With Adobe Flash Player officially discontinued, there may be an entire generation that never got to experience some of the greatest Flash games. These classic web games were created with limited resources, forcing creators to utilize tons of creativity to make the best of what they had. Many developers broke into game development through Flash games, making it truly an important part of gaming history.
For those who want to experience these classic titles, there are, luckily, a few options. Some developers ported their games over to different formats. Some iconic Flash games very clearly inspired others with similar gameplay mechanics. Taking all of this into account, here are five games that can help fans relive the golden age of Flash.
The Henry Stickmin Collection
Innersloth is perhaps more well-known for creating Among Us, the social deduction game that helped entertain tons of players during a global pandemic. Innersloth's lead artist and animated actually got his start making Flash games. Marcus B, known online as Puffballs United, created the Henry Stickmin series of games, a point-and-click adventure where failing is just as fun as winning.
The Henry Stickmin Collection is the Steam release of the series, including all five of the original Flash titles, plus a completely original sixth game that ties the series together. The gameplay of The Henry Stickmin Collection is fairly simple, with players choosing a particular option to help the titular character of Henry Stickmin solve a problem. The games are more of interactive animations, which makes them a perfect representation of why Flash was such an important part of Internet history.
Plague Inc: Evolved
Plague Inc: Evolved is considered by many to be the spiritual successor to the Flash game Pandemic 2. Both games feature players evolving a disease to spread across the globe through various means. Whilst there were once claims from Pandemic 2 developers Dark Realm Studios that Plague Inc: Evolved was a copy of their game, they later rescinded this statement and supported Plague Inc.
Gameplay-wise, Plague Inc: Evolved is very reminiscent of its Flash game predecessor, though it takes many concepts and, pun intended, evolves them. There are multiple types of infectious organisms to play, custom scenarios, different mutations to evolve a disease with and plenty of updates to keep the game relevant. Plauge Inc: Evolved is a great game to check out to see how Flash games inspired game development as a whole.
Super Fancy Pants Adventure
When people list their favorite Flash games, Fancy Pants Adventure is one that often comes up. Super Fancy Pants Adventure reimagines the original title that keeps the same general gameplay but enhances it into a stand-alone release. Super Fancy Pants Adventure's platforming is described as being fast and tight, utilizing momentum as a core mechanic. Fans of old-school platformers like Sonic the Hedgehog should give Super Fancy Pants Adventure a look.
People Playground
Ragdoll games were a popular genre in the world of Flash. These were simple little stress-reliever tools where players would often throw around a ragdoll human. Players could unlock more tools and items to interact with the ragdoll as they played. These games eventually evolved from simple destress tools into full-fledged sandbox environments.
People Playground is a Steam game in the same spirit as sandbox ragdoll games. The core gameplay involves messing around with boxy ragdoll humans using a huge variety of weapons, items and furniture, with more content available through Steam Workshop mods. However, People Playground takes the sandbox element up to the next level by included tons of mechanical and logic-based items that players can use to build some pretty complex contraptions.
The Don't Escape series
The escape room genre got its start through Flash games before eventually entering the real world. Flash-based escape rooms were so popular they started getting their own spinoffs and subgenres, such as Mateusz Sokalszczuk's, better known as scriptwelder's, Don't Escape series. Instead of trying to escape a room or a threat, players are instead charged with attempting to keep a threat from reaching them, typically through interacting with their environment using point-and-click gameplay mechanics. There's also an element of time management, as players will only have a certain amount of time each day to prepare.
This entire series is all about quick thinking and on-the-fly choices, as any small mistake can end up with a gruesome game over. The Don't Escape series is done in a charming and simple pixel style, though there's still plenty of detail in the art style. Each of the Don't Escape games are available on Steam, with scriptwelder upping the narrative and gameplay quality with each entry in the series.