While there are a couple parts of this game that can be challenging, it has a solid end that you can get to quickly. You are a pirate ship captain racing against other pirate ships to get to the treasure first. You use the arrow keys to row and steer your ship. The space bar fires your canons. After you win a race, you get some booty (what's a pirate game without booty?) to upgrade your ship with better canons, speed, or hull. You can also improve your whole ship to a new model.

A handful of years ago, there was a neat little viral Flash game that involved hitting penguins with a baseball bat to see how far they would fly. These types of games are always good for a few minutes of enjoyable decompression time, and Monkey Kick Off is another one in that style. My best ever was 4,414 meters. That monkey's got quite a leg!

The tables are turned, and it's time for the asteroid to strike back. Instead of controlling a ship shooting up asteroids, you control an asteroid trying to crash into ships. Since you don't have a gun, it can be pretty challenging to avoid their gunfire and still smash them.

One kind of Flash game that I find particularly entertaining is one in which you have to figure out a puzzle. In Rollercoaster Creator, you have to build a rollercoaster track to get the cars safely from one side of the screen to the other. Along the way, you have to pick up coins and avoid flipping the cars over. The more thrilling you make the ride, the more points you can score. Multiple tools for building the track are available including a pencil tool, a loop, and a handful of ups and downs that will pull the cards up or let them down slowly. For each map though, you are limited to how many of each you can use.

Give Rollercoaster Creator a try!

Sometimes you need to just relax with your team or coworkers, taking a little bit of time to enjoy yourselves and bond over something not directly work-related. Fridays are the perfect time for that, and in the spirit of competition I am going to start posting a Flash game every Friday. In all likelihood, they will be completely frivolous, but hopefully they'll be a bit of fun.

This week's game is called IndestructoTank A.E. Years ago I found the predecessor to this game (simply called IndestructoTank), and it was great to see a new version come out. In this game, you control a completely indestructible tank. So where's the fun? As the enemy drops bombs on you and shoots at you, you fly into the air. The goal is to destroy as many enemy jets, helicopters, and mine layers without hitting the ground. The more you chain together, the more points you get and the sooner you can increase the number of enemies. I think my highest combo ever is in the thirties. The game ends when you run out of fuel which is replenished every time you fill up your XP bar. The game takes about 5 or 10 minutes unless you turn out to be some sort of IndestructoTank A.E. prodigy.