Nintendo’s eShop has a whole heap of great indie titles on sale thanks to the ‘Weird and Wonderful’ sale from 31 January to 6 February.
Here are the games you can spend January’s wages on.
Rain World
Rain World is a survival platformer where you play as a slugcat, a creature that, as its name suggests, is half-cat and half-slug. Your goal is to survive while also searching the world for your family. You do so across 1600 screens with random enemies.
The game was developed by Videocult and published by Adult Swim games in 2017 for the PS4 and Windows. The Switch version has been out since 2018.
West of Loathing
West of Loathing is quite simply brilliant. While it may look terrible, you’d be hard pressed to find a game with better writing in it. In fact, it seems like Asymmetric Publications have managed to squeeze jokes into every line of code in the title from item descriptions to the menus themselves. That said, the humour doesn’t seem forced and it never seems like they’re trying too hard to be funny.
The gameplay takes the turn-based battles from JRPGs and strips away any complexity, leaving you with a humorous little story that certainly doesn’t ever take itself seriously.
Human: Fall Flat
Human: Fall Flat is a game that makes seemingly-simple physical actions rather difficult and fun. Of course, the game is far more enjoyable when you’ve got a few friends trying to work out the puzzles While the setting of the game is very weird, the physics are all too real!
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
This game is all the fun of defusing a bomb without the inherent risk.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes has some of the best asymmetric game design you’ve ever seen. One player is tasked with defusing the bomb and the other players are “experts” who use the printed Bomb Defusal Guide and have to talk them through how to safely disarm the device.
This one would be great for parties!
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
While the aesthetic and story may threaten some players’ masculinity, this game is a great couch co-op space shooter.
Each character can only man one part of the ship which means that you can’t steer, shoot, or operate the shields without a little help from your friends.
While you can play this one on your own with an adorable pet companion, the frantic fun comes when you get 4 people together and enjoy the hilarious and stressful chaos that ensues as you try to coordinate your efforts.
Surgeon Simulator CPR
Surgeon Simulator CPR is another gory pseudo-simulation from the popular series complete with both single-player and co-op modes. The game was made and published by Bossa Studios.
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a George Clooney (we’re showing our age now…), this might be the game for you.
Snake Pass
This is a completely different kind of platformer since you don’t have any limbs. In Snake Pass, you have to solve puzzles by wrapping yourself objects. While the game can be frustrating if you want to play your typical platformer, there’s really no other game like it.
This is certainly worth a punt if you’re looking for something new.
Slime-san
Slim-san is a tricky platformer developed by Fabraz. This game is all about running, jumping, dashing, and sliding your way through the levels.
It reminds us of Super Meat Boy with a suped-up version of the graphics from Downwell.
Crossing Souls
This action-adventure game was developed by Fourratic and published by Devolver Digital. The game blends elements from RPGs and action games and takes place in the 1980s. Think E.T., The Goonies, and Stranger Things…
What more do you want?
Reigns: Kings & Queens
Reigns: Kings and Queens puts you in charge of a kingdom. Events and situations are drawn from a deck of virtual cards and you get the option to make one of two decisions. Each decision has the potential to alter one or several of for variables and all you have to do is keep everyone happy… Easier said than done.
You can make the decisions either trickier by getting a friend involved and playing co-op.
Crawl
The premise of Crawl is so simple you’d kick yourself for not thinking of it. This is a dungeon crawler with an 8-bit aesthetic with the main draw being that your friends are in charge of the monsters. If they want to crawl, they’re going to have to kill you! (In the game, of course).
Wheels of Aurelia
This game is a visual novel that takes place in Italy during the 1970s. The game covers and challenges the idyllic notions that people had of the country during this time. The game itself was developed by Santa Ragione, an Italian indie dev.
While this mightn’t be for everyone, it’s the kind of game that certain players will absolutely love.
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World of Goo
World of Goo is now over 10 years old. If you still haven’t played this physics-based puzzle game, now’s your chance to do so while at home or on the go!
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Octodad takes the old indie staple of making simple actions incredibly difficult and, therefore, hilarious and challenging. In Octodad: Dadliest Catch, you play as Octodad (and nobody suspects a thing).
The game was made by Young Horse Games and originally released in 2014. It’s been available on the Switch since 2017 and you can get your hands on it for less than you’d usually pay.
The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition
The Flame in the Flood is a game about surviving as you travel along a river. The game includes roguelike elements as you go from place to place avoiding the wildlife and gathering precious resources.
The game was made by The Molasses Flood and included developers who’d previously worked on BioShock, Halo, Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Pool Panic
The Pool in Pool Panic refers to the cue sport rather than somewhere to go swimming. It dubs itself “the least realistic pool simulator” but it doesn’t disappoint.
This is a game where you play pool seemingly everywhere and almost never on a pool table. There are both single and multiplayer modes to enjoy.
So that ‘s all the games currently in the sale. Which ones are you interested in getting?
Indie Bandits 