Best Of Indie Games: Close to the Black Heart

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top free-to-download and commercial indie games 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 an epic space battle sim from UK developer Positech Games, two crazed shooters, a freeware versus fighting game, a traffic management simulator for the XBLIG, and an exhibition showcase game made to be played by strangers and loved ones. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Carcophony' (Green Light Projects, PC commercial indie - demo available) "Everything about Carcophony makes me think of a horrible commute to work. The plodding music, the constant traffic jams, the slow-going - yet watching from above, it makes for quite a hectic experience. Traffic lights need to be switched to let cars through, and at the end of each wave an ambulance comes powering through and needs to make it from one side of the screen to the other before time runs out. If you have a queue, he's going to find that difficult!" Game Pick: 'Pyroblossom' (Ali Maunder, browser) "In Pyroblossom you play as an ace pilot named Red Rage, who undertakes mercenary missions to satiate his captain's greed for money. Bullets come thick and fast, but you do have a special psycho mode in your arsenal that can be used to turn your heli invincible for a couple of seconds." Game Pick: 'Gratuitous Space Battles' (Positech Games, PC commercial indie - demo available) "Gratuitous Space Battles runs with a concept rarely utilized. Players are given the plans of a battlefield along with the positions of the enemy fleet. It's your job to place your own ships down at the opposite end of the arena in a formation you believe will be effective in wiping out the opposition. There are three main types of ship, and a huge part of the game is the ability to create your own ships. As the game progresses, more parts become available and you'll be creating a whole fleet to tend to your every whim." Game Pick: 'The Black Heart' (Andres Borghi, PC freeware) "The Black Heart is a versus fighting game which took Argentine developer Andres Borghi seven years to create using Elecbyte's M.U.G.E.N. engine. There are six playable characters to choose from, each with their own set of special moves that can be executed using simple key press combinations. The game also features a couple of gameplay modes separate from the main story campaign, with support for hotseat multiplayer also included." Game Pick: 'SYNSO 360' (Andy Noble and Rob Fearon, commercial Xbox Live Indie Game - demo available) "If you have yet to play Squid Yes! Not So Octopus or its sequel Squid Harder, then you are clearly immune to games with silly names. An arena shooter, your job is to pelt your squidy friend around the screen and survive for as long as possible, blowing the bad guys away in a constant stream of incredible flashing colours and bright lights in the process. It's no secret that Rob is a huge fan of making his games highly accessible for anyone to play, and this is reflected in all the different options you can mess around with - auto-fire, one-switch mode etc." Game Pick: 'Happening Game' (Stephen Lavelle, PC freeware) "Happening Game is playable only with two people (attempting to start one-player will result in the game telling you to find someone to play with), and it's more of an experiment than anything else. Each pair of players are given a keycode, then given tasks depending on how well they know each other. As tasks are completed, more really ridiculous tasks are provided until they get so horrendous that you feel too embarrassed to continue."