I.T. Kid

Keep off the walls. Metal Wall is FreeOnlineGames' 2008 maze game: a small piece has to travel a corridor of metal blocks to its exit, and brushing either wall ends the attempt on the spot. The corridors are narrow and the levels narrow them further, so the whole game is small corrections -- edge forward, hold back, and try not to oversteer into the side you were just avoiding.

Each board runs against a clock and the score climbs as the levels fall, with three lives shared across the run and the room restarting whenever one is lost. Its own menu offers the game in two strengths, Easy and Hard, and keeps a password for every stage so a run can be picked up again where it stopped -- the classic arcade scaffolding around one unforgiving mechanic -- and a high-score board closes the loop.