Best Of Indie Games: Running Mega Men

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor-in-chief Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games recently released on the sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The goodies in this edition include a retro-inspired arcade game from Nitrome, an interactive fiction work about the manipulation of words, a 2D platformer filled with strange doodles, plus a new puzzle game from Hamlet designer mif2000. Here's some recent highlights from the site: Game Pick: 'Running Men' (mif2000, browser) "Running Men is a new browser-based arcade game from Hamlet designer Denis Galanin, where players get to control a set of contraptions in each room as they try to lead the test subjects to the exit door safely." Game Pick: 'Keys of a Gamespace' (University of Metz Team, freeware) "Keys of a Gamespace is an adventure game that follows a man who is stuck in a bit of a rut. As he looks back through his life to work out where it all went wrong, he's transported through a series of memories, with the ability to help himself out and free himself from his own subconscious." Game Pick: 'Sketch Quest' (page52, browser) "Filled with strange doodles and stranger critters, Sketch Quest is a 2D action-platformer that plays a lot like a simplified version of Drawn to Life. And much like 5th Cell's DS title, Sketch Quest will have you drawing a whole host of random things." Game Pick: 'Thelemite' (Mikolaj Kaminski, browser) "Thelemite is the first release from newly indified developer Mikolaj Kaminski. You are a bored programmer who decides to sign up for medical testing, and is soon a mutant ninja who can run up walls, jump ridiculous heights and smash into enemies to kill them." Game Pick: 'Mega Mash' (Nitrome, browser) "Why play one retro-inspired game when you can play seven? On the off chance that that might have been an itch you wanted scratched, Mega Mash, Nitrome's latest offering, is the thing for you. One minute, you could be a jubilant-looking bunny and the next, an interstellar space ship." Game Pick: 'OIO' (Uncanny Games, commercial indie) "OIO is a puzzle platformer in which you make short branches grow out of plants in the ground, on the walls and dotted along ceilings. Branches can then also be grown off one another, allowing you to climb on top and scale to heights you couldn't previously." Game Pick: 'PataNoir' (Simon Christiansen, browser) "PataNoir, like most works of interactive fiction, is a game about words. But unlike most titles in the genre, it's also a game about the manipulation of words. Where most IF games will ask that you supply the proper nouns and verbs in order to continue, PataNoir takes things a step further."