Best Of Indie Games: Trippin' to the Beat

[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 delights in this edition include the Windows and Mac release of a BIT.TRIP game, a short story-driven adventure game with monochrome visuals, a port of Daniel Benmergui's Today I Die, and a multiplayer game where the rules are set by the players themselves. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'BIT.TRIP BEAT' (Gaijin Games, commercial indie) "BIT.TRIP BEAT is the first in the BIT.TRIP series, and plays out like a rhythm version of Pong, only far more insane. Over a few different levels, blocks fly at your paddle from the right-hand side of the screen, and your job is to simply hit them back. Every block that hits your paddle will make a noise like a bleep or a bloop, and always approaches you in time with the music." Game Pick: 'A House in California!' (Jake Elliott, freeware) "A House in California is a short story-driven adventure, with mainly monochrome visuals. In each scene, you must use the available actions to push the story onwards. Each character in the game is based on one of Jake's family members, and each little story revolve around family memories." Game Pick: 'Skydive' (Let It Roll, browser) "Skydive is a simple collect-em-up freefaller that requires you grab parachutes out of the sky and reach the ground in as quick a time as possible. Every parachute in a level must be collected, else you'll go splat when you reach the bottom." Game Pick: 'Today I Die Again' (Daniel Benmergui, commercial indie) "Today I Die Again is an iPhone version of the IGF Finalist Today I Die. This version features a few of the same ideas and features from the original, but also explores a number of extra scenes." Game Pick: 'Tea Time Quarrel' (No Fun Games, freeware) "Tea Time Quarrel is a multiplayer arena collect-em-up with an interesting concept - the players choose the rules of the game, then vote on whether a rule should be passed. Rules can be anything from 'Most Kills Adds Points' to 'Least Jumps Removes Health' and whoever reaches 100 points first wins."