Here's the Rundown of Everything in Today's Nintendo Indie Showcase [17/03/2020]

Nintendo today held their first major non-Animal Crossing livestream of 2020. The previously titled Nindies events are now officially Nintendo Indie World Showcases. With Microsoft having just announced the Series X’s specs with the help of Digital Foundry, Sony lining up to do the same tomorrow with Mark “Knack” Cerny himself and almost every major Q1 release review dropping in the last 24hrs, this event couldn’t have come at a busier time (not to mention, you know, the world right now)! So here are the highlights in case you missed anything.

Blue Fire

Blue Fire is a moody looking 3D-platformer that takes place in the ominously named The Void. The newly Argentina based Robi Studio is launching their mysterious game first on Switch this Summer.

Baldo

Veteran developer Naps Team, known for their work Amiga fighting game Shadow Fighter and 3D PS1 beat ‘em up Gekido take a turn for the anime with Baldo. An action-RPG with heavy Ni No Kuni vibes, Baldo looks to be full of dangerous dungeons, interesting puzzles and colorful characters. It will be released as a timed-console exclusive on Switch in the Summer.

I am Dead

Between I am Dead and Spiritfarer the afterlife is looking weirdly welcoming in indie games.

Annapurna Interactive hope to have another indie hit on their hands with the help of the developers of the endlessly relaxing Wilmot’s Warehouse and the truly peculiar Loot Rascals. I am Dead is a puzzle-filled adventure following a recently-deceased museum curator and his ghost dog as they try to prevent the destruction of their afterlife island, Shelmerston. It too will be getting the timed-exclusivity treatment sometime this year.

B.Ark (Bio -Interstellar Ark Bark)

Burbank based Tic Toc Games have mainly worked in licensed fair until now (Funko POP! Blitz and Smurfs Bubble Story) but are branching out with a 4 player couch co-op shoot’em up… With dogs… In space. B.Ark is getting timed Switch exclusivity in late 2020.

Cyanide and Happiness: Freakpocalpse

From the creatives behind the long-running Youtube channel comes a jokey (if poorly timed) end of the world adventure game. This longing running Kickstarter project will launch in Spring.

Summer in Mara

Chibig, the Spanish developers behind adorable space farming game Deiland. Announced their ocean-faring tale of growing up, Summer in Mara, during the showcase. Koa, the main character will farm and maintain her own island while sailing around a friendly sea in the Spring of 2020, first on the Switch.

Quantum League

Quantum League is a mind-bending shooter I’ve had my eye on for a little while. However, it is almost impossible to describe beyond just pointing you to a gameplay video. So go watch that and have your brain melt a bit.

The Good Life

What’s that Zack? Swery and White Owls Inc. had something to show? His Kickstarter funded pet and life simulator The Good Life? You’ll ride sheep as a New York journalist and traverse a sleepy English town as a cat during full moons? Huh, fascinating, I wonder what the coffee is like there?

The Last Campfire

This image is making teary eyed. This game is going to destroy me, isn’t it?

Having been announced at the Game Awards, Hello Games showed off their first new game since the infamous release and continued redemption of No Man's Sky. The Last Campfire sees an adorable....thing called Ember explore a beautiful looking forest and its ruins while meeting a variety of inhabitants and creatures along their way. All of this on their way to light the last campfire. In the Summer of 2020, it will launch exclusively on the Switch.

PixelJunk Eden 2

The Q-Games continue to show their versatility with the genre-fluid PixelJunk franchise with PixelJunk Eden 2. Going back puzzle-platform-synesthesia stylings of the first Eden game, you and a friend (in couch co-op) will bring gardens to bloom in this music-centric adventure. It’s launching this Summer.

Faeria

Abrakam’s hit deck-building fantasy makes it way over from the PC to Switch this Spring. Known for its unique ever-changing board it will be interesting to see how it makes the transition to console and if it can compete with the plethora of card-based games already on the platform. 

Eldest Souls

Eldest Souls is a souls-like, rouge-lite, boss rush, hard as nails, pixelated indie game, set in a grimdark world, with an obtuse story. While it sounds like a handful of Steam’s popular tags were pulled out of a hat and used to make a game, the newly formed Fallen Flag Studio hope to stand out with a highly customisable character. It launching on Steam and as a timed-console exclusive this Summer

Other Highlights

As always the penultimate bullet point in this video presentation was a poppy montage of games that didn’t make the cut of getting John Vignocchi’s weird excited voice played over them.

We saw several ports announced including Blair Witch, Ghost of a Tale, Sky: Children of Light, Sky Rachet, Superliminal, and Dicey Dungeons. While the previously PC confirmed Wingspan, Moving Out and Bounty Battle were announced to also be making their way to Switch upon their releases.

In the words of Yves Guillemot and Uncle in Jackie Chan Adventure.

Apparently it is against the law to end any video game related grouping of announcements without having a “One more thing” moment, but I will admit I’m pretty into this one.

Exit the Gungeon

We’ve known that the Gungeoneers were returning in the side-on continuation of the massively successful and equally addictive Enter the Gungeon, however, we didn’t know it would be launching first on Switch today. Dodge Roll and Singlecore Games have a lot to live up to after Enter, a four-year-old game, only stopped being supported late last year.

While there were some notable absences from Nintendo’s show *cough* Hollow Knight: Silksong *cough*. This was an overall solid showing and proved that Nintendo has a lot of cards to play in 2020. With rumours flying of a full Direct coming soon it will be interesting to see what else they have up their sleeve in these weird, wild times.