Snot Bad At All: Swindler

I have come to the conclusion that indie developers will never run out of cool new ways to meddle with platforming standards. The latest I've encountered is Swindler, from the pixel masters at Nitrome (check out why we rate them). Here you appear to play a blob of snot, who is able to let loose from his own ectoplasmic entity a long, stretchy green string, tied to a post at the top of a level, and then extended or contracted. However, rather than moving him about the world, you move the world about him.

So with your fixed point, you spin the level around such that he swings appropriately. Collect stars, find the treasure, and wrap yourself around the levels while avoiding spikes, killer slime, and flinging blobs of equally viscous goo.

And blimey, it's hard. There's no gentle levels after the very first, the game quickly demanding you be good at it to progress. It's pretty brutal too, with tiny mistakes sending you back to the beginning of complex levels. It is, as ever, gorgeously animated with simply pixels offering remarkable detail - these guys know how to make games that will distract you from your work. Distract yourself from your work.