During the lead up to Christmas, we’re flooded with games that need finishing, and new games that need buying. And that’s not even considering next year’s releases! December’s Indie Showcase certainly introduced a few good titles to explore, from RPG sports games, rad ‘90s street brawlers that bring back baseball caps, ripped-sleeve jackets and mullets, as well as the return of one of the best Metroidvania’s to hit the indie market!
Sports Story
Published & Developed by: Sidebar Games
Release: Mid 2020
A kind of “sequel” of sports, Sports Story expands upon the strangely captivating RPG x golf gameplay of Golf Story by introducing other sports to the quirky, if charming, indie gem. If golf with RPG mechanics, whimsical characters, dungeon crawling, and puns didn’t quite capture your interest – even it was at least to see how golf could be made, dare I say, “interesting” – perhaps the addition of more puns, tennis, espionage, buried treasure, and of course a Decasportathon will!
Streets of Rage 4
Published by: Dotemu
Developed by: Dotemu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games
Released: 2020
This one’s for the retro gamer, with a new Streets of Rage rounding off the original SEGA beat ‘em up trilogy with a fourth entry!
As a return of one of the most iconic arcade brawlers, it’s time to heed Yuzo Koshiro’s call and dust off those old sparring gloves and bandanas to join in rad street fights and hot ’90s bit-beats. And as if the title weren’t enough reason to steal a look, the hand-drawn visuals provided by the team behind the 2017 Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake manage to build upon the distinct style of the classic series, albeit with a clean modern fresh coat of pixelated-paint! This is bound to be a great one for multiplayer and will likely, if it’s anything like its older siblings, boast a great soundtrack to accompany the sound of beaten thugs!
Gleamlight
Published by: D3Publisher
Developed by: DICO CO
Released: Early 2020
It may have been called out for its similarities with another favourite indie Metroidvania, Hollow Knight, but there’s no doubt Gleamlight looks pretty. With a hand-drawn style and stained-glass window motif, the gameplay boils down to a platforming exploration style with combat and item collection progression. The characters and backdrops are rather attractive and convey a heavily stylised design about them, with an unspoken story that will unfold as you explore deeper into the world as Gleam.
Bake ’n Switch
Published by: Streamline Media Group
Developed by: Streamline Games
Released: Summer 2020
Overcooked and Overcooked 2 were raving successes when they came to Switch, offering an enjoyable yet competitive PVP multiplayer party experience that managed to capture the chaos of a Gordon Ramsey kitchen nightmare. Though perhaps with less insults and swearing, at least in the game: real life gamers were probably subject to as much. From the looks of the trailer, Bake ‘N Switch may appeal to the hardened chefs of Overcooked, albeit with a whimsical story about the Bakers and their quest to save the world using doughy goodies!
Incidentally this may be one of only few instances where this might make sense: to increase your high-score, you must combine “doughs” with other “doughs,” meaning the bigger your dough the higher the score. But we’ll have to wait until Summer 2020 to sacrifice legions of dough creatures to the Guardians of Dough!
Liberated
Published by: Walkabout Games
Developed by: Atomic Wolf
Released: 2020
What’s the key difference between a comic book and a video game? One is flat and motionless, the other is fully interactive. But what happens when the two become one? Something along the lines of Liberated, as it happens! In Liberated you’ll be playing through panels of a neo-noir black and white comic book, with action and platforming sequences, traversing from panel to panel with changing camera perspectives! In a way, this may seem reminiscent of the SEGA Mega Drive classic, Comix Zone – a 1995 beat ‘em up that had players control Sketch as he travelled through each panel with the aim of reaching the end before his own creations kill him off! While Comix Zone took on a brighter ‘90s comic book style, Liberated uses creative panel design and black and white colour scheme to bring a moody atmosphere befitting of its noir inspiration. As far as indie titles go, this is certainly a creative design choice!
Maybe they’ll release a limited edition comic to go with a physical release…?
Axiom Verge 2
Published & Developed by: Thomas Happ Games
Released: 2020
“Metroidvania” is a term that gets thrown around rather a lot in the realms of indie gaming. It’s a popular genre for creators to explore and we’ve seen a fair share of successful gems, from Hollow Knight to Owlboy, that have evolved the traits set by Super Metroid and Castlevania. But perhaps one of the best and most creative ‘vania titles in recent years has been the rather phenomenal Axiom Verge – a true tribute to classic Metroid, solely created by Tom Happ! One of the inventive designs behind this game was that players were given the ability to corrupt or de-corrupt certain walls and enemies in the game, effectively providing a means to exploit and glitch the game to progress beyond the conventional paths. Since many NES titles had exploitable or game-breaking glitches, some of which have been used by speed-runners in the past, they were creatively adapted as a core gameplay mechanic.
During the end of the Showcase, pulling another “that’s all for now” trick, was the surprise announcement of Axiom Verge 2, which will follow Indra, a billionaire who may have stumbled across a mysterious new world. While it is linked to the Axiom Verge story, it can be treated as a whole new game, with new characters, abilities, enemies, and locations to explore! So if you haven’t played Happ’s previous indie hit, you can pick this up before or after.
