Ah, autumn. Our favourite season. Crisp brown leaves underfoot. Frosting breath. Mulled wine by the bonfire with your folks. OK, there's the rain and the gloom and the chill, but this is Britain - it's always rainy and gloomy and chilly. At least in autumn the rain and gloom and chill feel appropriate.

The young 'uns aren't so keen on autumn, though. The reason being, they have to go back to school. We don't any more. We're adults, see (would you believe it). Instead, we get to sit around making up stuff like this list of educational games. Har har.

Is there anything crueller than the concept of an 'educational game', kids? Probably not. It's a little like buying the Batmobile and using it for grocery runs. Go on, you might as well. Hint: some of the entries are less 'educational' than others.

(Article image courtesy of Fitsnews.)

AGame's latest platformer has come over all Carebears and, to our mind, just a teensy bit Jack Wills.

Jewels innumerable are scattered around the flanks of yon wonderful lilac edifice, darling, and you'd better go collect them before something frightful happens, like the disappearance of class as a social paradigm.

The arrow keys move and jump. Floating cloud signposts will tell you the rest. Tower of Heaven and 60s to Save the Queen are considerably tougher, though not as well colour-coordinated.

Play Dream Tower

Dab hand at rock-paper-scissors? Got the gift of foresight when it comes to the roulette wheel? Have a crack at Riskful Thinking.

It's a compilation of gambling games, spread across four floors. The first floor is the homeliest, with its slot machines and bouts of toss-the-coin.

Earn enough to unlock higher floors and you'll get access to more grown-up entertainments like boxer sponsorship and, um, dog fighting, right the way up to playing the stock market.

You can retire with your winnings whenever you like. At which point you'll realise that you've just spent half an hour of your life chewing the fat with a random number generator. Could be worse, though - you could be on Twitter.

Play Riskful Thinking

We've seen plenty of dinosaurs at Flytrap - all virtual, of course - but we've never seen one riding a booby-trapped, confetti-showered conveyer belt, the dangerousness of which is continually altered by a 'Wheel of Awesome'.

Treadmillasaurus Rex is the work of Armor Games stalwart jmtb02, otherwise known for his studies in blue elephant and exploding tortoise. We shouldn't be surprised, really.

The idea is to burn as many calories as possible before you die. And also, to grow your top hat. No Rex would be seen dead without a decent-sized top hat.

Play Treadmillasaurus Rex

I've come up with two different analogies for Chain the Pixel, and you're going to read both of 'em, you lucky devil.

(1) It's Puzzle Bobble under a blow-lamp.

(2) It's like lying under a table while somebody dangles two strings of coloured sausages over the end, and trying to sever each string by sticking snooker balls to them, thus causing lower segments to detach under the added weight.

Another way of putting all this is that it's a bit mental, but very playable, and that you haven't done anything productive for 10 minutes and probably need some light relief. Heed the hyperlink's siren call.

Play Chain the Pixel

Grow Valley is Eyezmaze's most involved 'grow puzzle' yet. The idea as before is to set down/activate puzzle pieces one at a time to gradually construct some intricate cartoon diorama, but rather than a mere tower or an oasis you're building an entire city, filled with lovable playdough men.

Each 'piece' develops every turn depending on what's in play already. It'll take you a few gos to work out the right order. Should desperation set in, there's a walkthrough hidden in the comments on BonteGames.

Those little playdough men really are quite the charmers. Our favourite's the guy with the desk job. Which one's yours?

Play Grow Valley