Well, the dust has settled on another Indie World Showcase from Nintendo, and it certainly got Switch fans talking. In just over 20 minutes there were 19 games shown off — some were surprises, others were long-awaited updates, and others still were out-of-left-field games from fresh names in the development scene.
This writer's personal view was that it may have been Nintendo's best ever Indie World, for multiple reasons. Of course that's highly subjective and there have been presentations with bigger individual reveals, but as a package this seemed like the most carefully curated show to date, and one balanced to offer something to just about anyone.
As you can see in the Round Up article above there's a real mix on offer. On the one hand a lot of the 'usual customers' are featured with high profile titles, which is no bad thing — games like Loop Hero, Tetris Effect: Connected, Metal Slug Tactics, Axiom Verge 2, Eastward, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon are all critically acclaimed, big names, or hail from notable publishers / developers that regular readers of these pages will know well. All of those examples, whether Switch ports of popular games or Switch versions of hot new releases, are ideal headlines to keep an Indie World spinning.
Among the rest of the list, though, there was plenty of quality and variety in terms of genre, style and, indeed, development names. Best of all, it felt like there weren't too many games leaning on the familiar Indie™ tropes that can feel overwhelming on any digital store. Curious Expedition 2, TOEM and Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator — as a few examples — are appealing and delightfully different, and in this golden era of visual novels this writer can't help but be intrigued by Necrobarista: Final Pour. A showcase will never appeal to a viewer with every game, but we suspect most will see several titles in the full list yesterday that will have drawn their attention.
Pacing was spot on, too; 22 minutes with quickfire sequences is ideal for an Indie World, with more details on each game and their developers easily found online for the curious. It felt like a show that kept the intriguing hits coming at a good rate and didn't leave any time for boredom or familiarity to set in.
But hey, though many in Team NL loved it, we want to know what you thought of the show! Was it a winner that got you excited about a bunch of eShop games, or were you left disappointed? Was there a specific announcement or shadow-drop which made your day? Let us know in the polls and comments below!
