Indy Games You Should Be Playing - 11-17 November 2007

Mid-November sees the days getting ever more colder as the nights get longer and the winter blues inevitably set in. Don't fret though, there's plenty of indy game goodness to keep you stuck in your nice warm house!

This week I've mostly been using the wonderful Kongregate for my daily dose of independent games. While most of the games aren't exclusive to the site the community and the achievements are - both of which are the icing on the cake! Here's my favourite picks of the week:


Asteroids Revenge III - Crash to Survive turns the tables on the traditional asteroids game by putting you in the shoes of an asteroid itself. You progress through the levels by upgrading your asteroid (speed, shield etc) and flinging yourself and your allies at the human ships. The whole game is a build-up to a final endless level where literally everything is thrown at you and your trust allies.Unfortunately you're not likely to go back to the game once you've beat the achievements but it's fun while it lasts.

Dolphin Olympics 2 is short but sweet. The aim is to rack up a humongous score by flipping your dolphin as high as possible while forcing it to do tricks (as everyone knows is the only reason dolphins exist). The high scores are literally impossible to beat if you want a life but it's a nice little challenge to try and beat your own score. There's a freeplay mode but it's only really useful if you want to perfect your timing as playing this game with no challenge in mind is pretty pointless.


Papa's Pizzeria is one of those frustrating multi-tasking games that start off easy but get incredibly hard while leaving you wondering why you would subject yourself to something that leaves you wanting to tear your hair out. So why I have I chosen it as a best pick? Well, it's still fairly fun!

As you've probably guessed from the title the aim of the game is to run a Pizzeria. Sound easy? Well, customers don't like to wait and they're also incredibly picky about the amount of topping they want, how long it has to be cooked, and how many slices you have to cut it into. Each of these has it's own station so you're frantically clicking between the four. Bugger any of these stages up and it will effect your tip. Thankfully you can save pizzas for later and whack them out according to their customer profile but when you're under stress you can often forget this.

It's worth-playing but - unless you're good with your hands - you won't get very far.

Honorable Mentions:

Cottage of Doom - Winner of TIGSources 'B Game Competition' Cottage of Doom is a fun but simple zombie romp in which you defend a cottage against a horde of zombies. Use whatever is at your disposal to block the entrances and keep those zombies out!

Dark Cut² - take on the role of a Civil War surgeon as you preform operations Trauma Centre style! Not for the queasy amongst you!

Tactical Assassin - A short but cleverly done sniper game in which you assassinate stick men. What's better than mixing killing with sick men?

Campaign Game - What better way to support your candidate by battling it out in a turn-based combat game? You can also piss on your political opponents in the multiplayer mode.

Some oldies on the list but I was catching up on the indy goodness over the weekend. Next week I'll have more up-to-date games.