Monster Fair: Spooky pinball fun.

Pinball wizards wanted

Pinball machines filled arcades during their early years, and Little Wing Pinball ensures that you can still get a pinball fix on your Mac. The company’s games include Monster Fair, Jinni Zeala, Golden Logres, Angel Egg, Loony Labyrinth and Crystal Caliburn, all of them created to look and feel like 3D representations of real pinball machines. Propel your ball up ramps, through structures and off bumpers, building your way to bonus stages and even a little multi-ball action.

Tennis with a twist

Sports-minded gamers will want to set their sights on Skunk Studios’ Tennis Titans, which puts a cartoony twist on a venerable sport. Play as one of seven characters through a series of tournaments in your quest to earn the title Tennis Titan. Choose from two ways to play: Classic Tour features three-set rounds of good old-fashioned tennis while Rings Tour puts the emphasis on collecting rings.

Tennis Titans: Try Rings mode for a clever twist on a venerable game.

In Rings Tour, you try to hit the ball through different-sized rings scattered around the court. Each is worth a certain number of rings; hit a bomb and you collect all the rings currently in play. Nail a fireball or turtle target and the ball will increase or decrease its speed. When a point ends, the winning player earns all the rings accumulated by both opponents. At the end of two minutes of play, the character with the most rings is declared the winner.

In addition to simple mouse controls designed to appeal to players of all ages, Tennis Titans also features four different courts and an exhibition mode in which you can play as any character unlocked in either tour.

Race for the cups

For a cartoony take on the sport of racing, DanLab Games offers Jammin’ Racer, which features 24 twisty tracks that you must master if you want to earn all six championship cups. You can choose from a wide variety of cars before each race, with three vehicles only available by winning certain cups. Before you hit the track, you can also modify your car’s color scheme and motif (everything from racing stripes to flowers), select from various custom looks and decide which human — or non-human — driver best represents you.

Jammin’ Racer: Fire a turbo boost to catch up.

While the game doesn’t put too much emphasis on real-world physics, it does recognize the slight speed boost that racers can pick up by sticking close behind an opponent to reduce air resistance. In Jammin’ Racer, that translates into a drafting effect that nudges your speed even higher. Collect stars to fill your boost bar and activate it to race even faster — combined with the booster patches found on certain tracks, you can activate a speed increase at just the right time to take the lead.

Just watch out for bumps and bruises: your car suffers damage and loses a little speed every time it bumps against another car or a wall.

You can collect repair bonuses to keep it in tip-top shape, but if your car suffers too many dings, it will come to a stop and pause for repairs before it can continue racing.

Jammin’ Racer features one- or two-player action, with the latter offering a split-screen view of the race on the same computer. Plug a force feedback-capable steering wheel or gamepad into your computer if you want to actually feel every bump and jolt.

The future is all wet

After you’ve won the Waicoco Islands, Wadaliloo Mountain, Jurassic Volcano, Urban Lights, Quick Dust Desert and Space Gravity cups in Jammin’ Racer, head to the underwater world of the year 2268 in DeepTrouble 2. Set more than 100 years after an alien invasion of Earth was successfully thwarted in the first game, the sequel takes you to Gunsar436, where you have been sent to investigate odd energy readings discovered deep in the ocean. When you arrive, however, something jams all contact between you and the fleet, leaving you alone to confront the hostile aliens known as the Khilthan.

Deep Trouble 2: Lock your torpedoes on an alien outpost.

Luckily, your Excalibur 7 underwater craft is well-equipped to handle the threat you face. Its shields can absorb enemy attacks until they fail, after which your ship will start draining its main energy source with each hit. Your shields start recharging, however, if you last 10 seconds without enduring enemy fire.

The Excalibur 7 also offers a full complement of various torpedoes and mines, each designed for a different function. For example, the Lockjaw torpedo is a “fire and forget” weapon that will hunt down its target while the Zodiak torpedo travels in a straight path and explodes when it hits something or after two seconds, making it ideal for use against a group of Khilthan ships. You can find more torpedoes and mines, as well as such power-ups as a 15-second cloaking device, scattered around the ocean floor.

Combat on the high seas

Maybe you’d prefer naval warfare that’s focused less on “twitch” gameplay and more on tactics. In that case, Shrapnel Games’ Salvo! would be a smart choice. This turn-based game covers naval warfare between the 17th and 19th centuries, when the lack of electronically-controlled weapons systems meant that ships often fired their cannons from practically point-blank range, pounding away in the hope that one would cripple the other and a boarding would ensue.

Salvo: Fire the starboard cannons!

Salvo! features 24 campaigns in which you command the navy of one of a variety of countries, including America, England, France, Spain or even the pirates of the Barbary Coast or the Caribbean. You issue orders to your ships and watch 3D representations of them carry out your commands, which include the ability to grapple other vessels and pull them close for boarding. The environment even plays a factor in the action, with shorelines and shallow water, as well as weather conditions, affecting your tactical decisions.

The resolution of one battle determines the choices for your next course of action; such branches in a campaign allow you to replay it without seeing the story unfold the same way each time. Between battles, you can retrofit and upgrade your ships as well as fold captured vessels into your fleet. A wide variety of ships are available, including sloops, frigates and bombards, enabling you to assemble the right squadrons for each battle.

Continue your journey

Looking for even more fun? Visit MacGameFiles.com to find plenty of other great games that are perfect for those moments when you have just enough time to advance a few turns in a strategic contest, enter a race or simply keep a chain of balls from rolling into a pyramid. Your choices, your adventures.