The Chick’s Monthly Top 10 Update: July 2011

Forty-one games and 4080 Microsoft Points later, Indie Gamer Chick has finished its first month.  And all I can say is this: WOW!  Thanks so much everyone.  I figured maybe a handful of people would stumble upon this place.  Instead, I started on July 1st with four readers and finished the month with thousands.  THOUSANDS!!  Holy shit!!  I’m flattered, I really am.

Before I give out the first of my monthly top 10 updates, allow me to give the overly obnoxious Oscar speech.  I want to especially thank my friends Brian and Syd for your encouragement.  Brian, you rock.  You’re my best friend, and your suggestions, disturbing as they sometimes are, have all resulted in my best writings.  Syd, you don’t even play games and you’ve been awesome.  Bryce, I didn’t forget you.  You were the first guy to take my suggestions on game purchases and one of my direct inspirations for doing Indie Gamer Chick.  You guys are all so cool.

And of course there’s the XNA and Indie community.  Most of all to MasterBlud who has been ultra helpful while making suggestions.  Along with Kris Steele, who was a HUGELY good sport about the borderline snotty interview.  Those guys suggested I set up a Twitter account, which paid off huge.  MasterBlud also did the new banner I’ve had for the last couple days and, I think we all agree, it looks better than what I had.  Big props to Dave Voyles as well, who got me involved in interviewing developers for the Summer Indie Uprising.

I promise I won’t get this gushy every month.

Anyway, onto the monthly top..

Well actually I do get gushy every month, but not this kind of gushy.

Where was I?

And now, without further ado, it’s time to get to my Top 10 list.  Inspired by the power lap boards from Top Gear, my top 10 list is my way of publicly tracking the ten best games I’ve reviewed since starting Indie Gamer Chick.  Since this is the first month and only forty-one reviews have been done, this is NOT by any means a definitive list.  Over the first few months I have it up, I expect it to wildly change, especially once I start going back and checking out some older XBLIG titles that are reputed to be the best of the best.  Once the dust settles my hope is developers will look at having a game in the top ten as a huge source of pride.  I’m just that egotistical and delusional.

#10 Crosstown (Studio Hunty)

A fast paced and shockingly deep classic action game with an old school coat of paint.

#9 Pixel Blocked (Daniel Truong)

An original, simple, fast-paced logic-puzzler that could easily be mistaken as a first-party Nintendo game.

#8 Platformance: Temple Death (Magiko Gaming)

A punishment-platformer that works because it’s short enough to not bore but challenging enough that you’ll want to replay it to challenge your own best times.

#7 Lair of the Evildoer (Going Loud Studios)

A modern version of Zombies Ate My Neighbors with a huge assortment of guns, upgradable stats, randomly generated levels, and some of the best action gaming on the indie scene.

#6 Ninja360° (DoeraiGames)

Think N with less acrobatics but more fun.  Collect all the coins to beat the stage as fast as possible.  Only some really insane time target times hold it back.

#5 Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes (8-Bit Fanatics)

The best punishment-platformer on the indie market.  It’s hugely challenging but with tight controls and awesome NES-style graphics to keep you begging for more like the pussy that you are.

#4 Antipole (Saturnine Games)

The inspiration for my XNA Peer Review challenge, Antipole was still good enough to land high on my list.  Antipole has an awesome gravity gimmick and inspired level design.

#3 Star Ninja (Bounding Box Games)

Did you like Angry Bird?  Well then, Star Ninja is a better Angry Birds.  Awesome puzzle design, hilarious sound effects, and lots of hidden depth here.

#2 TIC: Part 1 (RedCandy Games)

Nintendo-style platformer with the best graphics I’ve yet seen on the indie marketplace.  Despite being only the first chapter of a four-part series, there’s enough added challenges here to make this one of the best games on the scene.

#1 LaserCat (MonsterJail Games)

To be honest, I’ve yet to play anything that has come remotely close to matching the enjoyment I felt playing LaserCat.  A Metroidvania adventure with classic graphics straight from an 80s computer title, it’s two hours of simple, straight-forward, and spectacular game play.  It’s deserving of this spot and will be the game to beat for the foreseeable future.

Now that the Summer Indie Uprising games will be hitting the market, I’m sure this list will look VERY DIFFERENT next month.  Until then, congratulations to all those who made the list.  Thanks everybody for reading.  You may now return to your normal random surfing.  I sadly have to return to my e-mail so that I can see how many sub-retarded douchebags out there are still asking me for solutions to Trailer Park King.  Jesus Christ people, seriously.  You would have to be a total braindead, gun-toting, tobacco-dipping, sub-literate moron to not be able to figure out this game.  Damn.  Props to Freelance Games for knowing their target audience.