This Week's Waste of Time

Hold on to your hats, it's time to dive into the Independent Games Festival again. I'll be going through 100 games per week for the next six weeks pulling out only those games that are free to play without any special plug-ins other than Flash. That turns out to be only a small portion of the nearly 600 entries, but, seriously, make sure your hat is secure.

First up, Adventure Taco: Sweet Revenge. Not the best start. It's a standard top-down shooter that has you traveling the Wild West looking for your kidnapped sister. Run around, shoot evil nachos and burritos, repeat.

Also largely uninspired but, in this case, technically impressive is Age of Defenders, a tower-defense game. The protection options are surprisingly robust as waves of tanks and planes bear down on your fortress with increasing determination. Get a friend to register and make the battle more personal with a multiplayer option.

Next up is a strange entry to the competition. It's an interactive video for Spanish-language rockers Bicicletas. The lyrics to the song appear in bubbles that the lead singer must pop. Your band members slowly join the effort as you fly around to the jaunty tune.

Born Fighters is interesting only in that it shows just how difficult it is to make a balanced and enjoyable fighting game. Street Fighter makes it look so easy. Born Fighters makes it look hard. This is one to skip.

The real gem for games 1 through 100 is Captain Jameson from developer Farbs McFarbs (presumably not his or her real name). You fly around space gunning down enemies and gathering raw materials to trick out your ship so you can take on even badder baddies. The game initially looks interminably complex, with stats and numbers scattered about the screen, but it's mostly for effect. Moving, shooting, and growing your space vehicle are all simple and intuitive. And this is just the free version.

Lastly we have an art game that pits your intellect against the clock. Can you jettison enough stuff to ensure a safe landing on a nearby planet? Is the mysterious stow-away jettisonable? Can you spare her without jeopardizing the mission? Does any of it matter in the end? Cold Equations is a quick artistic statement in the vein of Molleindustria's work. Feel free to read the artist's statement at the end of the game if you don't "get it."

This week's winner is Captain Jameson. It's impressive enough to make even this thrifty blogger want to spend the $9 to upgrade to the full game.

That should tide you over until next week's installment. I've heard good things about entries 100-200.