There is some straight up garbage out there on the internet, and games are no exception. 99% of online games are real stinkers, there's no doubt about that. However, luckily for you, Ryan Rigney from SlapStic.com has excavated 5 of their favorites to share. Read on to find some truly great (and free!) online games.

#5: Echoes

Combine Asteroids, Geometry Wars and some game involving shields and this is basically what you get. You control your ship using the mouse, and the ship is constantly shooting in one direction. You can change which direction the ship is shooting by tapping the respective WASD buttons.

Giant meteors are hurtling at your ship constantly, and as in Asteroids, bigger ones break into smaller ones after you shoot them. As you progress, eventually little blue enemies and waves of black holes, red ships in snake-like formations, and gigantic blue enemies rain down on you like heart conditions after a hotdog eating contest. You don’t have lives or bombs, but a health bar and a shield surrounding your ship that gets smaller with successive hits, eventually resulting in your horrible, flaming death. I know, it sounds like a blast of fun and excitement! And it is!

Pros:
Just as fun as Geometry Wars, arguably
Fun graphics and special effects
Good variety of modes
Small download size

Cons:
May make your eyes bleed
Extremely long start-up time when loading the game
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  • 1
    Akira_EX Aug 5, 08
    No Cave Story makes for a disappointing list.
    • 1
      RKRigney Aug 5, 08
      Author never hearing about Cave Story until now makes him want to play it now.
      • 0
        Zero and X Aug 6, 08
        If you like Super Metroid, you're gonna like Cave Story.
    • 1
      chautemoc Aug 5, 08
      I'd vote Torus Trooper too. Kind of like a poor man's version of Rez, and nearly as rad.

      Very cool article though!
    • 0
      tekmosis Aug 6, 08
      Yea, I would def put Cave Story on the top of any list regarding free games. I haven't played through all of it but I have played through a lot, and, it's all <3
  • 1
    Dio Aug 5, 08
    Lol, that song at the end of "You have to burn the rope" is great.
  • 1
    Fourth Dimension Aug 5, 08
    N is a great game. I bought N+ off the Xbox Live Arcade too, such a simple yet challenging game.
  • 2
    I love star wars Aug 5, 08
    'You have to burn the rope' is an awesome game!!!
  • 0
    BANDITO ATTACK Aug 5, 08
    needs more daggerfall.

    abandonware is good.
  • 0
    R1DDL3S Aug 6, 08
      I love Geometry Wars so this is a welcome alternative since I have no XBox

      holy shit...I forgot about N...that game is addicting, installed on my computer last week too
  • 0
    Airashii Aug 6, 08
    Better check Cave Story out.

    Pretty good list though. Just when I was getting bored in the summer holidays, I find a whole load of arcade games to play.

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