Nintendo’s latest Indie World showcase has been and gone, featuring a healthy selection of 11 games, from Shantae Advance, through A Highland Song and on to a Switch release on Outer Wilds. Let’s run through it.
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution – 2024
A Switch remaster of a Game Boy Advance classic, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution has everything you’d want from the series, with Shantae’s hair whipping attack and transformations, world-altering puzzles, and more. This version also has a first 4 player local multiplayer battle mode for the series!
Core Keeper – Summer 2024
Adventure underground and build up a subterranean settlement, battling monsters both big and small. You’ll customise your character, set roles and skills as you look to collaborate.
On Your Tail – 2024
Mixing slice of life gaming in the coastal town of Borgo Marina, it won’t take long before Diana is brought into a sleuthing investigation around town.
Howl – Out now on Switch & PC!
A turn-based tactical adventure with a wonderful water colour art style. A mysterious howling plague has been transforming all those who hear it into wolf-like beasts, but you, a deaf heroine, are immune. In each battle you can plan up to six steps in advance to outmaneuver the wolfish creatures.
The Star Named EOS – Spring 2024
A lovely-looking narrative adventure in which you use photography to explore the scenery around you, discovering the stories behind items in the world, and solving environmental puzzles as you step back in time to the moment the pictures were taken.
Backpack Hero – Out today for Switch and PC!
Are you good at packing bags? Well in this roguelike you’ll put your inventory management skills to the test as you head down into a dungeon, claim loot and use it to rebuild your home village.
Blade Chimera – Spring 2024 (Switch timed console exclusive)
Set in a dystopian future Osaka, Blade Chimera is a side-scrolling action games, wielding a demon-turned-sword both in battle and to create spectral elements that were previously destroyed or altered.
A Highland Story – 5th December 2023 for Switch and PC
The next game from Inkle, A Highland Story sees 15-year-old Moira McKinnon setting off on an adventure to her uncle’s lighthouse in the Scottish Highlands, with just seven days for her to make the trek. Along the way she’ll have hundreds of miles of terrain to cover, hidden paths to find, harsh weather to survive and stories, secrets and songs to discover.
Moonstone Island – Spring 2024 (Switch timed console exclusive)
Explore 100 procedurally generated islands in this dungeon crawling life sim. Become a world-renowned alchemist by exploring, collecting spirits, and then hang out in town with crafting, decorating, befriendin villages and more.
Death Trick: Double Blind – 2024
Now coming to Switch as well as PC, Death Trick: Double Blind is an investigative adventure that follows Morgan’s Traveling Circus through the mid 20th century. You’ll play as both a magician and a private eye looking to find out where the circus’ star magician has disappeared off to, giving twin perspectives on the tale.
Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition – 7th December 2023
The acclaimed solar system time loop puzzle game is finally coming out on Nintendo Switch, as you scour all manner of strange planets for clues, puzzles and answers to why and what is happening in this solar system, with dramatic changes taking place and then being rewound ever 22 minutes. This also includes the Echoes of the Eye expansion.
