On April 19th, Nintendo aired its Indie World Showcase, highlighting a selection of indie games from around the world, coming to Nintendo Switch.
While it’s worth checking out the entire Showcase, I wanted to highlight a few of the exceptional looking indie games I’m going to be looking forward to:
Animal Well
Releasing in Early 2024
Animal Well is a very cool looking pixel-graphic adventure game coming in early 2024. The graphic style looks very interesting and seems to incorporate a combination of 8-bit style pixel graphics along with more advanced modern particle effects; the resulting style is quite stunning. While not a ton is known about this title outside of its Indie World gameplay trailer, it’s certainly one 2024 game I’m going to be following closely.
Teslagrad 2
Available Now
Teslagrad 2 is a gorgeous looking 2D side-scrolling adventure game incorporating Scandinavian-inspired settings and Nordic mythology. I never played the first Teslagrad, but a remastered version of the first game has also been released, in conjunction with the release of the sequel, which is available now. I can’t wait to try this one out. Full review coming!!
Blasphemous 2
Releasing Late Summer ’23
The first Blasphemous was released in the midst of the Dark Souls / Bloodbourne craze in 2019, and while it’s technically a 2D metroidvania, it’s dark themes, difficulty and souls-like gameplay certainly were a nice compliment to the 3D worlds of Dark Souls.
Personally I thought the first Blasphemous was excellent, and I really liked the religious themes incorporated into its dark storyline, as it seemed to make everything more grounded and even darker than a game like Dark Souls.
I’m very excited to see what the developer has cooked up for the sequel and I can’t wait for Late Summer.
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
Releasing 7/12/23
The original Oxenfree by Night School Studios was a surprise indie hit when it released back in 2016. So much so, in fact, that Night School Studios was the first game studio that Netflix acquired, as part of its entry into gaming.
I personally really liked the first game, and I actually played it all the way through (which for me is saying a lot). The sequel looks very interesting and seems like it will continue and expand upon the excellent gameplay and narrative from the first game.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
Releasing 8/28/23
To say Bomb Rush CyberFunk is a spiritual successor to Jet Set and Jet Grind Radio is an understatement. While it may not carry the “Jet” name, it looks like a direct sequel to the beloved games that started on the Sega Dreamcast.
Everything looks perfect so far. The graffiti, the cell shaded graphics, the skating gameplay…it all looks exactly like the original games, only better.
The developer, Team Reptile, even managed to score new tracks from Hideki Naganuma, the original composer of the music for Jet Set and Jet Grind Radio!
This one looks incredible, was a complete shock, and I can’t wait for August to arrive!!
You can check out the entire Indie World Showcase below:
Gamatroid 