Best Of Indie Games: Strange Adventures with Indie Games

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top free-to-download and commercial indie games and features 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 space exploration game from regular IGF finalist Digital Eel, a 2D platform game that plays like a classic from the early 80's, a first-person puzzler where players have to rely on a grappling hook to get around, an arcade game with MS Paint-style graphics, and an action platformer that features some of the best-looking graphics found in a Flash game production in a while. Game Pick: 'Strange Adventures in Infinite Space' (Digital Eel, freeware) "A space exploration game in which you play an unemployed space pilot, hired by a smuggler to embark on a dangerous ten-year mission in the Sector Prime system. Your employer is willing to part with handsome rewards for any discoveries that you find during this dangerous journey, but return to him late and you will be charged extra in ship rental costs. Both the Windows and Mac versions of SAIS were recently re-released as free downloads." Game Pick: 'Star Guard' (Sparky, freeware) "Star Guard is a 2D platformer in which you play as a spaceman on a mission to defeat an evil wizard, armed with only a gun that fires in the direction that you are facing. A quick trigger finger helps, because enemies have a tendency to spring out of nowhere and take you by surprise." Game Pick: 'Grappling Hook' (Speed Run Games, commercial indie - demo available) "Grappling Hook is a fantastic first-person puzzler which is very much in the same light as Valve's Portal. Armed with a lazer grappling hook which can only attach itself to green surfaces, players navigate metal chambers in the hope of getting back to Earth. Many puzzles involve letting go of the grappling hook at just the right time to propel yourself to safety, while others require firing in mid-air and latching onto surfaces that may not have been visible when firmly on the ground." Game Pick: 'RunMan: Race Around the World' (Tom Sennett and Matt Thorson, freeware) "Simply put, RunMan is utterly fantastic. The whole experience comprises of pelting it through zone after zone of levels which look like they were draw in MS Paint with the biggest size brush, bouncing off walls, smashing through bricks and baddies and then picking up a medal at the end depending on how fast you were and how much stuff you crashed into. All the while a glorious mixture of folk, blues and jazz accompanies the action, somehow perfectly complimenting the hilarity." Game Pick: 'Finwick' (SmallGreenHill, commercial indie - demo available) "Finwick is an action platformer created by SmallGreenHill, whose other previous work was the mildly popular episodic Platform - The Game. You play as a boy assigned with the task of delivering a package to Prattle Barker, an ecologist who lives somewhere in Fargrown Forest. Along the way you will encounter pitfalls, traps, obstacles, contraptions, and monsters that won't hesitate to eat you alive if you do not stomp on them first."