While mid-December isn’t traditionally the time to announce or show off new games, that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to welcome the opportunity to end 2021 with some excitement. Nintendo hosted an Indie World Showcase on Wednesday so everyone could check out a handful of indie games that will be coming to the Switch in the near future.
The event itself was only a little over 20 minutes long, so we strongly recommend watching it and experiencing everything it had to offer, but there were still a handful of games that stuck out above the rest. These games all stuck out for a variety of reasons and it was a reminder of why we enjoy Indie games so much. As AAA developers try to stick with the familiar, Indie developers are frequently trying out new ideas and doing their best to stand out. It gives us a strong variety of games and we felt we found that with these three in particular.
River City Girls 2
River City Girls was a really fun spin on the old River City Ransom formula from the days of the NES. Two heroes go and save their significant others from kidnappers, but this time instead of boyfriends saving their girlfriends, it’s two girlfriends saving their boyfriends. The game itself was flashy, fun, and one of the best 2D beat’em ups in recent memory.
Now, we’re lucky enough to get a sequel with River City Girls 2. While it’s still early, what we’ve seen so far gives us plenty of reason to be excited. River City Girls 2 appears to be just more of what made the first game so fun. More characters, more power ups, more baddies to beat up, and more locations to explore. Sometimes the perfect sequel is just more of the same thing but bigger and that’s what River City Girls 2 looks like to us.
Sea of Stars
Get ready for adventure when @SeaOfStarsGame by @SabotageQc, a turn-based RPG set in the @messengergame universe, comes to #NintendoSwitch holiday 2022! #IndieWorld pic.twitter.com/Sj1udNROiy
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 15, 2021
What if someone took the universe of The Messenger, gave it an art style and gameplay system that feels very reminiscent of Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana, and let Yasunori Mitsuda compose the music? What you likely would get is something that looks a lot like Sea of Stars.
This RPG just oozes charm in every detail that’s on the screen and if there’s one thing we know from the developers over at Sabotage Studio it’s that they know how to nail a theme. The Messenger, one of the best indie games in recent memory, was developed by this studio so we’re confident in Sea of Stars being another hit. It has all of the right energy to it that someone should expect from an RPG of this style. We can’t wait to actually get our hands on it.
Loco Motive
Investigate a mysterious death aboard the Reuss Express and figure out whodunnit when Loco Motive, a point-and-click comedy adventure from @RobustGames and @ChucklefishLTD, arrives on #NintendoSwitch in Summer 2022! #IndieWorld pic.twitter.com/CLgxMbOdCG
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 15, 2021
Who doesn’t love a good murder mystery? We sure do. Loco Motive is the debut game from Robust Games and it has the feel of a first-time winner. Everything from the art style to the murder mystery on a train theme to the comedic tone of it all forms into something that looks like a really good time.
It’s fun when a murder mystery game like this has a silly tone. It takes the edge off when exploring for clues and allows us to really enjoy the experience. With three main suspects, we’re curious to see if this ends up being a game with multiple endings. Maybe it’ll be something like the movie Clue? It definitely has the right tone to it, but we also want to see how it makes itself unique. Maybe there are branching paths, or multiple endings, or a huge twist at the end? We’re excited to find out.