For those of you not reading my Facebook Beacon feed (kidding! I disabled that in case Megarotic.com ever joins Beacon), I've been in love with Kongregate for the last few months. It's the YouTube of Flash games, hosting games such as Desktop Tower Defense, which everyone was playing all last year. But the entire tower defense genre, based on building towers to fend off an invading army, feels like work. So here are five popular but actually entertaining flash games.


Grid16: The best game for old arcade fans, as it relies on a twitch-like rapid hand-eye coordination. See those sixteen games? You're going to play them for about four seconds each.


Dolphin Olympics 2: Yes, I'm a dolphin flying over fireworks. Fuck you, it's fun. It takes just the right level of supposed skill to do tricks in this game, without actually being difficult, or having a plot or point that I'll never fulfill because I always get tired of it after half an hour, and because I have stubby fingers and the reaction time of Amy Winehouse.


Boxhead: Zombies attack, you shoot them. Really frustrating aiming the gun, but that's exactly the kind of terror and annoyance you need to learn to deal with for the real world. So this is an educational game too! Find some kids and make them play.


Four Second Frenzy: Same format (and same creators) as Grid16, but this twitch game has weird rough illustrations.


Papa's Pizzeria: I played this for two hours before I realized I was replicating an actual high school job without the benefit of stealing chunks of mozzarella from the cooler.