Scared of eggs? You will be. Seriously. Five Night’s at Freddy’s has seen many reincarnations, but none have captured the creep factor in the way that One Night at Flumpty’s does. Flumpty’s is a parody of Freddy’s that condenses five wild nights into one terrifying shift.
As a hardcore gamer, I obviously have a pretty high opinion of myself when it comes to the realm of gaming. I have masochistically forced myself through many a brutally difficult adventure, and have tediously pursued dozens of irrelevant trophies and achievements for my various digital showcases. I have overcome the infamous Land of the Livid Dead in Rayman Origins, taken on Ornstein and Smough without assistance in Dark Souls, and toppled every optional boss in every Final Fantasy game known to man, and yet, there are still games that can crush me without fail, despite my ego and aptitude for the hobby. Bit.Trip.Runner is one such game.
When faced with the prospect of paying money for a product, gamers can be a notoriously choosy and opinionated bunch. The recent hoopla over The Order: 1886 is only the latest piece of an argument that has raged over several generations of consoles, as well as their PC and mobile hybrids. Despite the vehemence and aggression related to this particular question, these long-standing debates seem to really turn on a single idea: how much is a quality experience actually worth? A latecomer to the argument, short-film-turned-short-game, Plug & Play, may find itself very much at the center of this conversation in the months and years to come.
One of the most shocking aspects of the indie gaming movement is how it has led to a laundry list of titles that are almost impossible to describe in simplistic terms. Take Risk of Rain for example. Its creators describe it as a “rogue-like-action-platformer” but it’s clear almost immediately from playing the game that it has RPG elements and can even be described as a bullet-hell type hardcore actioner, especially as the difficulty rises with each passing minute. All of which is to say, it’s a tougher task than usual to explain what makes Risk of Rain so great and so very frustrating in equal measure.
One of the greatest things about the indie marketplace is how it has opened up the gaming medium in every direction imaginable. Take Guacamelee! for example: developer Drinkbox Studios wouldn’t have had a luchadore’s chance in hell of getting published 10 years ago. With the advent of this new digital frontier however, a side-scrolling adventure game about a Mexican wrestler is now a totally marketable product.
Zombie fans, welcome to the ultimate game of survival. This little gem was created by 16 year old Canadian, Nelson Scott. A fusion of Minecraft and DayZ, Unturned takes the idea of zombie survival dead serious.
Lurking may not seem like much, what with your screen showing you a whole lot of nothing most of the time, but this short detour into darkness packs a powerful punch. Developed by four students at the Digipen Institute of Technology over the course of two semesters, Lurking is a first-person survival thriller game where sound provides sight, and danger.
Prepare to dig your way to victory with Shovel Knight, the game that combines retro aesthetics with modern world building, and leaves you coming back for seconds.
In this side-scrolling platformer, you play as the titular character Shovel Knight, who has lost his beloved companion, Shield Knight, in the Tower of Fate. Before he can save Shield Knight however, Shovel Knight must defeat The Order of No Quarter. Only then can Shovel Knight face his greatest enemy, the evil Enchantress.
Have you ever made a mistake that you wished you could undo? Well that’s a silly question–of course you have. It would seem an obvious statement that we all have our regrets about this life. Whether it be in relation to friends, family or career, each of us carries a skeleton or two around with us as a reminder of the missteps which we have been party to. Moreover, though, for so many people, their central regret is tied into the memory of a lost or faded love.
Indie games are a mixed bag, sometimes they’re great, sometimes they’re terrible, and sometimes…sometimes you wonder what the heck you’ve just played. Only if falls into the last category. Described by the developers as a game designed with the millennial in mind, Only if seeks to challenge the way we interact with games.
Even in the daring realm of indie titles, few games would have the gall to be as jarring and deliberately unpleasant as Hotline Miami. An ugly game, through and through, Hotline Miami is also insanely addictive and offers loads of hardcore fun. But the glaring question is why?
Released alongside the PlayStation 4, HouseMarque’s homage to classic shooters such as Defender and Datastorm was easily the best pick of the launch games (and in many ways is yet to be beaten). Casting you as a small ship on a large, curved cylinder, Resogun tasks you with moving left, right, up and down along the rotating background whilst shooting baddies, dodging projectiles and – most importantly – saving humans.
Cawthon delivers a riveting work that also breaks considerable new ground. Radically fresh and every bit as frightening, Five Nights at Freddy’s has a very simple setup: and somehow that simple premise turns it into an effective delivery mechanism for sparse, economic horror.