50 Indie Games that Changed the World Review

 

We’ve been covering Bitmap book releases for a fair while now. Most of them compile genres or specific games systems but every now and then you get something a little different. We’ve seen this before with the ‘Secret History of Mac Gaming’ and ‘A Gremlin in the Works’, 50 Indie games that changed the world may not be as far from the usual output as that, but it certainly takes a different view of the industry.

In terms of content, it’s a fairly straight forward set up. There’s a short preface explaining the goal of the book and what it’s featuring, a foreword by Thomas Was Alone developer Mike Bithell who adds some context to the indie scene and how development works and then an introduction which talks about what indie games are as a wider genre and concept. After that it’s a straight list of the 50 games with a few honourable mentions at the end. Surprisingly, there aren’t any more interviews are other features but then the book is pretty laser focused on what it’s trying to do and as it tops out at an impressive four-hundred and fifty plus pages so we aren’t really complaining.

Each of the fifty games is looked at with a considerable amount of depth. Generally, the games in these books get one of two pages maximum. A few special ones might justify four but here most of the games get around eight pages, split across text, screenshots and art work. Each also has a breakdown of why the game should be considered as a game that changed the world. It’s an impressive amount of focus to put on each title and if you aren’t sat there making a list of games to buy as you go then we would be amazed.

The games included are wide reaching. There are obvious inclusions such as Fez and and Axion Verge but also more modern games such as Vampire Survivors and some you may not be expecting like Among Us and 80 Days. It means there’s a wide range of titles covered from different years and spanning multiple genres. There will of course be a personal favourite left out somewhere but it’s hard to argue with any of the inclusions. The fact that Futurlab’s Velocity is here makes us particularly happy as the game and the studio are vastly underrated and you should probably all be out there downloading it right now. It even means we will overlook the fact none of the Pixeljunk or Bit Trip games are in here.

Despite the mass of pages and games included it would have been nice to have a few features in here. Something on key indie genres would have been welcome – even if it was only a few pages. That might have taken some focus away from the key theme of the book though and it’s not like there is a lack of content here. There is some mention of genres within some of the games covered as well. The piece on Dead Cells in particular highlights how Metroidvania and Rogue games dot the landscape.

Overall, 50 Indie Games That Changed the World works beautifully as a love letter to some of the most creative and innovative games the industry has to offer. Chances are you may well be aware of most of them but there are always those one or two that you will have overlooked. It also acts as a perfect place to start if you want to move away from AAA video gaming or even if you want to jump from retro gaming back into something more modern but which channels that old school aesthetic. We loved it.

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*image from Bitmap Books website

Super Meat Boy Forever Review (Nintendo Switch)

Super Meat Boy holds legendary status in the realms of indie games. A brutally brilliant twitch platformer it mixed trigger finger action with a dark humour and exceptional level design. Anticipation has been high for a follow up and now Super Meat Boy Forever has arrived…. And it’s an endless runner.

Super Meat Boy as an endless runner? Yes, apparently so. When we first sat down and booted the game up only to see Meat Boy zooming across the level unaided we had to check to make sure the controls were working properly. A quick jump to the settings came next to check if it was an optional mode but no, it seems Super Meat Boy Forever is indeed meant to be an endless runner and sadly it isn’t even the best one on the Switch.

Moving away from the controversial continual momentum for a moment, everything else we have come to associate with Meat Boy is here. The dark humour, the beautiful comic cut scenes and the addition of the revolving levels which means no two trips through the four areas are destined to be the same all stand out as both great ideas and evidence that things have had a lot of attention put into them. But the core of the game just doesn’t work very well.

To clarify, we aren’t against the genre – Bit Trip Runner is an absolutely brilliant take on the idea and a game that has shown that this type of game can make its way onto consoles and still feel creative and substantial. But Meat Boy Forever is not Bit Trip Runner. It lacks precision and flair and the general sense of fun that those games have. Indeed, after our first few plays the game was already beginning to feel tired and dated.

The problem is that the first Meat Boy was crushingly tough but also addictive and fun. Forever is neither of these things and is simply frustrating for the sake of it with many deaths being due to unseen hazards or poor control implementation. The days of memory test platformers are long gone and we have no desire to see them appear again. The levels are also much less creative and simply become a war of attrition as Meat Boy continually dies, restarts a few seconds before the event, then smashes back into the same thing again unless you’ve judged the exact point he becomes controllable and hit the jump button.

If there is one saving grace it’s the bosses. The giant constructions are the closest thing in the game that recalls the greatness of its predecessor. Here the design is much more creative and often involves manoeuvring your character around quite compact spaces to bring down the hulking machines of doom. If only this high standard of design had made it into all the other levels of the game.

Overall, it is hard to feel anything but disappointment at how Super Meat Boy Forever has turned out. There are some good ideas here and the presentation is great but the game just feels unpolished, repetitive and not up to the standard we would expect from the team. It seems pretty clear this was meant to be a mobile game that has ended up on consoles.  It doesn’t really work as a platformer or a quality endless runner. It pains us to say it but it’s simply not very good.

Overall 5/10