In these times of economic recession, who can gamers turn to for free entertainment? Independent video game developers, of course. Understanding the need for quality entertainment that doesn’t eat up a paycheck, Go! Gaming Giant has compiled a quick list of games the average consumer may find enjoyable–and they’re totally free.

5 Days a Stranger.

This point-and-click adventure game by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw has the player assume the role of Trilby, a gentleman thief perusing a house for the one thing he needs most: a less ridiculous name. One may wonder what a gentleman thief is. Well, a gentleman thief is a burglar who has established seemingly altruistic, but morally questionable rules for his robberies to ease his conscience and make himself seem sympathetic should he ever be the protagonist in an adventure game. To his dismay, while searching the home, Trilby discovers the house is haunted.

This horror game with a dash of comedy can be played by clicking here.

Meat Boy.

An absolutely brilliant game filled with buzzsaws, crumbling blocks and all sorts of other nasty traps designed to kill its protagonist, the eponymous, anthropomorphic slab of meat. The game’s plot resembles that of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic film, Apocalypse Now, in which a soldier must find the demented Colonel Kurtz who has been lost in a jungle in Vietnam. Instead of that, the player is a piece of meat who must save his girlfriend, Band-Aid Girl, from the evil Dr. Fetus. Actually, it’s nothing like Apocalypse Now.

This wacky, frustrating, but satisfying platformer can be enjoyed right here.

Nomltest.

This difficult-to-pronounce Japanese game is an arcade-style space shooter. In it, the player controls a tiny blue ship that must face foes that look almost exactly like the space invaders in, well, Space Invaders. It is incredibly challenging, even for seasoned arcade shooter fans. Gamers will die a lot at first, but after several games, they will die slightly less! This game makes the player work for it.

Nomltest’s main website is in Japanese, but all you need to do is click right here and then click the blue button that looks like it is indicating a download.

Frozzd.

An astronaut is on a mission to collect Mubblies, tiny aliens who are helpless enough to need rescuing by a cartoon. The astronaut, as best can be seen in the early levels, has no name, but the players may choose to call him Skipspace Rockstarnaut. He is a sensible spaceman, to be sure, because he knows that the dead of space is so cold that he wears a scarf. NASA employs none but the best. The planet-to-planet platforming may bring to mind Super Mario Galaxy, and that’s good company for any game to be in.

Help Captain Rockstarnaut save the universe right here.

Seiklus.

In recent years, puzzle games have been bred with platformers to become mutant hybrids of awesomeness. Behold Seiklus, a product of this combination. The main character, an ill-defined white stick figure who previously lived on a cloud, must traverse the Earth in hopes of finding his way home… I think. The game does not provide a massive amount of exposition. As for the gameplay, it is what gamers have come to expect from a good puzzle platformer. Just when the stick figure is done crossing the lava pits on hanging chains, he will be faced with a head-scratching puzzle blocking his path.

This perplexing game can be discovered here.

Prototype.

No, not [Prototype], the illogically bracketed action game released earlier this year. This Prototype is a horizontal shooter. In a way, it is an R-Type ripoff, but if developers are going to copy someone, it may as well be the best. A little red ship is on a mission to destroy other little ships. Makes perfect sense. Along the way, power-ups improve the ship to the point where it is an unstoppable killing machine… until it is destroyed. Then it loses all power-ups and must start the building process anew. Crazy fun.

The space odyssey begins in this link.

I Wanna Be the Guy.

Parodying Mega Man, The Legend of Zelda and a zillion other old-school NES games, I Wanna Be the Guy is a wistful stroll down memory lane. Where did these charming games of old go? That is, besides the Wii Virtual Console and remakes on Xbox Live. Anyway, this free game is about The Kid, who desperately wants to be The Guy. After all, if he doesn’t become The Guy, he can’t call himself the title character; and everyone wants top billing.

This amusing sidescroller can be found right here.