Nintendo announces new indie games for Switch
Nintendo kicked off the Gamescom pre-show by announcing the arrival of dozens of new independent games for the Switch.
Gamescom is a European video game conference that is bigger than the E3 gaming expo held each year in the United States. Gamescom’s opening ceremony will be held Monday afternoon.
Before the show, Nintendo announced 29 indie games coming to the Switch console. These titles bear unfamiliar faces and intriguing concepts from lesser-known companies.
Two titles — “Hotline Miami Collection,” and “SuperHot” — are available Monday, while the rest are coming later this year or next year. SuperHot is also making its way to Google’s cloud streaming platform, Stadia.
Some of the games are already available on different platforms, but Nintendo announced Switch compatibility for those particular titles. One such title, “Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition” has already gained success on the PC and on Xbox. Another, “Hotline Miami” is already on the PlayStation 4 and PC.
“The Hotline Miami games were always at the top of our list but it was a longer process to bring them over to Nintendo Switch due to the older tech the original games were built on,” Nigel Lowrie, founder at Hotline Miami’s publisher Devolver Digital, told CNN Business.
Viewers on YouTube who tuned into Nintendo’s announcement expressed interest in other games, including “Skater XL,” a skateboarding video game where players can attempt tricks. “Skater XL” is coming to Switch in 2020.
“Best Friend Forever,” published by Alliance and developed by Starcolt, combines dating and dog grooming. The game bears a resemblance to Game Grumps’ “Dream Daddy,” an indie dating simulator game released in 2017 which has gone viral.
Lucy Morris, Starcolt’s studio and creative director, told CNN Business that “Best Friend Forever” is definitely influenced by modern dating simulators like “Dream Daddy” but the difference is that dogs play a major role.
“Your dog influences your love story, as they’ll come with you wherever you go!” said Morris. “Not picking up poop, for example, will result in a rather unimpressed date, whereas a well-behaved pup is a great wing-dog.”
Since the Switch came out in 2017, Nintendo has worked with a number of indie publishers to populate its platform.
“Nintendo has been awesome,” said Devolver Digital co-founder Graeme Struthers in an interview back in June. “When you’re a small company, you always look for that level of support. That’s going to bring your games to the wider audience.”
Struthers also pointed out that the shift toward digital in video games has benefited indie labels. “Niche games can actually do well. You can find that audience in Japan, Australia, Korea, the UK, which in the world of retail would never have happened, because that would have required size and scale.”
Here’s a complete list of the indie games coming to the Switch:
“Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition,” September 27 “Hotline Miami Collection” available Monday “SuperHot” available Monday “Risk of Rain 2,” this summer “Torchlight II,” TBD “Eastward,” early 2020 “Freedom Finger,” September 27 “The Touryst,” November “Skellboy,” December 3 “Röki,” this winter “Youropa,” 2019 “EarthNight,” 2019 “Dungeon Defenders: Awakened,” February 2020 “Skater XL,” 2020 “Blasphemous,” September 10 “Close to the Sun,” 2019 “Cat Quest II,” fall 2019 “Spiritfarer,” spring 2020 “Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince,” TBD “Creature in the Well,” September 6 “One Finger Death Punch 2,” December 2 “Best Friend Forever,” February 14, 2020 “Phogs!,” early 2020 “What the Golf?,” winter 2019 “Kine,” 2019 “Hypercharge: Unboxed,” winter 2019 “Northgard,” September 26, 2019 “Sparklite,” fall 2019 “Munchkin: Quacked Quest,” fall 2019
