Car parking games are a great way to take a break from a stress-filled life. The interesting thing is that there’s not just one or two flash-based parking games, but there are several dozens. It’s its own niche, and its a sub-niche of computer-based gaming that has garnered a lot of amateur enthusiasts from Facebook and all over the web. If you’re a driving instructor, you’ll love telling your students about these parking games.

Parking games build precision and dexterity and create the kind of thinking that is needed in real-life driving situations like parking in cramped spaces, parallel parking, and maneuvering past other vehicles, in addition to avoiding obstacles. Car parking games teach young would-be drivers the focus and thoughtfulness needed to park correctly in real-life situations even if the visceral situation is much, much different.

One game, Park!, for example, requires a lot of dexterity and concentration. The space bar is used to start, and the arrow keys are used to move the car around. Everything is seen from a bird’s eye view. It’s like looking at the whole parking lot from a bird’s point of view. You maneuver the car from the top right-hand corner and try to get it into a parking space. Any teen that has parallel parked for the first time knows the feeling of trying to park in a cramped space.

Glamour Car Parking adds a bit of a story. Your boss at a hotel has to have you park every car in a precise place, and if you bring one car back with a scratch on it, you get fired.

It’s deceptively hard. It’s very difficult to get your car in the cramped space, but it seems like it would be easy with your arrow keys. As soon as you start crashing your cars and run out of time, you realize just how difficult it is to succeed at online parking. You feel like a kid again that is just starting out with student driving for the first time.

A lot of games have music too. Story lines add to the fun. And sometimes you get multiple chances to park a car, based on the storyline. For example, if you’re a valet, you have a certain number of cars to park.

One car game, Caravan Parking 2, adds a caravan onto your car to make it even harder. You need to park with deftness and expertise.

I’ve been a big fan of monster trucks ever since I was little, so when I stumbled upon the websites Monster Truck Games, I was more than thrilled. There are currently a ton of different games to choose from, all of which involve monster trucks. The games are sorted into three different styles, thrill games, shooters and puzzles. I decided to test out the one game from each category to see how they played.

The first game I tried was 4×4 Off Road Challenge, and I think it may be my favorite. This was a thrill flash game with the main purpose to be to reach the end of the level by doing a variety of stunts and flips. In the game, you control a monster truck as it flies over ramps and other obstacles. It’s a fun game because you can use the arrow keys to flip the car over in a complete circle, and you really do get a nice thrill from that. There are some characters wearing questionable clothing though, so I’d save this game for a PG-13 audience.

The second game was Heavy Truck, and it was actually a bit of a challenge. This is your typical shooter game. You start off as this Monster Truck that can shoot these huge bullets with the goal to advance to the end of each level without dying. In the first level, all you have to do is blow your way through fences. The second level is where it gets tricky though. There are now fences that shoot back at you, and by the third level, huge towers shoot double bullets at you. It’s a fun game though, I can especially imagine young boys loving the idea of blowing stuff up with a monster truck. The game also allows you to customize your truck by adding upgrades, which is a really nice feature.

The third and final game I played was Monster Truck 3D Stars. Unlike the others, this isn’t an action style game, but instead a large puzzle that you have to put together. While the idea is pretty basic compared to the other games, the graphic that you’re trying to assemble is pretty cool for just being a puzzle.

Overall, the website has some great games that many people would love to play. I’m sure I’ll be going back to it when I have some free time. The only problem will be figuring out which game I want to play next.