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If you’re a Cave Story fan I think you’re going to enjoy this video! The game is coming out for WiiWare (North America) on March 22nd. Check the Nicalis blog for more information and other goodies, like fan art. Continue reading

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is an iPhone game collaboration between superbrothers (aka Craig Adams), singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie, and Capybara Games, the creators of Critter Crunch. These two videos are from the GDC build of the game, where the player engages in some exploration and combat. I got a chance to try it at the IGF Pavilion, where S&S EP was being shown for winning IGF Mobile’s Achievement In Art award. It’s great – the stylized art, the evocative audio, and the detail in each area makes you excited to see what’s coming next. The combat was also fun, if simple.

The combat video is after the jump:

(Source: GameSetWatch) Continue reading

Farbs just released the latest episode of his Captain Forever series, called Captain Impostor (available for all registered players). CI puts you at the helm of The Narcissus, a new type of ship that’s powered by a CLONE DRIVE. The CLONE DRIVE lets you steal entire ships and make them your own. However, the strength of the parts cloned depends on how much clone power you have. Destroy other ships to raise your clone power!

So far I’m enjoying the cloning mechanic, but the lack of construction makes it a little less interesting than Successor, in my opinion. I’m still waiting for a more cohesive world and story, but I don’t know if that’s in the cards or not. In any case, it’s fun to see the series evolve and try new things. Continue reading

Sneaky Andy Schatz steals the IGF trophy from Team Meat in Monaco!

Ska Studios is working on a sequel to their XBLA game The Dishwasher. The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile will be done “when it’s done”.

(Source: Michael Rose, via IndieGames.com)

I had the fortune of bumping into this video mere hours after it launched. Shoot 1UP is a shoot ‘em up from Mommy’s Best Games that was just launched on Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 points. The game features a option-like 1up mechanic, branching paths, and the inimitable art style of MBG.

(Source: the2bears)

Finally, here’s a video about some French indie games from my favorite French-fried game reviewer, Benzaie (after the jump):

The three games he mentions are Lethal Judgment, Streets of Fury, and a remake of Toki that has really nice graphics. Continue reading

This is kind of amazing: homebrew developer Sivak has just released Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, a new NES (actual NES) Metroidvania that’s inspired by Kayin’s I Wanna Be the Guy and NES classics like Mega Man. It features 550 rooms, 30+ enemy types, and 8 bosses. There are 5 difficulty settings and a password system, too.

The cartridge, which is region-free and works on clone systems, can be purchased for $27. It comes with a full-color instruction manual and black dust sleeve.

Sivak has released a few other homebrew NES carts, I believe, although the only one I could find was Mystic Pillars, a Columns-like. Here’s a short interview that Screw Attack did with him earlier this month about Battle Kid.

(Thanks, Luke!)

Speaking of Mega Man, Cutman Mike (I really like that name!) is working on an FPS deathmatch based on the venerable Capcom series. Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch, which is being made using the Skulltag engine, will let you play as every single Robot Master from Mega Man 1 through 6 (48 in total) and use all of their abilities (Mega Man himself is also a playable character)! The game will be released some time in 2010 as a free standalone title.

(Source: Duncan Bell, via Twitter)

P.S. This reminds me of Mega Man 2.5D, another fan game that’s based on Mega Man 2. That game is also planned for a 2010 release. Continue reading

Two of our forum members have been working on video series of indie games to which we would like to bring some attention (moshboy’s Underrated Indie Games and ortoslon’s playthroughs), since they are bringing so much attention to a large range of indie games.

Each of the 100 games in the Underrated Indie Games series (originally Obscure Indie Games) was created by a different developer. Many are from developers with which you might not be familiar while some are less familiar games from more well known developers. Each game has a brief video, a concise description, and a link to the game. You could easily spend an evening watching the videos while downloading the games that look interesting to you.

From moshboy’s explanation of the series:

The main reason I started the series was because, over the years, I noticed a bunch of games that weren’t getting full frontpage reviews/coverage on TIGSource or the Indygamer/Indie Games Weblog, so I started making a list on a scrap of paper of the games that I remembered that hadn’t been frontpage reviewed on either one (and since they are the two biggest sources that people go to, to find indie games, I figured most of the games I was listing were pretty obscure, hence the original name of the series).

I think the collection is quite diverse, even though there are some noticeable genres that have been left out such as RPGs, Strategies and car racing games. Many of the developers featured have probably never had a game featured on TIGS or Indie Games, so I’m sure they would get some motivation out of it.

Having finished his first Underrated Indie Games series, moshboy has begun a new series with a similar theme, Indie Games You Might Have Missed, and you can follow it on his Youtube channel and in moshboy’s thread for this newest and all his future indie game series. Additionally, a second iteration of Underrated Indie Games is being planned, but it won’t be have the restriction of 100 developers.

A Note of Warning: My avs caught a virus in Glace, part 85 of the series, and a user at Download.com complained about it having a worm. moshboy said an old computer gave him such a warning in the past, but he has never had one come up on his new computer. So, the risk is up to you if you really want to play it.

After people told ortoslon that beating White Butterfly on punishment wasn’t the easy accomplishment he thought it was, he decided to start making videos for his Youtube channel. It has recordings of “playthoughs, score attacks, speedruns, and compilations” of indie games he likes, which are “mostly challenging, freeware, action games” plus a little variety. Many of the games are from more well know developers and some are from less known developers. The videos display skillful playing (magnitudes better than my own on the same games), and there is a convenient link to each game to provide you with even more games to keep you busy.

This is an on going series for ortoslon, which currently contains over 60 games, and his longer videos of playthroughs are being kindly hosted on Paul Eres’s Youtube channel, so be sure to look through them too.

[This is a guest review by anosou. If you’re interested in writing an article for TIGSource, please go here.]

Your Doodles Are Bugged! is quite the game. Created by German developer Spyn Doctor (responsible for Golden Tangram and Kuchibi), this is one of the most unique, personal games on Xbox Live Indie Games.

So, what the heck is it? Well, to speak in gamer’s terms, it’s a combination of Lemmings and Paint. Its genius is in its simplicity. Your task is to guide the little bugs to the jar of honey, passing the various “doodles” that block your way or form your path. To do this you basically draw lines for the bugs to jump and walk on. The gameplay is almost rudely intuitive and it’s a breath of fresh air in an ocean of twin-stick shooters, platformers, and massaging apps.

You control your doodling pen with the right analog stick, which responds pretty well to your touch. To draw you hold down A and to erase you hold down X, simple as that. You can go faster by holding the right trigger, a much-appreciated addition for the bigger levels, and you can undo with the B button. The most important control feature is the ability to zoom. The levels in YDAB! are remarkably advanced at times and without zooming on you wouldn’t have much luck trying to complete them.

To add a bit more depth to the gameplay you have a limited supply of ink. This might seem obvious and harmless at first but it really provides a challenge in the later, densely doodle-populated levels. It’s really good fun trying to figure out the best way through the dragons and clouds and fishes and smiling faces and trolls and squids and trees and birds and… oh sorry, kinda lost my train of thought there. What I mean is, there’s much challenge in just finding the least ink-draining route. You soon figure out that you might only need a little dot to get your bugs over a gap that a lesser player just would’ve made a bridge over. Overall it’s a very rewarding albeit sometimes time-consuming experience to make it perfect. Add to this a classic timer to compare your high score to your friends and you’ve got some terribly addictive gameplay. Add to that some very clean and pretty the doodled graphics, in-game tutorials, and an adorable story, and you end up with quite the package.

I have a few very minor issues with the game though. The first, and least intrusive, is in regards to the music. There’s only one track looping infinitely and even though I appreciate chiptune-infused folk music for mandolin and accordion as much as the next guy it gets a bit grating after a while. Another issue is that the bugs can be quite the little assholes at times. If one of your drawings is a pixel off that might result in a squadron of bugs leaping to their death. It does add a lot to the challenge and you get used to it but it’s still a bit disturbing.

Overall though, YDAB! is one of the absolute best on Xbox Live Indie Games. The amount of love and polish in this game is just amazing. There are plenty of levels and they’re suitable for a pick-up-and-play session basically anytime. I mean really, for 80MS (1 PUNY EARTH DOLLAR!) you’d be an idiot not to pick this up. There I said it, you’d be an idiot. Continue reading