Female Protagonist

In honor of Leap Day 2008, Anna Anthropy, editor of The Gamer's Quarter and hobbyist game developer, released Mighty Jill Off, a free, old-school, and delightfully subversive little PC game. Jill Off distills its gameplay down to a very simple and enjoyable level; press left and right to walk, press Z to jump, press Z mid-jump to stop your upward-momentum early, and mash Z repeatedly to hover. Jill Off also distills its theme and plot down to a very simple and enjoyable level; the titular chubby little dyke gimp (which I say in the nicest way possible) is climbing to the top of a tower simply because she's a submissive, and her greatest joy in life is when her dominatrix queen MAKES her climb to the top of the tower.

Knytt Stories is, as you can probably guess, a pseudo-sequel to the original Knytt. While the gameplay and atmosphere of the game are very similar to their predecessor, there are numerous refinements that put this a step above the original. Rather than starting out with all your abilities at once, you’re forced to acquire them as the game progresses. There are several entirely new abilities, too, including an umbrella, which will slow descent, and a double jump.

The Witch's Yarn is a graphic adventure with a difference. Rather than being an exercise in puzzle-based problem solving, it's more of an interactive drama--your choices in terms of actions and exposition affect the reactions of the other characters, and the direction of the story.

If you yearn for the days of Ultima (round about VII or VIII) or the King's Quest games--or if you've plowed all the way through Oblivion and aren't willing to wait for years until the next great, big-budget fantasy RPG gets released--you've just stumbled on a game you will like a great deal. In fact, stop reading now and go play the demo. Maybe I need to insert a rotating spiral GIF here and a deep hypnotic voice intoning "You Will Like It," but it hardly seems necessary. No mental coercion needed--the game speaks for itself.