It’s the last indie showcase from Nintendo for the calendar year! 2020 has been a… difficult year, for people and the games industry. But new games and ideas are still coming out, and the indie side of things has been creating some rather compelling ideas. Having them shown off is a nice way to prepare for (a hopefully better) 2021.
Games:
- Spelunky, Derek Yu’s phenomenally popular roguelike icon, and its sequel Spelunky 2 from earlier this year are both coming to Switch. Releases “summer 2021.”
- Fistifluffs, a sort of not really “realistic” house cat themed fighting game, releases “early 2021” as a timed Switch exclusive.
- Very Very Valet, a wacky multiplayer trick driving game, releases “early 2021.”
- Tunche, a brawling game with a story and drawn art style based around the Amazon rainforest, releases as a timed exclusive in March 2021. Features Hat Kid from A Hat in Time as a playable character.
- Cyber-Shadow, Yacht Club Games’s follow up to Shovel Knight and apparent homage to Ninja Gaiden, has Shovel Knight amiibo functionality exclusively on Switch. Releases January 26, 2021
- Calico, a gorgeous, pastel colored sim about developing and supporting a “cat cafe,” releases today!
- Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, an adventure game set in a Mediterranean island, involves trying to heal and restore the island with the help of the local townsfolk. Releases “spring 2021.”
- Gnosia, a social detective genre, involves the player interrogating and trying to find which of their supporting cast is possessed by a virus. The game’s short, “five to fifteen minute” playthroughs feature randomized culprits. Releases “spring 2021.”
- Happy Game, a surreal and disturbing puzzle game, features music from the band DVA and significant smiley face imagery. Releases “spring 2021.”
- Super Meat Boy Forever, the long in development sequel to the bloody, hyper-difficult platformer, releases December 23 as a timed Switch exclusive
- Grindstone, a 2019 action game from Apple Arcade, involves moving along rail patterns in a number of small, digestible levels. Releases as a timed Switch exclusive today!
- Highlight reel: When the Past was Around (today!), Kosmokrats (March 2021, as a timed exclusive), Hoa (April 2021), Hazel Sky (March 2021), Trash Sailors (“Spring 2021”), Finding Paradise (“Spring 2021”).
- Among Us, sci fi social deduction game and one of 2020’s most popular hits, is coming to Switch today!
Presentation:
Wolfman’s Soapbox: First off, as my intro has likely made abundantly clear, there’s something nice seeing all of these games at the end of a year that’s been pretty rough on all of us (to say the least). There’s stuff to play, but there’s also ideas being explored through these games. I’ve tended to find indie games to be the most compelling space for me (even though my consistency at playing them is admittedly low), and these did feel like a bit of a “corrective” after so many big, kinda banal looking productions revealed at the Game Awards. With that sentiment already there, this presentation felt positive. 2021 might be okay!
As for the games themselves, almost all of them seemed fun and visually stirring at the very least. The number of genres present is very nice (that we have two radically different games of the super niche social deduction genre is perhaps telling), as is the fairly wide array of art styles and tones. At the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic the most about Alba, Happy Game, and Gnosia, but they all look quite good – the only ones that don’t interest me are Fistifluffs (and even that is interesting conceptually) and Very Very Valet. I’ve talked before about how nice it is to see these presentations have more and more games that go outside the traditional action genres (not that I don’t enjoy a good action game something fierce), and this was a continuation of that. Given the Switch’s online ecosystem, it’s probably not unlikely that many of these will do well – potentially also helping their sales on other platforms and even further broadening the commercial appeal of unique types of experiences – and that’s pretty cool. So “cautious optimism” it is for me, at least for the next few weeks.
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Huh, I only find out early this morning about this presentation. For being this year’s last indie-focus Direct (and sadly most likely its last Direct overall) it was pretty decent. None of the games appealed to me that much, especialy the 2D pixel ones (sorry Yatch Club Games) but that is just me being burned out from all pixel games at the moment.
If I have to choose the games that caught my eye then I say “hi! nice to meet you and hope you do well” to Tunche (pretty rare to see a brawler fully focused on the Amazon rainforest), Calico, Alba, Happy Game (I’m a fan of Amanita Design’s previous works), When the Past was Around, Trash Sailors and maybe Hao.
Also, big yawn on Among Us, one of this year’s overrated ‘big hits’ if you ask me.
Overall, an okay presentation.
Looked up more info on Tunche and only saw now that it is roguelike, sigh, Still interesting theme though.