Best Of Indie Games: A Hollow Victory

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor-in-chief Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his 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 handful of Ludum Dare 21 competition entries, a god game that pays tribute to the classic Bullfrog title Populous, a multiplayer platformer controlled using a pair of Wii Remotes, plus a Kairosoft release themed around the tricky business of managing a football team. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Number 23 Escapes!' (Ivan Safrin, browser) "Number 23 Escapes! is toastie's submission for the Ludum Dare 21 contest, where you play as a captive who is trying to escape from a well-guarded prison complex. It features an isometric view that is easy on the eye, and if you get lost a full map can be brought up to screen with just the press of a button." Game Pick: 'Reprisal' (Jon Caplin, browser) "Reprisal (pictured) is a browser-based strategy game by Jon Caplin that's clearly inspired by Populous - you play as a deity who has god-like powers to terraform the land and lead his followers to victory over opposing forces." Game Pick: 'Warthogs' (Radiant, freeware) "In Warthogs, you play as the alcoholic Larry Lotter, a typical example of a student that has taken partying too far. Awakened from a drunken stupor, you find yourself scrambling belatedly to the last of your finals." Game Pick: 'Titan Lunch Retaliation' (Berserk Studio, browser) "In Titan Lunch Retaliation, you'll spend your time catapulting a rather angry-looking gladiator through the air in search of his missing lunch or retribution. Being the muscular Grecian chap that you are, you're not very aerodynamic and while capable of incredible leaps, you're also subject to the demands of gravity." Game Pick: 'IsoClinous' (Team-Iso, freeware) "IsoClinous is a short multiplayer platformer that can be controlled via Wii Remotes. Two players take control of a bear and a panda, on a quest to find their lost cat. Along the way there are platforms above the water which will rotate depending on how you turn your Wii Remote." Game Pick: 'Pocket League Story' (Kairosoft, commercial indie) "Pocket League Story is like all the other Kairosoft Story games, but it has something in it called football. It most resembles Grand Prix Story, in that you look after a team, bumping up their stats, building up your headquarters, entering tournaments, and then watch as your team completely bottles it, and you look very silly indeed." Game Pick: 'Hollow' (Connor Ullmann, browser) "A wickedly creepy little platformer, Hollow will have you playing as a bone-white little fellow stuck in the hollows of earth. As you might have guessed, the subterranean darkness is home to a variety of unsettling-looking creatures." Game Pick: 'Victory' (Kayla Kinnunen, browser) "Victory is another Ludum Dare 21 submission that was made over a period of a weekend. The objective here is basically to guide your on-screen character towards the top of the screen, hence 'escaping' to the next level for increasingly harder challenges."