You know what genuinely breaks my heart? That today’s kids are growing up in an age without Flash. Yeah, Flash the program is still used to make cartoons likeStar Trek: Lower Decksor the rebooted King of the Hill, but I’m talking about in-browser Flash animation and games.
Back in the early 2000s, Flash content was one of the definitive pillars of the online experience, at least in my opinion. There were always new cartoons to watch and new games to play, and while it was all much smaller in scope than the stuff we have nowadays, it left an indelible mark on our collective hearts and minds.
While in-browser Flash has long since been discontinued, its legacy lives on in other ways, chief among them being games. Some of the games that came out in the Flash era were so good, so popular, that their creators eventually went on to turn them into full, commercial releases.
There are quite a few games out there, big and small, that had humble origins in a quiet corner of Newgrounds. These are some of the games that have successfully endured the changing of the media guard and survived the Flash-pocalypse.
All games on this list must have originated as a Flash game, and must currently be available for purchase on an official storefront like Steam.
9The Henry Stickmin Collection
The Legacy Of Among Us
The Henry Stickmin Collection
If someone asked you to name a game developed by Innersloth, you’d probably say, “Among Us, obviously, what else is there?” Prior to 2020, you’d be right, as Among Us was Innersloth’s only commercial release at the time.
However, it did have an entire series of games under its belt, games that would eventually loop back around to prominence thanks to Among Us’ pedigree. These were the Henry Stickmin games.
Originally released on Newgrounds in 2008, the Henry Stickmin games were a series of choose-your-own-adventure games, with their main appeals being their funny animation and an abundance of references to the pop-culture stuff that was popular at the time. The simple gameplay and entertaining gags made the games a fun way to pass the time during a Newgrounds browsing session.
Over a decade later in 2019, Innersloth, now a household name thanks to Among Us, announced that all the Henry Stickmin games would be compiled into a single commercial release, titled The Henry Stickmin Collection. The response was immensely positive, both from those who just liked Among Us and those with fond memories of the original Flash games.
8Alien Hominid
One Of The First To Break The Barrier
Alien Hominid
Video game developer The Behemoth, best known for its work on Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater, was initially founded by Newgrounds staffers Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin. The first game the two would work together on was a Flash project released all the way back in 2002,Alien Hominid.
Alien Hominid was an arcade-style run ‘n gun game, notorious for its high difficulty, but generally well-liked for having more polish than you’d expect out of something played in a browser.
As it happened, one of the game’s fans approached Paladin and asked if he’d be interested in building it up for a proper console release. That fan, John Baez, would go on to form The Behemoth with Paladin and Fulp, with Alien Hominid being their first commercial release.
Alien Hominid was released for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in 2004. Its overall success was modest, but the mere fact that it rose from such humble beginnings earned it all kinds of accolades. Later down the line, the game was re-released for newer platforms like the Xbox 360, and an HD remaster was released alongside the game’s direct sequel, Alien Hominid Invasion.
7Super Fancy Pants Adventures
Powered Through Sheer Word Of Mouth
The Fancy Pants Adventures
I think one of the best examples of a game reaching prominence through word of mouth alone is The Fancy Pants Adventures. It was originally just a Flash game released on Newgrounds, but when I was a kid, it was the hottest thing since toasted bread.
I have no idea who I heard about it from or who everyone else heard about it from, but everyone knew it, and we were always trying to sneak plays of it in the school computer lab.
The original Fancy Pants Adventures was released on Flash game sites in an unfinished state in 2006, quickly picking up speed thanks to its buttery-smooth, speedy platforming. Only the first world was available at first, but more worlds gradually rolled out over subsequent years, with the game slowly inching toward a complete state.
The three released worlds would eventually be released as a complete game on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2010 under Electronic Arts’ banner.
Fast-forward to 2017, and a fourth world was announced and set to be released as its own game, Super Fancy Pants Adventures, releasing on Steam, iOS, and Android in 2018. The original three levels are also on Steam as The Fancy Pants Adventures: Classic Pack, though at the time of writing, this collection is still in Early Access.
6No Time To Explain Remastered
Where The Guy In The TinyBuild Logo Came From
No Time To Explain
If you’re a fan of indie games, you’re probably at least familiar with indie developer and publisher tinyBuild, which was originally founded back in 2011. As with some other games on this list, tinyBuild was kind of born out of necessity, a need for awareness and capital to turn a fledgling browser game into a proper release.
No Time to Explain first launched on Newgrounds in 2011, a short and sweet browser game released at the start of that year. The response to this basic version was very positive though, thanks to both its fun gameplay hook of a laser cannon that launches you all over the place and your future self getting eaten by a giant shark.
With the wind at their backs, developers and designers Alex Nichiporchik and Tom Brien began work on the full version the following month. To help move things along, a Kickstarter was launched the following April, which raised over $26,000, well over its $7,000 goal.
The game was released shortly after, albeit only independently. It wouldn’t be until 2013 that the game would be greenlit for a Steam release, which finally occurred two years later in the form of No Time to Explain Remastered.
5Hatoful Boyfriend
The Little Pigeon That Could
Hatoful Boyfriend
Something you could always rely on the Flash scene for wasquality April Fool’s jokes. As a wise man once said, “April Fool’s is the day when the internet gets on the internet to make inside jokes about the internet.”
One such joke was that the internet is full of people who like weird dating sims, of which there were plenty on Newgrounds back in the day, which is what prompted a manga artist to make such a joke in 2011.
Manga artist Hato Moa, alongside her indie development circle PigeoNation Inc., were looking to get into the game development scene, starting with visual novels since they’re generally easier to program and develop. To get their feet wet, they decided to release a visual novel dating sim for April Fool’s of 2011, using real photos of pigeons as characters to save time and because, well, it was funny.
The result was the original version ofHatoful Boyfriend, the response to which was so huge, it ended up crashing its hosting site a couple of times.
The game got a full release in 2011, but it was only in Japanese, and only circulated around Japanese dojin circles. It wouldn’t be until 2014 when Hato was approached by Mediatonic that it would finally see a full commercial, international release.
4Bloons TD 6
A Hallmark Of Flash Game Culture
Bloons TD 6
Tower defense gameswerehugeback in the Flash days. Perhaps one of the most well-known tower defense games was Bloons Tower Defense, which would go on to spawn an entire series of browser-based games, culminating in a full release of the latest, sixth entry.
The original Bloons Tower Defense was a Flash game released in 2007 by its developer, Ninja Kiwi. It was simple as far as tower defense went, but simple and Flash games went together like cheese and crackers, and it was a big hit. Ninja Kiwi began cranking out sequels, each with new maps and towers to play with.
Starting with the third game, “Tower Defense” had to be switched to “TD” due to a copyright kerfuffle, but otherwise, the series did just fine for itself, gradually making the leap to mobile devices and even handhelds like the PSP and DSi.
Every game up to and including Bloons TD 5 was released as a Flash-based browser version, though the series had also made the leap to Steam at that point. With the release ofBloons TD 6in 2018, the game has graduated from browsers and is a fully paid release.
3Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate
Multiple Layers Of Internet History
Videlectrix
Release Date
August 2023
Okay, this one is going to take some explaining, so bear with me here. In the early 2000s, one of the premier destinations for Flash cartoons and games was Homestar Runner. One of the site’s characters, Strong Bad, made his own series of spy thriller movies titled “Dangeresque,” the “third” of which was teased as a joke in 2003.
Fast-forward to 2008, and Telltale Games released a Homestar Runnerepisodic adventure game, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, the fourth episode of which would be the long-awaited Dangeresque sequel. With me so far?
As a promo for that episode, the series creators, the Brothers Chaps, made a brief Flash point-and-click game, framed as Strong Bad “stealing the source code from Telltale” and giving it to a dev he liked, Videlectrix. The result was Dangeresque Roomisode 1, which nobody really expected to be more than a one-off joke.
Fast-forward again to 2023, and this game was remade in Unity and expanded to four episodes, complete with full voice acting and bonus junk, and sold on Steam and Itch.io. And that is the mildly circuitous story of how a throwaway joke based on a tie-in game based on a Flash cartoon became a full release.
2Super Meat Boy
Newgrounds Royalty
Super Meat Boy
If there were a single individual that could be considered Flash game royalty, let that individual be Edmund McMillen. Together with Tommy Refenes, McMillen created one of the most iconic games of the early 2010s, and a big reason why super-difficult platformers absolutely exploded in popularity in that era:Super Meat Boy.
Back in 2008, McMillen released the original, non-super Flash game, simply titled Meat Boy. It was the same concept as its eventual successor, just on a smaller screen with simpler maps: jump up walls and over spinning saws, and try really hard not to die.
The game was a huge hit on Newgrounds, big enough that McMillen was actually approached by major game publishers to make a polished version for release on their platforms. The game was eventually released on PC and Xbox Live Arcade, with the planned Wii version getting scrapped.
Like its predecessor, Super Meat Boy was absolute dynamite, setting the tone of the indie industry for a good few years after its release. It was so popular, PETA made their own knock-off version called Super Tofu Boy, which also had stolen music from the PS1 Spider-Man game. Seriously, it’s the Mysterio boss theme, look it up.
1The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth
Helped Spark The Roguelike Boom
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Edmund McMillen has had the most fascinating ability over the years to completely change the face of the indie gaming scene. He did it with Super Meat Boy and difficult platformers, and he did it again with the originalBinding of Isaacandroguelike dungeon crawlers.
I don’t think it’d be hyperbolic to say if he hadn’t made the original Flash-based Isaac, we wouldn’t have some of the greatest games ever made.
The original Binding of Isaac was created by McMillen as part of a Game Jam, with the goal being to create something reminiscent of the original Legend of Zelda.
After a week, he had created a working game in Flash. McMillen didn’t really plan for the game to do well commercially, releasing it on Steam on a lark in 2011, plus a demo on Newgrounds. He still had his Meat Boy bucks, so it didn’t really matter if it sold or not. As it so happened, though, it sold gangbusters.
Later, in 2012, McMillen was approached about a console release of the game, but doing it vanilla wouldn’t have worked in Flash. So… he didn’t do it in Flash. The game was completely rebuilt from the ground up in a new engine, and in 2014, released on PC and PS4 as The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
