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Best indie games on the Wii U eShop (recommendation thread)

Oddworld: New & Tasty needs to be grouped with the essentials. Not because it exemplifies the unique capabilities of the Wii U, but because it's a DAMNED GOOD GAME.

Oddworld is one of the most effectively realized alien worlds to date, and it offers plenty of challenge and brilliant puzzle design. It also puts a strong emphasis on environment interaction and navigation, which makes this alien world truly come to life.

9.5/10 caliber game, imo. Everyone should play it at least once.
 

jariw

Member
Oddworld: New & Tasty needs to be grouped with the essentials. Not because it exemplifies the unique capabilities of the Wii U, but because it's a DAMNED GOOD GAME.

Oddworld is one of the most effectively realized alien worlds to date, and it offers plenty of challenge and brilliant puzzle design. It also puts a strong emphasis on environment interaction and navigation, which makes this alien world truly come to life.

9.5/10 caliber game, imo. Everyone should play it at least once.

I will absolutely add Oddworld to the OT at some location. But it's debatable if the Wii U port is an essential game. The way they processed this kind of game through Unity feels heavy at times, and the locked 30 fps gameplay, compressed cut scenes videos with occasional frame drops, no Pro Controller support for single player, and some other issues doesn't feel like the Wii U port is on the same level as the other essential games on the list. The game itself is excellent though.

And Lanning seems like a nice guy. Don't miss this interview with him (by Alex at Nintendo Life) about the Wii U port:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHlomOckXI
 
I will absolutely add Oddworld to the OT at some location. But it's debatable if the Wii U port is an essential game. The way they processed this kind of game through Unity feels heavy at times, and the locked 30 fps gameplay, compressed cut scenes videos with occasional frame drops, no Pro Controller support for single player, and some other issues doesn't feel like the Wii U port is on the same level as the other essential games on the list. The game itself is excellent though.

And Lanning seems like a nice guy. Don't miss this interview with him (by Alex at Nintendo Life) about the Wii U port:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHlomOckXI

Well I'm literally referring to the game itself, not necessarily how good of a port it is. But if that's your metric, I suppose I can see your point.

Honestly though, I'd still offer the same praise over the original game, and the Wii U version is an improvement over that, so that's how I'm looking at it. Technical flaws aside, the game is brilliant and is in an entirely different league than the other non-essential Wii U indie games in this thread.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
I tore through it at release. Encountered a couple of nasty bugs and one crash, but otherwise had a blast for all four and a half hours.

Fair enough, just curious.

They put out a patch a week or so ago that supposedly changes the physics quite a bit as well as fixing several bugs, so I wonder how big the improvements are.
 

TheMoon

Member
How's Chasing Aurora?

Not recommended for solo-play since all you can do there is basically time trial "races" flying around the courses as fast as possible. If you do multiplayer nights a lot, that mode is what the game was made for pretty much.
 

PtM

Banned
Not recommended for solo-play since all you can do there is basically time trial "races" flying around the courses as fast as possible. If you do multiplayer nights a lot, that mode is what the game was made for pretty much.
Sooo... like Chariot?
 

PtM

Banned
OP, know what I'm missing? File sizes. I'll start with some. First value is download size, second value is install space. For some I only have the actual size on disc.

Affordable Space Adventures
1085 + 1 + 1 installed

BIT.TRIP Presents: RUNNER2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
871 download / 1608,9 for installation

FAST Racing NEO
590,3 download / 1221,9 for installation

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
802,7 download / 1289,3 for installation

Minecraft: Wii U Edition
???? download / 1093,9 for installation

Runbow
1425 installed

Scram Kitty
103,6 download / 195 for installation

Shovel Knight
185,5 download / 349,7 for installation

Stealth Inc 2: A Games of Clones
303 installed

SteamWorld Dig
114,6 download / 220,4 for installation

Swords & Soldiers II
??? download / 1038,9 for installation

Teslagrad
1046,3 download / 1588,2 for installation / 1007 installed

Toki Tori 2+
529,1 download / 1134,2 for installation

Chariot
491 download / 1015,4 for installation / 461 + 2 installed

Gunman Clive HD Collection
114 + 8 installed

Human Resource Machine
79 + 31 (save data) installed

Little Inferno
94 installed

Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut
184 installed

Nova-111
370 installed

OlliOlli
448 installed

Race the Sun
127 installed

The Swapper
362 installed

The Swindle
1195 installed

Tengami
338 installed

Thomas was Alone
580 installed

Trine 2: Director's Cut
2046 installed
 

jariw

Member
The procedurally generated shoot-em-up game Star Ghost arrives on March 10. It's created by ex-Rare and ex-Retro developer Rhys Lewis' new company Squarehead Studios, and with the soundtrack by David Wise!

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QglVTS6zQy4

Nintendo Life article about the game:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...cedurally_generated_shmup_action_to_the_wii_u

If I'm counting correctly, it's the 3rd Wi U game where David Wise made the soundtrack? Or have I missed some game?
 
The procedurally generated shoot-em-up game Star Ghost arrives on March 10. It's created by ex-Rare and ex-Retro developer Rhys Lewis' new company Squarehead Studios, and with the soundtrack by David Wise!

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QglVTS6zQy4

Nintendo Life article about the game:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...cedurally_generated_shmup_action_to_the_wii_u

If I'm counting correctly, it's the 3rd Wi U game where David Wise made the soundtrack? Or have I missed some game?


Hell.Fucking.YES.

I'm so getting this!
 

jdstorm

Banned
Anybody know what happened to Armillo? I tried logging in on the AU Eshop and it doesn't show up when you search for it
 

jholmes

Member
When I first read this thread I thought the OP was pretty much perfect, but then I picked up Girls Like Robots toward the end of the last sale. I definitely wouldn't call it essential -- care was put into the port for sure, but it's not in the upper echelon -- but it definitely deserves a spot on the list.

I put up this huge post in the downloads thread, but if anyone else bought it and would chime in, that'd be nice to discuss it. I sorta doubt anyone else did buy it, though!
 

jariw

Member
Nintendo Europe had a pretty extensive 3rd party trailer in their Nintendo Direct. I guess many of these games will appear in the OT list later. These were the unreleased Wii U indies from the trailer:
* Mousecraft: Director's CAT
* PixelJunk Monsters
* Dreii
* Noitu Love: Devolution (3DS as well)
* Pinball Arcade
* Hive Jump
* Futuridium EP Deluxe (3DS as well)
* Dex
* Giana Sisters: Dream Runners
* Kick & Fennick
* Super Meat Boy
* Lovely Planet
* Hollow Knight
* Jotun: Valhalla Edition

https://youtu.be/xeh2qQ7RyKw?t=29m4s
 

jariw

Member
I've now added 3 more games to the OT:
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty added to the essential games list

Space Ghost added to the other recommendations list

REPLAY: VHS is not dead added to the other recommendations list


I've also added the file sizes that PtM posted.


Please note that I've now hit NeoGAF's maximum of 24,000 character per post in the OT, so I needed to remove a few some things. Since there will be many more games arriving that would fit in the OT, any suggestions on general things to remove from the OT are highly appreciated. Some serious information crunching seems to be required to be able to add more games now.
 

TheMoon

Member
You could screenshot the descriptions and replace the text.

Yes, simple as that.

Copy/paste text into a text box as part of the image. Solves all problems.

edit:

kinda like this

asawos5f.jpg
 

Honome

Member
Great thread, already own lots of those games but others i had never heard about. It's good to have them listed here since the eshop really can be a pain in the ass. I would suggest if the OP could insert in the list if the game is Wii U exclusive and maybe the games price.
 

PtM

Banned
Great thread, already own lots of those games but others i had never heard about. It's good to have them listed here since the eshop really can be a pain in the ass. I would suggest if the OP could insert in the list if the game is Wii U exclusive and maybe the games price.
Prices is too much overhead, in my opinion. You can find them on http://indie-eshop.com.
 

RedColumn

Member
The procedurally generated shoot-em-up game Star Ghost arrives on March 10. It's created by ex-Rare and ex-Retro developer Rhys Lewis' new company Squarehead Studios, and with the soundtrack by David Wise!

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QglVTS6zQy4

Nintendo Life article about the game:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...cedurally_generated_shmup_action_to_the_wii_u

If I'm counting correctly, it's the 3rd Wi U game where David Wise made the soundtrack? Or have I missed some game?


Nice additions!

I heard really good things about 6180 the moon, but I havent try yet, maybe people knows more about it.

btw, About the text, what they said, just make a default template and add the info little by little. I dont have the same text on the site, so i cant create that authomatic like we had so far, sorry :(.

ps: could I create a subpage in my site like: NeoGaf recommendations? I would link it here of course, I will make a test to show you if you want ;)
 

RedColumn

Member
So, I made the site, but I havent add it to the menu, I will when you say is ok to have this site with the list ;)

http://www.indie-eshop.com/games/neogaf-essentials

Like this, you can follow each week which games from the list are on sale for example.
Im gonna try to make as well that this list is connected to "my list" cookie file, so you can also know which games you have and which you are missing ;)

But let me know, if you dont want, I dont add it to the menu and remove it from the site, not problem at all

Wrong Minecraft…
Fixed, thanks
 

Griss

Member
Great thread. So many of those games I haven't tried.

I'd particularly recommend
-Don't Starve
-Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
-Runner 2: Rhythm Legend of Future Alien
-OlliOlli

The one I was most disappointed by was Fast Racing Neo. It's just not as tight or as polished as it needs to be to be an adequate F-Zero replacement, and the focus on boost strips and collecting 'boost-balls' is too strong. Didn't like it.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Gaf, how do the controls of Star Ghost feel? It looks like a game which would live or die by its controls, and since I have a prior engagement at the moment, I'm not trying them out for myself yet, but if controlled right Star Ghost would be right up my alley.
 

jariw

Member
Gaf, how do the controls of Star Ghost feel? It looks like a game which would live or die by its controls, and since I have a prior engagement at the moment, I'm not trying them out for myself yet, but if controlled right Star Ghost would be right up my alley.

I assume you've read the OT about the basics of the game?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1196079

Regarding the "feel" of Star Ghost:
The ship has more resistance/weight than the barrels in Tropical Freeze, so it's much easier to (for example) fly the ship in a straight line. Total ship control is essential, since there are occasionally some really tight passages where the ship needs to get through. There is also a gravitational pull, so it's harder to control the ship if you press A rarely (compared to often).

The maximum aiming angle is at about 45 degrees upwards/downwards.

One thing that also should be mentioned is the items affected by traction. These items don't move in a straight line towards the ship. Instead, they go in a sharp elliptic arc with some acceleration. It's difficult for me to explain exactly how this arc works, but it feels very natural.
EDIT: It seems like the arc is caused by the gravitational pull if the ship is moving vertically. If the ship is steady during the traction, the items pull in a straight line towards the ship.

Does this answer what you need to know?
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
I assume you've read the OT about the basics of the game?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1196079

Regarding the "feel" of Star Ghost:
The ship has more resistance/weight than the barrels in Tropical Freeze, so it's much easier to (for example) fly the ship in a straight line. Total ship control is essential, since there are occasionally some really tight passages where the ship needs to get through. There is also a gravitational pull, so it's harder to control the ship if you press A rarely (compared to often).

The maximum aiming angle is at about 45 degrees upwards/downwards.

One thing that also should be mentioned is the items affected by traction. These items don't move in a straight line towards the ship. Instead, they go in a sharp elliptic arc with some acceleration. It's difficult for me to explain exactly how this arc works, but it feels very natural.
EDIT: It seems like the arc is caused by the gravitational pull if the ship is moving vertically. If the ship is steady during the traction, the items pull in a straight line towards the ship.

Does this answer what you need to know?
The fact I've missed the OT for the game means your answer is a wealth of info for me ; ) Thanks a bunch!
 

RedColumn

Member
So, I update the link to
http://www.indie-eshop.com/games/neogaf-essentials

and I add something really helpfull. You can now click on the 3 buttons
"show full list"
"hide my collection"
"show only my collection"

and it will do that, if you have build a list on the site. Like this, you can see neogad essentials games that you are missing, or the ones that you have ;)

Do you mind then this page on my site or do you want me to remove it?
 
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