You know there are some good independent games out there. Furthermore, you know you haven't played them, and you know you don't exactly care too much. I'm here to tell you that as a gamer, you should care. I, myself, have recently become somewhat tired with the current generation of consoles, finding the "blockbuster" attitude to be superficial, and boring. I miss the days where games didn't have to make sense - they just had to have some kind of ridiculous idea. You know, building a story around a gameplay idea, not vice versa.
It's a really nice, fuzzy feeling to know that other developers from around the intarwebs agree with this attitude, and have taken the initiative to devise, plan and create their own piece-o'-crap games. In my honest opinion, you should see these games. You should play these games. You should learn from these games. They're just that good - I'd play them over
Gears of War or
Grand Theft Auto IV any day.
Spelunkyhttp://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4017.0 Have you heard of
Spelunky? If you haven't, that's most probably a compliment to your obsession with nonsensical, little games. If you have, you're my kind of guy. For independent game developers, Spelunky would have been the Game of the Year for 2008, the latest version being released on December 21st. Spelunky is, as the name implies, an adventure game involving the exploration of a deep, dark cave. The game is - in every sense of the word - random, as developer Derek has used Game Maker to create a world that generates random rooms, enemy positions, and item placements every time you play. Most gamers only dream of a feature like this - and Spelunky does it right. This game still requires tactics, and serves up a great deal of challenge. It's ridiculously hard, and just as addictive... my friend is still trying to win, after over a month of playing nearly non-stop. Spelunky, we love you.
Jump On Mushrooms: The Gamehttp://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4724.0 What the hell is
Jump On Mushrooms? Sounds (and looks) like a fan game, doesn't it? Well, it would be, if it were anything at all like any Mario game ever made. Actually, that's not true, it's a lot like a lot of Mario games, just... backwards. Yes, this is Super Mario Bros. backwards, if you can even deem that at all possible in your head. You have to start at the end of the level, and run (backwards) through the world, un-collecting coins you
would have collected, and un-killing enemies you
would have killed. What makes this game even more of a trip is that if you somehow stomp on an enemy twice, you create a time paradox - and you have to start again. Yes, this is Mario on mushrooms. Get into it, all the cools kids are doing it.
Legend of Princesshttp://www.konjak.org/ Chances are, you've actually heard of
Legend of Princess, on our own forums. If you haven't, what the hell dude, you're missing out. Legend of Princess is exactly what it looks like it is - an arcade version of The Legend of Zelda. It's all action, not much else, actually. You run through the Dirt Temple, stomping Octoroks, Keese and Tektites with one of your many weapons (including your bow, boomerang, Roc's Feather and even a Cucco), and you take on two mini-bosses, as well as a boss. It's not a complete game, but it is decently long, challenging and entertaining. It's what Zelda would be if it had a little
Metal Slug mixed into it. It's also really friggin' pretty, and sounds great.
Eversionhttp://zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html Eversion is a pretty, colourful, childish platformer, a lot like
Kirby, where you run through the world, collecting gems, increasing your score, stomping enemies, and completing puzzles based on platforming. At least, that's what I'd like to say. No really, I would
love to say that. Eversion is quite possibly one of the scariest games I've come to face in my years as a gamer. I won't spoil the surprise, but you may want to come prepared before you play this game. You'll literally feel like you've woken up from a nightmare. If Jump On Mushrooms was an acid trip, this is a trip to Hell and back. Whatever you do, make sure you come prepared to solve some ridiculous puzzles. Oh yes, and don't play this game with the lights out. It's friggin' creepy. Cute platformer with a dark secret? Not wrong.
Ijihttp://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php Iji. Remember Iji? You should remember Iji. She was in one of ZFGC's own character competitions. Now, Iji has her own "Metroidvania"-type platformer, focusing largely on action, story and puzzle-solving. What Iji has that a lot of these other games don't is a load of content. Not only are the stages of decent size, but the game also features alternate paths based on
your actions and how you go about the game. And I'm not just talking new areas - you will get different cutscenes, that actually progress the story in different ways. Metal Gear fans rejoice, and play Iji.
And there's plenty more games out there, as well. I didn't even begin to look at
Aquaria, anything by
Blendo Games (including Gravity Bone), or some others of
Daniel Remar's games, not to mention
Ahriman's Prophecy and
Crazy Cross. See, there's a lot out there if you just look!