Best Of Indie Games: Winning the Rat Race

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top free and commercial independent games from 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 a hectic online multiplayer game featuring mice, a point-and-click browser game, a 2D action platformer, a puzzle game with RPG elements, and a Ludum Dare entry loosely based on the popular Monopoly board game. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Easy Joe' (Gamystar, browser) "Easy Joe is charming little Flash game where you solve puzzles by clicking on objects in the correct order, progressing from one screen to the next until you reach the conclusion of Joe's adventure. The neon-style colour scheme makes it extremely easy to differentiate clickable objects on the screen, and most of the puzzles can be figured out with just a bit of trial and error." Game Pick: 'Norapoly' (Nora Shishi, browser) "Norapoly is an interesting take on the popular Monopoly board game, in which two or more players upgrade their onscreen characters by buying up the different types of houses on the map. Every player starts out with a thousand points to spend on asset purchases, and they can earn more credits by passing through the other three squares with coloured suits on the map." Game Pick: 'Hero, Defeat the Demon' (R, freeware) "Hero, Defeat the Demon is a puzzle game that plays rather similarly to Hojamaka's Mamono Sweeper, where the noble knight has to defeat lower-level enemies first and gain enough battle experience before taking on the stage boss. The challenge here is to figure out a way to defeat all enemies on the map without boxing yourself into an inescapable route." Game Pick: 'Teppoman 2' (Ikiki, freeware) "Teppoman 2 is a 2D action platformer that puts you in control of a caped assassin with a craving for bananas, specifically the brown-coloured ones which can only be found inside a heavily-fortified base under the command of a white-hooded man. Our trained killer has a number of specialized skills that could be used to navigate around traps and silence unsuspecting enemies, plus he can also utilize all manner of ranged weapons when the situation calls for it." Game Pick: 'Transformice!' (Team Transformice, browser) "Transformice! is a hectic online multiplayer game which is part co-op, part everyone go ballistic. On each level there is a piece of cheese and a mouse hole, and the idea is to run and grab the cheese, then take it back to the hole."