It's been a while since I've seen a thoughtful online advergame. Here's one that surprises on a number of levels.

Sun has a new game called Identity Hero, an arcade-action game that features features from the company's Identity Management Solutions, which is apparently some suite of IT management tools for compliance, network, and auditing management. In the game, you take the role of an IT Manager trying to avoid various threats, using the software products as powerups. The game is cute and high production value, but more importantly it does what so few advergames bother to do: it simulates (albeit abstractly) the features and functions of the product advertised.

For example, setting up single sign-on credentials, applying group roles to a number of different employes at once, easily managing access controls for unauthorized employees, and so forth are all translated to sets of collisions, collision avoidances, and powerups. It's a simplistic view of an abstract product, but isn't it better than another branded puzzle game?

(thanks to George Mayell)