Freeware Garden: Ode To Cactus

I really do love the idea behind the series of ongoing Clone Jams indie developers are holding in order to do something between paying homage and parodying other devs. It's all very honest, very cute and quite frankly heart-warming. It feels a bit like making an awkward joke to a friend that suggests intimacy and care. Love, even. Love definitely shows in the six interesting games that comprise the Cactus Clone Jam and, possibly, more so in Tahla Kaya's very honest Ode to Cactus [official site].

Looking for more free games? Check out our round up of the best free PC games that you can download and play right now.

It's an ode and, handily, also a collection of three mini-games all wrapped up in a weird little thing that loves both Cactus and David Lynch and includes a lovely first person reference to contemporary classic Mondo Medicals --one of the first indie freeware games I truly loved-- a stylized platformer of sorts and a highly Cactus-esque shmup. Everything is very simple, properly polished and feels cohesive. It won't take you too long to play through the whole thing and remember just how incredibly odd such games felt less than a decade ago.

Then, you'll have all the time in the world to check the rest of the jam's games out.