One of the great things about writing game reviews is the opportunity to find those little known items that you can play for free. One such item comes by way of Newgrounds, and it’s called Shopping Cart Hero.

Now, you may think that nothing could quite top the sheer weirdness quotient given to us by “You Have to Defecate Upon King Bhumibol”, and you’d be right.  But how about a game that lets you jump a shopping cart?  With rocket boosters on the side?  And full of girls?

Before you start thinking that this is the kind of thing Johnny Knoxville sees if he drops acid (though you’d probably be right), that’s the point of the game.  Customize your cart with a selection of upgradeable parts, buy new tricks, and jump your cart to long distance, maximum height and maximum style.

It’s nothing fancy–all the characters are stick figures, and you can forget about anything resembling a story.  What it is, however, is a fun little time waster that you can play quickly if you have a couple minutes to spare between websites or YouTube videos or what have you.  At the end of the day, it’s a fun game, and that goes a long way.

When a game requires you to defecate on a sitting monarch, you have to wonder how long it’s going to be before the game’s creator winds up in a deep hole somewhere.  Thus, it’s hard to say how long the guys behind “You Have To Defecate Upon King Bhumibol” will be around.

Billed as “a complete ripoff of Mazapan’s IGF-nominated “You Have To Burn The Rope” (which was also, by the way, surprisingly fun)”, “You Have To Defecate Upon King Bhumibol” is almost a new low in gaming.  Essentially, all you will do is negotiate your way through a tunnel.  You’ll be attacked by no enemies, but you can throw your hat if you like at the vast among of nothing charging at you at any given time.  At the end of the tunnel is “a certain Thai royalty”, ostensibly the titular King Bhumibol.  You will then have to position yourself directly above the king, which releases a large quantity of brown sludge onto the enormous (relative to your character) King Bhumibol.
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You’ve really got to love the whole casual gaming concept.  It’s given us some titles that are, incongruously, more fun than the equivalents in the massive console market.  That’s hard to believe, I know, but when you try some of these you’ll really be amazed.

For instance, swing on out to Armor Games and try a little title called The Last Stand 2.  Fairly new, it was only available to play back in the latter half of 2008, and is a simple “move the arrow over the zombie and click until there isn’t a zombie there any more” game.  There are two parts to the game, which is an interesting mix.  First, there’s a strategy element in which you’re given twelve hours to “do stuff”.  The stuff in question includes repairing barricades that repel zombies and keep them from eating you, searching for the various weapons you can use in-game, and looking for survivors who will allow you to repair more barricade in less time and will also use the weapons you find.  Second, the actual gameplay, which is point and blast away until the zombies run out.

Being able to use various weapons is surprisingly fun, and having the strategy element forces you to do more than just blast zombies mindlessly.  It’s a game that will simultaneous stretch your mind and relax it, giving you all the fun of a shooter and all the brain-stretching goodness of a strategy sim.

As casual games go, The Last Stand 2 is a clear winner.