La-Mulana highlights this week's Best of Indie Games

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 delights in this edition include an experimental 2D basketball-based platformer by The End of Us and ...But That Was [Yesterday] developer Michael Molinari, a new release from prolific Flash game developer Nitrome, a point & click adventure with visuals reminiscent of Borderlands, plus Jeff Minter's take on the classic arcade shoot-'em-up Star Force. Here's some recent highlights from IndieGames.com: Game Pick: 'Basketbelle' (Studio Bean, commercial indie) "Michael Molinari's experimental 2D basketball-based platformer Basketbelle is a whimsical, albeit short, playable fantasy for your eyes and ears, with several mechanical twists to tease your brain." Game Pick: 'Hot Air Jr' (Nitrome, browser) "In Hot Air Jr, players navigate a hot air balloon to each level's exit by blowing gusts of air from any direction. Despite the cheery aesthetic, it's much more difficult than it looks." Game Pick: 'Hoodwink' (E-One Studio, commercial indie) "With visuals reminiscent of Borderlands, E-One Studio's first point & click adventure Hoodwink tells the story of a small-time thief intent on winning the heart of his one true love." Game Pick: 'Multi-Sweeper' (Kamomail, browser) "Kamomail's Multi-Sweeper iterates on the Minesweeper premise to create 10+ variations on the board. The mechanical mix-up includes different polygons and different rules in determining how to deduce the location of the mines." Game Pick: 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful' (Locomalito and RGCD, freeware) "Endless Forms Most Beautiful is a frantic platformer with light-puzzle elements that both feels and looks like something you would be playing in the arcades during the mid-80s." Game Pick: 'Gets to the Exit' (roll7, commercial indie) "In Gets to the Exit, players must guide as many members of the 'Gets' tribe to the exit as possible, avoiding dangers and traps along the way. Each level features several blocks of movable terrain, and the challenge lies in keeping track of multiple Gets at once." Game Pick: 'Super Amazing Wagon Adventure' (Sparsevector, commercial indie) "Though the premise can be traced back to The Oregon Trail, Super Amazing Wagon Adventure's gameplay is decidedly action-oriented. Each playthrough consists of a series of randomly-chosen shoot-'em-up scenes that quite often end with piles of animal carcasses and/or dead party members." Game Pick: 'Super Ox Wars' (Llamasoft, commercial indie) "Though Super Ox Wars resembles an early-'80s shooter in terms of presentation, its gameplay is surprisingly complex. The game features a polarity system that awards the player bonuses and power-ups throughout each level, depending on how many items of a particular color are collected." Game Pick: 'Lee Lee's Quest 2' (Marcus Richert, browser) "Marcus Richert's Lee Lee's Quest 2 is as charming a platformer as it is colorfully gorgeous, where players get tackle eight more worlds with a healthy dose of subversion (but not rage-inducing like I Wanna Be The Guy)." Game Pick: 'Sun God' (Bennett Foddy, browser) "Sun God is a browser-based cooperative visualizer featuring music by Cut Copy. It's easier to grasp than many of Foddy's previous titles, and while playing for score is an option it's not the game's focus." Game Pick: 'Personal Trip To The Moon' (VoEC, browser) "Personal Trip To The Moon is a beautiful and mostly interactive tale that, in a mere 15 or so minutes, manages to touch upon matters of freedom, societal norms, personal liberation, empowerment and life." Game Pick: 'Shop Empire 2' (littlegiantworld, browser) "Shop Empire 2 is a free resource management game that will have you taking charge of a nascent shopping mall. You're responsible for ensuring that your collection of fast food places, boutiques, and entertainment facilities achieve profitability." Game Pick: 'The Big Big Castle!' (Beep Games, commercial indie) "The Big Big Castle! is a physics-heavy game that lets you build tall and sturdy castles for a king, all the while keeping your head on your shoulders, tastefully arranging princesses and providing accommodation to the medieval poor." Game Pick: 'La-Mulana' (Nigoro, commercial indie) "Though the WiiWare edition was delayed into oblivion, an English-language version of Nigoro's enhanced remake of La-Mulana is now available for Windows via Playism." Game Pick: 'Sushi Castle' (Milkstone Studios, commercial indie) "Sushi Castle is a twin-stick shooter that takes place within a series of randomly generated dungeons. The gameplay is very similar to The Binding of Isaac -- the short-ranged weaponry, the power-ups, and even the boss encounters are all reminiscent of Edmund McMillen's game."