5 Days A Stranger

5 Days A Stranger is a traditional point and click adventure made on the cheap by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the often funny critic behind Zero Punctuation. The first of a Quadrilogy of games in the "Chzo Mythos", 5 Days A Stranger begins as the gentlemen thief Trilby infiltrates the ominous DeFoe manner in search of loot, only to find himself inexplicably trapped with 4 other people, and a bloody secret the mansion has held for over 200 years.
The graphics in 5 Days are typical of what you might see in an old Sierra or Lucasarts adventure, but a little bit simpler, but seeing as how the game had a budget of $0.00, it actually does an admirable job in terms of the character art and environments. Everything is colorful, and the "hotspots" are generally easy to find. The interface is clean and simple. The sound effects are sparse but repetitive, particularly when you're walking, but the occasional ghostly footsteps and whispering add some ambiance. Where this game really shines though, is the script. With the exception of a few inconsistencies in logic, and one or two tedious dialogue trees that you will have to wade through repeatedly to get to the one correct result, the dialogue is very well written, and often funny. Trilby is an excellent character for this sort of game, and his dry, sarcastic quips add a lot to the experience.
The game isn't very long--in fact, I would say it's about the perfect length for an adventure title: it doesn't wear out it's welcome, but it doesn't feel like anything in the story was left unresolved. It will probably take you about three or four hours to get through the whole thing--the puzzles aren't really that tough, and overall, it reminded me of those good one-shots The X-Files used to have during their first couple of seasons. There's more to this story if you want it, but what you'll find here stands up well enough on it's own.

7 Minutes

What would you do with the last 7 minutes of your life? I would probably play something else, but as freeware goes, 7 minutes tries something interesting, and succeeds for the most part. You play as a square guy, trapped by a talkative, three-eyed floating head who doesn't seem to like you very much. You have exactly seven minutes to reach the end of the game, and frequent death throws you back to the beginning of the screen you're currently on, robbing you of precious seconds in the process. This game is tough. Many times you have to reach certain platforms before they dissolve, or else you may as well throw yourself on spikes because they don't reappear, or worse, you reach a difficult area of the level only to discover a dead end. The platforming is difficult and the controls are a bit floaty, but after a few minutes you get pretty well adjusted to it. The music is darkish sci-fi fare to go along with the visuals, and adds to the stress-inducing gameplay already present. There are multiple endings, but honestly I can't see anyone attempting this more than two or three times before tossing it in the recycle bin. At least it's short!

Chalk

The premise of Chalk is brilliant but simple. On a chalkboard come to life, you must guide the heroes Line and Target through six intense stages filled with monsters and environmental challenges, facing off against mini bosses to earn checkpoints and fighting incredibly imaginative end level bosses in each stage. You do all of this by left-clicking and holding while moving the mouse to draw lines through points on objects, between enemy shots and the enemies themselves to reflect the shots back, and various other actions which I won't spoil, as it's fun figuring this sort of thing out on your own. It's a beautiful but largely monochromatic game, keeping in theme with the setting, and all the artwork has a suitably hand drawn feel to it. The music is simple but upbeat, and the controls are perfect. I would pay money for this game on WiiWare. It's free for download on the website, and I can't think of a better way to idly spend 30 minutes than with this game.