The Obscure Indie Games Book Club
Me and some buds have had a monthly (theoretically, usually it's around once every two months) program going for a few years now where we take turns picking less well-known indie games to play and talk about, usually on Gamepass or on sale for cheap. I've had this list private for a while with my personal thoughts but I figured I'd make it public for anyone as into this kind of hidden gem hunting as I am.
My current top 5:
1. Yuppie Psycho
2. Deadbolt
3. Steamworld Heist
4. Road 96
5. Norco
My current bottom 5:
1. An Airport for Aliens
2. Lake
3. Oceanhorn
4. Fe
5. Tardy
My current top 5:
1. Yuppie Psycho
2. Deadbolt
3. Steamworld Heist
4. Road 96
5. Norco
My current bottom 5:
1. An Airport for Aliens
2. Lake
3. Oceanhorn
4. Fe
5. Tardy
43 Games
Not funny, no gameplay. Least favorite.
My pick. Didn't do any research and thought this was gonna be a top-down exploration type game. It's just a kinda cute, mostly boring narrative with not much in terms of player input.
Offbeat, unconventional mechanics are at least memorable even if I wouldn't call this one much fun.
Shredding through enemies is kinda entertaining. Otherwise there's nothing to this one.
Ugly, buggy, and derivative, but it's occasionally an okay 3D platformer.
Little Nightmares but the visuals are twice as good and the puzzles are twice as simple. Not horrible, but kinda boring. Cool final boss.
Stuck between a noir parody and homage that ends up taking home the worst of both, and is just boring. Unique visually.
Can't decide whether it wants to be a time trials platformer or a precision platformer. The earlier levels (which lean into the former) are a blast and have an amazing sense of speed. The later levels are painful and killed my motivation to return to the earlier ones and get better times.
25th meeting special: A triple-A game! Quintessentially seventh gen, always entertaining despite its bland combat.
My pick. It's good! Tough, satisfying stealth puzzler, even if dominant strategies make things kinda boring towards the end. Plus Chris Christodoulou on the waves.
My pick. Solid, by-the-books puzzler. Love the minimalism but it still could've pushed itself.
My pick. Stylish and intriguing, but there's nothing to the battles. And, like its characters, it just refuses to end.
Artsy indie slop.
Extremely rough around the edges, but, surprisingly, there's more to this one than the average Metroid/Castlevania/Hollow Knight inspired indie. Good sense of mystery.
Nothing crazy, but it's far better than the artsy indie slop that I expected. Climbing is actually satisfying! The world actually feels bigger than you!
My pick. Puzzles, platforming, and jokes are all hit-or-miss, but there's enough hits. The bit where they made fun of artsy indie walking sims was particularly apt.
Hard not to root for it, but it fails on every front. No gameplay, nothing to the town, nothing to the story, nothing to the NPCs.
Inaugural meeting! Not much to it, but solid art and horror setpieces mean it's never boring.
Somehow, the puzzles are simultaneously tedious but too simple. Also gave me motion sickness. Surprisingly scary at times just with geometry.
Surprisingly, manages to tap into what makes good simulation games addicting. But it just goes on for far too long.
Unique, atmospheric. Mechanics are a mixed bag but it's got enough going for it to be one of the better ones.
Vibes! Not a good beat-em-up or platformer, but it sticks out in my mind nonetheless.
I like it! Not much to the puzzles, but unique, striking horror atmosphere.
My pick. Desperately wanted this to be anything more than a vapid Zelda clone, but that's all it is.
Genuinely kinda incredible. The story is utterly stupid, the characters are pure stereotypes, but the randomized narrative structure is so unique that I actually always looked forward to see what was gonna happen next.
Too much of a series of music videos to be a good video game. Too much of a video game to be a good series of music videos.
Might be more fun co-op, what's with the RPG stuff? Good music though.
Solid core, but it's just too repetitive to feel worthwhile.
Just too small in scale to really work as a Moon/Majora's Mask-like. Cool character designs.
Bad pixel art, bad platforming, not cute. The guy who picked this one really liked it for some reason, still not entirely sure why.
Can't go wrong with Steamworld. Well-made, charming tactics game that drags towards the end.
Not funny, nothing to it. Cool visually and that's about it.
Probably the best possible version of Breakout, but Breakout sucks.
My pick. I like it at its core, which taps into the Monkey Ball/Mario 64 satisfaction of skipping parts of the level. Unfortunately too many stages later on are just gimmicks and enemy spam rather than pure geometry. Everyone but me gave up before the last world.
Not much to it and the mystery isn't exactly stellar, but it's fun getting to know all these wacky characters.
Generic puzzles, generic story. Not the most offensive one on here but it's probably the most forgettable.
Very well done from a narrative standpoint. Gameplay sucks and it ends too abruptly.
Adventure-puzzle-platformer that doesn't really succeed or fail at anything. One guy decided to 100% it and got so mad while doing so that he called it the worst game we'd played yet. Not sure what the thought process was there.
My pick. Not charming enough to rival Banjo-Kazooie's ultrarelaxing collectathoning. Mechanics are actually kinda unique but it's too focused on being lighthearted to do anything with them. Loved the time trials.
My pick. Just not fun as a photography simulator. Maybe that was the point, but I don't really care.
Bizarre, almost genreless game. Wouldn't say I particularly liked it but it's one of the more unique picks.
Entertaining enough story, but there's nothing at all to the management/simulation.
Against all odds, I liked this one so much that I actually wrote a review for it. It only took 36 tries but we finally found a real hidden gem. My favorite.
2 Comments
I remember liking Marble Blast back on the 360. The new one never really caught my interest, not entirely sure why. Maybe I'll check it out at some point.
DeltaWDunn
3 months ago