Indie World Showcase (11th May 2022 @ 15:00 BST)

[Julius]

As had been rumoured:

Should be fun! I don't play nearly enough indie games, but a lot of the ones I do have interest in have been mentioned in previous Indie World Showcases, so hopefully we get an update here on those (looking at you, Omori). 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Julius

[Ashley]

I do like these indie world ones. Most of the games aren't for me but they're always interesting to see what's going on

[MindFreak]

Finally something new! It's been really quiet for the past weeks with barely any news from Nintendo. I guess they are keeping stuff for the June Direct, if this is indeed going to happen. 

[Jonnas]

I figure we'll finally see Freedom Planet 2, now that a date's been announced.

Other than that, I'll just try to keep the more interesting titles in mind.

[Hero-of-Time]

Man, the narrators/presenters of this show are terrible.

*grabs gif from ToA thread*

[Dufniall]

12 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Man, the narrators/presenters of this show are terrible.

Yes they are. Bad puns, one of them talks reeaallyy slow and they try to sound dynamic but there are pauses between them. It isn't helping that the games shown so far are mediocre at best. Slightly interested in ElecHead, Gunbrella and that crab game.

 

[MindFreak]

Cult of the Lamb looks good, and Another Crab's Treasure looks fun. Other than that nothing of interest. 

[Ronnie]

Apart from the lack of megaton announcements at the start or end, that was probably one of the best Indie Showcases they've put out, at least for my personal taste. I pretty much wanted almost every game shown. Also, like the main Directs, they've perfected the format of these, fast paced but still finds time to put a face to the dev studios.

Gunbrella looks amazing. Definitely picking up Wildfrost, Silt, Cult of the Lamb and Elec Head too. The latter really reminded me of GMTK Mark Brown's first game he's currently developing!

[killthenet]

@Ronnie I think Elec Head might have started life as part of a GMTK game jam

The presentation started out slow for me, nothing really spoke to me at first, but Wayward Strand looks right up my street so I'll definitely be checking that out. Another Crab's Treasure looks pretty cool, and OFK seems like the kind of thing I could get into so there another couple to add to my list (although I could swear OFK had already been announced for Switch...). 

[Julius]

Just caught up...

Ooblets - looks very charming, definitely saw some Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Bugsnax, and Wattam/Katamari inspiration while watching. Didn't really get a great idea of what exactly the gameplay loop was? But seems like a perfectly chill late summer/early autumn game. 

Batora: Lost Haven - top-down ARPGs aren't something I've played up until now...and this isn't going to be the game that changes that. Just didn't seem like it did a good job of saying whether it did or did not do anything different to every critically acclaimed top-down RPG out there? 

Elec Head - yeah, instantly sold. Looks charming, love the look, and seems very focused on getting the most out of its mechanics - and unlike the two games preceding it, I actually come away knowing what's different and what the game is going to play like. Short but very effective showing, will be looking for this when it comes out this summer! 

Soundfall - think it looks visually very generic in its colour palette, and I'm never really a big fan of games that look very round and smooth when it comes to character models...BUT, I'm sold on the idea, and it's a perfect game to shadow drop. Might have to give it a look at some point! 

Wildfrost - some of those card designs are giving me massive Adventure Time vibes, which is a positive (well, if that isn't a false promise). Card games aren't really something I gravitate towards, but the holiday window seems perfect for the look and vibe of the game. Will wait to see more. 

TABS: Totally Accurate Battle Simulator - looks like very silly fun, especially with the unit creator. Summer seems a smart window for it, curious to see how they try to format the gameplay loop. 

Gunbrella - oh hell yes, count me interested. Umbrella-wielding woodsman with a shotgun? How can I not be interested?! Going to be a long wait until this drops next year, but looks like good fun. 

We Are OFK - honestly just not at all vibing with how this game is always introduced, there's very little gained by their intros, and I'm sure more people would be in if they just went straight to the game instead. I don't know where I stand on this game, but maybe that is my stance? 

Silt - hand drawn black and white underwater puzzle adventure? You have my interest. And June? Not that long a wait at all!

Mini Motorways - was actually thinking of picking up Mini Metro on my phone, but maybe I'll get this instead. Always a fan of a simple but well presented game, and a shadow drop is always a bonus these days in my eyes. 

Wayward Strand - love the simple hand drawn look, reminds me of Florence, and is also kind of giving me a Roald Dahl vibe? July 21st - I'm curious to see more. 

Cult of the Lamb - who isn't in? I'm all for some religious cults and the corrupting of innocents, obviously. Looks great fun, shame we haven't really got something a bit more to latch onto in terms of a date outside of it landing this year, but I'll wait somewhat patiently 

Another Crab's Treasure - Sebastian's origin story is way darker than I was expecting. I'm a little curious, at least. 2023 is a long way away, so hopefully they do a good job of showing this off in the future. 

Muh-Muh-Muh-MONTAGE! - not much really grabbing my attention here honestly, other than Idol Manager (I'll wait to see more but it kind of looks like a 2D and simplified crossover between Yakuza's cabaret club and idol stuff, which could be good fun if executed just right). Also thought OneShot: World Machine Edition looked very interesting, but we barely got to see it. 

EDIT: it got a full trailer, and I dig it. In my opinion, this should have been shown in full in the Showcase. 

Keeping an eye on that for when it lands this summer then.

Same goes for OPUS, which is out now and looks much better here than it did in the handful of shots in the montage:

/EDIT

Overall, I thought it was a fine showing, with a few games I'm interested in grabbing, namely being Elec Head, Gunbrella and Silt. Not sure what was up with the stream or if they just consciously decided to terribly dub over some of the people who showed their faces to announce things, but oh well. Can't help but come away thinking that some games were shown off fairly poorly, and honestly, I would've liked to see more from some of the games included in the closing montage.

My Verdict: 6.5/10

Spoiler

February

State of Play: Gran Turismo 7 - 8.0/10

Nintendo Direct: February 2022 - 9.5/10

Pokémon Presents: Pokémon Day 2022 - 7.0/10

March

State of Play: March 2022 - 4.5/10

May

Indie World Showcase: May 2022 - 6.5/10

Also...where the hell was Omori? I believe it was the last Indie World Showcase in December (?) when we got told that it was coming in Spring 2022, so it being a no-show isn't much of a confidence booster. I believe the physical edition for Switch in the States is slated for release on June 17th (could be a placeholder, but seems awfully specific), so maybe it'll be a shadow drop during/be announced to release shortly after Nintendo's potential Not-E3 showing next month?

Edited May 11, 2022 by Julius

[darksnowman]

Some nice looking stuff there that I'll be sure to look out for when they... go on sale.  Thought Soundfall was out already as I'm sure I've seen that somewhere online and I'm usually seeing games for the first time in these showcases. 

Mentioning Australia at the beginning had me primed for Sports Story.  Don't need it at the mo so they can take all the time they need. 

[S.C.G]

Nintendo Indie World 11/05/2022 Presentation Roundup

All up on the main site, N-Europe's Roundup of the presentation.

Full press release and video embed.

[Ashley]

Finally watched and yes okay the presenters are very annoying. It's the try-hard nature. 

Anyway, some interesting titles. Most I won't play but I'm happy for them and good to see a range of stuff. Saw earlier on Twitter that crab game was supposed to be published by Team 17 and they backed out of it when the NFT drama happened and fair enough for them sticking to their guns. 

Nice to see We Are OFK coming to the Switch. Had my eye on it for a while. 

[Hero-of-Time]

@Julius

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/psychological-horror-rpg-omori-gets-a-june-release-date-on-switch

[Jonnas]

Gotta be honest, this was one of the more disappointing Indie Worlds. Most games seemed to be for genres I don't care for, and there wasn't any good anchor to carry the presentation. The presenters were their usual selves, nothing different than usual, so that's one thing that seemingly bothered everybody except me.

From there, the main games of interest for me were Elec Head, Stilt, and Dark Shells Another Crab's Treasure. Maybe OPUS as well, that trailer that Julius posted was interesting.