This Week's Waste of Time

A hamburger patty never looked so tough.

We're approaching the home stretch for entrants in the Independent Games Festival. Was this a terrible idea? Maybe. But when you're looking at games 200-250 of 304 there's no turning back. And that's good for you, because there's some fine free online gaming to be had in letters "p" through "s."

If you haven't already, check out parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this indie gaming wrapup. Although you might want to pace yourself as you can quickly lose an entire day of work to the myriad options at your fingertips. Make sure its a slow day.

When you're done with the backlog it's time to get down to business. First up to bat is Red Remover, another in a long line of cute puzzle games. I'm not sure why decent physics-based games feel the need to take the design to cutesy-town for a makeover, but it's an epidemic at the IGF this year. My recommendation is to turn the volume off on your computer so you don't hear the high-pitched squeals of delight when you complete a level. It made me want to lose.

Rocketbirds Revolution (or at least the free demo) is impressively complex for a Flash-based game, but bogs things down in mediocre jumping and shooting challenges. Perhaps the full version ($10) is more playable but that's not in the budget this year.

Not to gush too much about Edmund McMillen – I have certainly blogged about him before – but he produced two of the better games in this week's batch. Super Meat Boy is a simple run-and-jump game starring a wad of meat and its kidnapped love interest. This is possibly the most challenging game I've played since starting this endeavor. Spewer is made in the same spirit as Meat Boy, but in addition to running and jumping there is puking. Strangely enough, this juvenile addition actually makes the game more thoughtful and only slightly less fun. Play both, fall in love, and then break your keyboard in frustration.

Super Sloth Bomber is a polished game (somewhat rare in this pool of indie entries) with a mediocre premise. Float your balloon around and bomb enemies. Spoiler alert: That's about all there is to it.

This week's winner is Super Meat Boy. It's a standard platforming game done expertly. It's equal parts addictive, fun, and frustrating. What else can you ask for in a free game?

Enjoy.