Recent Indie Games

Dude. Get a computer running an emulator on there so you can at least interpolate Super Metroid into that HDTV! (Seriously, isn’t it a bit blocky blown up to 4x"? Not that it’s all about graphics or anything, but still…)

BTW, is Super metroid out on the Wii virtual console yet? (Or Uniracers?)

I <3 blocky and emulation of snes games isn’t perfect enough for me.

For a game that’s barely more interactive than Pachinko, Peggle is astoundingly satisfying. It predicts when you’re about to win and sends the game into bullet-time as it happens. Your ball starts trailing rainbow particles, the Hallelujah chorus starts up, “EXTREME FEVER” crosses the screen in fiery letters, and the ball bounces in slow motion one of several bonus point containers, out of which flies a shower of glowy stars accompanied by firework sounds. Then an enormous rainbow wipes the screen clear and a box pops up counting all the bonuses you got on that level.

All that’s missing is for nubile women to arrive with free drinks and for coins to spill loudly out of the USB ports. Even most casual puzzle games have more to them than Vegas-style glitz and a false sensation of accomplishment. Which is why I’m glad the deluxe version costs money; after the 60 minutes was up, I went back to collecting heart pieces in Twilight Princess.

On the other hand, I am starting to understand how some people are capable of sitting in front of slot machines for hours at a time.

I would never buy a game like peggle, because its one of those things where I feel that the computer is enjoying itself more than I am. I felt the same way in supreme commander. I enjoy an FPS because I feel like its ME doing stuff, and everything hinges on my every action. In peggle I feel like I’m just a wage slave whose job it is to press the start button, then applaud the particle engine.
I can see that it is well done, and could be addictive to some people, but I prefer to be more involved.
I bet it sells well though.

I really dig Peggle. It starts out purely random, especially when the board’s full, but by the end, you’re bouncing shots like a demon to hit the more out-of-the-way pegs. The challenges after unlocking everything are much more reliant on skill than the main ‘Adventure’ mode.

Agree with Charybdis, most of the challenges really require skill, strategy and yeah, some luck… but no more than most games at that point.

Chet

No kidding. I’m really looking forward to that one.

Since this is the closest we have to a Peggle thread, I’ll ask here: has anyone beat the 750k challenge, and if so, what level and power did you use? It’s the only challenge left for me and I feel compelled to tackle it.

I got 710k once by accident on 11-5, with the Zen ball. Somehow the ball ended up in the lowest wave cavity and rode it to the top, hitting everything.

(Yeah, I did end up buying this game. It’s a lot more skill-based than I originally gave it credit for. Also, it’s Ode to Joy that plays when you win, not Hallelujah.)

Penumbra needs to be mentioned again, since the first part of the trilogy was released on March 30. I dislike calling it an episodic game, though. The first episode is a full length game and the first part of a trilogy…so that’s what it is: a trilogy. Something like Sam and Max, a whole bunch of short episodes released on a regular schedule? That’s episodic.

Back to Penumbra - it’s an amazingly great game. Four guys, working on what they enjoy in their spare time, brought me one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Go figure.

Nevermind, I got it. You are now in the presence of a Grand Master of Peggle. If anyone wants to see how I did it, here’s the glorious event.

Although it seems the game also keeps track of which levels you’ve cleared all the pegs from. I guess that’s something else to go for.

There’s even a fair amount of shooting in the last couple levels, so he’s even wrong about that part.

Anyway, Aquaria does indeed look pretty spiffy, and if Deep in a Forest is new enough to be in this thread, so is Cave Story.

I really thought their other game Knytt was much better.

Also, Everyday Shooter is looking promising.

Thanks for posting your findings! I’m enjoying looking through for some new gaming ideas for those EVE downtimes :D

Indie and recent, the latest iteration of DROD came out a couple days ago.

(linked to the Caravel forum post about it, as they appear to not have a real page for it yet. You can fine the download links in that thread)

Wow, Penumbra, interesting game! Very stylish and a litle scary… and full of Lovecraftian goodness as far as I can tell so far. Excellent, might have to buy this one soon.

The demo sure is taking a long time to get to the actual gameplay. They even took my sword away. This is not the DROD I know.

Damn you.

I got Pebble from a completely different source, but am going to join in damning him on general principles.

ODE TO JOY!!!

(Oh - I’ve been so busy recently that I never got around to apologising for coming across so strong in that GamesBiz thread a week or so back, and don’t want to play thread-necromancer now. Sorry for that.)

KG

I’ve come really close to buying the drod/caravel subscription thing a couple of times. I’d kind of like to see the games on a portable.