Indie

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 ...

The Binding of Isaac is a 2D indie game, and is, without much of a doubt, near the top of its respective market. The game is based on the biblical story of the same name, in which a little boy called Isaac flees into his basement after having been imprisoned in his room and is now in danger of being murdered by his deranged mother, who believes that these actions must be undertook after, apparently, she was contacted by God ordering her to do so because of his sins. Whilst down in the basement, Isaac faces intense enemies and the continued wrath of his mother!