Not at all. Just in name.

Ballhalla, of Reflexive Arcade. Yes, I do a lot of Reflexive games, but I don't have another game DL site.

Ballhalla is a new twist all around. It gives you a bucket full of multicolored balls, and you match them by a unique method: they have to be surrounded on two opposite sides by different, but identical, colors. Like a red with a blue on either side. Those get heavier, and so the bucket tilts. It gets rather insane on some levels, and I consider it a hard game, despite its seemingly juvenile art style and dialog.

The most interesting part, however, if you ask me, is the surprisingly heroic soundtrack. And of course, the use of Famous Last Words ("Don't worry, Proto, with the new dark matter engine I've installed, nothing can go wrong!" When does dark matter go right?).

All in all, it's a blast. I suggest getting it. And by the way, you didn't hear it from me, but universal cracks for Reflexive Arcade games aren't too hard to come by.

Because I can. And I will. And I also will remain painfully behind the times when it comes to giving games up. I say old games are awesome, and I will defend that to the bitter end.

Also, about my 3-posts-in-a-night, I'm just getting a jump-start. Not trying to flood the place, I promise. I'll keep it down to 1 per day, max, from here on out. Scout's honor.

The game this time is Minesweeper.

Nah, I'm kidding. Bet I had you going there fo a sec. Really, it's another Breakout game. Reaxxion. Again, from Reflexive, here.

It's like Breakout meets Terminator 2. The paddle is liquid metal, as is the ball!

You collect metal drops from the neon-light-bricks, and your paddle grows. You can launch balls, draining the metal in your paddle, and thus its size, and you can reabsorb balls into it, gaining size. For once, you can have no balls on the screen and NOT lose a life. It's refreshing.

The one thing to really beware is an Overload. The paddle can only keep so much metal stable. You'll see what happens.

Also, you didn't hear this from me, but there is a Secret Challenge Level in there. Upgrades a bonus if you get 100%.

Oh, and if you play, make sure you're good at Pong as well. The boss levels are Pong, essentially.

Final note: This game is best with loud headphones, preferably with noise-canceling ability. The music freaking rules.

How can you beat that? If you ask me, you can't.

The game is Audiosurf. I got it off of Steam, ad for $10, it's a bargain. If you don't have Steam, then you can get it from http://www.audio-surf.com.

Basically, it's a race, but not the "go-as-fast-as-you-can" kind. Since your music IS the game, it's going to be exactly as long as the piece. It's all about the Tetris-esque color bar at the bottom. You'll find out about that if you play, I don't want to try to explain it.

The track is created on-the-spot from music files from YOUR collection. It takes mp3, mp4, iTunes, ogg, wav (I think), and CD's, and probably a few others I couldn't think of there. But basically almost any music file out there. It analyzes the song and generates a track from that. The "cars" that you collect are generated, along with the altitude of the track, from how intense the music gets. A mellow song will be primarily uphill, and will have lots of cool colored pieces, a lot of blues in particular, while something like Rammstein will be completely downhill, with reds galore.

It also sports a neat-o online scoreboard, which posts your score automatically, by artist and song title. Each song has 3 scoreboards, for Beginner, Pro, and Expert.

If you need more encouragement, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH8iTd87GhU He was on Ninja Expert mode. But don't feel pressured to play Expert. I stay on Point Man and do fine there.

By the way, if you want a good song to see the altitude in action, may I suggest "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton?

The game is called Break Quest. I got it off of Reflexive Arcade, as I do many. It's here.

It's a hard Breakout as compared to other types because it's got an incredibly accurate collision function. Almost anything can collide with almost anything. There are a few exceptions, for instance, a bonus can't hit a brick, but one trick that helps here and there is shooting your ball to help keep it in play.

The collisions aren't just about what can collide, but about the angle of impact as well. It will throw your ball exactly where a physicist would expect, not exactly where a Breakout player would expect. It is so sensitive that things like "in-curve up", "out-curve down", and ball shape really affect how the ball reacts. The savior is the Glue. Once you get that, you can finally get an accurate prediction about its destination.

If you decide to play it, here's a few things to be on the lookout for:

Glue + Bumper Shape. They cancel each other out, and it basically sucks in the end there.

Keep your eye on the ball! Some levels cause the bricks to spray items (that you can collect for points) that are the same size as the ball!

Freezer and Drunk Engine. They'll really mess up how your ship reacts! Low- and high-octane are easily dealt with, comparatively.

Kick. It can kill you or save you. I've almost gotten the hang of using it to get me where I need to be.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER! Getting a bonus is NOT worth a life, unless it's a life bonus! I can't tell you how many times I've lost both the bonus and the ball trying to grab both.

Pros:
Fun gameplay!
A new twist on an old concept
Many types of weapons
Many brand-new powerups
Each level is truly unique
Very fun music
Realistic physics

Cons:
HARD.
The "bugs" -- false bricks that continually return, and do nothing but get in the way (and get you score)
The "reserve ball & star" system. You'll see when you play, but I think it's just silly.
Realistic physics (yes, it's a pro and a con.)

Overall: 8/10. The music and gameplay are my prime deciders.