'During the first scene I knew that the PC game was playing a metaphor for the events. But all I can seem to think about now is how much I'd like to go back to my childhood and re-experience the best, most care-free time in my life. The struggle Josh Baskin had in the movie 'Big' was not wanting to be a kid (frozen in childhood, unable to overcome his perceived obstacles). Games like this started my obsession with making my own games. Hacking and slashing and reading from ancient scrolls doesn't seem like it'll get get old any time soon.This was inspired by the movie 'Big' with Tom Hanks. I like how attacking first makes a difference and I absolutely love encountering new enemies and grabbing fresh loot. I haven't reached the final boss hiding on level 30 yet, but I'm sure to keep playing until I do - owing to its tactical, exploration-heavy, turn-based nature. I really enjoyed being killed by an Evil Puppet on dungeon level 1, a Skeleton on level 2, an Ochre Jelly on level 5, as well as being burned to death by traps and starred to oblivion by an Oculus. Mentioning the many monsters and traps, the powerful weapons, the lovely food that's scattered around, the varied types of armour, the multitude of spells and the dozens of secret traps and teleporters, on the other hand, is supposed to make you want to play the game. Telling you about its typically silly plot involving the murder of an evil wizard would be wasting your time, as would mentioning the procedurally-generated dungeons. Looking for more free games? Check out our round up of the best free PC games that you can download and play right now. It's also one of those relatively rare commercial indie games that eventually go freeware so, uhm, it also is a polished, feature-complete thing. Obviously inspired by the classic Rogue and apparently by Mystery Dungeon too, The Wizard's Lair is a very traditional, well crafted and thus very addictive rogue-like.

Download the new Evil Wizard