Pause Ahead and lesser known flash games that rival proper PC games

[virtue]

Just recently a new build of flashpoint released... for Linux! So now, Linux users can join Windows users in playing all their favorite legendary flash games... but that's not necessarily what I'm personally interested in. When I was growing up, I was a hipster douche and went out of my way to find and play primarily more niche flash games, and I found many absolute gems! Something I notice a lot around discussion of flash games in general is the (honestly reasonable) preconception that they are inherently some kind of generally lesser experience than proper PC games, which unfortunately was true most of the time. Flash games tended to be very rough around the edges, brief, and gimmicky. But there are a number of rather niche flash games that I found that I genuinely wouldn't have batted an eye at if I found on a storefront today! Especially:

• Pause Ahead, an extremely unique platformer with a vibe I've never seen anything quite like, and probably the best flash game soundtrack I've ever heard! I love it so much that earlier today I made a cover it the final boss theme!
• Basically ANYTHING made by scriptwelder, but especially the Deep Sleep Trilogy and "A Small Talk at the Back of Beyond" which I named a short story after a few years ago.
• Naya's Quest, a mind-bending esoteric puzzle game by the incredible Terry Cavanagh (there's several other games by Terry that fit on this list too, like tiny heist)

So I'm curious if you folks have any flash games that you either think are generally extremely underrated or that stand out as something you wouldn't know was flash if you found it on a modern digital storefront! Obviously there's also stuff like The Elephant Collection and The Henry Stickman collection but I feel like those feel blatantly like flash games even when played in their modern forms lol

[WynnDawnstrider]

One of my all time favorites is The Enchanted Cave, a roguelike of sorts where you have to balance collecting treasure with fighting mobs. Both are good but I just really like the first one.

I never beat it but also want to give a shout out to Jackmith.

[zawieja]

Pause ahead looks like something I would greatly enjoy back in the day, I kinda want to give it a try.

I don't know which flash games are considered niche, since I haven't seen anyone talk about them in years, even if a lot of games had really cool ideas. But I distinctly remember two, though, and with my bad memory that must mean something xD

One is a series of point and click games called Submachine. It had cool vibes, plot, mystery and mechanics.

The other I can think of is Samorost, that I believe was made into its own series later? Very cool surreal art style.