Like an early holiday present from Robamimi, Snow Dance is the perfect escape game to start the holiday season here on JIG—it has all the sumptuous conveniences we escapers prefer: changing cursors, logical puzzles, sparkly music, perfect graphics and, to top it off, a hint system better than any in the genre. While the puzzles are farm from difficult, they do require the right amount of thought and investigation to complete, so you can find the key to the gorgeous, snow-blanketed world just outside the door.

Like an early holiday present from Robamimi, Snow Dance is the perfect escape game to start the holiday season here on JIG—it has all the sumptuous conveniences we escapers prefer: changing cursors, logical puzzles, sparkly music, perfect graphics and, to top it off, a hint system better than any in the genre. While the puzzles are farm from difficult, they do require the right amount of thought and investigation to complete, so you can find the key to the gorgeous, snow-blanketed world just outside the door.

Remember that hapless adventuring party you had to help out in Detarou's last escape game, Nani-Quest? They're in a jam again. In NaniKono-Quest, they (and you) are locked in some sort of complex with an Aztec or Mayan or Egyptian theme... it's hard to tell. Still, who can say no to a Detarou escape to help push them through one more work day before the weekend?

Check out this early effort from the great room escape designer Kotorinosu. While Color is a pretty basic, bare-bones escape it is definitely worth the effort, especially to see the genesis of what would come later. Even in this early design there are hints of the clever puzzles and solutions which would eventually make them one of the most popular room escape designers we've ever featured. Time to learn some color theory!

If you have a keen eye, a love of solving puzzles and a high tolerance for pixel hunts, After Golden Bells by Timefall has quite a few charms. The key to escape is found via eight golden bells hidden amongst the modest surroundings; as you investigate every angle of the room, looking for answers to the puzzles that guard the bells, gustoso guitar music keeps pace with your efforts. After golden bells, then what? Just the simple satisfaction of a puzzle solved.

Lift for Life is an escape game by SuzumeDr, whom you may remember for Triangle a while back. The game takes place in a room with a somewhat athletic theme, as well as an adjustable glass table that's a little too low, a nice TV hooked to a game console, two strange pedestals that seem to react to one another, and a few other fixings. Naturally, you've got some puzzle-solving and some inventory management to do. It's a splendid escaper that's definitely worth a try to break up your weekday blues, so go out there and get your Lift on! For Life!

In this room escape game by Nanchette, find a box of crayons and put them to use around the room building shelves and drawers, keys to unlock doors and other assorted useful objects. Scrawlings on the wall and floor transform into the beautiful creations you always knew you had in you, but Mom just couldn't see (Sheesh! You'd think she'd appreciate your amazingly affordable home redecorating.) Graffiti 2 is oodles of chromatic fun for the puzzle-solving interior designer in all of us.

Welcome to the strange and somewhat twisted world of Tesshi-e, where the news of a friend opening a new restaurant means not only free food but a restaurant that is specifically set up as a room escape game as well. Escape from the Brick Room is a rather unimaginative title for a quite imaginative and tasty escaping experience. With gorgeous graphics, fun puzzles, and the usual twisted logic Escape from the Brick Room is a mid-week favorite for both escaping and a lovely snack, even if it is virtual. Time to visit your friend's new eatery and enjoy an escape from the everyday.

There is nothing gloomy or sad about this beautiful apartment, lavishly appointed in warm autumn colors and textures. Adding cohesiveness and a thematic element to the escape gameplay, Autumn Melancholy sends guests riffling through furnishing and around corners on the hunt for picture fragments that need to be reassembled by game's end. The pursuit is made pleasant by every helpful feature an escape game fan could want: a light up cursor to indicate interactive areas, textual reminders when more clues are needed before attempting a solution, and several diverse puzzles to stimulate the mind.

A fantastic escape game designed within the constraints of a single room puzzle scenario and packed with tons of logical and tricky puzzles. Robamimi makes the escaping chore entertaining with elegant puzzles and solutions, along with top-notch controls that include the easy to use inventory and fantastic hint feature. Resembling the Japanese omelet this game is named for, Tamago is a wonderful, sweet, multi-layered joy to consume. Dive in and take a bite!

Nani-Quest, the newest of the many not-so-typical escape games that Detarou is so famous for, dumps you into the middle of what looks like a Dungeons & Dragons dungeon raid gone awry. Detarou has a knack for combining surreal elements with surprisingly logical puzzles, and such is the case in Nani-Quest as well... albeit this one's a little easier on the surreal than, say, Dayori or Office.

An escape-the-room game that contains some winks at science-fiction cult favorites giving Metropolis Amnesia its heart. The design is well-planned and easy to navigate, quickly completed in or near the 15 minute mark. In that span of time spent exploring this mod- designed apartment, you will need to be observant, jot down a few notes, do a little deductive reasoning, and make sense of a jumbled picture—yet it's easy—not so much as to insult your intelligence, but easy enough to make it an engaging moment of repose.

Once again we are faced with the classic Tesshi-e escape-the-room scenario, to wit: We have been invited by "him" to a cabin somewhere (and what a great invite that is, let's go to an isolated cabin somewhere in an unspecified place with a guy we only know as "him"). Unfortunately, he's already gone and once again we are locked into a gorgeous space, looking for a way out. Everything you expect is there, navigation bars at the sides of the screen to move around, lots of interesting items to examine or pick up, clues and puzzles at every turn.

The Latest Work of Dai Hyakka is not a terribly difficult escape; seasoned players will probably be out in five to ten minutes. Considering all of the puzzles (many color-based) that have to be solved to view this precious piece of art, it had better be worth it.

In Kidnapped for Life, a short new escape game by Abroy, your ransom is a small but diverse smattering of puzzles such as kakuro, code-breaking and a jigsaw puzzle. You'll enjoy finding all the pieces so you can assemble your kidnapper's evil visage at the end. On the flip side, your abductor probably takes delight in tormenting you by surreptitiously concealing essential tools from your view. You can almost hear his hollow laughter as you scrutinize every secret recess and puzzle over the gathered clues. When you get right down to it, being held captive in a locked room, forced to decipher arcane clues lest you be stuck there forever, is quite akin to kidnapping, ain't it?

A point-and-click adventure disguised as an escape, Spooky Night Escape evokes the look and feel of the Halloween season with its nighttime setting, pale moon, and eerie trees. You have run out of gas somewhere on a dark, deserted road and must search the area, find some clues, solve some puzzles, and get the heck away before the inhabitants of the ominous nearby shack return. Don't go into Spooky Night Escape expecting ghosts, ghouls, or jump-scares, because there's none of those to be found. The game merely evokes the feel of the season with its look and unearthly music clip.

The Honeymoon Is Over. The honeymoon suite is deserted. There's still a little wine left over, and you can see a few balloons are scattered, but clearly celebration time has come and gone, and it's time to leave. Of course, here on JayIsGames, escaping a room is never that easy.

Strawberry Cafe designed room escape games usually contain a luscious mix of reds, pinks, and whites that together evoke images of strawberry desserts, and Enchanted Room Escape is true to form. Despite the minor flaws this is one of the better escapes from this designer, simple enough for a snack but complex enough to satisfy the appetite. Perhaps you'd better grab some munchies before you dive in, just in case, and prepare to be enchanted!

During a long and tedious day at work there is nothing better than a lunch break, especially if you've skipped breakfast and are starving. You're so hungry, in fact, that you're ready to take that lovely Bento Box Lunch and dismantle right it down to the bottom where the bomb is...wait, the bomb? Must be a Dismantlement puzzle!

Robamimi is one of our favorite room escape designers and One Scene is a perfect example of why. It's a room escape that features just one scene, a single point-of-view of a room, which makes navigation in this amusing little escape pretty easy. There's no wandering around, just investigating everything from one perspective. One Scene is a midnight snack, meaty but not too heavy, a wonderful bite rather than a main course.

Take another trip into the bizarre world of Detarou's escape games. Whether it's from the strangeness or not, it's your mission in Dayori to find a way out of this curious house. Fans of Detarou's work may find this offering somewhat mild compared to the others. That's not to say you won't see their regular cast of characters that we've all grown to love. If you haven't had your hand at a wacky Detarou escape game, this is a great introduction. You may just find yourself giving all their games a try!

Most of the fun of Figurines Room Escape is simply enjoying the ambiance as you work your way towards getting out of a place that pretty much anyone would probably love to visit once in their lifetime. Figurines Room Escape provides both time and a location to relax and enjoy a mini-vacation.

A typical Kotoriscape consists of a handful of well-designed puzzles that follow a specific theme revealed by its title, and Device does not disappoint. There are all kinds of devices to fiddle with in the vaguely Oriental room: a smartphone with a dead battery, a mysteriously fast-running clock, a service robot with three cranks on its head, and many more. Logical puzzles, soft and pleasing gradient-filled graphics, and a save feature for when you need a break are also hallmarks of Kotorinosu that stay with us for Device.

Evolution has you wandering a rocky underground base filled with mysteries and puzzles, your only company an egg-headed scientist who really likes bananas and seems to have lost his pet cat. As is the 58 Works custom, you'll pick up and use various items that come in handy here and there, and more uniquely acquire pieces of a rather cool bodysuit that gives you all sorts of new abilities. Everything that made Solitude great (an interesting environment, totally logical puzzles, simple but appropriate graphics and sound) is back in Evolution, and the new content (intermittent short cutscenes, a somewhat more artificial setting) is nothing to sneeze at either.

There's very little to complain about with Escape Hotel 4: the puzzles are logical and flow, the navigation is pretty intuitive (except in some hidden spaces), the translations are excellent, and the pixel hunting is at a minimum. This is Tesshi-e room escaping at its best!

Libra Horoscope: Today you are likely to play an escape game by Otousan, with puzzles themed around determining the weight of objects by various means. When Otousan picks a theme, they play with it in seemingly every way they can; Libra is no exception. It has all the hallmarks of an Otougame: a group of well-designed themed puzzles with some simple minor ones to tie them together, and a simplistic atmosphere that makes sure you know what you're messing with without being distracting.

TeraLumina has created a short, but fantastic escape game with one of the best fake-out endings we've seen. You won't see puzzles with the complexity of, say, Neutral, but what is there is fun and involving and perfect for a quick escape. It's time to go treasure hunting!

Just because you have a smartphone doesn't mean you can't make dumb decisions. Nyan the cat forgets how sinister the porch is in its efforts to trap him (for the THIRD time), and gets locked out one day while playing with his new phone. It's up to you to reunite Nyan and his canine companion Wan in this absolutely adorable and charming escape game with two chapters and three different endings from Cogito Ergo Sum.

This TomaTea escape has smooth, intuitive navigation and cohesive puzzles that rely in equal parts on your power of observation, your ability to make logical connections, and your ingenuity. The balmy August evening atmosphere is alluring and, as you search for clues in this three-room scene, cricket songs serenade you. Not so long or involved that it becomes more work than play, Summer Night Escape gives its players a bit of a challenge, a lot of fun, and a moment to gaze at a starry sky.

The Escape Hotel is back in The Escape Hotel 3, from Tesshi-e, and this time the fun begins before you ever make it to your room. How hard can it be to escape a hotel lobby, you might ask? Harder than you'd think, especially since you're not escaping to get out, but to get into your room. All you have to do is navigate around the spacious area, figure out your hotel room number, discover how to make the elevator work, and break into a few "employee only" areas.

Quick! You're trapped in an office with a violent little girl, a giant wall-mounted face, a despondent-looking mechanical spider dude and something weird in a box. What do you do? Well, if you ever want to find your way out of Detarou's latest surreal and silly escape game you'll need to think outside the box and pay attention to your surroundings... or YOU might be the next one to be planted in the floor!

We dig deep for an oldie but a goodie with Kotorinosu's Shape. Shape is logical, fun, challenging escaping awesomeness that depends mostly on spatial perception and the ability to observe and deduce using various shapes found around the room. Despite the paucity of furnishings or other decor there is a lot of puzzle-solving to be had in this amusing little room escape.

There's no place like home, but in this beautifully atmospheric little point-and-click escape, it's hard to say if the dingy little apartment you find yourself stuck in could be called home by anyone. A lack of changing cursor makes this game harder than it might normally be, but a cleverly handled narrative and twist on a familiar story make this one moody little gem fans of the genre will want to check out.

Playing the role of an unfortunate hero who is cursed with the habit of sleepwalking, you awake to find yourself in an unfamiliar witch's hut. Since witches aren't exactly known for their hospitality, you're tasked with escaping the building before she returns, using only your wit and maybe a few handy magical resources.

Doors, doors, everywhere, and not a key to be found! Or so it seems in this tricky, sneaky point-and-click puzzle escape. Each room may look the same, but finding out how to open the doors to proceed is easier said than done. Pay attention to your surroundings and your inventory and you just might succeed at this rapid-fire escape game.

What would you do if you were stuck in a locked room with a post filled with monitors? Find keys and solve puzzles to unlock the door, of course! Silly question, sure, but this is just the situation in store for you in Monitor Post, a short and sharp-looking escape game from Ninja Motion. With just enough keys and puzzles to keep you busy for a distraction break, the game will please all but the most hardcore of escapers out there who require a bit more challenge than this has to offer.

Welcome to yet another strange friend of Tesshi-e who loves nothing more than to lock hapless strangers into a puzzle room and make them solve their way out. Mr. K is back and better than ever in Escape from Mr. K's Room 3.

After a long hiatus, Zack Livestone is back to take us deep within his chalky, imaginative world filled with perplexing puzzles and captivating characters. Enter the stark world of Deep Chalk 4, the latest installment in his Deep Chalk series and arguably the most elaborate and deep experience yet.

A classic one-room escape game with puzzles that are nicely varied with a lot of combination type and those that use found objects. What is nice to see with Escape from the Room 202 is a designer who seriously understands how an escape game should flow. Let's welcome Tsukisuna-sou to the ranks of promising game designers and have fun playing this wonderful new effort.

Gam.eBB.jp proudly brings us a new toy to dismantle with the usual exploding surprise buried within. The puzzles are pretty simple but are nicely varied, and this is definitely a fun way to start the day. Just don't mute the sound, otherwise you'll be stuck from the beginning. Wake up and grab a screwdriver!

Kids get the weirdest toys. Dinosaurs with wheels. Monster trucks that roar and eat cavemen. Toy robot bears with color-coded buttons that correspond to wallpaper trim with arms that can be positioned to write encoded messages to other playmates. You know, the usual stuff. Playroom, a brand new room escape game from Imagia creator Kayzerfish, takes place in just such a location, and in order to escape from this abode, you'll need to do some serious code breaking, map drawing, and item hunting in this colorful and challenging game.

A delightfully logical and quick to solve room escape game, this one from Petithima. It's a simple room design with simple, easy to understand controls and simple puzzles. And when added together these make for a wonderful experience that is not too heavy on the palate. Fortunately we have games like Room 9 to fall back on, secure in the knowledge that the escaping fun will be logical, amusing, and flow easily from one challenge to the next.

Escape from the Restroom is a pretty easy game, befitting something that is there to amuse a restaurant patron for a few minutes while awaiting a dinner guest. The puzzles are fun and challenging but not overly difficult, creating a nice, light, easy escape to whet your appetite and leave you wanting more.

Ruby Loft Escape is a wonderful and bracing mid-week treat, a visual and logical delight from a relative newcomer, one we're looking forward to seeing more of. So have fun robbing some poor rich person blind.

In this latest escape-the-room game by TomaTea, you are whisked away to an enchanting little café in Paris, France. Each brain-teaser in Golden Heart is just complex enough to require thought without being overly perplexing. Although, one puzzle will be much easier to those who know how to read and play music, our review provides all the necessary information to elucidate even the tone deaf.

The puzzles in Ancient Scripts are not necessarily the hardest we've ever seen. What Ancient Scripts has that many other games don't have though is that indefinable elegance of design, in the controls, in the backgrounds, and most especially in the puzzles.

Every scene in 58 Works' On Sen is picturesque, beguiling, and very peaceful, so it makes sense that the puzzles would be equally affable, not too strenuous or taxing. With logical puzzles, intuitive navigation and a beautiful atmosphere, On Sen is a pleasure to experience, even if it is only a quick dip rather than a long soak.

Escape from the Kid's Room is the perfect mid-week break, challenging but not too difficult, and a nostalgic look back for one of our most popular room escape designers. Pretty to look at and fun to play, Escape from the Kid's Room is definitely the perfect escape for those not wanting to spend too much time locked into a strange kid's room.

Escape Castle consistently defines fun. Although some puzzles may leave you feeling you've been there, done that, Escape Castle's final "puzzle" is a welcome twist on the genre, elevating it to a new level while harkening back to an age-old gaming tradition of the final boss battle.

Kotorinosu is treading into Mya's Neutral territory with Mirror Escape in regard to variety and difficulty of puzzles. The game is fun, challenging, logical, and a joy for experienced room escapers looking for something fresh and new. Just remember, when gazing into mirrors it is sometimes wise not to look too closely lest you get lost inside with no hope of escape.

Place of Light has nabbed you again, and this time you're trapped inside a very cozy, but very small, entry hall. Unless you're satisfied with the company of animal photos and can subsist on shoe leather for the rest of your life, you'll have to follow the clues, solve the puzzles, and find some way to escape!

Not very difficult but fun and occasionally challenging, Suntrap Room Escape is the perfect mid-week break, a light and airy confection as delicious as its designer's name implies. Dive in and enjoy the experience, even if it will leave you hungry for something, anything strawberry flavored.

Described by the developer as a "five-minutes room escape game," Pearl Room Escape is not short on pleasing visuals, intuitively logical puzzles or enjoyment. While not all players will make their way out within the abbreviated time frame as advertised, the game is leisurely enough for anyone to dive into, providing a vacation from the ordinary milieu. Pearl Room Escape may seem too short or lacking in features to garner much attention, yet this mini-escape is a true pearl of delight.

Time to brush up on your culinary skills and get cooking in this latest Tesshi-e escape game! Explore the irregular dimensions of this out of the ordinary room as you enjoy the beautiful and stunning graphics that Tesshi-e is known for. You'll need to combine logic, puzzle solving, object finding, object using, and a few culinary skills in order to call your friend to let you out so you can enjoy the lovely breakfast you just slaved over a hot...hot-plate to create.

Hermit Rabi is a satisfying little escape adventure chock-full of puzzles, logic, use of found objects, combining objects, and communicating with imaginary rabbits. With this designer you get the whole package: fantastic gameplay, intuitive and easy to use controls, and gorgeous visuals, making Robamimi one of our favorite room escape designers. So get ready for a perfect mid-week break with Hermit Rabi and Wonder Fountain.

14 Locks, the latest game from Bart Bonte, is not strictly an escape game but it is still fun to navigate your way through the imaginatively decorated spaces, each one becoming more elaborate than the last. Bart has created something that is pretty exciting and amusing to play with this Unity platform, although it can be a little nausea inducing, so please be warned.

Sakudatu is definitely an entertaining room escape. The puzzles are fun if a tad too easy and the madness going on all around merely enhances the escaping experience. If the bizarro world of Detarou is to your liking then you are in for one tasty treat.

In this conclusion to the Stamp Rally Escape trilogy, the puzzles flow nicely from one to the next and the animals' special talents for jumping and punching are on display front and center several times around the room. All in all a nice, satisfying conclusion to the series, leaving the room escaper happy and content, at least until Cogito Ergo Sum's next epic trilogy.

As with most escapes, Button is set in a room filled with all manner of doodads and puzzles: a few paintings on the wall, a red couch, a grandfather clock mysteriously missing its hands, a bookshelf... and a tempting red button behind a metallic hatch beside the door, helpfully marked "DO NOT PUSH" in both English and Japanese. How you treat the button will affect the outcome of the game.

Dangerous Gen-Kan Escape 2 is not only a perfect mid-week break but a fantastic nod to the past oeuvre of point-and-click adventure gaming which spawned today's room escapes. Come on, you know you want to play, even if you might blow up. Be careful, it's dangerous.

You would really have to search hard to find anything wrong with Mild Escape 4, the newest game from Tesshi-e. Challenging, amusing, easy on the eyes and ears, with simple intuitive controls, you're looking at a near perfect classic one-room four-wall escape game, wrapped up in an anniversary bow. Perfect for the mid-week break, Mild Escape 4 is everything you could want in a room escape and more.

When you see the word "dismantlement" in front of a noun, especially when that noun is a gadget filled with nifty parts to dig through, you know it's time for another installment of the excellent point-and-click Dismantlement series! Just like previous releases, Dismantlement: Mini Keyboard charges you with the task of taking apart a gadget with nothing more than a screwdriver. The insides of this contraption won't be familiar to anyone who has actually pulled apart a keyboard before, and there might be a surprise (or six) waiting for you behind that rear panel!

Not long and nor very difficult, Blossom Spring Escape is a perfect mid-week break and a nice celebration of the season wrapped up into one. Amusing, easy on the eyes, logical, and just plain fun to enjoy the escaping madness. So take a few minutes out of your day and celebrate spring with a lot of pretty flowers and colors and logic puzzles. You know, just the way Grandma used to do.

I don't know how to pronounce it, or even what it means but I love the game! Detarou's latest release is completely Detarou; in other words, it's a wonderfully weird, surreal, delightfully presented and maybe even a little unsettling point-and-click game with three endings to discover. The game itself defies any sense of reality, but it's funny, quirky, surprising and a real pleasure to play. And each ending only adds to the enjoyment of play with startling humour.

Escape from the Living Room 2 is a fun stand-alone room escape, a bit of a nostalgic nod to the past while incorporating all of the elements that make the more current Tesshi-e games much more fun and playable. Whether you are young and new to the genre or an old, old veteran like myself, Escape from the Living Room 2 is quite a fun classic room escape game, perfect for the mid-week break.

Transylvania is without a doubt the best point-and-click game about a sleepwalking potato who accidentally drives his car into the depths of hell that I have ever played. The bar has definitely been raised for that particular niche. But be warned: the dangers in this place aren't just of being scared, nor even of being trapped there forever. No, you can expect to die many, many times on your quest to escape back to Miss Potato, often in extremely unfair (but hilarious!) ways.

Shadow is a quiet yet solid escape game by Kotorinosu, which stands apart from the crowd of point-and-click puzzle games with its simplicity, appealing graphics, and honest escape game fare. If you have an appetite for honest-to-goodness escape games, then loosen your belt a knotch and enjoy a hearty helping.

The Who Am I? series of puzzles are Robamimi "light", leaning more on the central wordplay than the complexity of the other individual puzzles. Play 18 Who Am I? and enjoy a lot of well designed and well executed escaping gameplay wrapped up in a fun 10 minutes or so. So relax and enjoy the soothing rhythms of a mellow jazz soundtrack as you ponder the universal question, Who Am I? Or, at least, the 18 Who Am I?

If you're looking for a fantastic point-and-click adventure that combines mystery, suspense, pharmaceuticals, science fiction, and an extremely goofy English translation, then look no further. Take two shots of Dr. Stanley's House 2 and call me in the morning. Presuming, of course, that you ever find your way out of the air ducts.

Whether your are attempting to break in due to having lost your keys or due to having lost your job and are in need of some disposable income, Apartment House Escape is an amusing "reverse" escape, where you are trying to break in rather than out.

With its cute animation, wacky yet suspenseful music, amusing sound effects, and its bizarre characters, Chubby Hamster is a fantastic adventure all on its own. Help the poor hapless hamster escape before he meets unspeakable doom. Unspeakable, I say!

Despite the stripped down interface and fairly simple graphics Escape from the Room Surrounded by Bookshelves 2 is a lot of logical escaping fun. Try this fun and simple escape which is another step in the right direction from a talented new game designer.

Point-and-click your way through the third installment in Pastel Games' Sneak Thief series! A brisk fifteen minute-ish diversion, this game will send you off into the weekend whistling. The titular thief finds himself in some kind of underground lair with a number of code pads and a safe. Will it turn out to be his downfall?

Triangle is absolutely charming. Its atmosphere is decidedly different from practically every escape game I've ever played before, and for someone who's played as many as I have that's a feat. Explore the room, pick up various items, solve various puzzles, and eventually regain your freedom.

Gold Door Escape is a rollicking good escape the room game. Most of the fun is had in anticipating the bizarre, hilarious, or surreal scenes that await the player as they make their way through the strangest building in existence. Fun, slightly scandalous, and surprisingly logical, Gold Door is the perfect mid-week escape, especially for anyone who appreciates the outlandishness to be found within.

Escape from the Lodge is Tesshi-e's best effort to date. Complex, amusing, gorgeous to look at, and with easy to understand and use controls this is one fantastic room escape, perfect for the mid-week break. Join Tesshi-e on their vacation from escaping and be prepared for...more escaping fun than ever before.

Give Bird Escape a spin. Try out something new, something that is not "just like every other room escape" and enjoy the surreal and unique experience that is Otousan's world. A world with a lot of birds. And grapes. And some amusing escaping as well.

Room Perfection 2 isn't what you'd call a complete room escape, more of a two walls and out type of scenario. However, packed within those two walls are a lot of tricky puzzles and games worthy of gam.ebb.jp's reputation. Visual puzzles, letter puzzles, just about everything you can think of makes an appearance, including a tricky bit of point and shoot.

After more than five years, it's time to fall back into Johnathan May's The Dark Room all over again with a new set of rooms to explore and puzzles to unlock. In fact, just figuring out what you're supposed to do is a puzzle all its own in each room you encounter. While not as big as the Dark Complex, this third installment is every bit as engrossing and tricky as the original, and an absolute blast to get lost in.

Not terribly difficult but with a lot of entertainment value, R20 Who Am I? is a great addition to the Robamimi catalogue and an amusing way to break up the week. Nowhere near as difficult as, say, Smile For Me and without the sentiment of Dad or First Love, R20 Who Am I? is relaxing, mind-stretching escaping goodness wrapped up in a really well designed bow.

Escape from the Tatami Room 2 is one of Tesshi-e's more middle of the road efforts. There are some unique puzzles alongside old chestnuts like the wobbly corner picture. Not, perhaps, their most innovative, but still a nice combination of puzzles and construction make Tatami Room 2 an entertaining way to while away a few minutes.

Orient Express Night has fun object finding, some challenging puzzles, and the use of combined objects that you expect from a decent room escape. Add in the atmosphere and the visuals and you have one fun ride, destination Istanbul (or a place more enigmatic).

By now you're an old hand at taking things apart, but can you solve the mystery of... THE BARBER POLE?! (Dun dun dun!) The popular point-and-click puzzle series makes a return with another batch of devious puzzles and mechanisms, this time hiding inside a seemingly innocuous bit of scenery.

It's my unfortunate duty to inform you that GrinnyP has accidentally locked herself in a room and Sonic Lover is trying to help her out with a screwdriver. Therefore I've stepped in to welcome you to Weekday Escape, so let's get right to it, shall we? This week we're going to point-and-click our way out of some underground chambers in Mafia Escape 2, by Wild Harmony Studio.

A nice mix of logic, use of found objects, and strangeness make Stamp Rally Escape 2 a worthy sequel to the first Stamp Rally Escape. Judging by the increasing difficulty of the puzzles the unseen RIDLRIDL (or Cogito Ergo Sum) are working towards something that will challenge Wan and Nyan to their very limits, will drive them further and further into the unknown of puzzle solving, will tax every cell in their bodies as they strive for the elusive prize at the end

Stripped down and basic, lacking music, decor, and some controls, Escape from a Building without Windows is a fantastic way to spend 5 or 10 minutes, and hottategoya is a room escape designer to watch, if only because they have mastered the first basic rule: make it logical, please. If you want to design room escape games or just love playing them give this little gem a try.

If you're looking for a game that will leave you wondering, "What was THAT all about?" then try this quirky Japanese escape game from Detaru. The slick graphics and smooth gameplay make this a title worth checking out, and fans of strange silliness will definitely love it.

Fireplace fits brilliantly into Petithima's ever increasing catalog of escape games, a transition to bigger and better things, we hope. Amusing, entertaining, and original, Fireplace is not only a great escape game to play, it is the perfect mid-week, mid-holiday stress reliever you've been looking for.

Escape from Santa's Room is not Tesshi-e's best, perhaps, but it hits all the right notes for room escaping fun, and may help a little with the post-Christmas blues that tend to settle in around 7 pm or so, depending on when dinner was served. Cheer up, and join the escape!

The best thing about Christmas as a kid is Santa, isn't it? Not necessarily the presents per se, but more the excitement of Christmas Eve. The anticipation, wondering what you're going to get. The excitement of trying to stay up late and catch a glimpse of Santa. But in this great little Christmas escape game by 58 works, Santa does things a little bit differently.

Pencil Kids' new release in the hybrid puzzle-arcade series is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Players of previous games in the series should be familiar with the premise: a trio of monkeys is sad, and it's up to you to make them "go happy." Use the mouse to click on objects and locations, solve puzzles, shoot stuff etc. Some levels are click-fests in the Hoshi Saga model, others act like mini-escape games, others have a hidden object flavor to them, and still others are action-based. There's quite a bit of variation packed into the game's 16 levels and expansion pack. Let's monkey see what you can monkey do!

So what do you do when St. Nick turns your living quarters into a room escape puzzler for the holidays? Naturally, you try to escape. Endless X'mas is a good sample of what room escaping should be like. The puzzles are exceedingly creative compared to most, and the graphics and music are quite nice as well, bringing everything together into a quaint atmosphere.

YFYIAR is a simple interactive fiction game where you must escape from a room. As play progresses, however, the conventions of normal text adventures begin to break down as the computer narrator begins to express its dislike for you, your humanity, and all it entails.

A brand new Dismantlement game has just been released upon us, and that's usually a red letter day around here at JIG. As it's only just been released, we'll need a little time with it to write up something appropriate. In meantime, help us with a walkthrough, please? Of course we have to get through it first. You can help with that, too. :)

Wan and Nyan, the jumping dog and punching cat, are back for this epic journey to collect stamps in Stamp Rally Escape 1 from Cogito Ergo Sum. The animal heroes receive a piece of mail from a mysterious organization that has created several room escapes just for them to get out of, and at the end are the promised presents. And though at the end all you get is a special gold stamp (you will need three to get the promised cool present), you also have the promise of more to come. So join Wan and Nyan on their quest for consumer goods of an undetermined variety.

Imagia 2 picks up right where Imagia 1 left us, pointing and clicking our way around a mysterious rooftop, gathering clues about just what we're trying to accomplish in the first place. If you were hoping for answers in this sequel from Kayzerfish, I'm afraid we're still in questions without answers mode. You know, like the first season of Lost, only no smoke monster. The observant player, however, should gather enough to seriously pique curiosity and we can only hope subsequent chapters will follow close behind.

Spooky rather than scary, Mystic Asylum is an escape game of chills rather than frights. No jump scares here, just a lot of spooky atmosphere enlivened by the standard conventions of a room escape. Stunning to look at and fun to play, Mystic Asylum is also a nice, creepy escape slap dab in the middle of the holiday season, something to cut the treacle and a relief from all of the frantic shopping.

Who's up for a taste of the Orient? No, not a Yum-Cha banquet as much as I'd like to be able to take us all out for. Rather, a nice little point and click entree from Abroy> games, a delightfully seasoned escape game without the MSG. Golden Dragon Mystery is a pleasurable break from routine, as sweet as ordering Chinese take-out on the weekend.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not true that the Inuit culture has more than a hundred words for snow, but it is true that the Japanese language has roughly fourteen symbols and words for the English word 'perfection'. I bet you're all enthralled at this little piece of trivia, so to avoid contentious discussion let's now turn our attention to Room Perfectio, a lovely, albeit brief, escape game from the creators of the Dismantlement series.

Escape from the Art Studio has a nicely balanced mix of exploration, puzzles, and use of found objects. Even better, the puzzles have become more unique for a Tesshi-e escape, especially the little robots with the moving arms. These escapes continue to evolve, rarely falling back on cliché d, "I've seen this before" puzzles. That is one of the reasons that Tesshi-e escapes are so entertaining.