Indie

Badland might be crammed into the category of an “Autorunner”, the genre of gaming where characters zoom along the screen and players just need to hit a jump button at the right moment. But the character in Badland doesn’t actually run; it’s a weird furball that flies, and players have to tap the screen of the iPhone to flap its wings and keep it afloat. It’s an “Autoflapper” if you will, but that doesn’t even begin to describe this unusual and engrossing game from the two-man team of Frogmind Games.

50 is a simple game. Flick a coin down a wooden plank with painted numbers and make up to 50. No more, no less. Sometimes the numbers are in a different place, sometimes the surface area they cover is a little smaller and you’ll need to target more accurately, but for all intents and purposes, scoring 50 is all you need to worry about.

Aliens Need Burgers has a goofy and semi-charming premise: aliens who love hamburgers come to Earth to relieve us of our beloved cow meat. Fortunately enough, there's a satellite worker hanging outside the atmosphere in space, ready to defend the world from the incoming threats. Unfortunately, the game itself doesn't employ any of this creativity, and Aliens Need Burgers is another forgettable touch-screen experience.

If you’ve ever looked through the papers, hoping to find a shred of explanation as to why politicians act the way they do, knowing full well that you could do a far better job, Masters of the World is for you. It’s the third in Eversim’s geo-political simulator series, and while other games task you with ruling the world or coming to an uneasy peace with every other nation, in Masters of the World you’ll make difficult decisions, work to jumpstart the economy and still struggle to get into the people’s good books. Forget Civilisation; if you truly want to ...

Action movies in the eighties were simple. There were two sides – good and evil. A large muscled man (quite often with only the smallest grasp of the English language, and I’m not just talking about Arnie) would fight “someone bad” while causing millions of dollars of damage, a couple of hundred explosions and spouting kick ass catchphrases.

When Braid hit the Xbox, it was a wake up call to indie developers. Smart and simple games could flourish in this new generation of high-powered graphics. The Bridge is an indie 2D puzzle game where players control time and gravity to guide a man through a distorted world of M. C. Escher geometry. The Bridge owes much to Braid, both for paving the way for other indie games, but also for the quiet thoughtful tone that both games share.

There has been a distinct lack of business sims these past few years. While Theme Park and its ilk bring back happy memories for those old enough to remember them, something about the genre has led to it disappearing almost completely, and when it does show up it’s usually watered down on mobile devices. Arcadecraft hopes to change that by lettings fans control their very own arcade at the height of their popularity in the eighties. Pick which games you want to be available, how much to charge, how difficult they are and a whole host of other options, all ...

The space shooter genre is relatively uncommon these days. In the 90s and early 2000s, though, they were a dime a dozen. These games were a staple in any PC gamers collection and recently there has been some minor interest in revitalizing the genre. Born Ready Games is composed of developers that obviously have an intrinsic love for arcade-style space shooters, and their Kickstarter-funded game Strike Suit Zero sets out to accomplish this daunting task. Story

Hotline Miami is an interesting indie title that was released in late 2012. The gritty game has received numerous awards and accolades, particularly for its soundtrack and gameplay. I've logged many hours playing through this ultra-violent offering from Dennaton Games, and it has been one of the more cerebral video game experiences I've had in awhile.

When Super Mario Bros. arrived, beating the game was a source of pride for most players. Those with poor reflexes or a low threshold for frustration would fizzle out before finally finding the right castle and saving the princess, but more tenacious players would stick it out, replaying the levels over and over until they could zoom through Mario’s adventure with perfect precision and timing. Eventually, merely beating the game wasn't enough, and the question became “How quickly can you beat it?” This gave birth to the gaming subculture of speed runners ...