Chris-HowlettI don’t mean to sound facetious, nor do I intend to be sarcastic. It’s an honest question!
To be clear, I’m talking about the indy titles with old school, grainy, 2-D sprites or games not too far off from that. Yesterday, Ben wrote an article wondering how happy everyone was with PlaystationPlus . Based on the discussion, it seems like most of you are largely happy with it. But since so many of the free titles are indy titles like what I just described, it’s brought that question to the forefront of my mind:
Do you… Does anyone… honestly dig old-school indy games?
In principle, I like what indy titles do for us. They give us new and interesting design concepts from a much larger variety of developers who otherwise would never be able to publish or bring AAA products to the table. We are invited to explore unique stories, new worlds, and creative alternatives to what we’ve become used to over the years. Others would highlight that it’s also allowed smaller developers to get past PC only releases on Steam or other services; it allows new gaming businesses to take off, which can be nothing other than a good thing.
As a result of all this, I find myself really wanting to embrace and support the indy market. Without them, I can't help but feel that the big box brands will attempt to be overly generic in hopes of reaching as large an audience as possible , revisit already existing, albeit excellent, games , or pigeonhold us to yet another sequel, like 2035’s Final Fantasy XIII-H8: Snow’s Revenge .
Occasionally, we get the kinds of experiences that are hard to ignore like Journey , or more recently, The Witness . These kinds of titles get enough attention that they probably help push the entire industry forward. This only greater enforces my desire to support the indy scene.
But what about other 2D titles, even good ones, like Braid or throwbacks to classics that can do no wrong like the Megaman Collection on PSN? You know… the majority of indy titles. Do you value the indy scene beyond philisophical support enough to open up the ol' dusty wallet?
Me? Well, I never finish them, if I’m honest. I used to love Mega Man on NES when I was growing up. Now, I can’t play for more than 30 minutes before wondering if my time might be better spent watching paint dry. And games like Braid, while fun and beautiful, can only be finished in small doses. Is it because compared to other visual accomplishments of larger games I can’t justify a visually “inferior” product? Star Wars: Battlefront is arguably less substantial in content with much weaker creative vision than many indy titles, yet despite my inevitable boredom with it, I gave it much more attention.
The unfortunate fact I must reluctantly accept now is that for me, I now have a library of indy games I’ve rarely or never touched. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t buy new ones because…. hey…. backlog… From a critical standpoint, I like these games, and I appreciate what they do. But I just can’t seem to get into them.
So what about you? Do you dabble? Are an indy game aficianado? Or do you find them too inferior to be worth your valuable time?
Yeah I like indie games, I think many times they are as good or better than many AAA-games. Also like you said, they are typically much more creative with gameplay and everything else as well.
I've actually played & finished several small indie games lately, like:
Blocks That Matter (very fun puzzle game)
The Culling of the Cows (pretty stupid but still fun, simple game for a short play-through)
and last one i played was Jack Lumber (sort of like a more advanced version of fruit ninja, also very indie-weird/stupid-but-fun-story but that's part of the charm somehow)
On the other hand speaking of PS+ I also get most of my indie games free or extremely cheap with humble bundles on steam, so I wouldn't consider it much of a value for paying for PSN Plus, for that I would want actually good PS-exclusive indie games like Journey and games like that to warrant paying for it.
I like a lot of indie games because they tend to be pretty creative and different. As far as playing the ones that are old school, I like some of those too although I don't usually get through all of them. Actually I don't get through most games these days, indie or not. My backlog is ridiculous…
Cool first post :).
Last edited by Mortae3 on 2/8/2016 8:26:33 PM
It really depends on the game. For instance, I will always and forever be able to go back to games like FFT, FFVII, Castlevania: SotN, Super Mario Kart, etc. But there are others that I just can't get into anymore, and it's usually because the mechanics are simply too outdated.
Although I've done over 40 years of gaming, I no longer like the old side-scrollers, top-down games & most the more blocky PS1-like graphics(why I can't do Minecraft, UGGG).
But I do like some of the recent indies & have been buying quite a few of them over the last couple months that were all due to Sony's recent flash sales, even though I still have a backlog totaling in the way-high hundreds spread through out all of my gaming collections.
As soon as I see indie I run for the hills.All of the ones ive played have been free and they still felt like rip offs,old school ones don't even get a first glance.
I appreciate the indie games, but I only have time to play a few of them. I like that they break the norm of the rinse and repeat ritual the AAA games do. If anyone is going to revive my first love, turn based RPGs japanese or otherwise, I think i must look to the indie's.
Since the original creators moved on or retired it is up to the once who played those games to make an effort now. I am even trying to step up myself to give a hand.
Nice article Chris, you made me come out of my hideout to post on this site again.
I like them a lot. But I will say maybe only like 5% are any good. Axiom Verge was a fairly recent great one.
Not really. I can play games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario 64, but any other type of older game, or game that is made to be like older games, feel outdated to me.