Gatorman

The Good
I cannot stress enough how HILARIOUS this game is. You kick cute little dogs over fences, jump across toxic Porta Potties that damage your health, and smack obnoxious rednecks in the face and watch them spill beer all over their shirts. As the crowning moment, you deliver beatdowns to no less than THREE lame college football mascots.

In this adorable football-themed platform game, you play as the mascot for the Florida Gators, Al. You have been separated from your team and must get back to them ASAP, because the Gators can't possibly win without your mojo. Let's get it out of the way that I don't know anything about football.

I won't call this game a Mario clone because then you'll think of a cute plumber collecting gold coins. Instead, you're journeying through a trailer part full of rednecks, college jocks, white trash, and other people who might conceivably sport a Republican sticker on their car. And yes, you are both allowed and encouraged to kick ass. Al's main method of attack is his powerful tail, although he can deflect projectiles such as footballs and pom-poms back at his enemies. In the final level, you get to play as the creator of the game, in a blatant self-insertion that somehow isn't annoying in the slightest.

The levels are pretty similar, a mixture of fighting and navigating puzzles. Sometimes you'll need to flick a switch with your tail to open a roadgate, or climb along the roof of a Winnebago to get past an obstacle. At the end of each level you fight a boss, modelled after the mascot of the team you're playing against. And these boss battles are tough, almost like a traditional fighting game.

The game's graphics have a scruffy charm to them. They were obviously made at home, but they work. Music consists of football anthems. All of this stuff is "open content", meaning can theoretically edit the .bmp files contained in the game folder and have your changes appear in game.

The fake newspaper articles that appear between levels are a laugh-fest, and I just love the entire concept of Gatorman. For what it is, it's perfect. A short blast of fun, and just as it's starting to get boring the game ends.

The Bad
There's a bug on level three that sometimes causes a vital item not to appear. I don't think the creator ever got around to fixing it.

The Bottom Line
Gatorman screams. "THIS WAS MADE IN MY BASEMENT AND I'M PROUD OF IT!" You'd need to be a truly dedicated fan to pull off something like this, nevermind distribute it for free on the web. Gatorman is one of indie gaming's triumphs. It could never have been made by a major studio.