Top Ten Games from Dan-Ball
Dan-Ball is a Japanese-English website where you can play a collection of HTML/Java web games. Some of the games are overlooked, but provide an intriguing gameplay experience. It's recommended to check out those games if you haven't already.
This is an RPG game where you select four stickmen out of eight classes. The goal is to kill monsters and bosses as you advance through stages.
Though the beginning of the game is easy, early-mid and middle game stages especially provide a good challenge, thanks to the diverse monsters and bosses with unique attacks and type resistances and weaknesses (like Pokémon). The best feature that compensates for this challenging difficulty is that you can drag the stickmen with your cursor wherever you'd like. Use this to your advantage, helping the stickmen dodge various projectiles when things get heavy.
Throughout the game, you may also have to collect various types of weapons strategically to counter certain bosses, including those in the late game. The tedious part of the game is that you need to grind for the weapons by killing the required monsters. Everything is diverse, giving many ways to experiment with your stickmen's defense, magic, and offense.
There is also PVP, which occasionally gets competitive, requiring more experimentation with weapons and stats if you want to optimize your win ratio (don't worry, most players are casual). Sure, this looks like a typical RPG at first, but it's executed very well, especially for a web game developed in 2008, thus earning its No. 1 spot on this list.
This is a sandbox game where you can create your own worlds using 30+ unique elements. Whether you're just experimenting, creating a simple volcano, making a functional water gun, or even creating a basic calculator out of metal, glass, and some electricity, this game has it all.
The best part of this game is that you can share your creations and gain votes (popularity points) depending on the quality of your work. There's also a variety of special effects and backgrounds to select, giving more visual appeal to your work. Overall, the number of unique elements makes this game very open to experimentation, with intriguing physics, and it can leave you hooked for hours if you are new to this game.
Basically like Powder Game, but a revamped version. It comes with more elements and features that allow for more diverse experimentation. If you're creative enough, you can make complex 3D or 4D shapes, various machines, or a short animation consisting of a few frames made entirely out of joints. You can even create a mini action simulator.
With over 30 elements, the possibilities are almost endless in this game.
Another little game, yet packed with action. You control a fast-running panda that acts like a flashlight, using your mouse to light up the nearest obstacles within the light radius.
With three different maps provided, the primary goal of the game is to light as many objects as possible within 99 seconds. You can also choose to play freely without the timer for practice or fun. This is an old 3D game that surprisingly works well even on some old computers.
Especially if you're a musical person, this is a nice experimental sound simulator to fiddle with. There are boxes containing tiny squares that are beats you can toggle, as well as lines that make unique rhythms you can customize (pitch, volume, and a handful of other sound effects). Not to mention the oscilloscope background that adds to the visual appeal.
It's a little simulator, but it's very addicting if you love experimenting with instruments.
A space-themed gravity game based on skill and reflex. Your goal is to guide the rocket as far as possible without the planets pulling you into their surface or crashing into them.
There are five modes: Enjoy mode, ecology mode, charge mode, blind mode, and great mode. Enjoy mode is best for beginners, while ecology mode relies on fuel management (there's no refilling once you've used up your fuel). Charge mode is similar to ecology mode, but fuel can be refilled when near planets. Blind mode offers a more challenging feel. There's no trajectory ahead of your rocket, so you have to maneuver by instinct. Great mode provides even more challenging gameplay as you encounter more planets.
In my opinion, it's one of the best so far.
If you love collaboration and art, this game is for you. Everyone has the ability to add and edit pixels on the artwork. If you like making small pixel art figures, you'll find this game relaxing, although the limit is 100 pixels that can be put on the screen (hence the title).
Beware, this game only contains black and white, so don't expect vibrant artwork. Expect vandalism, too. Otherwise, the community in this game has a long history of collaborative artworks.
Aqua Box is a visually appealing virtual aquarium game about growing aquatic plants and selling them for fish or more plants. You can have fun observing those plants slowly grow, and it is addicting to watch.
Fish don't serve any purpose other than aesthetics for now, as I'm writing this (September 23, 2020). Although it's still in its alpha stage and lacks variety in both fish and plants, there is a lot of potential in this cute little game.
A simple planet simulation game where you can create your own planet(s). The most fun part is destroying them with meteors as you watch the powdery fragments eject off the gravity field. You can add black holes and white holes to make the game more interesting.
Despite the lack of elements, this game is addicting nonetheless.
A Japanese-style typing sandbox game where you can type Japanese words that explode into powder as they hit the ground (you can choose from several different powders that react differently). The goal of the game is to type the words as fast as possible while filling up the bar. The more you fill up the bar, the more pixels will be blasted from each letter you type. However, you must type faster, or the bar will drain quicker as you progress further.
The game is similar to Powder Game but with typing elements added. In my opinion, given the unique elements of this game, it's one of the most creative games out there. I really love how the creators thought of and executed this clever idea for such a simple yet undeniably fun typing game.
This is a challenging game where you drag multiple stickmen to a goal while collecting coins and avoiding obstacles without killing any stickmen. You have to be cautious, though, since you can lose grip if you hold your stickman too long.
There are 8 unique, challenging stages that consist of 3 levels each, which you need to complete within 99 seconds. However, you can play any of them if you'd like. Also, keep in mind that the more stickmen you drag at the same time, the faster your stamina drains.
Perhaps one of the most enjoyable games out of all Dan-Ball games. The goal is simple: kill monsters for coins and get all achievements if you're hardcore enough. You get to choose four classes, and once you do, sit back and relax while your stickman kills monsters for gold as you progress.
This game combines gameplay elements similar to Stick Ranger, except you don't have to worry about your stickmen getting killed. You can hire more stickmen to fight for you as you accumulate sufficient gold (8 is the max stickmen you can have). There is a spawner box in the middle that spawns heaps of monsters for a certain time, but you can accelerate it by holding down the box. The spawner can spawn four unique monsters at once.
Not only can you upgrade stickmen, but you can also upgrade monsters and even the spawner box to be stronger and provide more gold. There is a limit, though, and you have to prevent the number of monsters from reaching the limit, or else the game will end. However, your achievements won't be affected, and you can use this to your advantage to get even more achievements. The more achievements you get, the more passive bonuses you receive, allowing you to progress faster.
This is like Liquid Webtoy and Powder Game combined, but it is more a blocky version of the game with satisfying physics. There are only six elements and three shapes to choose from, and you can adjust the size of the blocks.
You can make a simple house out of powder blocks and catapult it with a metal block, watching it pulverize into multiple miniature blocks. Or you can just spawn a few blocks and mash them together into pieces. It is a simple yet addicting game.
This is the first web game that Dan-Ball developed. The goal is to fly your rocket to the goal as fast as possible while avoiding walls. You can collect yellow pixels along the way to score points and accelerate your rocket. There are six stages that you can choose to play to your liking.
The sequel to the original Stick Ranger. The content of this game is quite lacking since it's currently in development, but it is sure to be another success from the developers once it's finished.
This seems like a basic liquid simulation game at first, but the physics are surprisingly realistic as you drag or splash parts of the water with your cursor. Bonus points for this game being over a decade old. The most intriguing part of this little simulation is that you can sprinkle a bit of painted liquid and see how it blends.