Here's a Rundown of Everything at The Nintendo Indie World Showcase [11/08/2021]

The last time Nintendo announced anything was the surprise reveal of the Nintendo Switch OLED. This announcement went down with fans about as well as a bag of rocks in a lake - mainly because it was not the heavily rumoured Switch 4K model. However, the last time the company held a Direct-style event with montages upon montages of games was E3. At that event Advance Wars was brought back to life, some classic Mario Party games were given a remake, a Legend of Zelda Game & Watch was shown, WarioWare made its way onto Switch, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Balck Water finally got a western release and remaster for the Switch, we were treated to 20 minutes of SMT5 gameplay, Mario and his Rabbid friends returned… oh, and Metroid: Dread was confirmed to be real after 20 years of rumours.

What we are saying here is that Nintendo fans have been dealing with a lot of mixed emotions recently. So it probably makes sense that the company would try to reassure its diehard fanbase with a bunch of the Switch’s bread and butter. Neat indie games. That is why today Nintendo held its latest Indie World Showcase, so here’s what was shown.

*WARNING*
*WARNING*
FUNK OVERLOAD!

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Team Reptile, the folks behind the 2cool4skool Lethal League and Lethal League: Blaze, made a splash last July when they announced Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. This was in one part due to the announcement trailer being loud as hell and cool as ice and another part because it basically pitches itself as a spiritual sequel to the Jet Set Radio duology. 

Not only does the game take inspiration (to put it very mildly) from the quintessential Dreamcast games (even if only the first one came out on that system), it has also recruited talent from that original game with famed Sega composer Hideki Naganuma doing some of the soundtrack for Bomb Rush.

This, the first major trailer for the game since its announcement, showed more of the game in motion and confirmed that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk will be a timed console exclusive for Switch when it releases sometime in 2022.

LOOK AT THIS FIGGIN’ LITTLE DUDE AND ALL HIS FIGGIN’ LITTLE DUDE FRIENDS!

TOEM

Something We Made is a Swedish team with only three core members and until now have only released prototypes. However, now they are about to drop their first full game, TOEM.

This is an isometric photography game that snaps into first person as you take pics. Despite its colour palette only consisting of black, white and greys inbetween, the hand drawn artsytle and scandiacvan-inspired countryside is already plenty eye catching. Top that off with a world full of cute little fellas that you will help out with your photography skills and suddenly we have yet another neat looking indie game we can’t wait to play.

TOEM is scheduled for release this Autumn on Switch and PC.

Round and round we go! Where will we stop!? THE END OF THE WORLD!

Loop Hero

Ok, so you are just going to have to take my word on this but Loop Hero is really, really cool. The problem with selling someone on this game is that it is also pretty high concept as far as indie roguelites go. Without getting too bogged down in it all, everything has ended and now you are trying to form a new world. You don’t play as the hero traversing the loop but instead, you build and customise the loop with challenges and enemies, slowly building up the power of the hero and improving their party and camp.

Loop Hero was first published by Devolver Digital on PC earlier this year and was developed by Russian indie studio Four Quarters. Thanks in no small part to its critical acclaim on that platform it is now on its way to Switch in time for the Winter holidays.

FAR: Changing Tides

The follow up to the sidescrolling minimalists narrative darling FAR: Lone Sails got its first full trailer at the event. The game is still being developed by a small Swiss team, Okomotive, however, publishing duties have changed hands to Frontier Developments.

We all float on.

This fresh look showed off a much bigger world, a more expanded ship/boat/vessel/thing, the new main character and some deepsea diving. The muted and meditative puzzle platformer will be released on Switch early next year and is also coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

brb gotta go listen to some soft science and be melancholic while contemplating death

Necrobarista: The Final Pour

We loved Necrobarista when it was released last year on PC. So much so in fact that our EIC (me) named it their 4th favourite game of that year! However, despite that, Route 59’s interactive visual novel always felt slightly undercooked. The stylish intro cinematic featured characters that only appeared for less than a handful of minutes of screen time, while a lot of important story beats that filled in much of the character’s narrative beats were sequestered off into unlockable texts.

The Final Pour looks to remedy the original game’s shortcomings by adding new scenes and story content, along with slightly updated visuals and even a mini-movie maker that will allow players to create their own scenes with the game’s cast of colourful Aussies.

You can pass time until the afterlife with a nice cup of coffee right now as a timed console exclusive on the Switch and soon on Apple Arcade and PC.

The next three games shown at the event were all not only shown at previous Indie World Showcases but all went on sale in time with the show yesterday. Also, they all look like absolute bangers and now we don’t know what to play right now!

I’m not sure about you, but I heard Concord is pretty… GRAPE!
HUH! GET IT? GRAPE!

Garden Story

Picogram has continually caught our eye at the Wholesome Directs and other events they have shown their instantly endearing Garden Story at. The game sees Concord, a grape, try to restore their island community to its former glory while fighting back a rot threatening to destroy everything, in what seems to be a neat mix of dungeon crawling and Animal Crossing-esque town management.

The artstyle and music of this cute-as-all-hell game are still as killer as its first reveal and it is playable now on PC and Switch.

Boyfriend Dungeon 

The long-awaited dungeon crawler from Kitfox games was finally released alongside the Indie World Showcase yesterday. The game sees the weapons and tools that you use for vanquishing foes capable of taking human form to be wooed and dated, all while the game alternates between an isometric action game and visual novel dating sim.

The hot dude/curved sword at the front is literally called Sunder… Because Kitfox clearly know what they are doing here.

Boyfriend Dungeon is out now on Switch and PC and is coming to Xbox platforms (and maybe PlayStation, that is yet to be confirmed) at a later date.

Axiom Verge 2

The final game in this torrent of “and it is out right now” heavy hitters was the long, long, long-awaited and shrouded in mystery Axiom Verge 2. This prequel has been created once again by solo-developer Thomas Happ, with him working on everything from music composition and narrative design to character art and programming.

I think this is the part where we fight, right?

While it is set in the same universe as the first game and also considers itself a Metroidvania, this follow up is different compared to the original in almost every other way. From its style to its gameplay everything has been changed, all seemingly with the intent of carrying over the mystery and surprise of the first game.

Axiom Verge 2 is currently available on Switch, PC and PS4, with a PS5 version on the way and a physical Limited Run release planned for October.

Someone got a bunch of Grindstone all over my Shovel Knight… AND I LOVE IT!

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

Just when we all thought there was no more Shovel Knight to be mined, Yacht Club Games found a new 8bit ore to chisel away at.

The grid-based puzzle, dungeon crawler take on the franchise was first announced all the way back in February of last year and has been pretty quiet ever since. The game will feature 10 playable heroes from the franchise that now spans five standalone games and the pixel art is as stunning as you would expect from the series. Pocket Dungeon will also feature amiibo support but only for the Shovel Knight series amiibo.

While there is still no sign of Yacht Club’s upcoming 3D game (which the studio has confirmed it is still working on), but until then Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is coming to Switch this holiday and is also confirmed for PS4.

“What you up to?”
”Oh nothin’ much vibin’, building a civilisation, just weekend stuff, you know?”

ISLANDERS: Console Edition

This chill city-builder management-sim found a dedicated audience on PC when it launched in 2019. Now the two-person team is bringing ISLANDERS to consoles with a Switch version. 

The game is a great introduction for those looking to get into the strategy city-building genre as it is all about the relaxed experience of placing buildings, expanding to neighbouring islands until you can grow no more, then starting from scratch in new procedurally generated landmasses. The game launched on the Switch yesterday with no mention of other consoles yet.

Metal Slug: Tactics

So Metal Slug: Tactics looks great and XCOM but with Metal Slug art is such a stupidly great idea we can believe no one thought of it before, but before we go any further you should really read up on SNK’s current owner…

So yeah… as great as this game continues to look and as good as the work that publisher Dot Emu does is, maybe think twice before giving this game money while SNK is reaping the rewards… It is scheduled for release sometime next year.

OH THANK GOODNESS! It had almost been six months since I installed this game on a different platform. Phew, close one…

Tetris Effect: Connected

Remember when we said that this site and its EIC (me again, the person writing this article) was a fan of Necrobarista? Well, I put the next game on my game of the year list two years in a row and gave it an honourable mention last year. So you would be right in amusing that I was very excited by the next announcement.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Enhance often claimed Tetris was their “dream franchise” to work on and the existence of their, also highly celebrated, Lumines series is credited with the fact that they couldn’t get the Tetris licence for years. However, in 2018 the developer finally got to realise their dream of a game that would encapsulate synthesia with the release of Tetris Effect on the PS4 and PSVR. Since then the game has received a fascinating cooperative multiplayer mode and come to the Epic Game Store, Xbox and PC (and Game Pass).

Many assumed that the game would never make it to Switch due to is extremely demanding visual effects but somehow after almost three years, the team at Enhance and Monstars has made it work. The game will also come with cross-platform multiplayer, so hopefully, it will be easier to find a game of VS or Connected.

As cool as it is, Tetris 99 will finally have to move over on my Switch’s main menu come the 8th of October.

Round-Up Montage

• Acclaimed cartoon-y co-op space survival sim, Astroneer, is coming to Switch in January of 2022.

• The much better than it sounds, Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator, is making the jump from PC to Switch this holiday.

• We heard y’all like those slimes, right? Good, because Slime Rancher: Portable Edition just landed on the Switch yesterday!

• LumberbearJack, a game about (yep, you guessed it), a bear called Jack that is a Lumberjack is coming to the Switch sometime in 2022.

• Survival 19th-century hand-drawn adventure, Curious Expedition 2, brings all its role-playing to the Switch starting yesterday.

• And this Autumn Gang Beasts is finally arriving on the Switch. You know what Gang Beasts is at this point, you really don’t need me to explain it.

Eastward

Chucklefish, the publisher behind the likes of Stardew Valley, Starbound and Wargroove, ended the showcase by dropping a trailer for the highly anticipated Eastward.

It is dangerous to go alone. Save this (game).

The game which features a beautiful combination of hand-drawn animation and pixel art is being developed by Shanghai-based studio Pixpil and up until now was only scheduled for a PC release. Very little was shown of this game that has already cultivated a fanbase but you won’t have to wait long as it will be releasing on the Switch on the 16th of September this year.