Best Of Indie Games: High-Definition Entertainment

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The goodies in this edition include a keyboard-bashing game, Adam Saltsman's latest effort, a vertical shooter that features only boss battles, a couple of Japanese-flavored platformers with zany characters, and Intuition Games' retro take on Cipher Prime's Auditorium. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Gravity Hook HD' (Adam Atomic and Danny Baranowsky, browser) "Adam Atomic's original Gravity Hook game has now been updated to HD, featuring artwork designed for higher screen resolutions, gameplay rebalancing, new elements, Twitter support, and remixes of the original soundtrack plus new songs by his collaboration partner Danny B." Game Pick: 'Dinosaurs Didn't Have Keyboards' (Sophie Houlden, browser) "Dinosaurs Didn't Have Keyboards, But If They Did, They Would Break (Like Yours is About to) is a short arcade game created by Sophie Houlden in under forty-eight hours for a mini-Ludum Dare competition. In it, you have to tap the number keys as fast as you can to help the dinosaur leap over lava pits and reach the finish line in the quickest time possible." Game Pick: 'Vatn Squid' (Ted Lauterbach, freeware) "Vatn Squid is a vertical shooter that features only boss battles, created by Ted Lauterbach during Game Jolt's Weekend Jam event. Players take control of a ship that can shield itself at the press of a button, and if you collect enemy bullets during this short period of invincibility your super weapon is charged up as well." Game Pick: 'Cactus Block' (chuchino, freeware) "In chucino's Cactus Block you play as an unnamed blue character who has to find his or her way home on a snowy winter day. Some cliffs might seem to high to climb at first, but you can place a random tile on screen as a platform to stand on or jump off. The problem with this ability is that there's an equal chance of getting a cactus instead of a brown block, which hurts the player should they come in contact with the prickly plant." Game Pick: 'Sennyuu' (Peposoft, freeware) "Peposoft's Sennyuu is an action platformer that features twenty stages to play, where the objective is to take out all of the enemies on screen without losing too many hearts in the process. You're armed with the same gun that the other grunts have, so it's a matter of shooting first and dodging whatever projectiles that come at you to survive." Game Pick: 'Sushi Cat' (Joey Betz, browser) "Sushi Cat is part Peggle, part feeding a cat. With sushi, obviously. Once the cat is dropped from the top of the screen, you have no control over where he ends up, but his bouncing and body-jiggling is almost hypnotic. The visuals and assorted reggae/japanese music give it a great vibe, too." Game Pick: 'Houkaimura' (Peposoft, freeware) "Houkaimura (Breaking Town) is an action platformer that plays similarly to the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, where you have to guide an eggplant-headed character through eight levels packed with enemies, traps and boss encounters. There are a large selection of weapons that you can find and collect, although players are limited to the use of just one type of weapon at any time." Game Pick: 'Eon' (Intuition Games, browser) "Eon is indeed a take on Cypher Prime's Auditorium, with particle manipulation used to fill containers. It's got a lovely feel to it, with the retro graphics and atmospheric soundtrack really doing it justice."