250 Indie Games You Must Play: an indie writer’s indie book about indie games. If ever you find yourself running low on indie cred, this is one paperback you should thumb through as soon as possible. Written by IndieGames.com‘s Mike Rose, this collection serves as the ultimate guide for games you’ve never heard of and are less of a person for not playing. I don’t say this often because I’m a bitter and cynical person, but the guy really knows what he’s talking about. I have personally played over half of the featured games and I can concur that most of them are indeed gems among the indie community.
All of the games within the book are organized into three categories: downloadable games, browser-based games, and commercial games (the ones you have to pay for). Unfortunately for console gamers, the author decided to only include games that can be, at least, played on a PC, so you will miss out on a lot of console and handheld titles. Perhaps a console-exclusive book will release sometime in the future, but for now, there is still plenty of content to be had right here. And besides, you have a computer anyway, right? Best of all: even if you don’t have a high-end machine, most of these games will work without a hitch.
Rose has lovingly dedicated a full page to each game, complete with description, details, full-color screenshots, and reasons why you must play it. He even includes a tidy little URL for each game where you can download and play it for yourself. The attention to detail is superb and it’s obvious that this book is his baby. Sadly, it’s not the best book to take on a trip (unless you have a laptop and internet access), but it is an excellent companion when you have a few hours to kill and/or want to waste your day away with pretty pictures and quirky games.
There is a depressingly low number of great coffee table books dedicated to gaming, but 250 Indie Games You Must Play helps make up for that with its depth, breadth, and charm. How it isn’t already at the top of everyone’s lists is beyond me. I am fully confident that it will someday be considered a classic of the genre, however. For most gamers, the $29.95 price tag might seem a bit hefty for a book, but there is a great deal at Amazon at the time of writing this brief rave review. And quite frankly, supporting Rose and his compilation will benefit you, him, me, and everyone else who would like to see more of this stuff.
