Return of the Beloved Amiga Classic

Largely a remake of the much-loved Amiga game Defender of the Crown (later released for just about every platform available in the late 80s, including the NES), Heroes Live Forever updates the game with better graphics, fully digitized music, and a new gameplay element ("tactics" cards that give you special benefits during battles).

In Defender of the Crown, you play one of several great lords in England, attempting to unify the realm under your own rule. Conquering provinces produces tax revenues that you can use to increase the size of your army (but you have only one "army" which follows you, milord, about, and can purchase new units only at your castle, meaning you become vulnerable over time unless you return home frequently).

In Space No One Can Hear You Giggle

Derelict's backstory is straight out of Aliens: you encounter and board a derelict spaceship which proves to be teeming with nasty alien critters who try to eat you and whom you must mow relentlessly down with high-powered, futuristic weapons. But the Alien series is brooding, dark, and bloody, while Derelict is light hearted, well-lit, and rather charming; the aliens may want to eat you, but they're aliens out of Nick Jr. rather than Lovecraft.

Cheerful Arcade Fun
2006 Adultswim.com Award Winner

A 2006 IGF finalist and winner of the Adultswim award (sponsored by Cartoon Network), Dodge That Anvil! is a game in which you play a bucktoothed bunny trying to harvest carrots and other veggies as anvils drop from the sky. Why? Well, um.... Does it matter? This is cartoon logic here.

Each level, you must harvest a quota of carrots (extra points for more); radishes give you points you can spend on equipment, like hard-hats that save you from one anvil-strike, and veggie magnets that let you collect plucked vegetables by moving near them instead of through them. Just about every level adds some new type of obstacle, powerup, or other feature--in other words, enough variety to retain your interest as the game progresses.

2004 IGF Winner For Innovation in Audio and Innovation in Digital Art
Now Free!

From Digital Eel (oft-time IGF nominees and creators of the excellent Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, among other games) comes this oddball circle-shooter. The basic gameplay here you've seen before: You are shooting from the edge of a circle at something in the middle, and you have to zip around the circle (using left and right arrow keys) and firing madly, trying to keep the thingie at the center from touching the edge.

But in Dr. Blob's organism, the circular thing you're firing around is a petri dish... some kind of nasty and potentially lethal organism is attempting to escape.