At the turn of the year, ‘top’ lists are impossible to avoid. Everyone has them for almost every category you can think of. There’s the traditional best games of the year, and some more unusual choices, like Game Informers’ top dorks of the year list. Now that we are headed into February, these lists have started slowing down, or so I thought.
After highlighting the hopeful indie games during its Highlights presentation, Nintendo visited us with the ghosts of indie games past. A high-energy stream of great indie games scrolled on my screen and, though the format is a little different than a written feature, Nintendo was absolutely listing its best indie games. I don’t think that was the company’s goal – they wanted to create hype, encourage sales, and promote Nintendo’s indie-friendly stance – but all the same, Nintendo choose to show twenty games it thought would best drive sales. It’s a pretty star-studded list, too:
- Hollow Knight
- Stardew Valley
- Celeste
- Overcooked! 2
- Wizard of Legend
- Dead Cells
- Darkest Dungeon: Ancestral Edition
- Owlboy
- Firewatch
- Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
- Fast RMX
- Gris
- Shovel Knight
- Undertale
- Donut Country
- The Messenger
- Into the Breach
- The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
- Enter the Gungeon
- Human: Fall Flat
That’s a serious list of heavy hitters, and not all are recent. While Celeste has been in the news for winning big at The Game Awards, Firewatch released three years ago. In indie time, that’s almost ancient (which is why it’s so disappointing that I haven’t finished it yet). That in mind, it looks to me like Nintendo just published its own definitive ‘top’ 20 indies list of all time.
Check out this list in live and living color or catch up with the presentation and watch the video below. Nintendo has a slew of unusual indies slated for 2019, it detailed Chucklefish games Inmost and Wargroove, and even announced a few games that are available to play now.
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