Best Of Indie Games: From Eufloria to Leave Cthulhu Alone

[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 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 delights in this edition include a finalist title in Eurogamer's Indie Arcade Expo, another Indie Royale Bundle selection, a maze exploration game with a clever twist, plus a tower defense game similar to Plant vs Zombies. Here's some recent highlights from the site: Game Pick: 'Elfsquad7' (Stardock, commercial indie) "In Elfsquad7, players square off against Kevin, a toy-building robot that went rogue and made a mess of Santa's workshop. Up to four players can team up to catch falling toys -- first by 'wrapping' them as they fall, and then collecting a set number of wrapped presents within each level's time limit." Game Pick: 'These Robotic Hearts Of Mine' (Alan Hazelden, browser) "Named as a finalist title in Eurogamer's Indie Arcade Expo, These Robotic Hearts Of Mine presents players with a series of puzzles in which all on-screen heart icons must be rotated until they are right-side-up." Game Pick: 'Eufloria' (Alex May and Rudolf Kremers, commercial indie) "Eufloria is basically the story of an alien invasion. You're the commander of the interstellar Euflorians. Your mission in life is a simple one: conquer as many asteroids as possible as to be able to beguile the mysterious 'Growers' into returning." Game Pick: 'Traal' (Alan Hazelden and Jonathan Whiting, browser) "Traal is a maze exploration game with a clever twist: the protagonist of the story has an overpowering fear of monsters, and he will run in the opposite direction whenever one appears in his sight." Game Pick: 'Moby Dick 2' (La Ventanita & Mostro Games, browser) "In Moby Dick 2, you'll have an abundance of upgrades to work with. something that offers a level of strategy to go with the arcade-y fun. players will once again be able to take on the role of Moby Dick and commit incalculable amounts of damage to boats and sea-faring humans." Game Pick: 'Don't Run With A Plasma Sword' (Xperimentalz Games, commercial indie) "Don't Run With a Plasma Sword. Really, you shouldn't. It's also the name of a new App Store platformer in the vein of Canabalt, Jetpack Joyride, and other titles that seem to be especially popular on iOS devices." Game Pick: 'Leave Cthulhu Alone' (Loserville Express, browser) "A tower defense game similar to Plant vs Zombies, Leave Cthulhu Alone will have you wielding your intruders as opposed to the traditional towers or units. Though the usage of your unspeakable power, you will be able to mutate unwitting humanoids and turn them into everything from clawed fiends to rotund bombs." Game Pick: 'Swift Stitch' (Sophie Houlden, commercial indie) "Swift Stitch is a new commercial project from Sophie Houlden, creator of memorable games such as The Linear RPG and Boxgame. Your task here is to guide a ship from the start point to its destination with just one button acting as a directional toggle." Game Pick: 'Robots Can't Think' (Z3lf, browser) "Duplicator developer Z3lf creates another fun distraction of the puzzle platformer nature with Robots Can't Think. While the robot can't think, it can jump, climb walls and ceilings, time warp, and translocate." Game Pick: 'Water' (Half-Life: Short Stories Team, freeware) "The swan song of the Half Life: Short Stories Team, Water is probably one of the more unromantic takes on the whole mermaid mythos. An interesting way of spending an hour or two, Water will have you going through some rather pretty environments and a fair bit of decent story-telling."