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Nintendo Switch: The indie game goliath
By Eyad Elkhatib, Jordan News
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AMMAN — It’s more than just the best-selling console on the
market, the Nintendo Switch is a booming hub for indie games. While most people
opt to buy the Switch for its exclusive titles, many have found the sheer
amount of indie titles the e-shop offers to be a breath of fresh air. اضافة اعلان
What helps make this process so streamlined and abundant is that the Nintendo Switch keeps has announced new features and games that utilize the system every year since its initial release. This has made the Switch a “go to” for indie developers to release their titles on, allowing their games to reach a much wider audience.
So, what exactly is an indie game?
Independent games, AKA indie games, are games that are typically created by individuals or much smaller teams that tend to not have the same amount of financial or technical support that their AAA developer counterparts do. This usually leads to Indie developers having much more creative freedom, allowing them to experiment with genres, game mechanics, design, and much more. This freedom to create leads to harmonious mishmashes of genres that make these games the hidden gems they are, with the finalized product also being sold at a cheaper price than a AAA title.
Why do these titles work so well on the Nintendo Switch?
The Switch does many things well, the most obvious being portability, which allows gamers to play their favorite titles on the go. It eliminates that looming feeling of having to go back home to try and beat that boss you were stuck on for a couple of hours. Now take this and apply it to indie games that aren’t as draining to the Switch’s battery as other AAA titles, and you get a prolonged gaming experience whenever you crave it.
Hardware features aside, Nintendo has also demonstrated their commitment to indie title releases, which is evident when viewing recent events such as the “Nindies Showcase,” a way for Nintendo to show its fans what exciting new games are going to be released. This allows many indie titles, such as Moonlighter, to reach fans who usually wouldn’t consider purchasing games of that genre.
What Indie games should you play?
There are a plethora of indie games out there for you to try, each unique in its own way, but here are 3 that are great gateways into the wonderful world indie gaming.
Stardew Valley
(Photo: Stardew Valley)
While not everyone’s genre, Stardew Valley is a beautifully simple game. Stardew Valley is a top down farming simulator where you create your character and start to build up your farm, but this game is so much more. Its simplicity is purely on the surface, as the game's mechanics begin to unfold once you jump in. Farming, the core of the game, is an easy to learn but hard to master journey, where players have the freedom to control their farming approach however they deem fit.
You can also befriend every single villager in the game, each with their own special dialogue and cut scene to experience. The sheer amount of things to do and explore while playing Stardew Valley is astonishing, and you most likely won’t experience everything in a single play through. So what better way to enjoy this charming masterpiece than on the Nintendo Switch, where you can always monitor how your game is progressing wherever you are.
Little Nightmares 1 and 2
(Photo: bandainamcoent.eu)
A perfect example of how to combine multiple genres, Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platformer horror adventure game in which you control Six, a little girl who is trying to escape the twisted place she’s in —the Maw, a ship riddle with twisted, unnerving creatures. This game is great at making you feel like the situation you’ve been put in is genuinely a hopeless one, where a good majority of the game is spent running away, or even strategically hiding from the creatures of the Maw as getting caught means instant demise.
With daunting world design, unsettling characters, and great sound, the game is something everyone should try at least once, and, if you like it, definitely check out the sequel: Little Nightmares 2. Not only do these games perform perfectly on the switch, what better way to enjoy them then to play at a friend’s house where you can both enjoy the eerie experience awaiting you.
Moonlighter
(Photo: Moonlighterthegame.com)
On the surface, Moonlighter is an action RPG dungeon crawler, but when you really get into it you see that it’s much more. In Moonlighter, you play as Will, a merchant who dives into the mysterious dungeons located in his hometown to collect valuable loot off the corpses of enemies.
The combat in this game is pretty cut and dry, you have a dodge, a normal attack, and a charge attack, but it heavily relies on the timing of your dodges and the spacing of your attacks. Messing up will throw you out of the dungeon and cause you to lose 90 percent of the items you’ve spent so much time collecting.
Now, it’s what you do outside the dungeons that really throws a twist in the games genre. You will be required to sell the items you’ve collected on your adventure, gauging their value by keeping an eye on the expressions of your shoppers. The happier they are, the happier you are.
This game becomes a grind-fest of loot gathering to make more money, upgrade your store, add more valuable merchants in your town, and farming materials to buy yourself some weapon and armor upgrades. It’s a bizarrely addictive loop, that take a good amount of time before it gets old. With a New Game + feature, tons of unlockable content, and some free DLC that was recently released, Moonlighter is a great game to sink your teeth into, and feeding into that obsessive loop is so much easier when played on the Nintendo Switch.
But aren’t these games available on other consoles?
They are, but since most indie games do not require powerful specs, having the opportunity to play them whenever you feel like feels almost like a luxury. With a significantly lower price point than its competitors, the Nintendo Switch is a solid gaming console that should satiate every gamer’s needs, especially if you’re looking for a massive indie library.
With the new OLED model being released before the year ends, owning one will be even more worthwhile. This model will not only feature a crisper screen, but also a ton of new features like a LAN port, larger adjustable stand, dock optimization and more. So go out and enjoy what the indie game goliath has to offer.
Read more Lifestyle
What helps make this process so streamlined and abundant is that the Nintendo Switch keeps has announced new features and games that utilize the system every year since its initial release. This has made the Switch a “go to” for indie developers to release their titles on, allowing their games to reach a much wider audience.
So, what exactly is an indie game?
Independent games, AKA indie games, are games that are typically created by individuals or much smaller teams that tend to not have the same amount of financial or technical support that their AAA developer counterparts do. This usually leads to Indie developers having much more creative freedom, allowing them to experiment with genres, game mechanics, design, and much more. This freedom to create leads to harmonious mishmashes of genres that make these games the hidden gems they are, with the finalized product also being sold at a cheaper price than a AAA title.
Why do these titles work so well on the Nintendo Switch?
The Switch does many things well, the most obvious being portability, which allows gamers to play their favorite titles on the go. It eliminates that looming feeling of having to go back home to try and beat that boss you were stuck on for a couple of hours. Now take this and apply it to indie games that aren’t as draining to the Switch’s battery as other AAA titles, and you get a prolonged gaming experience whenever you crave it.
Hardware features aside, Nintendo has also demonstrated their commitment to indie title releases, which is evident when viewing recent events such as the “Nindies Showcase,” a way for Nintendo to show its fans what exciting new games are going to be released. This allows many indie titles, such as Moonlighter, to reach fans who usually wouldn’t consider purchasing games of that genre.
What Indie games should you play?
There are a plethora of indie games out there for you to try, each unique in its own way, but here are 3 that are great gateways into the wonderful world indie gaming.
Stardew Valley
(Photo: Stardew Valley)
While not everyone’s genre, Stardew Valley is a beautifully simple game. Stardew Valley is a top down farming simulator where you create your character and start to build up your farm, but this game is so much more. Its simplicity is purely on the surface, as the game's mechanics begin to unfold once you jump in. Farming, the core of the game, is an easy to learn but hard to master journey, where players have the freedom to control their farming approach however they deem fit.
You can also befriend every single villager in the game, each with their own special dialogue and cut scene to experience. The sheer amount of things to do and explore while playing Stardew Valley is astonishing, and you most likely won’t experience everything in a single play through. So what better way to enjoy this charming masterpiece than on the Nintendo Switch, where you can always monitor how your game is progressing wherever you are.
Little Nightmares 1 and 2
(Photo: bandainamcoent.eu)
A perfect example of how to combine multiple genres, Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platformer horror adventure game in which you control Six, a little girl who is trying to escape the twisted place she’s in —the Maw, a ship riddle with twisted, unnerving creatures. This game is great at making you feel like the situation you’ve been put in is genuinely a hopeless one, where a good majority of the game is spent running away, or even strategically hiding from the creatures of the Maw as getting caught means instant demise.
With daunting world design, unsettling characters, and great sound, the game is something everyone should try at least once, and, if you like it, definitely check out the sequel: Little Nightmares 2. Not only do these games perform perfectly on the switch, what better way to enjoy them then to play at a friend’s house where you can both enjoy the eerie experience awaiting you.
Moonlighter
(Photo: Moonlighterthegame.com)
On the surface, Moonlighter is an action RPG dungeon crawler, but when you really get into it you see that it’s much more. In Moonlighter, you play as Will, a merchant who dives into the mysterious dungeons located in his hometown to collect valuable loot off the corpses of enemies.
The combat in this game is pretty cut and dry, you have a dodge, a normal attack, and a charge attack, but it heavily relies on the timing of your dodges and the spacing of your attacks. Messing up will throw you out of the dungeon and cause you to lose 90 percent of the items you’ve spent so much time collecting.
Now, it’s what you do outside the dungeons that really throws a twist in the games genre. You will be required to sell the items you’ve collected on your adventure, gauging their value by keeping an eye on the expressions of your shoppers. The happier they are, the happier you are.
This game becomes a grind-fest of loot gathering to make more money, upgrade your store, add more valuable merchants in your town, and farming materials to buy yourself some weapon and armor upgrades. It’s a bizarrely addictive loop, that take a good amount of time before it gets old. With a New Game + feature, tons of unlockable content, and some free DLC that was recently released, Moonlighter is a great game to sink your teeth into, and feeding into that obsessive loop is so much easier when played on the Nintendo Switch.
But aren’t these games available on other consoles?
They are, but since most indie games do not require powerful specs, having the opportunity to play them whenever you feel like feels almost like a luxury. With a significantly lower price point than its competitors, the Nintendo Switch is a solid gaming console that should satiate every gamer’s needs, especially if you’re looking for a massive indie library.
With the new OLED model being released before the year ends, owning one will be even more worthwhile. This model will not only feature a crisper screen, but also a ton of new features like a LAN port, larger adjustable stand, dock optimization and more. So go out and enjoy what the indie game goliath has to offer.
Read more Lifestyle
