Derek Yu, best known as the man behind TIGSource , is also a developer and a damn fine one at that. One of his creations, Eternal Daughter , is a good indicator of Yu's style, which offers a lot of story and some wonderful pixel art. Eternal Daughter, which I caught wind of on playthisthing.com , tells the tale of a young girl forced into slavery, despite the fact that her mother is married to the labor camp's resident task master. Hijinx ensue, including the death of said taskmaster, followed by a well written storyline that deals with the trials and tribulations of freedom. Some may find the gameplay a little bit frustrating at first, but the real reward is actually the journey itself and not the mechanics used to get you there. If you want something bittersweet, Eternal Daughter is worth a download.

I'm a sucker for squad-based strategy games and Taskforce hits the spot. It's not particularly flashy but this game does offer some great fun if you have the patience to take it on. This tactical game lets you take control of a 12 man squad in a 3D environment as you battle an assortment of mutants in randomly generated levels. The game makes equipping soldiers a snap and while the nature of the game is random, completed missions can be replayed at your leisure. While this game may not have a lot of visual sizzle it does a nice job of trying to fit the X-Com model that so many people are still in love with.

Pencil & Paper is a simple game where you must draw your way to a goal. The idea of the game is to lead your little guy to a goal by drawing a path. This game is very simple but interesting for a number of reasons including the fact that it was created in two days as an experiment. The other reason is the simplicity of the visual style and the gameplay - which really only requires clicking the left mouse button to draw a line. While you probably won't waste much time with the game, it's always fun to see how people take an idea from concept to final product. Check it out, just for fun.

Our final entry is a slick game from Frogames called Penguins Arena – Sedna’s World . Available for Windows and Mac OS X, Penguins Arena tells the tale of a penguin legend come to life about Sedna, an ancient Penguin Goddess. Sedna says that the world is changing and that there is no longer room for so many tribes. So what's a penguin to do but fight for their tribe and be the last group standing -- which is just what you'll have to do in this shooter involving skating, shooting and lots and lots of penguins. It also should be noted that this game won first-place prize in the Best Game on the Go category and the award for the Best use of Torque in a game demo in the recent Intel Game Demo Contest -- competing among 145 entries from 29 countries.

And that's all for this week. Thanks for reading - see you next week. As always, questions, comments and hate mail are welcomed - send it along to jamesbfudge@gmail.com or gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com . - James Fudge

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