So – I was originally going to call this the Best Ever Indie Games – but I realised the list was way biased towards my own personal tastes… So let’s call it My All Time Personal Favourites instead… Anyway I think every single one of these games – especially compared against their cost – is worth handing your hard-earned pennies over for. Where possible I’ve only added games from ‘real’ indie studios -however its getting very hard to distinguish what’s ‘indie’ correctly sometimes so please do forgive me if I make any errors!
Before going on with my Top 5 – I have a quick caveat to admit – I haven’t played UNDERTALE yet – yes I know it’s a crime and from every review I’ve read its just the kind of game I’ll love – just don’t hold it against me – I’ll get there eventually.
Here are a few honourable mentions too – games I really loved but which didn’t quite make it to the top of my list…
Braid, Limbo, Fez, World of Goo, Spelunky and Machinarium all deserve to get checked out – some of them are legends in the world of indie development and every single one of them is extremely playable – so do make sure you give them some serious consideration!
Now onto my personal faves…
#5 Mark of The Ninja
This game was snapped up by Microsoft after Klei dropped them a promo video. The awesome ninja inspired action delivers the perfect mix of stealth and ninja-bad-assery; forcing you to remain always fearful of being revealed whilst dispatching foes with deadly skills. I thought this game was great and I gave it plenty of long ,dark hours. In fact, although some people may call me blasphemous, I’m going to say this is everything I always wanted from Shinobi but never quite got!
#4 Gunpoint
This game had it all for me, a great story line with branching roots, beautiful pixel art, a great soundtrack and smooth controls. You play as an old school, Marlon Brondo type private eye, a guy caught up in affairs he shouldn’t be messing with. This game is a superb showcase of what indie gaming is all about. Real stylish and bloody good fun. It gave me hours of of action based puzzling – all backed up by super-noir presentation that simply oozes atmosphere. The puzzles are great and the stealth elements add some real tense moments.
#3 Hotline Miami
I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of this game – but in case you’ve been stuck in Outer Mongolia here’s a run-down… Hotline Miami is a GM-Studio made game with super-retro styling and action packed top-down shooting action. It also has one of the weirdest/darkest premise I’ve played in a while – your an assassin who wears a chicken head mask in order to go around committing acts of heinous violence – except – are you really an assassin or just an insane freak? It’s also bloody, damn, controller-smashingly, hard…
#2 Stealth Bastard Deluxe
This game is sheer quality, the story is incredibly basic and the graphics are extremely simple, the humour is dry – but when you mix it all together it equals bloody brilliant gameplay. As you’ve guessed from the name – its a stealth based game – in an old-skool platformer style with shed-loads of puzzle solving… Almost everything that I said about Mark of The Ninja also applies here – except this was pretty much a one-man (single-dev) developed project, which gives extra bonus points in my book… It’s also got workshop support for you to upload your own levels and a really smooth yet hard learning curve to boot. Just Buy It!
#1 Super Meatboy
WOW – what a game! this retro platformer is extremely simple in its premise and execution – but provides hours and hours of controller smashing fun. With its simple yet beautiful graphics and absolutely unforgiving insta-death this game has to be number 1 on my list. You’re going to die a lot – and it’s going to be bloody – very bloody… This game is world famous and for a damn good reason. It was developed by two of the geekiest-geeks you’ll ever see, who poured their heart and souls into making the game – and it really shows. I’m not going to reveal the story – or tell you why it’s so addictive – I’m just going to say that if you don’t own this game it’s a travesty – go and buy it immediately – you won’t regret it!
Well that’s all for today folks – let me know what you think of my list in the comments below 🙂