Best Of Indie Games: Dreaming of Mystical Ninjas

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. sums 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 2D platformer that could have originated from the NES era, a gorgeous-looking adventure game with scenes made out of clay and cardboard, a C64-style exploration game created for the Ludum Dare competition, and a short browser-based game that tells the story of a pair of lovers living in two different cities. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Ninja Senki' (Jonathan Lavigne, freeware) "Ninja Senki is a Mega Man-style 2D platformer that has been in development for over a year, featuring sixteen levels to play through and multiple endings to discover. Here you play as the ninja master named Hayate, who must seek revenge on the assassin that mercilessly took the life of his clan's princess Kinuhime." Game Pick: 'Grand Mystic Quest of Discovery' (hulahulahest, browser) "Grand Mystic Quest of Discovery is a C64-style platformer in which you play as an unnamed wizard, stuck inside a ruin with nary a single possession in his pockets. Your quest here involves searching for spells that you can use to solve puzzles, acquiring keys to open locked doors, and collecting pieces of a parchment to reveal the secret exit hidden somewhere in this tomb." Game Pick: 'The Dream Machine' (Cockroach Inc, commercial indie) "The Dream Machine is a point and click adventure game created entirely out of clay and cardboard. Players take control of Victor and Alicia, a couple who have just moved into an apartment that is not all it first seems." Game Pick: 'Favimon' (Matthew Hollett, browser) "Favimon is a take on Pokemon that uses the favourites icons from websites to battle each other. You begin with a set Favimon, and must type urls into the bar at the top to summon other websites to fight and catch." Game Pick: 'Distance' (Austin Breed, browser) "Distance is a visual novel that tells the story of a couple who lives in two different cities, going through the routine of daily life with thoughts about their partner always on their minds. Austin Breed's submission for the Ludum Dare 19 competition requires very little interaction from the player in most scenes, although depending on the conversation choices that you make the long-distance relationship between our two protagonists could still go either way."