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

[Evan_B]

You know, I wasn't really that thrilled by Guacamelee. Indie Metroidvanias always feel like exactly that- an unrefined developer tackling one of the most difficult-to-design genres in video gaming. Or, at least, a very difficult genre to execute with finesse. I wasn't too pleased with how the endgame became energy-shield-based, and how the final area was a bunch of gimmicky kill-rooms. I also didn't really think much of the bosses- they just weren't memorable or even difficult to a point where fighting them felt memorable.

I definitely liked the art style, and I think the idea of a brawler-Metroidvania is cool, but it didn't all come together in the end, for me. Still, for fans of the genre, I would give it a recommendation because of its interesting aesthetic and some cool ideas, but I wouldn't place it in the upper echelons of Metroidvanias.

[Order.RSS]

Spy Chameleon: just noted this went on sale this week and remembered I played it sometime last year I think.

So in Spy Chameleon you play as a chameleon who, crucially, is somehow not a spy. I'd say he's more of a skilled burglar to be honest. Seen from a top-down view you run and sneak around short levels, avoiding guards, sentries, cameras and other methods of detection. Ultimate goal is to reach the end of each chapter, where Spy Chameleon will steal an object of particular value - such as an important painting, or the secret recipe to a conspicuously branded soda beverage.

Being a chameleon our lil' burglar dude can change his skintone (this alternate future is truly post-racial) at the touch of a button, to blend in with whatever he's standing on. Standing on red carpet? Undetectable! Blue neon pads? Invisible! Etc.
It's really quite a clever mechanic, and since the controls are ace (holla at yo Pro Controlla) the whole game is pretty much a joy to play. Longer levels often have checkpoints and reloads when you got caught are near instantenous too.

Complaints: the leaderboards are useless if you don't have any friends who play this. What do I care about seeing the top 5 worldwide for every level (usually the same few people vying for the top spot too), just tell where I am on the list!
Would also have liked a smidge more effort being put into the story. Maybe a 5-second cutscene showing who orders Spy Chameleon to steal these riches or something. Or a picture at the end with him sipping not-coca-cola in front of the chaMona Lisa, just something to provide context or motivation.

Overall though this is a fun, vibrant lil' stealth/puzzle game you can run through in two sittings. At 5 bucks or less I'd say it's worth a shot! Rating 7/10

[MagicCow64]

You know, I wasn't really that thrilled by Guacamelee. Indie Metroidvanias always feel like exactly that- an unrefined developer tackling one of the most difficult-to-design genres in video gaming. Or, at least, a very difficult genre to execute with finesse. I wasn't too pleased with how the endgame became energy-shield-based, and how the final area was a bunch of gimmicky kill-rooms. I also didn't really think much of the bosses- they just weren't memorable or even difficult to a point where fighting them felt memorable.

I definitely liked the art style, and I think the idea of a brawler-Metroidvania is cool, but it didn't all come together in the end, for me. Still, for fans of the genre, I would give it a recommendation because of its interesting aesthetic and some cool ideas, but I wouldn't place it in the upper echelons of Metroidvanias.

Yeah, I'd second this. Decent hook for a Metroidy game with the movement and fighting upgrades being tied together, but the actual progression and world design was pretty perfunctory. And as said, it leans way too heavily on the kill rooms.

[ThePerm]

I got the game for free. Had never really heard of it before hand and I liked the atmosphere. Something can be said about playing so many games that really anything can't be enjoyed. I had the same impression of Call of Duty Ghosts. I had not played the other games in the series, and hadn't really played any console shooting games since Perfect Dark. I quite enjoyed Ghosts. But every reviewer **** all over it. I got the Call of Duty game that preceded it, which had much more unanimous praise, and it really wasn't my bag. I played Guacamelee immediately after I played Axiom Verge. Which itself is a more standard Metroidvania style game. I thought it was good that there would be a similar game, but with a major departure in gameplay. My only real complaint in retrospect is the music while very good is not as varied as it could be.

I'm moving back to my hometown and it is actually one of the games I'd like to show off. I really want to play through it again with a buddy. So this is going to have a great deal of replay value. Another thing is I can't say how long it's been since I laughed so hard at a game. Maybe one of the Zelda games or Conker's BFD?

As far as the kill rooms thing. I actually like that. At the beginning of the game I found the Cavern in the main city and decided to grind until I had all of the abilities I could buy. This was really fun as the game has a good fighting system. I was really big into wrestling games by Aki/Asmik back in the n64 days though. Also, I watched a ton of luchadores on the first hour of wcw during those days. It might be more appealing to me as opposed to a general audience.

Also, all the people are bitching about the new Call of Duty game.  They're like "it's too futuristic" I'm like "alright, I like it to feel more like a spy tech game than a tommy gun game"

really the question is what amazing games did you play that made a great game like Guacamelee lame?I want to play those. On the other hand, maybe I'll enjoy them less for the same reason?

[MagicCow64]

I mean, to some extant I think I am having the problem of having played too many games at this point to enjoy stuff I find unexceptional. Unlike movies or TV shows that can be processed on the side or otherwise take less time or attention, I am definitely losing patience with mediocre video games.

As a big fan of the Metroid titles I have played quite a few Indie wannabe Metroidvania games and at this point I'm no longer really satiated just by the attempt at the structure. I would put both Axiom Verge and Guacamelee at the "nice try" level, better than, say, Ori and the Blind Forest or Incredibly Twisted Shadow Planet, but not on the same level as Metroid games. I think this design mold is really tricky to pull off well because it potentially involves so much repetition.

I've said it before, but I'd pretty much only rate Shadow Complex as a truly excellent attempt at the genre. It got kind of poo-pooed on rerelease for whatever reason, possibly because it's kind of the opposite of Guacamelee: presentation is somewhat bland but the actual level design and play feel is top-notch. 

[Order.RSS]

Sky Force Anniversary was recently released on Wii U, a port from the 2014 release on PS4 and the like... Which in turn is an HD remake of the 2004 game Sky Force, are you keeping up? Not sure how the Wii U version differs drastically, apart from cloning the game to the Gamepad, but hey it's finally here! This is from a Polish studio who mostly do mobile games and versions of Sky Force.

So Sky Force Anniversary is a vertical shoot-em-up, and feels a bit like a steampunk~ish variation on Capcom's 1942 shooter. You pilot a lil' ship that needs to take down an entire army by itself, over varying terrains such as oceans, seasides, weapons factories, caves and stuff. Some of that terrain is destructible, though it's mostly limited to towers and crates and the like.

SKy Force is definitely on the forgiving side of the shmup genre, you can take several hits before dying, and by collecting stars from downed foes you can upgrade your ship. (My recommendation: start by adding side-cannons and the missiles, before expanding health and getting special weapons!) Importantly, you can keep the stars you collect even if you get shot down. This means that while failing a stage 5 times in a row you're at least getting a more powerful ship.

There's also temporary firepower upgrades, and permanent cards to collect which can do things like add extra drones for more firepower, or increase your movement speed. Lastly you can also rescue stranded paratroopers by hovering over them for a bit.

By clearing stages with various conditions (saving all paratroopers, not getting hit, destroying X amount of foes) you gain medals - get all 4 medals on a stage and you can play that stage on a higher difficulty setting. So with 9 levels, each with 4 difficulty levels, and 4 medals per difficulty... there's 144 medals in total you could strive for. If that's not enough, the game also features 2-player local co-op (Pro Controller support waddup) aaaaaand there's an online Tournament mode every weekend.

This all sounds great! Are there no negatives? Well I guess that the Tournament mode being locked to weekends only is a minor annoyance, and the medals are mostly just the same 4 goals over and over again. The sprites of the two characters don't match the artstyle, but you don't see them often. I suppose not all the bossfights are equally cool, the first two levels pit you against giant frigates so facing a helicopter in the next may feel like a step down.
Also I wanna complain about the loadtimes, which feel just a biiiit too long, especially if you accidentally exit out of a stage by pressing the wrong button and needing to wait another 30 seconds for it to load back up.



In summary: Sky Force Anniversary packs a lot of bang for your buck, looks pretty, has very precise controls, and is surprisingly welcoming for newer players to the genre thanks to its permanent ship upgrades. You could totally grind your way through it if you have the patience.
While the loadtimes feel excessive, and I would've perhaps liked a boss rush mode, I have very little to complain here. If you're into shmups or think you might be, Sky Force Anniversary comes highly recommended. 9/10

[Adrock]

Axiom Verge Physical Release is Coming to Nintendo Switch

I guess I'm finally buying this. No date or price. I'd bet on the Nintendo Switch tax.

[Order.RSS]

Axiom Verge Physical Release is Coming to Nintendo Switch

I guess I'm finally buying this. No date or price. I'd bet on the Nintendo Switch tax.

Don't wanna rain on any parades here, but feel like this needs to be pointed out: the link you posted sources a NeoGaf thread... Which sources a Tweet that has already been deleted. Apparantly in the podcast that tweet was from it is said that a Switch version is "being looked into".

Not doubting it'll see release on Switch at some point, and physical would be cool, but I wouldn't take this as confirmation quite yet.

The Wii U physical release hasn't gotten a date yet has it? It's slated for Q2 this year, so I suppose that gives them at least 2 more months if they'll be able to make that window.

[Adrock]

I guess I'm not buying this.

[Adrock]

Has anyone purchased Kamiko? If so, how is it?

I'm interested because it's a $5 game, and I read so positive reviews. It's apparently short, but the price is right so you get what you pay for.

[Evan_B]

I am playing through Kamiko right now, although in brief bursts, as I have a lot of schoolwork. It's great! As someone who closely follows developer Skipmore's work, it's a huge step-up in terms of quality for them.

The game is admittedly short, with your first character run taking about one hour to complete (I clocked half that time with my second character), but all three play styles are varied and interesting. Like most Skipmore games, I think it's unfair to take Kamiko at face value after playing through only one character, and I'm a bit critical of Daan's review for that reason- you unlock some special features after doing all three character runs on a single file. Skipmore's games are designed for the speed-runner: your first run will have you learning the game's mechanics and enemy behavior, but it's designed to make you want to improve your playtime and impose certain limitations on yourself.

I have written about Skipmore's other games, and a bit more on Kamiko, in the reader review thread. It's nice and cheap, I recommend it.

[Order.RSS]

Let's talk Whispering Willows on Wii U, a "5 out of 10" game if ever I've seen one. Apparantly this was ported over from the Ouya of all things... From one doomed console to the next?



So here's another Wii U indie game I don't hear anyone talking about, ever. It's an adventure game of sorts with a supernatural/horror theme going on. In terms of gameplay, you're this girl called Elena who has to find her lost father in/around the grounds of a giant mansion where spooky stuff has gone down in the past.

A Native American spirit teaches you to astrally project, which helps you solve little environmental puzzles and interact with spirits of dead people. Solve their murder, return their spirit to their lost corpse, help ghosts find peace so they can move onto the afterlife, that sort of stuff.

So you're walking around the catacombs, garden hedge maze, tool shed, mansion, etc. trying to find keys and occasionally push items, deliver things to ghosts, or (rarely) avoiding evil beings. It's pretty light stuff, and since you can only run when outside it can drag a bit when you're plodding from room to room, but it's not too bad I guess.

Presentation is all over the map, the in-game stuff looks pretty sharp and nicely drawn and there's some decently spooky piano music going on. But then there's "cutscenes" which are like a Powerpoint slideshow of DeviantArt pictures which clash with the game's art style.
In addition the load times are super frequent and surprisingly long, which cut out the music very sudden and drastically. This is a particular problem during the ending, when spooky music and in-engine cutscenes (thank God) constantly get interrupted to load the next 20 seconds of the scene.

Gamepad integration is nicely done, displaying Elena's occassionally updated diary as well as notes/letters from the various deceased you find. You tend to find those out of sequence, so the story has some non-linear elements of delivery to it, which is nicely done.
At the same time however, Elena seems to learn facts MUCH later than you do. There's an annoying point in one of her latest diary entries when she's "very confused and doesn't know what to believe" when all evidence, both written accounts and her own experiences at that point, seems VERY clear already.

Clocking in around 3 hours, Whispering Willows isn't the worst of its kind. It's very light on gameplay, but does set a nice mood throughout, looks mostly great and sounds pretty good too. The story also isn't awful, even if it does rely on some well-worn tropes like Native American spiritualism. At least they attempt to handle that respectfully though, this ain't Pocahontas.
If you're looking for a creepy adventure game on Wii U, try Year Walk instead. But if you play this with snacks to pass the loadtimes, I think you'll have a decent enough evening. 5/10

[Fatty The Hutt]

Whispering Willows now officially on my radar. I love puzzle adventure games like this one.
Thanks for the review, Steef!

[Order.RSS]

Whispering Willows now officially on my radar. I love puzzle adventure games like this one.
Thanks for the review, Steef!

No problem, definitely check out some recorded footage first though. For one it's not a point & click adventure deal, you actually control Elena's movement. Its puzzles are also very much on the easy side. Personally I didn't mind, but Tengami is a bit more challenging for example. That's a straight point & click title though.

Feel like Willows only works if you're interested in the atmosphere, so try to see if it grabs you before purchasing I'd say.

[Order.RSS]

Wrapped up Back To Bed on Wii U today, a short puzzle game for fans of Dalí.



So this is a really short 30-level puzzle game developed by what looks like a group of students from Denmark, hope I'm not slighting another Nordic country now haha. This was a late release for Wii U, from December 2016.

Most striking here is obviously the presentation. With its gorgeous surrealist art style that feels very reminiscent of artists like Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and maybe some Giorgio de Chirico in there. I can imagine this being a visual treat for any art schoolers out there.

What you do in that gorgeous setting is playing as the subconcious of Bob, a narcoleptic dude who sleepwalks around and needs guidance to find his bed again. Bob behaves pretty much like a Lemming or one of those Mario vs. DK automatons. You roam over floors and the occassional confusing wall (can I namedrop M.C. Escher here to up my cultural cred? Oh hey does anyone remember Roberto Matta?), placing apples and fish in Bob's path to make him change direction or help him cross gaps.
While you do this there's some soothing soundscapes happening, and occasionally a down-pitched voice gives you instructions (or tells you that apples are the same as hats?). It all has a suitably dreamlike atmosphere going, and the visual style is consistent from menu to "cut scene" to gameplay, very nice.

The puzzles themselves are on the simple side, they never go complete crazy with intersecting impossible corners and stuff. I ran through the the whole "story" in 1.5 hours. That does unlock all levels in a hard mode which does require you to make more elaborate paths and collect keys, but still.
I have a few more complaints: who maps "cancel/back" to the A BUTTON?! And why is the Y button accept/pick up? If you're not gonna let us remap buttons, at least offer a conventional layout.

Load times are a bit too frequent as well, especially when Bob gets hits by an enemy (dogs or clocks are conspiring to wake him up). When he falls off the ledge the game seamlessly continues, but if you get hit, or run over by a whale-train (don't ask) it suddenly has to load the level all over again. Bit inconsistent and it frustrates when you've been trained to just let him walk into every hazard to see what your options are.

On the whole, Back To Bed offers a polished, if short puzzle experience. If you go in expecting a budget Captain Toad of sorts and have an appreciation for this era of visual arts, I imagine you'll have a decent hour or two. It's current sale price of 5$ feels right to me, not sure if I would've been as positive if I paid full price (10$) for it, since I don't see myself re-doing all the stages in Nightmare Mode. Rating 7/10

[Evan_B]

The folks over at Nintendo Everything did some legitimate research and journalism (for once) and put together an article that addresses the indie scene on Wii U and Switch. Some games have been canceled, some are still coming out, and some have moved to Switch. Check it out here:
http://nintendoeverything.com/50-indie-games-still-on-for-wii-u-in-limbo-moved-to-switch/

[Order.RSS]

The folks over at Nintendo Everything did some legitimate research and journalism (for once) and put together an article that addresses the indie scene on Wii U and Switch. Some games have been canceled, some are still coming out, and some have moved to Switch. Check it out here:
http://nintendoeverything.com/50-indie-games-still-on-for-wii-u-in-limbo-moved-to-switch/

Thanks for posting this link, that's a great roundup! I didn't realise MixedBag had another Wii U project alongside Futuridium and Forma.8, sad that never saw the light of day. Aqua Moto still has my curiosity, and Bizerta & Vegas Prime could be neat if they materialize.

Really does highlight how many projects fall through or move platforms. In some ways it's probably not helpful that since crowdfunding tends to take place at the start of a project, it moves the public's awareness of a project to way earlier in the development process than with traditional studio projects.
As a result we see a lot more titles dissappear/not follow on "promises"/etc. than we would have before.

Sidenote but some of these teams don't seem great at marketing/communication? It doesn't really sound like the Strength of the Sword guys want to be in console development, which I can totally understand, but maybe don't say that while you're still gonna release a game on consoles!
Witchbeam's comment on Assault Android Cactus is pretty vague too, I don't think it's been officially cancelled, but here they're given an opportunity to either say so, or reinforce hope for potential customers... and they just do neither. Shame too, it's a good game!

[Soren]

Edmund McMillen (Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac) has announced his new game "The End Is Nigh". Coming to PC July 12 and Switch "later".

[MagicCow64]

Super Meat Boy 2, sounds good to me, especially after the endless Isaac iterations that I could not give a **** about.

[Adrock]

I guess I'm finally buying this. No date or price. I'd bet on the Nintendo Switch tax.

Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition Confirmed For Physical Release On Switch


Switch Tax® also confirmed.

[NWR_insanolord]

The developer confirmed the Switch digital version will be the same price as the other console versions. The "include something small in the physical release so you can get away with a different digital price" strategy strikes again.

[Mop it up]

I find it interesting that they're still releasing a Wii U disc version at this point (even though I know it's been mentioned before). Or does it just have a download code in it?

[Shaymin]

It's a full disc.

[Order.RSS]

I'm game for the physical on Wii U still. Having played The Swapper with its map on the Gamepad really hammered home how well the system is/was suited for a 2D Metroid of Castlevania. Was gonna get Axiom Verge earlier but it just didn't happen somehow, so now I'll wait for the physical edition. Plus those bonus features like the soundtrack and the DVD could be fun, not sure if I'll use them much ever tbh, but I'll at least put the soundtrack on my MP3 player since it's super catchy.

[Order.RSS]

Speaking of Metroid/vania's, I finished Forma.8 yesterday. I'm super torn on how much I liked this one. I played it on Wii U, but I could see this coming to Switch in the future since it's already on a bunch of platforms.



This one comes from Mixed Bag, a game studio from Italy, probably best known for their Star Fox-esque space shooter Futuridium. I picked this up because the NWR review was rather positive. However, in my opinion the game is... well... a bit of a mixed bag (sorry).

You play as a space probe that looks like the Owlship from Watchmen, which gets stranded on a giant planet. Full of cavernous places, mysterious locations, with hints of past civilisations and so forth. It really adheres pretty close to the Metroid formula in terms of architecture and worldbuilding without a single written word.
Structurally it's also similar, you can go in a bunch of direction usually, there's tons of secrets, but also power ups you need to unlock before you access certain blocked off paths.

Visually it's a real stunner. It looks very distinct from Futuridium mostly, proving the developers have more than one ace up their sleeves. This one is right up there with the DrinkBox Studios games like Severed and Guacamelee; Forma.8 shares a similar cartoony vibe and even shares some of the colour-pallette. That's commendable in my book, because it makes Forma.8 into one of the best looking indies on Wii U.

The sound department also pulls some real weight here. A moody,oppressive vibe hangs over most of it. If you restore health the flowers you do so with make a satisfying jingle, boss battle encounters have blood-pumping bassy synth themes, again top notch stuff.

However... It ain't all fantastic, sadly.
Metroidy games are notoriously difficult to pull off if you don't get the map right, and the map here is really rather useless. Rooms are absolutely MASSIVE, your ship is tiny, and the map just displays what sector you're in. Not even your location within the block, and definitely not all the winding paths within them either.
Since nothing has names and many of the areas look somewhat similar you're going to get absolutely lost and trek back and forth past the same areas many times.

The hints here are also very sparse and often just super obtuse. There's some real headscratching puzzles for which hints are placed all the way across the map. There's a few warp portals to help you out, but even those are unreliable sometimes - I got super far into an area, found a portal near a mysterious domed structure and it sent me back a thousand miles... AND IT WAS A ONE-WAY PORTAL. Why??? Had to trek all the way back there.

Speaking of backtracking, what's a defining feature of Metroid? SPEED. You zip past rooms with relative ease and many powerups are designed to increase mobility, or at least demolish everything in your path with barely a second thought. Not so in Forma.8, your probe is pretty slow and floaty. Those imprecise controls are mostly fine, but almost every enemy can tank at least one hit, even the smallest critters.
There's thousands of them constantly getting up in yo grill when you're just trying to find where the damn cave exit was again. This game does interesting things, but the combat is pretty annoying and it makes traversal quite harrowing (not in a good way).

Another basic element they really messed up: damage indicators on boss battles. There's a bunch of bosses and there's usually a trick you need to figure out to beat them. However, just wailing on them with the bombs or shield zap often makes them flash, giving you the impression you're doing damage. No boss healthbars means I dropped 50 bombs into a grid robot's face before thinking "okay maybe this ain't it."
Give us some feedback here! Just have it make a metallic clink indicating our efforts are pointless against its armour or something!

That's the overall experience: mesmerising and it keeps you curious, but also very frustrating. Maybe I'm too dumb for its puzzles, some of which are really neat, but I was close to giving up several times. For indication: HowLongToBeat.com said this game would be 5½ hours. It took me around 10 and I just passed the 50% completion mark.

I was really excited for Forma.8 so maybe my expectations were too high, but unfortunately I can't give this a full recommendation for everyone. If you want a hard, beautiful Metroid game, get this. It's a really mysterious world, and you won't be able to solve all its puzzles, so it succeeds in making you feel really tiny in a hostile giant universe.
However it really overstays its welcome, extensive backtracking is caused by confusing layouts and a crappy map. Tonally it also doesn't always jive, since the game feels pretty relaxing/smooth/slow-paced, but they'll pile on the enemies turning it into a weird stressful experience.

Rating: 8/10 in its best moments, 5/10 during its worst. Come sit on the fence with me!