What are/were your favorite Flash games?

[Zed Clampet]

I never played Flash games, but I just bought one on Steam (JackSmith), and have enjoyed it so far. It has a lot more depth than I imagined you could find in a Flash game. That makes me wonder what Flash games that others enjoyed. There are still plenty of places online where you can play these for free.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Snowcraft, far and away. Essentially a "combat" game about two groups of boys firing snowballs at one another. There was another one that I don't know if it had an official name beyond "Helicopter" a helicopter is moving toward the right at a constant speed, and the player has to manuever up and down round obstacles that are randomly generated. Back in the 2000s I had a few saved as independent files on my computer -- I could play when I was offline, which used to be a thing back then.

 

[Johnway]

The last stand was my personal fav. it got rereleased onto steam, but the first 3 games were flash shockwave games.

The other game was on excite (remember that search engine?) it was that 3d tank game. Amazing running on 56k modem.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played quite a lot of Flash games, but my favourite by far is AdventureQuest, also known as BattleOn. I actually bought the premium upgrade for it (I think it was a one time payment of $15).

It had an insane amount of content for a free Flash game and it seems it's still getting updates.

 

[Frindis]

One of my favorites was the endless runner game called Canabalt (2009), a game credited for popularizing the endless runner genre.

Canabalt Classic by Finji

The OG.

finji.itch.io

 

[BillzA]

Ah, the golden era of Flash games! So many memories flood back. Here are a few that stood out for me:

• The Impossible Quiz: This game was both hilarious and maddening. Its quirky questions and unexpected answers kept me on my toes.
• Super Smash Flash: A fantastic fan-made rendition of the classic brawler. It was impressive how they brought together characters from various franchises into one game.
• Chronotron: A brilliant puzzle-platformer where you collaborate with past versions of yourself to solve challenges. The time-travel mechanics were mind-bending and innovative.

It's heartening to see that many of these classics are preserved and still playable online. For those interested in revisiting them, the Internet Archive has a vast collection of Flash games.

Also, for a more interactive experience, the Ruffle emulator allows you to play many Flash games directly in your browser without any additional plugins.

Looking forward to hearing about more favorites from everyone!"

 

[neogunhero]

I grew up playing lots of Flash games, I was definitely a part of its peak moments. In school, it was always a treat to go to the computer lab and be able to get on Miniclip and play tons of different stuff. Later in school, they blocked those types of Flash game websites and instead only allowed you to go on "educational" Flash sites like CoolMathGames. Even on that website there were some awesome games.

Stick RPG is perhaps my favorite I played back in the day. It was a life simulation/RPG game with an overhead view. You played as a stickman and had to work your way to the top by getting better jobs, finding new ways to make money, and upgrading your stats. The goal really was to just reach the end of the upgrade chain.

AdventureQuest is already mentioned here and for good reason, it was very unique to me when I first played it as a kid. Perhaps my first turn-based game.

I was also a massive fan of Interactive Buddy. Having a ragdoll you can throw around and stab as much as you want. IIRC, you earned money by hurting it, and used to money to buy larger weapons to hurt it some more lol.

Run 3 on CoolMathGames was a huge hit in high school. A pseudo-3D runner game where you must dodge obstacles and gravitate towards the walls and ceilings, kids would always brag about who had the highest score. It was our version of the 70s/80s arcade experience.

The Bill Cosby Fun Game to me will forever be one of the funniest games I've ever played. Also the Mcdonald's Video Game was pretty funny and was surprisingly in depth for a Flash game.

I was also a massive fan of Flash animations. Newgrounds is an absolute historical artifact of our time that must be preserved forever. The Xiao Xiao series is one of the first to come to my mind, basically epic stickman kung-fu fights with lots of slow-mo.

 

[Zloth]

I never played one, though I bet I played a lot of games that got copied (legally or not) into Flash games.