would always get stuck on it. I really like the art style and how it looks like something doodled in a notebook.

V: Vehicles

This is the only game I could remember that started with V.

W: Waterballoon Drop 3

The title of this game is a lie! You don't drop water balloons, you drop eggs and tomatoes! It's still fun, though. You have to avoid falling off the roof or getting caught by police.

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The End

You've scrolled this far, so you deserve a reward. It's a collection of the games on this list and many other games I enjoyed as a kid that you can download and import into Flashpoint!