Passage is a short ‘game’. It’s kinda one of those things that you have to make of it what you will. The creator, Jason Rohrer, was the focus of the most recent full episode of A Life Well Wasted. My understanding is that he’s drawn some criticism for selling out by getting a ‘real’ job.

A Life Well Wasted is a bit on the artsy side, but generally has enough substance to be interesting. It definitely has that documentary feel to it.

I could try to describe Love, but it’s easier to just point you to this gameplay video. It’s crazy that it’s all being done by one guy.

William and Sly is worth it just for the jumping, but the animation is good too.

As I remember, And Yet it Moves wasn’t in the massive indie game sale that Steam had recently, which was a bit disappointing. The good news for Wii owners is that it’s coming to WiiWare

[Joe]

From time to time I will still ask people not-so general knowledge questions when I have easy access to a PC. Possibly equally silly, when there is a topic of interest to me I don’t immediately look for a blog on the subject. After posting about a couple independent games a little while back I wised up and searched out TIGSource which has a very useful independent game database.

From TIGSource, I discovered Knytt and it’s sequel Knytt Stories which are both fantastic freeware platformers for PC by Nicklas ‘Nifflas‘ Nygren. Nifflas is currently working with Nicalis (confused yet?) on Night Game for WiiWare and a game known as Q for an as yet unannounced platform, though likely Wii. Q looks to be in the vein of the Knytt games and Night Game has similarities to Nifflas’ other game, Within a Deep Forest.

Nicalis is the company porting Cave Story, another classic freeware PC platformer, to the Wii. Recently, they announced that they will also be porting La Mulana to the Wii.

I’ve also heard that Iji is a good game, I just have to wade through the story elements.

[Joe]

Apparently the IGF has been around for a while, because the 11th annual festival was earlier this year. Even though a number of the independent games I’ve mentioned here, including World of Goo, Crayon Physics and Braid, have won awards at the IGF, I don’t remember hearing about it until I checked out Blueberry Garden which won the Grand Prize this year. I also picked up And Yet it Moves which won a student award in 2007. Both games are worth your money (be sure to check the system requirements).

Since both are platformers, I wanted to play with a controller (though keyboard would work fine for both) so I borrowed a PS3 controller. I was able to get the USB drivers to work by following the tutorial in this video and used Joy to Key to map the controls when necessary.

[Joe]

Deeper Cuts

Wii:
Metroid: Other M

Red Steel 2 – Part 2

Xbox 360:
Splinter Cell: Conviction

Lost Planet

PS3:
The Last Guardian

MAG

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

(The first link is to a flash version of the video, the second is to a quicktime version if you want to download it.)

The Essentials

Wii:
Wii Sports Resort: Archery – .mov

Super Mario Galaxy 2 – .mov

New Super Mario Bros. Wii – .mov

Xbox 360:
Project Natal – .mov

Milo – .mov

Shadow Complex – .mov

PS3:
PS3 Motion Controller

Mod Nation Racers

Assassin’s Creed 2 – .mov

[Joe]