Best Of Indie Games: Safety Instructions

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor 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 polished 2D platformer with professional voice work, a fishy browser game from the developers of Sky Island, an Assembly Summer 2011 game dev contest submission, a typing program with amusing death sequences, plus a new release from Game Dev Story creators Kairosoft. Here are the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Lee-Lee's Quest' (Marcus Richert, browser) "Lee-Lee's Quest is a polished 2D platformer made by Marcus Richert for Adult Swim, featuring colourful graphics, solid gameplay, and some spectacular voice acting work by Joshua Tomar. It's also very short, meaning that you can beat it in just a handful of minutes if you're pretty good at platformers." Game Pick: 'The End' (Preloaded, browser) "Made by the same people responsible for High Tea and zOMT, The End is a game about death. To put it more accurately, it is a game devoted to teaching adolescents about the concepts of mortality. Framed outside of the context of religion, it's a surprisingly light-hearted look at what might potentially follow once you have had a meteor land on your head." Game Pick: 'Little Fins' (Neutronized, browser) "Little Fins is a fishy new title from Sky Island devs Neutronized. You are a little fish who must navigate a series of underwater pathways, dodging enemies and picking up discarded drinks cans to make the water that little bit safer for other fishes." Game Pick: 'eXtermination' (Elias Viglione, freeware) "eXtermination is a survival horror platformer made for the Assembly Summer 2011 game dev contest, featuring two gameplay modes and seven types of weapons to use against the zombie horde. You play as a cop named Fred Tayler who is responding to a distress call from his colleague, but while on his way to the police station he discovers that the entire city has been overrun by the undead with not a single survivor in sight." Game Pick: 'Poton' (Meme Soft, freeware) "Poton is a freeware arcade game that resembles a mix of Lode Runner and the Bomberman series, where our protagonist is a cute little fellow who can create a hole in the ground with just the press of a button. . The objective here is to bury all enemies in the ground before you are allowed to proceed to the next level." Game Pick: 'Psychopomps' (Team Psychopimps, browser) "Psychopomps is a Metroid-style 2D platformer made for the Something Awful Game Dev VI competition, featuring a weapon upgrade system that isn't unlike the one found in Pixel's Cave Story. Collecting coins increase the firepower of your ranged attack, but your weapon is also downgraded by a small margin whenever you get hurt." Game Pick: 'Mega Mall Story' (Kairosoft, commercial indie) "Entitled Mega Mall Story, this particular game will have you bustling over the health and profit margins of your very own shopping complex. It has distinct shades of SimTower, something that may or may not put off certain people." Game Pick: 'Safety Instructions' (Pippin Barr, browser) "In Pippin Barr's typing game Safety Instructions, you're in control of a passenger's actions as he tries to escape from a burning plane that is about to crash into the sea. Everything is done by spelling out the text on screen using your keyboard, and failure means that you get to enjoy a carefully-constructed death sequence that is both morbid and curiously entertaining."