We’re back with you to celebrate the start of a new year together and to tell you about the progress made on the independent gaming scene! New year, old habits: once again we are about to present you the news the indie studios are ready to give you, to end 2022 on a high note. After our advice offered in the last special of the best indies of december, now it’s time to discover the best indie games of the month of December! Let’s find out together news proposed by independent studios with new video games for the month of Januaryalso finding some ideas on how to start the new year with some delicious titles!
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4 Indie Video Games by January
1. Elf Games – Children of Silentown
Let’s start our selection of the best indie video games of January 2023 with a title that comes from the forges of an all-Italian developer team. Known for having previously developed Little Briar Rose, Elf Games is now back with Children of Silentownavailable from 11 January per PC, PlayStation, Xbox e Nintendo Switch.
Children of Silenttown is adark adventure which tells the story of Lucy, a little girl who grew up in a small village, in the heart of a forest inhabited by monsters. Here disappearances are the order of the day, but this time Lucy is old enough to investigate on her own. Or at least that’s what she believes. You then have to accompany Lucy and her friends in this dark adventure gamewhich intrigued us from the beginning, despite its simplicity.
Developer:
Elf Games, Luna2 Studio
Price:
19,99 €
Children of Silentown in fact puts us in front of one story full of puzzles, almost a sort of puzzle game that invites us to look for clues between objects to combine and very whimsical characters to interact with. An unpretentious gameplay, but that turns out to be a good pastimethanks also to the not excessive complexity of the mini-games that we were able to enjoy with the other children in the story and to the curious and original puzzles that punctuate the gaming experience.
Finally the technical sector, which in our PC test did not detect no problems in particular in fluidity and response to commands. Let’s not forget the hand made graphics, in a classic fairy-tale style, and at the same time dark and mysterious. There are several elements that make this small Italian indie game interesting, and we advise you to absolutely give it a chance!
2. SmokeStab – Orbital Bullet
We continue our selection with Orbital Bulletthe frenzied platform rogue by SmokeStab which has received several awards over time and which has given us solid gameplay. Let’s see in detail what we could test on PC.
Orbital Bullet is an action platformer that resumes the rogue-lite formula in a highly addictive way, with a unique touch in terms of design. Here, however, the narrative is by no means the dominant element, on the contrary. Orbital Bullet offers a very simple story: humanity has been invaded by a very powerful alien race and is on the verge of extinction. Thus it was born a stand by humans to regain control of the Earth, but they are discovered by the invaders…
Developer:
SmokeStab
Price:
16,99 €
To survive, the protagonist uploads his mind into the body of a cyborg, becoming very powerful and starting his crusade against the aliens. We will then impersonate this human-like robotwho catapults himself onto an alien planet starting from his space station and trying to eliminate as many enemies as possible.
We have experienced a smooth and fast gameplay, with procedurally generated enemies and, like a self-respecting rogue-lite, a pretty complex skill tree. There is also no shortage of a wide range of heavy weapons with which shoot down the hordes of enemies which prevents us from reaching the next level. In short, everything is necessary to make the game interesting, full of fights and with a certain solidity of the technical sector that never hurts!
3. 3goo – The Rumble Fish 2
We had reviewed for you this little pearl belonging to the retrogaming world, which deserves to be reported in this monthly column as well. The Rumble Fish 2 is the porting to Steam of a title which, by the hand of 3goo, still sees the light today, after its first release in the early 2000s. Let’s review together the main steps of this arcade fighting game!
The title in question presents a plethora quite interesting and traditional of personages, alongside a fairly smooth combat system. This allows us to fully enjoy the new characters added compared to what was released at the time. We have access to 16 characters who breathe events at the late 20th century, when a natural disaster hit the eastern part of a country. Before long, the PROBE-NEXUS conglomerate, better known as Probe, undertook the reconstruction of this area. Here however, in an underdeveloped area in the slumssomething unexpected and dangerous is happening…
Developer: 3goo Inc.
Price:
29,99 €
Between game mechanics, there is an indicator of both defense and offense, similar to what we can observe in Mortal Kombat 11 for example. Here is a peculiar feature, like Advance Moves which allows us to exploit the use of our bar also for combos, leading us to truly devastating attacks. However, the selection of game modes seemed limited to us: we only saw Arcade, Time Trial e Survivalin an offline version, while only matchmaking is available online.
So it was hard to make this game more interesting than other fighting, with so little choice to actually make it palatable. However, it is a port from the Japanese gaming world, which could pave the way for other titles that have never arrived on our market so far. Even the aesthetic sector has clearly been affected by the past years, but the cel-shading was still appreciable. You should try a fight by going down to the arena of this title.
4. Forbidden Folds – WHALIEN – Unexpected Guests
We conclude our selection of the best indie video games of the month of January 2023 with a new release, indeed from 24 January. Available on Steam, an invasion of friendly multi-colored creatures arrives thanks to the new title of Forbidden Folds. With title WHALIEN – Unexpected Guests, it is clear from the name given to this game that the extraterrestrial creatures we will be dealing with will not be exactly welcome… But let’s find out together what we experienced in our test!
Game as short as fun, let’s get to know Ernest Hemingwhale, name not by chance and with an evident link with Hemingway. He’s the last person to live inside Fin the mechanical whale, but when the Slimes arrive and start wreaking havoc, Fin definitely needs us! For this reason, Ernest sets off on an adventurous journey inside the whale, to try to help his friend get rid of the unwanted guests.
In not even five hours of gameplay, counted up, we will have to put into practice very few skills in fact. We will be asked to use the gloves to push and pull all possible objects, of various kinds, and the elements nearby, as well as our pearl friends, Mr Push and Mrs Pull, to manipulate objects from a distance. And that’s all. Tossing and shooting is what is required of us, nothing else. But as much as the field of action may seem very small, without a doubt the graphics are much more accurate and complex than the mechanics in place.
Developer:
Forbidden Folds
Price:
0
In fact, nothing to say about this sector, where we have noticed attention to detail and certainly original places, to be inside the whale! There is also no shortage of original and lovable characters, as well as having to discover several secrets during the journey into the bowels of the whale. A retelling of Jonah in the belly of the whale in short, with clear references between the names of some characters and in an original and very colorful key. We are being offered a very short title, but one that is worth joining your library.
Also for this month, our recommendations dedicated to indie video games for January end here. Stay tuned for upcoming titles to explore in the indie gaming world!