Happy Wednesday Gamers and Happy Valentines Day!

A little over a week ago Steam had introduced us to this years Next Fest which featured a slew of upcoming indie games. So for this year, I put together a short list of my top favorite indie games from Next Fest. Here are the top 5 indie games I’d love to play this year:

5. Bore Blasters

Bore Blaster is a 2D pixel art digging shooter where your mission is to find the hidden treasure lurking below the ground. As simple as this sounds, the goal turns out to be challenging as you have to balance navigating through the dig, managing your fuel, and trying to collect as much gold as you can for better upgrades. Just a few minutes of hands on time with this little gem and I was hooked. It is very reminiscent of Dome Keeper (which I absolutely love) in that you need to dig deeper downwards to find your objective. Bore Blasters is an awesome concept that is difficult to put down once it gets its hooks into you. This is gonna be a great one to add to the list and take on the go.

4. Indika

Indika is a third person narrative driven game that is looking to shake things up by introducing some edgy themes. The main character is a young nun who is going through her experience in the monastery and the shocker here is that she is able to talk to the devil himself. It will be interesting to see how that communication will affect her world as the story unfolds. This was a super unique game and a standout of the bunch as it really focused on realistic graphics and strong narrative. I’m super curious to dive into the whole story and see the interesting contrast between a holy figure and her horror adventures.

3. Ultros

Ultros is a beautifully drawn metroidvania game that features a crazy unique visual style. The world of Ultros is trippy and psychedelic with its constant use of vibrant colors and flowy and melty designs. Ultros is one of those games that you need to play to really appreciate its style. The unique visuals absolutely gripped my attention with this one and I am looking forward to diving further into its very alien world.

2. Stormedge

Stormedge is a bite sized roguelike game that with awesome pixel graphics. It features challenging combat that keeps you on your toes constantly. Any mistake or misstep will easily cause death so making sure you time your movements and keep up the pace with your attacks in the path to success. This was a great roguelike game and I was hooked on the constant edge of your seat moment to moment action.

1. Mullet Mad Jack

Mullet Mad Jack has to be hands down one my most favorite games I got to try from Next Fest. To quickly describe this game I would say this is the love child fusion of Cyberpunk 2077, Bulletstorm, Far Cry Blood Dragon, cartoon graphics of Killer 7, and old school movement of DOOM. The premise is very straight forward in that you need to reach the top of a building to save the princess. At the same time you’re tasked with killing robots as quickly as possible to gain extra time as you are being watched by live audience. Every kill increases you survival timer by 3 seconds and you automatically die after 10 seconds at any point if you don’t continue your streak. This constant pressure to keep up the pace is what I like to call “sweet chaos”. I would love to get my hands on the full game once this one launches.

As always, thank you so much for reading this post. Next Fest was pretty awesome this year and I had a great time checking out many of the demos that were available. Honestly, I think this may be a golden year for indie games as they continue capture the heart of gaming better than many the triple A games so far. Have a great rest of the week and I hope you had a great Valentine’s day.