Sears, the department store you probably forgot about, has a set of three new advergames to promote their wares.

The first is Rush Rider, in which the player uses a rocket-powered forklift with tractor beam to retrieve and deliver online orders in a warehouse. It's actually pretty cute and the best of the three games.

The second is Hands-On Fitness, is a Track-and-Field style game. Hit the arrow buttons in the familiar sequence to run on a treadmill. Forgettable.

The third is Craftsman Mow Down, a sort of side-scrolling mowing game. The player is supposed to mow as much grass as possible in a limited time, but it's never possible to mow the whole lawn, just to steer out of the way of obstacles. Given the fact that there are other much better designs for mowing games (check Sunday Lawn, for example), it's too bad this is all Sears could come up with.

There are aspects of these games that I like. The lawnmower game strikes me as a particularly good idea, since it's something of a classic Sears product. But the use of registration to allow the player to upgrade their characters in the games is fairly absurd. There's nothing compelling enough in here to warrant handing over an email address.

(thanks to Ben)