Best Of Indie Games: In the Business of Buying and Selling

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top free and commercial indie games from his sister 'state of indie' blog, including the week's top indie games, from a pinball simulation to a clever artillery-style shooter, a new Molleindustria project, and more.] 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 tough platformer on the Xbox Live Indie Games service, a pinball simulation game, a clever artillery-style shooter, a shop management game with RPG elements, and a new experimental project from the developer of Every Day the Same Dream. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Platformance' (Magiko Gaming, commercial indie - demo available) "Platformance: Castle Pain is a tough platformer available on the Xbox Live Indie Games service. You take control of a knight who must battle his way through a dangerous castle and save the princess. There are spinning axes to dodge, bats to flee from, spikes to bound over, octopuses to not make friends with and ghosts to beat a hasty retreat from." Game Pick: 'The Pinball Adventure' (Michael Gribbin, browser) "The Pinball Adventure is a collection of four pinball tables in one game, where players score points by completing bounties and slaying monsters. Each table is usually populated by three waves of monsters to kill, and a stage boss will appear when you've cleared ten sets of enemies in a row." Game Pick: '!i' (David Williamson, freeware) "!i (or 'Not I') is a clever artillery-style shooter for one or two players. The world is divided up into black and white, and each player takes it in turns to fire off a block of their own colour, and eradicate the enemy from beneath. A single player can battle against a AI-controlled army, or two players can go head-to-head." Game Pick: 'Recettear' (Carpe Fulgur, commercial indie - demo available) "Recettear (pictured) is a tongue-in-cheek Japanese RPG from 2007, now translated into English. It follows the story of a girl who is about to have her home repossessed, and so opens an item shop in the hope of paying the loan off." Game Pick: 'Inside a Dead Skyscraper' (Molleindustria, browser) "Inside a Dead Skyscraper is a new experimental work from Molleindustria, developer of games like Every Day the Same Dream and Run Jesus Run. Here you play as a man in a hazmat suit, who was given a strange device by his partner and advised to explore his surroundings."