Topic: Nintendo Switch/Wii U Indie Game Review/First Impressions Thread

[Phil]

Ittle Dew 2 is getting a physical version on Switch. I really liked this comedic take on Zelda when I played it on the PS4, so I'm going to get it on Switch as well.


https://nintendowire.com/news/2017/07/07/ittle-dew-2-trickles-onto-nintendo-switch-november/

[Phil]

I'm really enjoying Infinite MiniGolf so far. It finally released today after originally going to launch this past Tuesday, so not a big delay. Just a slightly disappointing one. Lots of holes, lots of costumes to unlock, and seeing that every hole already in the game can be made using the hole creator means that you can do some really cool and involved stuff.

[Order.RSS]

I'm really enjoying Infinite MiniGolf so far. It finally released today after originally going to launch this past Tuesday, so not a big delay. Just a slightly disappointing one. Lots of holes, lots of costumes to unlock, and seeing that every hole already in the game can be made using the hole creator means that you can do some really cool and involved stuff.

This is from Zen Studios correct? They're really going for niche markets huh, pinball and now mini-golf. Although a course designer sounds funs! I remember how Rollercoaster Tycoon had a mini-golf in their expansions, couldn't do a whole lot with it but it was still fun forcing people through an endless cycle of the same three holes haha.

[Order.RSS]

Hate summer heat? Jøtun (Valhalla edition) has you covered! Played on Wii U.



This is another indie gem in my eyes. No question about it, a super polished package all around.
In Jøtun you play as Thora, an axe-wielding lady who is tasked with impressing the Norse Gods by slaying a succession of giants, to earn her place in Valhalla.

Presentation is absolutely top-notch for an indie release. So many language options supported! Actual orchestrated music! Hand-drawn animation style! Good voice acting! Post-game content! Really impressive stuff, I think this could've totally been sold as a retail product.

So in this 7~ hour game you walk around 5 worlds, each of which have 2 distinctly different levels and terrifyingly difficult boss giant to take down. Some levels see you solving puzzles, others are more combat heavy. If you can picture a timeline where Zelda never went for 3D polygons and just kept doing overhead perspective games, Jøtun gets pretty close to that I think.
Collect runes in the levels to gain access to the boss fights, pick up powerups along the way, simple stuff? Not really - while the level puzzles are generally pretty self-explanatory, the bossfights will absolutely test you. Look at that screenshot above - see how tiny your character is compared to the Giants!!! They have enormous healthbars, and some of them can end your life in just 3 hits. VERY difficult at times, but super rewarding to take one down.

Thora narrates her motivations in well done Icelandic voice acting, which really brings the world alive and sells you on the Norse myth premise. It also helps that while there are cool nods to Norse myths for those interested in the material, it's mostly done to serve gameplay. Wolfprints in the snow guide your way (Odin's wolves) in one of the cool snow levels, whilst Odin's two ravens point to your next destination in the hub world. Power-ups are based on lightning power (Thor), speed (Frigg I think?), or deception (Loki) so they're nicely linked to the material too. However, if you've only ever given a cursory glance at the Marvel Thor movies you'll still do just fine even if you don't recognise the Nine Realms connected by the Yggdrasil tree.

Is everything peachy? Eh, I think the map is pretty crap. The GamePad constantly shows it, which is nice, but never tells you YOUR location on it. So it's not ideal for traversal without keeping a close eye on it. The levels are pretty sprawling, meanwhile. They fill many screens, and while there's no loading once you've entered one, their size makes them a bit cumbersome to navigate sometimes. It does help in making you feel very small though.
Frame-rate only dipped a bit when there were LOTS of enemies on-screen in one of the harder boss fights, but it was still totally playable.

Don't buy this if you're easily frustrated though. Just go in accepting that the bosses will wreck your **** several times before you've even seen half their attacks. I think my "easiest" one went down in 3 or 4 attempts, but most took me closer to 10 tries. Thora is pretty slow so you need to time your strikes carefully; hack & slash is no option here.

Jøtun belongs to the upper legions of Wii U indies, alongside Severed, Affordable Space Adventures, Shantae & the Pirate's Curse and SteamWorld Heist. Rating: 8.5/10

[NWR_insanolord]

It's not an announcement, but the official Super Meat Boy Twitter account tweeted a question of whether people would want a physical release if they made a Switch version of the game, which makes it seem likely the game is coming. I'd really love to see that happen, that's a game I think would be a great fit for the platform.

[Phil]

I reviewed Infinite Minigolf from Zen Studios for my site. I liked it more than NWR's reviewer for the game. Here are my thoughts.

[Order.RSS]

I reviewed Infinite Minigolf from Zen Studios for my site. I liked it more than NWR's reviewer for the game. Here are my thoughts.

Ya know, this looks quite impressive for a minigolf title really. Didn't know it went for these kinds of visuals. Am I right in understanding it doesn't use motion controls for making swings though? You'd think it would be doable on Switch, but maybe it's a lot of work to do for this specific version.
I liked their pinball game's polish, so it's neat to see they put a lot of effort into this seemingly very niche-appeal game as well.

[Order.RSS]

I have a bit to say/vent about Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones, this one's from Curve Digital and launched as a Wii U exclusive in 2014. Since then it's been ported almost everywhere though, so maybe a Switch version will happen too.


This one can best be described as a puzzle-platformer combo, with some minor stealth mechanics, and a big helping of Metroidvania. You play a seemingly generic clone in a factory where it looks like clones are used to try out various new appliances in test chambers. If you're thinking this sounds like an Abe's Odyssee meets Portal crossover, you're not far off, certainly in terms of tone and sense of humour.

It's a pretty large game, took me around 14 hours, which is due to 2 factors: structure, and trial-and-error gameplay. Let's talk structure first: the game is set in a massive industrial complex with interlocking chambers, displayed Metroidvania style in a blocky map, and backtracking is involved too. The hub world contains puzzles, as well as entrances to test chambers.
Those are the real meat of the game, but it's also where a massive problem arises.

Per sector you get just one new gadget to "test out" in these chambers, but outside the chambers you have access to your entire arsenal EXCEPT the new one. So you have this weird scenario where you're traversing through the world, looking for test chamber 3-5 or whatever using gadgets you won't get to use in the chamber itself. I suppose it's done to alleviate monotony, but it's an odd fit with the Metroidvania structure.
Imagine only getting to use a double jump in certain areas or something; it runs counter to what I like about the Metroid structure - combining a bunch of newfound powers to stomp previously unbeatable obstacles.

This is rendered impossible here too however: you can only use one gadget at the time, and they're all handled with the same button. Even if the item consists of two separate pieces, you're still using one button. It's a mystifying decision in my opinion - here you have the Wii U Gamepad, a controller the size of the the Starship Enterprise with rougly 1,000 input methods... But we're just gonna ignore the D-pad, X button, and L button? Use them! Let us combine these fun gadgets!

There's some really frustrating late-game moment where timing is critical and here I am floating above a moving platform, fumbling two separate gadgets using a single button with buzzsaws and lasers everywhere. Infuriating. The game is littered with 1-hit killing death traps you would need clairvoyance to see coming, and while it's liberal with checkpoints, I still had some missions kill me 50 times. At some point you gotta just give me an option to skip a level guys, I'm not great at platforming, but definitely not the worst either. Let me live with the shame in private, but at least allow me to progress FFS. If you're awful at a particular thing it's basically a giant roadblock, since you must complete most of the test chambers.

Buzzsaws, lasers, switches and block pushing form your main puzzles here. The stealth isn't used very much, besides determining if enemies can see you in the dark. If you've ever had the fortune to play one of the old mobile phone Splinter Cell versions, you know how this works in 2D. It's decent enough, but do note this is a puzzle-platformer primarily. Environments are generally pretty samey, which is thematically sound, though you might miss typical platforming staples like lava and ice.

One more complaint before I say some nice things too: this game doesn't really do exit points well. By this I mean providing the player with lulls in gameplay, natural stopgaps where you can choose to stop playing. Test chambers are timed so there's a natural pressure there, but as soon as you finish one, new routes open up and you feel compelled to go there right away before you forget. The sector breaks are rather seamless too, with just  short cutscenes, so unless you actively decide to stop playing, you won't often reach points where it feels natural to set the controller down. Not sure if this is a compliment or not, bit of both maybe?

This has all been rather negative unfortunately, but I did have fun with Stealth Inc. 2. The visuals are neat (although they should really remove the "you are (in)visible" text, since your goggles also display your status), the soundtrack is decent electronic stuff that only occasionally gets grating during some of the most infuriating levels. Platforming feels smooth & responsive for the most part, although I would have liked more buttons dedicated to the gadgets. There's a ton of secrets to find too if that's your thing, and a lot of the puzzles really make you think which is always nice.
Lastly, the Miiverse integration is really fun. You can leave messages for other players almost anywhere. Sometimes people made really useful comments that helped me out, other times I got tired Portal memes to read. I haven't even tried the level editor, nor did I try user-made levels, but the option is there too.

Ultimately, Stealth Inc. 2 is a rather polished package with a bunch of features you might find appealing. I think it's hampered by several pretty integral design flaws (in my opinion), and really outstays its welcome. The first 2 sectors were really fun, and so was the last one, but there's too much stuff in my opinion and the pathfinding isn't intuitive enough. I've felt like a moron several times, just trying to find a freaking new level to play, because the game insists on making you use its labyrinthine hubworld.
If they had shaved off the third sector entirely, and added a pity level-skip feature if you die over 20 times, I feel like the total experience would be a lot more impressive.

Rating: 6.5/10 Definitely worth a look, but your mileage may vary greatly depending on your patience.

[ejamer]

Posting here because I'm not sure where else to talk about it - but Hive Jump is finally getting released on Wii U eShop this week.  This game looked really cool when it was first revealed - is anyone else interested?

[Order.RSS]

Posting here because I'm not sure where else to talk about it - but Hive Jump is finally getting released on Wii U eShop this week.  This game looked really cool when it was first revealed - is anyone else interested?

Hey that's pretty cool! What kind of game is Hive Jump? Run & gun looks like? Has anyone played it? Those games tend to be really difficult for me haha.
I just saw that Battle Princess Madelyn is also slated for Wii U still, though that's a 2018 title and also coming to Switch.

[ejamer]

Posting here because I'm not sure where else to talk about it - but Hive Jump is finally getting released on Wii U eShop this week.  This game looked really cool when it was first revealed - is anyone else interested?

Hey that's pretty cool! What kind of game is Hive Jump? Run & gun looks like? Has anyone played it? Those games tend to be really difficult for me haha.
I just saw that Battle Princess Madelyn is also slated for Wii U still, though that's a 2018 title and also coming to Switch.

Honestly, not that sure. It's supposed to be a solid mulitplayer action game, although I thought there was some kind of a campaign where you build bases and try to gain ground on an overworld map by clearing out enemy hives.


I just remember this and Hex Heroes being two cool looking KickStarter projects prominently on Wii a long time ago... and am kind of shocked this is actually getting released at this point in time.

[ShyGuy]

The Flame in the Flood. I don't like this game and I wanted to like it. I don't like the randomly generated levels, I don't like the fact you can die just because you've never gotten the right items to drop. It feels like Minecraft if it was just food consumption and running away from monsters. The lack of camera control can get you killed and the whole interface/menu system is clunky too.

On the plus side, it's a good looking game and the music is great

[Soren]

Surprise. Morphie's Law is releasing today.