Best Of Indie Games: Every Generation Needs a New Revolution

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top free-to-download and commercial indie games, plus notable features from his sister 'state of indie' site.] 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 new shoot 'em up from Jeff Minter, a commercial tower defense game, a one-room adventure game created with Chris Jones' AGS engine, a word game that tests your typing skills, and a puzzle game that plays like Jeff Tunnell's The Incredible Machine (but with rats and cats, instead of the usual collection of inanimate objects). Game Pick: 'Immortal Defense' (RPGCreations, commercial indie - demo available) "A rare tower defense game that attempts to be fun and philosophical the same time, Immortal Defense tells the story of Path defenders versus Bavakh which will have you intrigued, confused, enlightened and even puzzled by the time you've completed all levels that the main campaign has to offer. Enemies moving along a set path have to be destroyed, so players need to decide where to place down defensive structures as they seek to prevent enemies from reaching what they are protecting." Game Pick: 'Gridrunner Revolution' (Llamasoft, commercial indie - demo available) "Perhaps due to all the complaints against Space Giraffe, Minter tried to make Gridrunner Revolution easier to just pick up and learn to play, while still maintaining the little important intricacies which make him such a good game designer. The full version comes with two hundred levels to blast through and a couple of unlockable bonuses that will please fans of the old Gridrunner game." Game Pick: 'Awakener' (Ben Chandler, freeware) "Awakener is a one room adventure game created by Ben Chandler using the reliable AGS engine, where you play as a boy named Fadi who has to help her Aunt Sylvia with a small chore just outside her tavern. A nice little diversion for the afternoon which shouldn't take anyone longer than fifteen minutes to finish." Game Pick: 'Clockwords' (Gabob, browser) "Clockwords is a word game which involves firing off as many words as possible to stop the oncoming robot spiders from stealing your secrets. It starts off simple but soon gets very hectic as you try to think up long words while the spiders get closer to their goal. There are some wonderfully simple ideas thrown in there, such as using Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' as a special, almighty powerful word, and also allowing a second player to control the direction the cannon fires in." Game Pick: 'Bad Rats: The Rats' Revenge' (INVENT4 Entertainment, commercial indie - demo available) "Bad Rats: The Rats' Revenge is like a really silly and needlessly graphic version of The Incredible Machine games. On each level there is a ball, a cat, and some kind of weapon which will inevitably bring about the feline's demise. Placing a combination of objects and rats with different abilities, the task is to bounce the ball against the bringer-of-said-cat's-fate. Each level can be completed numerous different ways, from the simple to the ridiculously complex, and the cat will explode in various satisfying ways when you succeed."