Best Of Indie Games: From Joe Danger to Cobalt

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 an iOS game inspired by Nintendo's cult RPG EarthBound, a horizontally scrolling shooter in the vein of Konami's Gradius series, a puzzle game about a robot that can't think, plus the alpha release of the Mojang-published 2D action platformer Cobalt. Here's some recent highlights from the site: Game Pick: 'Four Winds Fantasy DX' (QUIMDUNG, commercial indie) "Inspired in part by Nintendo's cult RPG EarthBound, Four Winds Fantasy is an adventure game in which players control a father searching for his son in a world overrun by marauding, sentient plant life." Game Pick: 'Joe Danger Special Edition' (Hello Games, commercial indie) "In addition to the original pals and 100 levels in Joe Danger, the XBLA Special Edition (pictured) gets 30 laboratory levels and some new unlockable friends. After those levels are all perfected, players can drop into the sandbox to build their own events to share." Game Pick: 'Dragon Fantasy' (Muteki Corporation, commercial indie) "Originally released for iOS platforms in August of this year, Dragon Fantasy features all the familiar trappings of an 8-bit RPG. If you fondly recall the tile-based exploration and first-person battles of the Dragon Quest series, you're going to find a lot to like here." Game Pick: 'Satazius' (Astro Port, commercial indie) "Satazius is a solid horizontally scrolling shooter in the vein of Konami's Gradius series, featuring an array of upgradable weaponry and a number of tough boss battles." Game Pick: 'FlirtOff' (Radstronomical, browser) "Duplicator developer Z3lf creates another fun distraction of the puzzle platformer nature with Robots Can't Think. While the robot can't think, it can jump, climb walls and ceilings, time warp, and translocate." Game Pick: 'Cobalt' (Oxeye Game Studio, commercial indie) "Following the footsteps of Mojang's Minecraft, Cobalt's pre-order is cheaper than the future final release. The pre-order grants access to the current and all future builds of Cobalt up until and including the full release of the game."