Mushbits 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 a frenetic HTML5 take on the Apple II classic Choplifter, a colorful brick-breaking action game for iOS devices, one of the very best platformers ever created, plus a tile-based puzzler that cites inspiration from ChuChu Rocket and Lemmings. Here's some recent highlights from IndieGames.com: Game Pick: 'Phantasmaburbia' (Banov, commercial indie) "Phantasmaburbia aims to take the tropes of RPG design and give them quite the shake: no NPCs, no shops, just one town in the game, a lack of grinding, and spatial manipulation puzzles that require logical thinking." Game Pick: 'Save the Day' (Denki, browser) "In Save the Day, players have only a few minutes to evacuate hundreds of people from the path of an erupting volcano. You'll have to plan out routes quickly and save multiple survivors in a row in order to earn score bonuses and time extensions." Game Pick: 'TNNS' (Action Button, commercial indie) "Reminiscent of Sidhe Interactive's Shatter, TNNS challenges players to deflect a ball toward breakable objects using a paddle positioned at the left side of the screen." Game Pick: 'Thomas Was Alone' (Mike Bithell, commercial indie) "Thomas Was Alone takes place inside the virtual- or non-space of an impressively evolved program, where bits of code develop their very own artificial intelligence, get to feel lonely and then jump around in beautifully minimalistic environments." Game Pick: 'GravBlocks' (From Nothing Game Studios, commercial indie) "GravBlocks is a block-swapping puzzler in which gameplay focuses on strategy, rather than quick matches and combos. Players must make matches while gravity shifts continuously throughout each play session." Game Pick: 'Mushbits' (Z3lf, browser) "In Mushbits, two cute characters take turns hopping toward their same-colored snack but can only travel on gold or same-colored platforms. Certain platforms stay the same color once traversed, while others flip to match the second character's color." Game Pick: 'Hairy Tales' (Arges Systems, commercial indie) "Hairy Tales challenges players to keep a constantly-moving folk spirit alive by arranging a collection of tiles found within each level. Some tiles point the game's heroes in a specific direction, while others equip them with items and power-ups necessary to defeat wandering enemies." Game Pick: 'Avernum: The Great Trials Trilogy' (Spiderweb Software, commercial indie) "With a style that hews closer to typical fantasy than Geneforge, yet set in an even more alien locale, Avernum shows that Spiderweb has always been consistently excellent when it comes to building worlds." Game Pick: 'Panic!' (Thumbs Up, Green Hill, commercial indie) "In Panic!, you must protect fleeing citizens from an alien ooze that's slowly taking over their city. Players must use the surrounding environment to guide the ooze away from survivors, destroying houses and throwing objects in order to create blockades." Game Pick: 'Griff Dangers in Mettle vs. Metal' (lambomang, commercial indie) "Originally developed for Ludum Dare, Griff Dangers is a side-scrolling action game in which your robot opponents grow stronger during each play session, based on which weapons you use to kill them."