Trading Stories for Fun & Profit

Huggable xenomorphs, psychedelic trains rides to hell, & the long awaited return of of a barterer of tales are just some of what awaits you in this week’s edition of your best source (that’s our story and we’re sticking to it) for free gaming on the net.

Well here we are again and while I did indeed have to end up skipping last week thanks to E3, at least this week we are back to full roster of ten games for all of you to enjoy. Honestly I gotten so backed up with great titles to show you all I am tempted to do an extra column or a twenty game edition. Maybe somewhere down the line. So many games, so little time. But enough from me, let us get on with it already.

hug marine

Starting things off this week, we have what has to one of the few hardcore platformers I have ever played with a dedicated hug mechanic. I would comment on how odd of a setup this one has but honestly the game at the bottom of this page puts this one to such shame I am no longer sure I can tell normalcy from madness. But we will get to that one when we get to it. For now, MARINE YOU HUG YOURSELF SOME XENOMORPH AND BY GOD YOU LIKE IT! HOORAH!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/68377047/Hug%20Marine.swf

Hood Episode 3

Twice before you have entered the world of Hood and twice before you have survived. Now the question remains: in the face of the need to journey to another world, to combine magic and science, to face demons both literal and figurative, will you be three times lucky? Or has the end at last come for the witch hunter known as… The Wolf.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/593069

Recursion

While I will freely cop to being something of a sucker for faux retro 8-bit and 16-bit graphics, that alone is not enough, usually, for me to feature a game in this column. Nope you also need to have some of kind compelling gameplay or story to go with the graphics and thankfully our next game has plenty of the former and a little of the latter. I have noticed a growing mini-trend of late when it comes to one-screen platformers (see last week’s MUST PLAY for another example) and honestly Recursion might just be the best take on this concept I have yet to play. Any other week this would be instant MUST PLAY material but unfortunately this week we have a game that simply could not be denied the spot. While I suppose I could have held the game back for another column, I would not dream of depriving any of you the chance to play this game longer than I already have. Lets just call this an unofficial MUST PLAY and be done with it. I have said it before and I will say it again: as long as the indie community continues to shower such strong support on the genre, the future of the classic 2D platformer (in all its many permutations) remains bright.
http://www.bigdino.com/play/482/Recursion

side quest

Sometimes games do not need to be very long or very complicated to make their point. This is just such a game and that alone justifies its inclusion in this column (the graphics do not hurt either, see previous text entry).
http://jordan-wilson.com/host/sidequest/

Life in the West

Every time. Every time I start even start to wonder if the indie gaming scene might have finally run out of ways to surprise me with engaging off the wall game concepts, something new comes along to put me in my place. Such was certainly the case in regards to our next title, which charges players with filling the shoes of none other than Kanye West as goes about the vital task of managing his twitter feed. Acquire new followers by tweeting to earn Kanye points which in turn lets you follow other people in order to increase your followers even more and yes I really did just write that sentence and no, oh god no, I am not joking. If this sounds rather mad to you… Well that because it rather is but their be a method to this madness. The best part of the game? It uses nothing but the real tweets of Mr. West, a fact that will certainly risk the sanity of any who have never before experienced the… pearls of wisdom the man often hands down from the mountaintop to all of us lowly mortals. Now if you all will excuse me, I have to go start a pool for just what piece of pop culture madness will be next to be adapted into a game. Maybe a Charlie Sheen simulator… *shudders* No. Somethings humans are just not meant to know…
http://www.galactic-cafe.com/kanye/