It took Sony and Microsoft a couple years to get off the ground with their support for indie developers. Weaving them into their respective press conferences and funding notable hits for exclusivity have shown that they mean business, but Nintendo is quickly catching up as one of the places - if not the place - for indie titles. After all, with the relative ease of developing for the Switch and it being the perfect platform for playing at home and on the go, it's no wonder that Nintendo has started to capitalize on the potential in its fingertips. The Nindies Showcase seems to prove this commitment with the announcement of 20 games coming to the Switch, some of which are new and others receiving release dates. This includes the most surprising reveal of a new title in the long-dormant No More Heroes series. Read on to discover what it's about and all the other covered titles, which represent a fifth of the 100 indie titles currently in the works at Nintendo.
Super Meat Boy Forever
The first among the deluge comes from Team Meat, announcing that a sequel to Super Meat Boy will be releasing sometime during 2018. It's still got the slick, perilous 2D platforming you'd expect, but this iteration looks more like an endless runner where you're pushed to keep moving with the addition of new moves like sliding and punching to maintain your momentum. With levels that become more difficult when you beat them and daily challenges to complete, Team Meat is really giving us something new to chew on.Dragon: Marked for Death
From the team behind the likes of Blaster Master Zero and Mighty Gunvolt Burst on the Switch comes the side-scrolling action-RPG Dragon: Marked for Death. You can actually team up with friends online or locally. Players take on various roles in 30 quests that you'll only find on the Switch this winter. Sounds like this fantastical adventure would be best experienced in co-op, so I'd plan on harnessing the power of dragons that way!
Shovel Knight: King of Cards
Just when you thought a pixelated side-scroller couldn't have any more stories to tell, Yacht Club Games proves that Shovel Knight's world has one more up its sleeve with the glamorous King Knight. This expansion to the beloved indie darling will add four new worlds and 30 courses to dig through. New moves include a bash and spinning strike that will mix up how you approach enemies, and once you've discovered how King Knight would up where he was in the main game, you can play an additional mode that tests your strategy in a card game. You can swipe up the expansion in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove or buy it separately for $9.99 when it comes out in 2018.Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
The strange world of Kentucky Route Zero is not only coming to consoles in early 2018 (which, of course, includes the Switch), but will also come bundled with the new and final episode of the point-and-click series that has captivated many with its attractive art style and weird yet compelling narrative.
SteamWorld Dig 2
Another indie darling from Image & Form Games comes the sequel to SteamWorld Dig, which will be releasing on the Switch for Sep. 21 at $19.99. Mine your way through exotic caverns under the Earth as Dorothy, who is searching for the previous game's protagonist since he's gone missing. It's a much bigger, more nonlinear world this time around with even more to find and do next month. You can also expect to find it on PC and PlayStation 4 not long after.Floor Kids
Rhythm games can be a curious bunch, and Floor Kids is no exception. You can choose between several characters and feel your way into freestyles with either traditional controls or touch screen gestures. It's almost like you find your own break-dancing path to victory as you unlock new characters and battle against your friends. It also has a really neat sketch-like art style and chill beats to play to, so I'm sure this will prove interesting.
Wulverblade
Echoing the simpler appeal of beat 'em up titles from the arcade era, the hand-drawn world of Wulverblade depicts ancient Britain with a story that contains eight locations and multiple characters from this savage time period. You'll be able to combo moves together and unlock new skills when it comes to the Switch first sometime this month.Golf Story
If you thought a sprawling RPG with a deep story and leveling mechanics couldn't be made around golfing, then you'd be wrong. Golf Story is a quirky game that contains eight different courses you'll be putting and teeing across. However, once you're done hitting the green, you can talk with characters, explore towns, and several surprising mini-games to uncover. You can expect equipment to earn, challenges to beat, and much more when this amusing yet thorough title from Sidebar games launches sometime this month exclusively on the Switch.Battle Chef Brigade
This is one odd mix of genres right here. You play as humans and orcs in Battle Chef Brigade to find ingredients and cook up meals for your friends. You take your ingredients and learn the character's cooking styles by cooking with a match-three puzzler. If that's not strange enough, you go out into the world and find ingredients with combo-based action gameplay in mini campaigns for each main character. Ah, and let's not forget the visual novel-esque sections all in between the action. If that sounds up your alley, prepare to dine in this game on the Switch later this year.
Yono and the Celestial Elephants
Did you just let out an involuntary "Aww" as you looked at this? I did as well when I watched the trailer for Yono and the Celestial Elephants. It's a game of simple combat and puzzles where you use your trunk to varying effects in three main dungeons. There's also a lot of narrative to the game since you can speak with a host of different characters in four towns throughout your journey. Discover the whimsical, cute tale of Yono on Oct. 12 exclusively on the Switch.Poly Bridge
Here's another Switch exclusive launching later this year called Poly Bridge. If you want something like LittleBigPlanet but much more mechanically minded, then this is for you. It's a physics-based game where you have to create the simplest to the most bizarre bridges in order to beat levels. You can also create your own and let friends try them out as you stretch your engineering side in ways you might have never done before.Earth Atlantis
The sepia-colored world of Earth Atlantis isn't much of a world anymore. It looks like God forgot his promise to never flood the world again since everything and everyone was buried in water. You're one of the last survivors of humanity commanding an underwater battle submarine, and in this side-scrolling shooter, you'll be encountering a host of bizarre sea creatures and mechanical bosses as you unlock multiple ships along the way. The game is coming from Headup Games first on the Switch this fall.
Nine Parchments
After losing a bit of its way, Frozenbyte might just make the big comeback it needs with Nine Parchments. Set within the beautiful, fantastical world of Trine, this game is an isometric action-RPG with an emphasis on co-op that can either be local or online. You'll encounter loads of enemies and unlock new spells and characters later this year on the Switch.Next Up Hero
Joe Tringali is the executive producer of Scribblenauts, Lock's Quest, and Drawn to Life, and now he's leading his new studio Digital Continue with its debut game titled Next Up Hero. It's an isometric action game with nine heroes to play as that have different weapons. The catch is that it's an online game brought to life by...well, players dying. What I mean is that when you die, other players can recruit your character as an AI to fight alongside them. By building an army of revived players-turned-AI, only then can you beat the game's hordes of enemies and bosses with style. If you want to learn more about it, we previewed it at PlayNYC for PC.Mom Hid My Game
Well, this is rather meta, isn't it? Mom Hid My Game is a video game where you have to find a video game console in a house. I'm sure we've all been there where your parents hide them from you, so you can relive that joy with this humorous oddity from KEMCO that contains 50 levels where you look for your console and use several items to make that happen. It'll be launching on the Switch and 3DS with exclusive levels later this year.
Light Fingers
If you want a spin on the tabletop genre, then Light Fingers will fill your role-playing needs. Whether by yourself or with up to four players, you journey across a clockwork board with procedurally-generated board pieces that provide plenty of opportunities to help or hinder your friends. It's got action elements and loot to collect as you enter dungeons, play cards, and more. It really is much more in-depth than I've made it out to be, but you can look forward to finding out more about it as the game gets closer to its eventual release in 2018.Sausage Sports Club
Play as a bunch of animals with abnormally long necks in this sports game from Luckshot Games. Packed with a bunch of game modes and stages, it has the appeal of a competitive party game that looks like it would invoke a lot of laughs with its goofy animal characters and stages. You can play with up to eight players locally and up to four online in the Adventure Mode or with whatever game mode you like. It's coming to the Switch this fall.
Morphies Law
Morphies Law is developed by Cosmoscope and is formed around the strategy of size manipulation. Depending on where you shoot targets, that part of your robot's body will increase in size, and enemies can steal size from you. Your jump height will change with leg size, landing strength with feet size, and so forth. Even the maps are designed around this mechanic with size directly affecting pathways and shortcuts you can take. Friendly fire can be strategic since your whole team can decide to give all their size to one player. It's a brilliant concept that casts a looming shadow on the Switch later this year and on PC at an unannounced date.Mulaka
With a polygonal art style and world inspired by the Mexican Tarahumara culture, Mulaka is an action-adventure game where you solve puzzles and engage with giant bosses in a large world, and a major part of surviving it all is your ability to turn into a large set of animals. It was originally coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, but now the Switch is included (which will have exclusive features and functionality) and will be released in early 2018.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
It's no wonder that the showcase saved Goichi Suda's latest project for last. He's returning to develop the next installment in the No More Heroes franchise called Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes with his team at Grasshopper Manufacture It follows the events of the last game after Travis Touchdown killed Bad Girl. Her father, The Bad, has come to exact revenge on our hero seven years after his daughter's death, but when they meet vis-a-vis, things get predictably weirder. They're absorbed into the digital world of the Deathdrive Mark 2 console. Travis and The Bad have to fight their way out of six games in the console to return to reality, but whether this might be a single-player or co-op experience is currently unknown. Over-the-top bosses and insane art direction are sure to follow with anything Suda helms. You can prepare to wield the Beam Katana once again exclusively on the Switch in 2018.To watch the Showcase in full, you can click here to see all of the games and their respective trailers. In response to the announcements, Nintendo of America’s Senior Manager for Publisher & Developer Relations, Damon Baker, said that the publisher is happy to bring more developers on board since many have already taken a liking to the Switch. "This is a win for fans, who will have access to an even wider selection of great indie content to take wherever they go.” If there's anything to gain from the Showcase, then that statement is true and will hopefully remain so as the Switch's library continues to evolve.
What are some of the highlights from the Showcase that caught your attention? Do you think Nintendo's bringing the thunder with its rapidly expanding library for the Switch? What video games would you like to see on the console? Touchdown into the comments section below to let us know your thoughts!
