"Ask any Xbox gamer which Live Arcade titles were worth checking out this year, and most likely they'll mention Limbo along with words like 'incredible', 'atmospheric' and 'unfair'. In development since 2004, Limbo plots the journey of a young, nameless boy into a dark,
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"Beau Blyth is truly an indie developer extraordinaire -- not only did he release the fan-favorite action roguelike Shoot First this year, he's also found time to put out our personal favorites Action Fist and Fish Face in the same 12-month period. The surprise here is that they're all equally good, but we're limited to just picking one game from each developer for this "best of" selection."

"What a year it has been for Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch. Last December, he was putting together Minecraft, an experimental exploration game that was becoming quite the underground hit..."

"Locomalito is a rising star in the indie game development community, and his pet project Hydorah (released in June this year) easily enhances his reputation even more. We still have a hard time believing that one man coded and drew every sprite found inside the game, although his collaborative partner Gryzor87 did provide some assistance by writing and contributing a soundtrack that's nearly one hour long. "

"One of the biggest PSN releases of 2010, Joe Danger is the work of four British friends and developers who are widely regarded as some of the nicest people in the gaming industry. Hello Games developed Joe Danger over the course of several years, and the game was released this summer to a flurry of high ratings from the press. Players take control of Joe Danger as he zooms over, under and through obstacles on his trusty motorbike."

"...Super Crate Box is an incredibly fun score-based arcade game created by Dutch indie development studio Vlambeer. The premise of the game is this: enemies appear from a hole at the top of the screen, but you only score points by collecting crate boxes that spawn randomly with a different weapon each time. ..."

"Touted by many as the Super Mario of this generation, Super Meat Boy is the work of two extremely hard-working individuals, Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes. This hard-as-nails platformer pays homage to the games that the duo used to play as youngsters, while simultaneously causing a good portion of players to scream blue murder as Meat Boy jumps into a grinder for the umpteenth time. Yet thanks to the snap-recovery and hot-footed nature of it all, these challenges feel like something worth overcoming, rather than a frustration."

"The Swedish domination of the indie game development scene continues with Daniel Remar's Hero Core, a Metroid-style action shooter that is packed with rooms to explore, bosses to fight, suit upgrades to collect, and even cooler secrets to unlock. You play as Flip Hero, a man who is on a quest to defeat an evil machine warlord named Cruiser Tetron. Hero Core is also rather special because players are allowed to engage the final boss anytime they want to, although powering up the protagonist is essential if you want him to last more than a couple of seconds in the tense battle with his nemesis.
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"The original Give Up Robot introduced our grappling robotic hero, throwing him into a series of tough chambers with a sinister voice sneering throughout that he should give up his journey. It was a wonderfully psychedelic trip, although the swinging mechanic wasn't explored as fully as we would have hoped. Just four months later, developer Matt Thorson gave us the sequel -- and my, what a sequel it was. Not only did it address our issues with the original game, but it went much further, providing what is easily the indie gaming experience of the year.
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