Apple Hopper:

In Brief:
Apple Hopper is a 2D jumping game where you need to estimate the correct angle to jump from column to column. You can see a few videos of game play HERE, HERE and on the Steam page HERE. You can see several not too complementary reviews from the Steam community HERE. It's in Early Access on Steam, though it was mentioned by one of the reviewers that the game was originally planned for mobile with similarities to flappy bird.

The Game:
A nice short (if you've got the skill) jumper game with a physics based mechanic. You get three different environments to explore Bambo Grove, Sea and Temple. Basically you have to jump from pole to pole calculating your trajectory and power for each jump, collecting apples on your way. You best attempt at is kept on the start screen. You can start the game by clicking on the forward arrow, turn off the music via the note symbol and for a reminder of how to play click on the question mark.

To play you click on your character then drag the mouse pointer away from your character, the angle you drag it and the length of the line that appears will determine the strength and trajectory of the move. you have to jump from pillar to pillar in a never-ending series of poles. To return to the main menu click on the icon next to the X This enables you to re start the game where you can then select the level you want to play, or get a reminder of he controls or change the default language from English to Russian. Some of the columns have various objects like birds nests and ice which tend to be slippery or hard to grip onto; so, your character can often fall off the column even though they hit it dead on.

To close the game click on the X or return to the main menu to then close the game.

In conclusion; I like the game, it's simple to play, has crisp almost retro style graphics; but, the columns tend to be the same or almost the same distance apart from each other, making it relatively easy to get your character jumping onto successive columns with little change in angle of attack or the strength needed. They may be different lengths, but it becomes relatively easy to get the right power and angle to hit the right spot. After only a few attempts I was able to go 12 columns without a fail. The game would be much improved if there were more obvious gaps between each column and a greater difference in the heights of them. That said, I liked the changes that were located at the top of some columns i.e. snow covered and birds nests, that added an extra level of difficulty. I did think that your best score would have been better if each level had it's own best score. Instead, no matter which level you play whether it be Bambo Grove, Sea or the Temple the high score you get on whichever, will be displayed on all three levels when you start them.

I still think this is a worthwhile download and an ideal accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea when you are taking a break from more important matters or
more in depth games. I though the negative reviews I read over on Steam were a little unfair, considering the game only costs £0.70/$0.99 when not on sale (It's 51% off a the moment costing only £0.39/$0.50).

Notes on Security
I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game and it found zero hits from 63 antimalware engines. The downloaded executable may include some low level adware that only opens your browser to Falcoware's home page after the game has installed and places four shortcuts onto your desktop (which can be safely deleted once the game has installed). The installation does not inject any malware into your system. When your browser is opened to Falcoware's home page when the game has been installed, it earns Falcoware games some money, part of which is given to the developer of the game for allowing the game to be given away free. You can see the results of the scan via the following link:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/8e9240aa9162879b1dc45e801408962ff324e30da9e197bff979f2b7657b9ddc/detection

Other Free Games:
The latest game from Epic Games is now live and is called Frostpunk; it's a society survival game where heat means life and every decision comes at a price. In an entirely frozen world, people develop steam-powered technology to oppose the overwhelming cold. You face the task of building the last city on Earth and securing the means necessary for your community to survive, which you'll find HERE. It ends tomorrow Thursday 10th June at at 4pm (UK time/11am EST), where it will be replaced by a mystery game. If you play online with friends there's a decent PvE/PvP free FPS game called Scavengers and you can still get the clicker RPG Idle Champions as well as other multiplayer games. I've been posting redeemable codes (time limited for 5 to 7 days from the day of posting) for free chests over in the forums HERE. They contain various items that boost your heroes abilities and health as well as affect your group of heroes in game, for example potions that boost health or DPS, contracts that can improve armour or weapons already used by the heroes or other contracts that add specific amounts of gold to your bank as well as items of jewellery, armour or weapons that buff your characters stats. I don't usually play clicker type games, but this one is well supported by the developer and has a massive following. I'll be posting codes for as long as I continue to play the game. I've posted some help sheets and links to a game wiki via the above link as well

Please see Delenn's threads for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favourites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, it’s yours to keep. Delenn has recently posted details of more Steam games that are temporarily free. One may be until it leaves early access??? - i.e. Tower Ball - Incremental Tower Défense plus a reflex game called Keyboard Killers are still free. Delenn posted details of a free origin came called Battlefield 4 which is available for free if you have an Amazon Prime account (If you like FPS games, it's a brilliant game to own.

You'll find hundreds of freeware games of all arcade and indie genres on Itch.io and Caimans Games as well as other sources. Please do check out the game discussion forums for older posts HERE (the sticky section is useful). Many of the earlier posts may be out of date with respect to the links I and others have provided to the free games; however, you only need to know the name of the game to find most of them via other sources. Many of those games from 2008 to around 2017 were posted as part of a project to supplement the lack of weekday games when the game giveaway went to weekend only games around Easter 2008 (mainly instigated due to the financial crisis of 2008) until November 2018 when Falcoware stepped into the weekday slot; however, from around 2015 onwards we did start to get the occasional Steam key for various games offered as limited giveaways, with a restriction on the number of keys available (anywhere from 25 to 2000+). These included over 60 decent AAA games and indie arcade games ; for example some of the better AAA games included , lucky Warhammer: Vermintide 1 & 2 plus DLC for version 2; Dreadlands, Mount & Blade: Warband, Immortal Unchained and Conan Exiles.

I've not posted details of any Indie Gala freebies since my older computer went on the Fritz back in October last year. Since then Indie Gala have added quite a few more free games, some of which are definitely worth downloading. You can find the latest freebies HERE and their showcase list, which includes all the freebies still current; (many of which have been included for a couple of years now) HERE.

It’s worth adding these links to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, they are yours to keep. :)