Being a connoisseur of indie games, my friends usually hit me up for some suggestions.  Since my memory’s pretty shite, I figured I’d start posting the ones I liked as I ran across them.  This here’s your basic list of the first five that popped into my head when I sat down to write.  I know I’m leaving out some awesome games, but I’ll be posting more of these lists in the future.

1. World of Goo

World of Goo (video) was developed by the fabulous 2D Boy.  If anyone remembers the game Bridge Builder, you’re halfway there.  Throw in an ominous corporation and that your structures are built out of cute little living creatures called Goo and you’re all the way there.  The levels span several worlds that each have their own style and charm.  The variety of the puzzles is just staggering.  With several different types of Goo available, I think 2D Boy really did a fantastic job of exploring the design space in interesting, humorous, and unexpected ways.  Bottom line: you should own this game already.

2. Toribash

Toribash (video) is the bastard child of a fighting game and 3d animation software.  On a turn by turn basis you adjust the tension in your character’s joints.  Arms swing, legs kick and so on.  As the round goes on and frames pass, your goal is to beat the snot out of your opponent.  Does this sound at all boring to you?  Let me paint you a picture.  In one match, I grabbed the opponent’s wrists, kicked him up into the air, flipped up underneath him, and then, twelve feet above the arena floor delivered a double-footed kick that tore him in half.  I then spiked his upper torso and head into the ground for the win.  This game has a steep learning curve, but the payoff is fantastic carnage like I described.  Tons of different game types and variations make this game ridiculously deep and a veritable black-hole time sink.  Be sure to check out the replays folder to see some fantastic examples of what is possible.

3. Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade (video) is like no other game I can think of.  It crosses an RPG with a medieval combat sim with realistic physics.  There’s an overworld map and you can trade with the folks in the town and do various missions and tasks for lords of various stripes.  That’s great, but the meat is in the battles.  You drop onto a randomly generated battleground with your troops and then fight to the death with another army.  There is jousting, all kinds of weapons both missile and melee, not to mention the castle sieges and defenses.  There is nothing quite like leading your troops up a ridge to see the enemy hordes boiling over the lip.  I’ve been following this game since its early days and I’ve got to say, it’s a completely fresh and original take on the medieval battlefield.

4. Gymnast

I clearly have a weak spot for physics games.  If they’re done well, there’s no limit on the player to impose his own style on the proceedings.  In Gymnast, (video) you flip from trapeze to bar to flexible bamboo pole using only the flexing of your body and arms to influence your center of gravity and rotational velocity.  Some of the levels are really hard, some of them are hilarious.  Like most other physics games there is a steep learning curve, but once you get it, you’ll be soaring with the greatest of ease through all kinds of wonderful stunts.  While you’re at Walaber’s site, be sure to check out some of his other games.  There are a couple of gems over there.

5. Spewer

Spewer (video) is a liquid physics based platformer created by Edmund McMillen and Eli Piilonen with a really twisted take on Nintendo’s Kirby.  Instead of sucking up your opponents to launch them at enemies or consume their powers, you are launching and eating your own…spew.  Gross, right?  Sure, but after a while you forget about the context of what you’re doing because the levels are just so well designed.  There are different pills you can swallow that will change your properties and the properties of your spew.  Plus, you can use the spew as a jet pack.  We already know how much I like jet packs.  The game can run a bit slow, but I’ve found setting the quality to low and turning off the backgrounds and sound effects helps.  It’s a shame that such a wonderful game has such crippling slow down, but if you persevere through some of the ridiculously hard levels (Harvesting, Holy Tears, and Dive, I’m looking at you) the rest are all really clever and interesting.  Plus, there’s a twist ending!  M. Night’s got nothing on Edmund.

That’s it for now

As usual, feel free to talk it up in the comments.  This recommendation thing goes both ways.  If you’ve got a favorite indie game that I didn’t list here, feel free to tell me about it.  I guarantee I’ll give it some sweet, sweet gamer love.

Before reading it would be a good idea to give this game a good solid spin.  You can download it here.

A quick word problem. There are two trains. One train leaves the station carrying a stockpile of vintage Metroid and Castlevania cartridges. The other train leaves a second station loaded down with a bounty of Roguelikes such as NetHack and Dwarf Fortress. The trains are traveling at extreme speed towards each other on the same track. At what point should the engineers start slowing down to avert a collision?

The answer? It doesn’t matter because Derek Yu has cut the brakes.

Spelunky is a randomly-generated game in the Metroidvania style. As an Indiana Jones style character the mission is to die horribly while exploring a cave. At least that’s how I play it. The difficulty level is sky high so prepare to meet grisly deaths early and often.

Gameplay and Design

The first thing I noticed (right before I noticed the spike pit death animation) was how sensitive the controls are. They are very precise which requires either having the reflexes of a meth-addicted spider monkey or, in my case, slowing down and carefully planing each move. When holding a button a few milliseconds longer is the difference between life and a permanent death, it gives reason to pause and thoroughly contemplate the ramifications of every seemly simple action.

The permanent death mechanic that this game shares with its Roguelike forebears is what puts such pressure on the player. The additional pressure is partially valved by the short, five to ten minute, length of even a full playthrough of the game. Further, there are unlockable shortcut tunnels that persist allowing some sense of accomplishment to accompany the Sisyphean.  The biggest annoyance is if I was especially well kitted up when being skewered by an offscreen Arrow Trap. Since what items I am able to acquire in a playthrough are strongly dictated by the randomness of the levels, I can’t count on having my favorite set (climbing gloves and shotgun = death ninja) on any particular play through. This is especially frustrating when expensive items like the shotgun show up long before they are affordable.

...and this is my BOOMSTICK!

Which brings me to the next bullet point: stealing. In real life it is wrong. I get that. In games, though, I tend to be a bit of a colossal bastard. If a game allowed me to run around swiping still-warm knickers, it might just hit my top five of all time. Unfortunately, aside from the main character’s general “tomb robber” occupation, there’s only one target for larcenous intent: this guy on the right. And he packs a shotgun (a shotgun than can be stolen, I might add). Performing any act of violence (including accidentally causing a boulder to crash through his store) or attempting to leave without paying for an item sets every shopkeeper in the game to kill on sight. This is neat. Future shops will even display a wanted poster. Where this isn’t so neat is when an additional shop keep guard shows up to block the exit with an inexhaustible supply of buckshot. This is a nice risk/reward system for people who aren’t that into paying for things, but excel at killing old men who live in caves.

The dark levels are another example of a risk/reward type situation. They create a few decisions the player must make. First, fairly obviously, the level is dark as shit. This makes it difficult to descend as it’s often impossible to spot a landing that isn’t on spikes or in the gullet of a meandering Audrey II wannabe. There is a small bubble of light around the character that extends near ambient light sources, firing a gun, or when carrying a flare. Second, the character can only carry one item at a time, making hanging onto a shotgun or bit of loot that much harder. It is possible to juggle the items, but for the love of crap just let me stick that gun in my belt for a second. Third, is the reward for these levels: Golden Scarabs. These bugs generally do a lazy job of floating away, and act as a light source. If killed, the light goes out. If collected however, they are worth mad piles of cash. So despite being a general pain, these dark levels do have some balance for those ballsy enough to hunt down all the scarabs.

Overall

There are four areas and each area has it’s own tileset, enemies, level feelings, and hazards.  The random levels and depth of interaction (a fire toad will become a regular toad in water…no kidding) provide for a ton of replayability.  That’s a fantastic thing as only the most bad ass platform ninjas will be able to beat the game in a single (or even double digit) number of plays.  The cutesy pixel art, retro sound, and Mega Man level difficulty makes the whole package feel like a lost game back from the 80s to haunt us.

Conclusion

After that flaming shithouse of a movie, Crystal Skull, this game helps me work out what my therapist terms “irrational anger issues” by letting me throw an effigy Indy onto spikes all day long. If that’s not enough to rate a download, I have one magic word: jetpack. There is a jetpack in this game.