| Board List | |
|---|---|
| Topic | Suprak's Playdate Play Date (Playing Through EVERY Playdate Game) |
| Johnbobb 12/07/23 10:37:26 AM #154 | Predicting 3
--- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/07/23 10:37:08 AM #372 | foolm0r0n posted...
Didn't realize this, I'll def have to play it then. Sounds like a playable album.That's almost exactly what it is, and it's fantastic Although it's only 45 minutes long if you're good at it lol --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/07/23 9:31:43 AM #369 | WazzupGenius00 posted...
counting Hellblade as an indie game is fucking bonkers man, it's by Ninja TheoryI'm not taking blame for this one! https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/235f13b7.jpg It was made by Ninja Theory but with a much smaller budget and team than most of their stuff --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/07/23 12:09:03 AM #364 | Finally wrapping up the list
The "Among My Personal Favorite Games (Indie or Not) of All Time" Tier 12. Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBJ0ifVtK5c Where the hell did this even come from? I remember at the 2017 Game Awards (again, 2017 is the year for indie games) I thought Ashly Burch as Aloy in Horizon: Zero Dawn was for surethe favorite to take home best performance, only for it to go to Melina Juergens, a complete unknown who had never acted before (or since) from a small team. Slowly I started hearing a little bit more about the game and it's exploration of mental health, and at that point I had to check it out. First off, yeah, Juergens deserved the win. I mean holy shit, her performance here is near unmatched in gaming, and I have no idea how she's not an actress as her main profession. Just seeing the way she moves her face gives me chills. And the audio design here? There aren't many games I play with headphones on here, as the whispering of the cruel voices in Senua's head just haunted me while playing. It tackles psychosis is a distinctly unique way, combining it with Norse lore, fascinating mechanics and an incredible, tragic story. 11. It Takes Two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohClxMmNLQQ Speaking of the Game Awards, ya know, that thing happening tomorrow (or later today, depending on your time zone), It Takes Two shocked everyone two years ago by being the massive underdog and first ever indie game to win Game of the Year. And fuck it, you know what? It deserved it. I've been a big fan of Josef Fares for years (as evidenced by the two other Josef Fares games in this ranking) and It Takes Two is by far, by far, his best work. It Takes Two is a couch co-op game unlike any other. Fares' games break away from basically every other co-op game by refusing to ever give character the same role or abilities. In It Takes Two, that's pushed to its limit, changing the abilities of the player characters every fucking level, always making them distinct from each other, but always in a way that both roles are a blast to play as. There's never one character that feels better than the other, they're just always drastically different and always both fun. The story breaks my fucking heart, but it's also funny and shocking and sweet when it needs to be. Every level feels fully distinct, and there's always so much detail and so many things to find and do that I never wanted to move on to the next area until I was positive I'd seen every last inch of the section at hand. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/06/23 11:35:11 PM #363 | 15. Hollow Knight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSPJXlYjENE Hey there, another soulslike metroidvania, and I don't think it's a crazy stretch to say it's probably the best one. Again, 2017 was a loaded year for indie games, and I think Hollow Knight caught people's attention the most. For good reason, as Hollow Knight is incredible. The characters are all very memorable, despite communicating in weird bug noises (and also being bugs). The boss designs are easily some of the best I've seen in the genre (Dung Defender is my personal favorite). Beautiful level design. Absolutely gorgeous music (the City of Tears theme hits me right in the gut every single time). I really just don't have much of anything to complain about here. 14. Ape Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6-ChUXSMn8 If you like Hotline Miami and haven't played Ape Out, go do so immediately. It's a similar top-down, action-packed, die-easily style of game, but Ape Out just really clicks with me in such an incredible way. Ape Out just has so much style to it. I mean this art style is just so instantly powerful, utilizing the bold, simplistic color schemes to immediately set the tone combined with a shaky cam feeling. It does so much with so little. And instead of a normal score, you get one that evolves as you play, with jass drum combat that makes it feel like you're playing Whiplash: The Game. Has anyone here played De Blob? Another wildly underrated game, but I always thought the adaptive soundtrack of that series was so revolutionary and I'm surprised so few games have attempted it. You don't have to be a rhythm game to be clever about the impact of the music! 13. Sayonara Wild Hearts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-RyxYcxSQ4 You don't need to be a rhythm game to be clever about the music, but it helps! I would legitimately go as far as to say that Sayonara Wild Hearts is, without much question, my favorite indie game soundtrack (HM to Hollow Knight, Celeste, and one of my top 10), and one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. Like I don't have much VGM in my main spotify soundtrack, but the entire Sayonara Wild Hearts soundtrack is there. Absolute gorgeous game in every way, to the point where even if the gameplay sucked, I'd still love it because it's such an incredible sensory experience. The gameplay doesn't suck though, it's fast-paced and fun in an interesting action/racing rhythm game style that's unique from pretty much anything else I've played. And when I died I was fine with it, because it just means I'd get to listen to the song again. And that closes out the 2nd highest tier. There are 12 of my absolute favorite games left in the final tier. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/06/23 12:04:15 PM #362 | Braid's Donkey Kong level was amazing, especially given that it paired it with the left/right time mechanics.
--- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/06/23 10:16:08 AM #360 | Blasphemous is an odd one where if you don't like Souls games, you probably won't like it either, despite it being pretty different. There are other Souls-inspired metroidvanias where I don't think that's necessarily the case, but Blasphemous wears its inspiration very strong
--- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/06/23 12:25:23 AM #353 | 17. Omori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erzgjfU271g Omori is not the outright scariest game, short of a select few scenes, but it's certainly one of the most haunting, and it's another one that's very hard to talk about without ruining the suspense of it all. Omori is a very cute, very silly game full of fun and memorable characters, much in the way Undertale is (although for my money, Omori is more fun, has more memorable characters and is ultimately heavier than Undertale). I think if you like one of the two, you're almost guaranteed to like the other. Omori is a little emo guy, but Basil is sweet, and Ken is funny, and Aubrey is kind of badass, and Hero's just a great friend, and Mari. This is another one I think I played because some people on B8 were talking highly of it, and it's the kind of game I similarly felt the need to recommend to people immediately. 16. Gone Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjJ5LY6tX8 Yes, there are so many games on this list in this genre, but Gone Home was one of the first to do it and to really do it right. It's essentially the reverse of Doki Doki Literature Club. Everything about it adverstises itself as a horror game. You return home to a empty family home, with signs of life everywhere despite everybody being gone. The lights are flickering, thunder is cracking, are there are vague hints at the problems everyone has gone through. The big "twist" of the game is that, spoilers, it's not a horror game. The horror aspects are all easily explainable if you pay enough attention, it's ultimately just a game about returning home to a family that's gone through a lot of character growth while you were away. The beauty of Gone Home is that most of the game, you don't need to experience. You could by all means just skip the worldbuilding and beat the game in like 20 minutes, if you're a boring person who hates fun (and I remember when this game came out, there were a lot of people like that). The bulk of the story you learn is your sister's (one of the first LGBT-focused games to really hit the mainstream), but there's plenty you can learn about the parents too, through the subtlest details. Having such a small location let them put details everywhere. You can follow the dad's story through copies of his best-selling books, time-constraining letters from his publisher, crumpled up book pages in his trash can, and eventually, reprints of his book from a new publisher newly arrived in the garage. Characters that never appear or even have a single line manage to feel fleshed out. One of my favorite details is a note on your bedroom door from your parents, telling you to stop leaving the lights on in every room in the house... because you, the player, are of course doing that, even though doing so irl would be kind of ridiculous. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/05/23 11:55:57 PM #352 | 20. Blasphemous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGW4vdfL7A There was a time I said I didn't really like Metroidvanias, and that was largely because I never really could get into the Metroid series and I've never been a big concept of backtracking. But once I started playing some indie Metroidvanias, I found myself quickly getting hooked. Blasphemous is the type of game where I probably would've dived in after seeing the initial trailer. It's basically a 2D, highly-detailed pixel art Bloodborne, with the Lovecraftian horror replaced by Catholic nightmare fantasy. I don't think I've seen any other pixelart games that are this outright gory. Boss battles are weird, because some are stupidly difficult, while others are weirdly easy, and I have no idea why. I'm in love with the art style and the most brutal gaming taking on Christianity since the wildly underrated Dante's Inferno game. I haven't played Blasphemous 2 yet, but it's on my list, most likely in 2024. 19. The Stanley Parable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBtX0S2J32Y I still haven't played Ultra Deluxe yet, but I'm sure even then it can't be a big surprise to see The Stanley Parable rank highly. I feel like this one took off even amongst the people who don't typically care for the first person navigation-type games that are light on the action gameplay. The writing really is just that good. The Narrator is one of the funniest characters I've seen in a game, on a level that feels like he belongs in the Portal series. I think one of the things that really makes The Stanley Parable stand out is that it's, in many ways, a choice-based game, but without it ultimately feeling like it. Every small thing you do differently drastically changes the way the story unfolds, with each path being creative and hilarious. 18. Papers, Please https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyqDa_FpDKU On the surface, Papers, Please is a pretty straightforward game. It's a fairly simple gameplay loop, but an addicting one, giving you progressively more difficult challenges of deduction to determine if people are legal crossing the border. This requires pouring over every tiny detail to ensure that they match their ID, their papers line up, and more and more things to check off. But what makes it great is highly surprisingly deep it ends up being. You have to act quickly, because you get paid for every successful entry or rejection you pull off in a given day, and less successes means less money to feed your dying family at the end of the day. Then there's stories of people that need into the country for legitimate reasons to take into account. Do you ruin their life to avoid a demerit? Then there are bribes that will let you feed your family, but you can only do this so many times before you screw yourself over. There are attacks, and conspiracies. And then there's Jorji. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Board 8 Watches and Ranks Road Comedies - films/sign-ups/hype/etc. (take 2) |
| Johnbobb 12/05/23 11:19:45 AM #124 | Suprak_the_Stud posted...
I still cannot find Road Trip. I've been to eight different locations now over the past three months and NOTHING. I'm not convinced this movie was ever truly manufactured.That's bizarre because I feel like it's the kind of movie I used to just see everywhere in like bargain bins --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/05/23 10:12:02 AM #349 | NFUN posted...
he advocated for genocide and the murder of one million peopleOh --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/05/23 10:11:17 AM #348 | HanOfTheNekos posted...
Bugsnax > Hades is such a Really JB opinionYou're not wrong --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/05/23 12:12:01 AM #335 | wait why is plum in purgatory
--- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/05/23 12:09:53 AM #334 | 22. Celeste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70d9irlxiB4 And another one I know is the #1 of at least a handful on this board. These ultrahard fast-paced platformers are usually fun for me at first but I often don't get a ton from them in the long run. Celeste is probably one of the best examples of a platformer than did not do that. I think part of it was the accessbility and difficulty options. Celeste is a very difficult game. Nobody would deny that Celeste is a very hard game. And yet, there are options to make the game pretty much as easy as you need it to be (and it didn't lower the experience of the game for anyone else! take notes, From Soft!). What's funny is that I never really ended up using those options; I think just knowing that I could lower the difficulty if I needed to left me more inspired to push through. It helps that the gameplay is very fun, the characters are extremely sweet, and this is pretty easily one of the best indie game soundtrack of all time. When you do finally reach the summit, it's a subtle moment, but extremely satisfying. 21. Inscryption https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN5GSIWIN1k Inscryption is a card game and an escape room and also, in the loosest possible defintion, a roguelike. Until it's not. This game quite literally bleeds lore, and I constantly found myself wanting more and more and more from it. It's also a game that's very hard to talk about, beause there are so many moments that just left me slackjawed. I could play this card game endlessly, and thankfully there's a mod for that! Finding all the combos and bizarre beasts you could summon through questionable methods had me hooked even before I realized what I was in for. Shout out to @masterplum for buying this game for me and several other B8ers as a holiday present two years ago; I might not have discovered it otherwise and that would've been a real shame given how incredible it is. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/04/23 11:49:52 PM #332 | 25. The Sexy Brutale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P5eEImRQv4 2017 was a packed year for indies, so much so that The Sexy Brutale, which I feel like would've shown off any other year, kinda went a little under the radar. As has been established by now, or I fuckin hope it has, I like murder mysteries. Especially supernatural murder mysteries. The Sexy Brutale follows a man stuck in a time loop at a masquerade party during which all of his friends die violently. By going through the typical time loop style of learning more and more during each cycle, you slowly figure out how to stop their deaths. Only, you don't, and that's part of what makes Sexy Brutale so good. You save them, and they give you their mask, providing you a new power to help the others, Mega Man style. But on the next loop, they're just going to die again, and you have to accept that and keep trying to save the others (who all act on set schedules at the same time). Fascinating and darkly funny 24. Hades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91t0ha9x0AE I know Hades is probably pretty easily the #1 for a lot of people on this board, and I fully get it. Given how much I don't really care for roguelikes in general, the fact that Hades places this high for me should be evidence of just how great it is. I would legitimately be impressed by Hades even if it all took place in the House of Hades and this just just an Animal Crossing type where you meet the characters and make everything look nice, the voice acting and writing and visual design alone are that good. But then the real gameplay happens, and I think this is one of the few roguelikes I've played where every run really does feel different. NPCs will have different things to say to you, perhaps the most fascinating development being the relationships with Zagreus, Meg and her sisters, one (or more) of which always serves as the first bos of each run. Hades will have new comments seemingly with every single death, new gods will appear to you during your run to grant you boons, which drastically change the way the game is played. 23. Bugsnax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-v1BxSETvI Bugsnax has the best theme song of any video game made to date. I still remember watching the initial E3 reveal, and I think Bugsnax was really the big draw of the night. Watching the chats see the cutesy stawberry with googly eyes, then seeing some muppet-looking woman acting like Crocodile Dundee come and eat it alive, and then Kero Kero Bonito with what would be the catchiest song of the summer. Bugsnax is Pokemon Go if you could actually catch all the Pokemon, and also feed them to your friends. Bugsnax is an extremely silly, wholesome game, except when it's not and it's actually a deeply unsettling body horror game with terrifying implications and --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/04/23 12:34:01 AM #331 | Kenri posted...
Class of '09 is something I discovered on Steam the other day and I stared at the page for like 20 minutes trying to figure out if it's the kind of edgy I'd enjoy or, like, 4channer edgy.it's like 4chan types of edgy subject matter but if it was actually well written and witty --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/04/23 12:12:20 AM #328 | We've officially got 25 left, so here's the list so far:
26. Hypnospace Outlaw 27. The Case of the Golden Idol 28. Every Jackbox Party Pack 29. The Worms Series 30. Castle Crashers 31. Oxenfree 32. Firewatch 33. Golf Story 34. Night in the Woods 35. A Plague Tale: Innocence 36. Antichamber 37. Braid 38. Doki Doki Literature Club 39. Spiritfarer 40. Undertale 41. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter 42. The Unfinished Swan 43. Abzu 44. Her Story 45. Kena: Bridge of Spirits 46. Stacking 47. Overcooked 2 48. Overcooked 49. Gang Beasts 50. Flower 51. Limbo 52. Nidhogg 53. Jazzpunk 54. From Dust 55. Deaths Door 56. Chants of Sennaar 57. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals 58. Storyteller 59. Thumper 60. Robot Unicorn Attack 61. Octodad 62. Concrete Genie 63. Hotline Miami 64. Broken Age 65. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 66. Superhot 67. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons 68. Little Nightmares II 69. Gris 70. The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories 71. Ultimate Chicken Horse 72. OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood 73. Unpacking 74. Stray 75. Chicory: A Colorful Tale 76. Norco 77. Viewfinder 78. Wattam 79. Cuphead 80. Moving Out 81. Subnautica 82. Untitled Goose Game 83. Tabletop Simulator 84. West of Loathing 85. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair 86. Horace 87. Minecraft 88. Roundabout 89. Sonic Dreams Collection 90. Guacamelee! 91. A Way Out 92. Ghostrunner 93. OlliOlli World 94. Rocket League 95. Little Nightmares 96. Cult of the Lamb 97. What the Golf? 98. Bound 99. Super Meat Boy 100. Toem 101. Pentiment 102. Later Alligator 103. Baba Is You 104. Shank 105. VVVVVV 106. Maquette 107. Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien 108. Quadrilateral Cowboy 109. The Witness 110. The Beginners Guide 111. Telling Lies 112. Twelve Minutes 113. Superliminal 114. McPixel 115. Machinarium 116. The Looker 117. Entwined 118. Donut County 119. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 120. Tacoma 121. Little Inferno 122. Runner3 123. Psychonauts 124. Maneater 125. Outland 126. Monument Valley 1 127. Runbow 128. Hohokum 129. Brawlout 130. Super Time Force Ultra 131. Sound Shapes 132. Zen Pinball 2 133. Erica 134. Apotheon 135. Fez 136. Afterparty 137. That Dragon, Cancer 138. A Little to the Left 139. Reus 140. Class of '09 141. Plague Inc. 142. Crayon Physics Deluxe 143. Grow Home 144. The Cave 145. My Friend Pedro 146. Sportsfriends 147. Pony Island 148. Everybodys Gone to the Rapture 149. Cibele 150. Dungeons & Lesbians 151. Bastion 152. Monument Valley 2 153. If On a Winter's Night, Four Travelers 154. Coffee Talk 155. The Binding of Isaac 156. Rime 157. Pizza Tower 158. Mark of the Ninja 159. Skullgirls 160. We Happy Few 161. BattleBlock Theater 162. Tokyo Jungle 163. Florence 164. Abobos Big Adventure 165. Disc Jam 166. Sky: Children of the Light 167. House Party 168. Rubber Bandits 169. Kentucky Route Zero (Chapters 1 & 2) 170. Lost In Random 171. Hue 172. I Am Bread 173. Naughty Bear 174. TowerFall Ascension 175. Happy Wheels 176. Friday the 13th: The Game 177. Human: Fall Flat 178. Foul Play 179. This Is The Only Level 180. Burly Men At Sea 181. Virginia 182. World of Goo 183. Party Crashers 184. Deltarune Chapter 1 185. Sunset 186. Toribash 187. Stephens Sausage Roll 188. KickBeat 189. Tales from Space: About a Blob 190. Quantum Conundrum 191. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit 192. Escape Plan 193. The Bridge 194. The Swapper 195. Dear Esther 196. Surgeon Simulator 197. Joe Danger 198. Angry Birds 199. here 200. Racing Bros 201. Goat Simulator 202. We Become What We Behold 203. Facade 204. Run Sausage Run! 205. Five Nights at Freddys 206. Interactive Buddy 207. Threes 208. Slender: The Eight Pages 209. KIDS 210. Cookie Clicker 211. Bounty Battle 212. Flappy Bird 213. Hello Neighbor 214. The Unknown City (Horror Begins Now..Episode 1) --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/04/23 12:09:11 AM #327 | Bonus ranking: Class of '09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1jvXZ-Tqc4 I said the last bonus ranking would probably be the last, but I lied because this is one that can be pretty much finished in a day. Absolutely not my kind of game, but I kept seeing it being talked about on Twitter and Tiktok, so I figured I'd give it a try. It's a anime visual novel in the style of a dating sim, only you play as the girl getting annoyingly hit on by guys. But it's also extremely American in everything but it's design, with sharp writing and dark humor that sounds very weird coming from high school characters but is also really weirdly accurate to the types of conversations I remember hearing from when I was in high school. The game also needs probably 100 different content warnings on it, as it features subplots involving I can't really rank this very high, I think just below Reus at #140 --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/03/23 11:52:21 PM #326 | 27. The Case of the Golden Idol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCnsGq3D0oY Whatever you'd call this very specific type of vaguely supernatural murder mystery game, I want more of them. The game is visually hideous, but intentionally so? Like it's well-made in how ugly it is, because characters are so memorable that when you see them appear in later chapters, you can immediately put together who they are, which puts you at a (much needed) head start as you start to put together the pieces of what is happening in any given scene that you're haphazardly thrown into. When I really think about it, what makes games like this so fascinating is that, in a way, they're the adult version of educational games you play as a kid. You are quite literally learning as you play, but instead of learning the alphabet or multiplication, you're learning the rules of the world you're in. This is a dark and fascinatingly complex story tied together with an equally fascinating system of problem solving and deduction. 26. Hypnospace Outlaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4Jul496QE This game is way too dumb to be as much of a gut punch as it is. It's slightly nostalgic to an era of internet where the internet was just starting out, with absolutely ridiculous pre-Wordpress website creations. But there's a sort of sense of uneasiness to it, because it's not quite right. It's not a horror game by any stretch, but there's still something dark and every so slightly off behind everything here. It's another mystery solving game of sorts, but not in the way most mystery games are. You essentially take the role of an internet cop, censoring and demeriting websites for not following mostly arbitrary rules, from the more reasonable cyberbully and harassment to the more ridiculous deletion of children's drawings of copyrighted characters. You're free to explore on your own pace, learning the stories of various characters as their sites develop over time and you learn secrets about the creation of these version of the internet. What really cements Hypnospace Outlaw even more though is its ending, which I still think about years later. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/03/23 11:36:34 PM #325 | The "These Games Are Basically the Best of the Best, Even If They're Still Not Quite Top Tier For Me" Tier
28. Every Jackbox Party Pack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-fIR7agXtw I was considering putting this in a full 10 slots, but then I figured I'd have to figure out how I rank the individual packs, and I really didn't want to do that, because every pack has highs and lows and it's very hard to compare the packs that way. So instead, here's my game ranking (combining games with multiple entries into one since they're basically the same game with some upgrades/new prompts):
--- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 10:38:36 PM #323 | foolm0r0n posted...
Worms Armageddon is pure genius. But there's also nothing indie about that series.I mean, they're kind of in a grey area, but Team 17 is pretty largely associated with indie gaming and most Worms games are released as low-priced digital games. I debated whether or not to include them but ultimately leaned toward them counting --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 7:14:00 PM #319 | And that completes this tier, leaving only two more!
The last two tiers are basically games that I would consider among my favorites, and then games that are better than that. Anything left is basically a 10/10 or extremely close. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 7:11:39 PM #318 | 30. Castle Crashers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JcmxKOC4R0 Not all of these games are deep, dramatic stories about grief! Castle Crashers is probably about as not-deep as they come, but it's also probably my pick for the best 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up I've played. The comedy is off-the-wall types of goofy, throwing every sort of scifi and fantasy and nonsense it can come up with and throwing them into a blender to pour into its vaguely medieval setting. I played through all of Castle Crashers in one sitting while visiting my (at the time) best friend, spending the entire day on couch co-op from start to finish, and it's probably one of my most fond gaming memories. 29. The entire Worms series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05SbgPklysM Closing out this tier is one that's extremely difficult to rank, in part because I really didn't feel like breaking them all up individually because there are so many of them. Also, breaking them up would break my 21st century only rule, because technically the Worms games go back into the 90s. I wouldn't feel right not including the pre-2000s ones either, because Worms Armageddon (from 1999) was my favorite in the series. In fact, for a long time I would've included Worms Armageddon in my top 5 games of all time. Another favorite gaming memory, as a teen I would legitimately pull all-nighters, pigging out on pizzas and playing battle after battle after battle of worms trying to kill each other with silly weapons. The games just hold so much distinct personality. More games should have the option to unlock voice packs for the characters or to assign silly names to every individual fighter you use. Many of the games follow similar gameplay structures, only with slightly new mechanics or themes or features. While Armageddon got by far the most gametime from me, I also want to shout out Worms Forts: Under Siege which took on a 3D tower-defense structure and is the most underrated game in the series imo. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 6:43:13 PM #316 | 33. Golf Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zufLtHu_m7o I don't think anyone expected Golf Story to be the incredible hit it was. Legitimately I could not have cared less about golf as a game genre prior to this game, but the gameplay is weirdly addicting. It really plays more like an RPG than a sports game, only its an RPG where all the gameplay is golf. When you're not golfing, you're minigolfing or frisbee golfing or hitting golf balls at targets or people or skeletons. It's way more fun than golfing has any right to be. One of these days I'll go play Sports Story. The Golf Story sequel, but with less golf and more non-golf sports, went from being my most anticipated game to releasing silently without me even realizing, with minimal fanfare and unimpressive reception. It has to be one of the most underwhelming sequel releases I've seen. I have to still assume there's fun to be had though, because Golf Story is legitimately just so good. 32. Firewatch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdUYYnfRdl8 I love these first-person exploration mystery games, but I will fully admit I'm running out of things to say about them. Firewatch doesn't really shake up the gameplay of the genre much, but the real appeal of these games are the stories and how they're presented. One thing that does make Firewatch stand out is the constant development of the relationship between Henry and Delilah. Too often these games are just one person navigating an environment, usually with occasional voice clips or comments here and there. But Firewatch manages to make Delilah truly feel like a real person rather than just a voice in a box, largely due to an excellent performance by her voice actress. 31. Oxenfree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAhrOoNR4ng The stuff I said about Oxenfree II? Oxenfree is that but better. Interesting characters mixed with top tier horror lore and scifi time-bending and dimension shenanigans. I really love this kind of personal choice-based storytelling. For most of it, you're not hit with a "choose A or B to determine your ending" kind of choice, but your relationships with your friends will evolve naturally based on the way you speak to them, with consequences that feel extremely by the time the story resolves. The horror it presents keys in to a certain type of recognizable terror tied to its time period, flipping through radio signals to find ones that feel just outside the realm of familiarity. That combined with the overall deepdive into the trauma of loss makes for a hauntingly memorable experience. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 1:57:59 PM #313 | 34. Night in the Woods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc6f9llfs0w It's always nice discovering a new game I can vaguely recreate the art style of https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/df5b2fc2.jpg Night in the Woods is just a very charming while also unsettling change of pace. It captures a uniquely relateable feeling of returning to a hometown you've left and don't have fond memories of, where things both very uncomfortably old and new. The characters are all pleasant and wholesome, and while I've seen mixed feelings on the spooky (it's not horror but it does have very creepy and sometimes scary tones to it) plot twists, I really just loved it start to finish. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 1:42:46 PM #312 | foolm0r0n posted...
Yup, spoiled is always better than nothing in puzzle games. But it's hard to know if you're just frustrated enough to fight through and get a great feeling of accomplishment, or so frustrated that you'll quit the gameso the sweet spot for me is that if I am stuck, I like to look up the bare minimum I think I need to point me in the right direction. Sometimes it's as simple as just seeing there was a doorway or button or something I missed ScareChan posted... I realize I don't think Slay the Spire has showed up, but I am also not sure if JB has played itI will confirm I have no yet played Slay the Spire, but I do own it and have had it recommended to me several times --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 11:11:09 AM #308 | Zyxyz0 posted...
oh man... I wanted to like Antichamber so bad, but I somehow managed to not find any of the guns despite searching a ton of the map, and getting stuck for an extended period of time on a game where everyone is like "nooo don't look at a walkthrough ever, just wait and think and you'll figure it out yourself!" sours one on it quite a bit, it turns out :/See, I'm of the opinion "fuck that, if I'm going to have a miserable time otherwise, I'm going to look up something to get pointed in the right direction" --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Suprak's Playdate Play Date (Playing Through EVERY Playdate Game) |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 1:12:56 AM #148 | man I was hoping that one would be better
--- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 1:10:53 AM #300 | 37. Braid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtSKkyJgFM Braid felt ahead of its time and basically set the standard for indie games and puzzle platformers for years to come. This is the very great mix between challenging puzzles, fun gameplay, a cool art style, and a compelling background plot. I think this is one of the big points where we really started to see indie games used to present a unique and layered and interpretable story in a way big budget games rarely try to do. But also fuck that two hours of real time to float on a cloud to try and get a puzzle piece, trying to do that on a shared desktop computer suuuuuucked. 36. Antichamber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKU6mUFMnHk Yet another one of the reality-bending first-person sci-fi puzzle exploration games, I know, but I think Antichamber is legitimately the one that sets the standard for them (aside from Portal, which is fantastic but isn't an indie game). If you enjoyed The Witness, I think you'll get a lot out of Anitchamber. It follows a similar structure of putting you in a big, mysterious place and letting you explore it freely at your own pace, and letting you slowly unlock/uncover new areas with constantly changing game mechanics. It's super challenging and even more trippy. It's difficult to explain exactly how the game works; there's like blocks, and barriers, and Witness-like little wall puzzles, and various guns to alter your block placement. Just a really cool experience. 35. A Plague Tale: Innocence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4FOb16Nenk This is such a weird one to try to rank, because it is an indie game, according to tons of different publications, but it doesn't really feel like one. And as far as I can tell, A Plague Tale: Requiem is considered a full non-indie game now, so I guess that's the kind of budget jump that makes the difference. I will say, if A Plague Tale: Requiem was considered an indie game, it would place in the top 10 of this list. APT:I is fantastic as well, and way more terrifying that I expected it to be going in. There are AAA-quality performances from everyone here, especially Amicia, who between this and Requiem has secured a spot as one of my all-time favorite video game characters. It's an escort game that never really suffers for it, and in fact always having companions of some sort really makes the characters feel real. Just some incredible and haunting storytelling at work here. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/02/23 12:11:48 AM #299 | Bonus Ranking: Viewfinder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXX1bYpioAM I have to assume this will be the last bonus ranking, and if not it really, really should be because if I keep playing indies I'll never finish the list at this rate. Viewfinder is yet ANOTHER game in the first person sci-fi reality-bending puzzle indie games, which again is a very overcrowded genre. That being said, I've at least liked every one I've played. Viewfinder is no different, with some very interesting puzzles that vary pretty drastically between hard and super super easy, but overall I'd say it wasn't overly challenging. When the puzzles clicked though, they're great. It does some very cool thing with non-photos having physical existence in the world through paintings or postcards or silly drawings. These are some of the best moments in the game, but unfortunately they don't play into the puzzles too often, they're most just neat. It also does the thing where characters only appear via voice recordings, and the characters really aren't all that interesting. I ended up just not really caring about their stories. That is, EXCEPT for Cait, who is basically the Cheshire Cat if he was British and just tagged along to tell you how smart and good at puzzles you are the whole time. Legitimately, Cait is one of the best game characters of this year. I did enjoy it a good bit even if it's not one of my favorites ever, I think for now I'm gonna drop it just below Norco at #77 --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/01/23 7:35:34 PM #295 | Paratroopa1 posted...
I don't want to get into an unrelated fight in this topic so I'll just summarize my position: when a game is about discovery, I want to preserve as many of those discoveries as possible for as many people as possible. Some of us prefer not to have the first mysteries of the game scratched off already. If spoilers don't bother you and you want to know the game's conceit before going in you can just look up what the game is on wikipedia or something.honestly I'm kind of with Para on this. Like the most I'd want to know about something like Outer Wilds going in is like "it's a first-person space-exploration game that is distinctly unique." I mean really, just knowing a game is something that you don't want to know much about beforehand makes me more compelled to play it. There are quite a few games (several on this list) where I just wish I could forget them totally and experience them for the first time again --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/01/23 7:32:03 PM #294 | andylt posted...
Ethan Carter being this high is a surprise, I've not heard anyone talk about it. Perhaps I should give that one a go!Yeah I was surprised it didn't get more attention! I think it's definitely something that would appeal to those who like the dark, not quite horror but inching close to it first-person games. Reviews were great, and the only real criticism I ever heard of it is mixed opinions over the very bold ending --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/01/23 10:17:10 AM #278 | Sheep007 posted...
The content warning enhanced DDLC a ton for me. I spent the dating sim portion constantly on edge, getting concerned over every little thing that seemed off, and there were a lot of them Kenri posted... I understand why people (both devs and players) want games to be surprising but I can't tell you how infuriating it is to see a game on Steam that's named something like "Whimsical Friends Island" with a description like "A wholesome game where you lead a comfy life on an island where nothing ever goes wrong :)" and I'm just sitting there like. Great! This product description tells me absolutely nothing.I do appreciate the content warning of the game and I think the game is better for it I also remember watching a Zero Punctuation video once where he was talking about how the steam bestsellers all look terrible and he was annoyed that some weeb dating sim was #1, and all the comments were just like "he doesn't know!" --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/01/23 10:14:14 AM #277 | TomNook posted...
Seeing all the gameplay games die early, and now some of these higher ranking things...Not gonna spoil my list but this feels like a wild take --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/01/23 12:31:45 AM #271 | 39. Spiritfarer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pKJ-NuSjNE I played this one on the recommendation of a close friend, and part of me still regrets doing so, because Spiritfarer quite possibly made me cry more than any other game I've played. There's a couple that might come close, but I do honestly think Spiritfarer takes it. It feels pretty inevitable given the subject matter of the game, as you are quite literally escorting people to the afterlife. Every time there's a whole scene of it where you slowly boat them toward their death, and I always fully know what's coming and what to expect, and yet every fucking time it gets me. Because once they're gone, they're gone, and the unique presence they bring to the ship is gone with them. You meet new characters, always knowing their fate ahead of time, but there's always a distinct emptiness on your ship, emphasized by the rooms you built for them remaining abandoned on your overcrowded boat. If there was an award for emotional manipulation of the player, Spiritfarer has very little competition. 38. Doki Doki Literature Club https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB1663FTpzU OH HEY SPEAKING OF EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION. DDLC is interesting because it's a surprise horror game that specifically can't really hide that it's a surprise horror game because it specifically comes with warnings right at the beginning (which is for the best, even if it spoils the surprise). It doesn't really spoil it too much though, because it pretty expertly pulls you into a false sense of security. You see the warning at the beginning, start playing expecting things to get fucked up, and then they just... don't. The game continues to play for hours like a normal cutesy dating sim, and eventually that sense of waiting for something bad to happen goes away and you start to legitimately learn about the characters and the game feels like what it presents itself to be. And as soon as you let your guard down, GET FUCKED PLAYER YOU THOUGHT WE FORGOT? EVERYTHING IS WORSE THAN YOU EXPECTED AND THEN SOME --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 12/01/23 12:12:23 AM #270 | The "Legitimate Game of the Year Contenders IMO" Tier
42. The Unfinished Swan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFfteZaAXq4 I feel like this one was actually benefited somewhat by when it came out. Now I feel like the first-person surreal/scifi-gimmick puzzle-based exploration genre of indie game is a little oversaturated given how many have come out in the last decade, but when The Unfinished Swan arrived, it was still fairly new. Unfinished Swan's gimmick might be fairly simple but it's immediately striking; you start in a blank, white environment and have to discover it by throwing paint at things until you can slowly uncover where you're going and what you're doing. As the game goes on, the environment changes and becomes more visible, but always makes that great use of negative space. Sometimes you're throwing paint, sometimes water, all while slowly unraveling the tragic story of the King and his kingdom. 41. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HINFL5YrXMA Man I am a sucker for a murder mystery, especially a murder mystery with supernatural aspects, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter delivers that in waves. You make your way through a tiny town looking for a lost child, Ethan Carter. Everyone is dead or missing, and like several of the games covered previously, you have to find out why. But instead of "they all mysteriously disappeared," you soon discover that basically everoyne here was killed by someone else, and you have to slowly piece together why through supernatural communication with the spirits of the dead and Batman-like visual recreation of the events, occasionally interspersed with surreal, mysterious segments revealing bits of Ethan's mind. Piecing together the story is kind of wild as it turns out 40. Undertale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hojv0m3TqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSqIJRbmaW4 --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/30/23 12:25:13 AM #266 | 44. Her Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaHw97l7-Lc You've gotta admire Sam Barlow's commitment to bringing back live action games. Her Story benefits from being his first game to really put this style into the public eye. It's one of the only games (maybe the only game) where I've actively felt compelled to take notes while playing. Legitimately, I had Notepad open the whole time to keep track of important words and what they meant in the context in order to keep deepdiving into the story. And goddamn, what a story this is. It's complex and absolutely fascinating, enough so that I played the entire thing through in one sitting when not intending to because I legitimately couldn't put it down. 43. Abzu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2G54w8H4oM I think Abzu kind of spelled the end for thatgamecompany in a way. Some of the best talent that made Journey the hit it was went on to form Giant Squid, creating Abzu as a sort of spiritual successor to the uniquely gorgeous visuals and music of Journey and Flower, and by the time another thatgamecompany game finally released, it would be the microtransaction-riddled and uninspired Sky: Children of the Light years later. Abzu, though, is truly beautiful. So much so that there was a moment, maybe 2/3 or so of the way into the game, where I was swimming with some manta rays and listening to whale songs and thought, "man, this is specifically why I like video games." And that completes this tier! Only 3 more left --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/30/23 12:01:41 AM #265 | 48 and 47. Overcooked! & Overcooked 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-FR-apUaX0 I was very torn how I wanted to rank the Overcooked games. There have been some slots where multiple games share the same entry, and others where they're separate because of gaps in their rankings. Both Overcooked games are an absolute blast, and I think Overcooked 2 is definitely better than the first (almost entirely just because of having the ability to throw shit across the kitchen, which is of course the true kitchen experience). Initially I had a little more gap between these two, but then ultimately moved them together because I couldn't really justify a big jump the same way I could with Little Nightmares 1 and 2 for example. Fun fact: I played through the Overcooked games with a friend who I had met working in kitchen together, and I swear trying to play this gave me flashbacks in a way that is equal parts stressful and extremely fun. 46. Stacking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEJtypcyL5I Another Tim Schafer! If you like Double Fine's other games and haven't played Stacking (which isn't unlikely, as Stacking unfortunately flew way under the radar) I highly recommend you check it out. It's such a unique mechanic, essentially a puzzle adventure game where you have to proceed using the abilities of various silly characters. But you can only use those characters that are exactly one matryoshka doll size above you (so sometimes you have to capture others to capture that one) and only if you can trick them into facing away from you. It's filled with the classic style of Double Fine humor and is throughoughly enjoyable to play. They didn't cut corners on putting flavor into it either, putting everything into a sort of parody of the industrial revolution with the goal of saving your siblings from an oil baron. 45. Kena: Bridge of Spirits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWh5388AEHw Fun fact: I've recently been talking with a friend who made fun of me for quitting Nioh 2 for it being too hard (don't come at me, it is, I've played basically every Soulslike, but fuck that game in particular). He's recently been going through Kena: Bridge of Spirits and OH HO HO HO LOOK WHO'S STRUGGLING NOW. Kena is deceptive, because what looks like a normal indie adventure with silly little animal sidekicks is actually one of the most brutally and uncompromisingly difficult action adventures this side of Sekiro. Legitimately, you'll probably watch the trailer thinking "oh that doesn't look too bad" because I did the exact same thing, and then three hours into fighting the fucking Corrupt Woodsmith you'll just be sitting there wondering, "Is it me? Am I bad at video games now?" I mean why is the "collect silly hats for your teenie little blog friends" game this hard? Kena is a visual wonder, with a 3D world that looks much better than most games with 10x its budget manage to. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/29/23 11:10:04 AM #264 | Isquen posted...
Gang Beasts is fun until you get the ferris wheel level and it turns into a 10 minute "who can stay on the single pole" slugfest.Buoy is the worst stage imo HanOfTheNekos posted... Wtf Flower too lowBasically everything at this point is at least a solid 9/10 foolm0r0n posted... Fair use since it's actually indie, i.e. no funding or commercialism involvedIf it was Pokmon-based, Nintendo would still find a way andylt posted... Lots of cool-looking games here I was unaware of! Don't know how I missed Chants of Sennaar but I'm glad it's on my radar now.I'm glad! I'm always on the lookout for cool new indie experiences --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/29/23 12:18:44 AM #259 | 50. Flower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IS9sGGuvYo Flower will likely always be known as the game that led to the later creation of Journey, but it's an excellent, beautiful game in its own right. Legitimately, Flower is one of the most relaxing games I think I've ever played. It serves as a great example of what indie games could present that bigger studios never could. Sometimes you just want to play as some loose flower petals flowing through the wind. 49. Gang Beasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz0BriND6pE Gang Beasts fluctuates back and forth beween having me love it and hate it, often during the same play session. It doesn't always work quite right, and I fully don't understand what determines how fast you get knocked out and how goddamn long it takes for your opponent to get knocked out. The game has side modes, but does anybody actually play those? Really the appeal here is to beat the absolute living shit out of your friends and random strangers online while wearing silly costumes. I think the biggest draw is the vast variety of stages; sometimes you're fighting in a wrestling room just to throw people off the top rope, other times you're trying to throw them off of a moving car or a blimp or into the ocean, and in each level the way you have to interact with it feels different. My favorite stages are probably the dangling ones: the dual elevators and the scaffoldings can both dropped if you're chaotic enough, potentially killing everyone at once. In the subgenre of random, silly beatups like Fall Guys and Party Animals (which I haven't played yet, but it looks fun), Gang Beasts still stands out. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/29/23 12:02:55 AM #258 | Bonus Ranking: Sonic Dreams Collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-QSEZ7ltX4 The fact that this is a real game that was made and Ben Esposito can still manage to get work in the industry is just proof that Sega is more forgiving than Nintendo. It's presented as 4 mini-games that they claim are hacked scrapped projects from the Sonic series. There's Make My Sonic (which doesn't feel that far off from the OC-maker in Sonic Frontiers) and Eggman Origin (a faux-MMO that is basically a bunch of empty space with some eggs). The third game, Sonic Movie Maker, is by far the highlight of the collection. You're a filmmaker thrown into various scenarios where you have to record the adventures of Sonic and friends, with the ability to grab things and move them closer and farther away. Probably the most normal of the games, and would make for a great standalone game under Sonic Team's direction. The fourth, My Roommate Sonic, is a dating sim where you're given the opportunity to try to seduce Sonic. Legitimately, how did Arcane Kids not get sued into oblivion for this one? I'm gonna drop this just under Roundabout at #88 --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Mortal Kombat Fatality Ranking: Test Your Might! |
| Johnbobb 11/28/23 7:12:13 PM #69 | GavsEvans123 posted...
The reaction face everyone gets when they see Terminator coming on the motorcycle is quite funnyI never noticed that before, that's hilarious and I like that they didn't try to go too flashy for Jason's; his felt appropirately brutal --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/28/23 11:09:18 AM #257 | foolm0r0n posted...
If you like Jazzpunk you should play Sonic Dreams CollectionGoddammit I need to add another to this list I completely blanked that Sonic Dreams Collection is an indie game and not something actually done by Sonic Team --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/28/23 12:23:26 AM #253 | azuarc posted...
I watched this trailer and I have no idea wtf just happened.that's a pretty accurate portrayal of the game tbh --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/28/23 12:12:54 AM #250 | The list so far:
51. Limbo 52. Nidhogg 53. Jazzpunk 54. From Dust 55. Deaths Door 56. Chants of Sennaar 57. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals 58. Storyteller 59. Thumper 60. Robot Unicorn Attack 61. Octodad 62. Concrete Genie 63. Hotline Miami 64. Broken Age 65. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 66. Superhot 67. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons 68. Little Nightmares II 69. Gris 70. The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories 71. Ultimate Chicken Horse 72. OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood 73. Unpacking 74. Stray 75. Chicory: A Colorful Tale 76. Norco 77. Wattam 78. Cuphead 79. Moving Out 80. Subnautica 81. Untitled Goose Game 82. Tabletop Simulator 83. West of Loathing 84. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair 85. Horace 86. Minecraft 87. Roundabout 88. Guacamelee! 89. A Way Out 90. Ghostrunner 91. OlliOlli World 92. Rocket League 93. Little Nightmares 94. Cult of the Lamb 95. What the Golf? 96. Bound 97. Super Meat Boy 98. Toem 99. Pentiment 100. Later Alligator 101. Baba Is You 102. Shank 103. VVVVVV 104. Maquette 105. Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien 106. Quadrilateral Cowboy 107. The Witness 108. The Beginners Guide 109. Telling Lies 110. Twelve Minutes 111. Superliminal 112. McPixel 113. Machinarium 114. The Looker 115. Entwined 116. Donut County 117. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 118. Tacoma 119. Little Inferno 120. Runner3 121. Psychonauts 122. Maneater 123. Outland 124. Monument Valley 1 125. Runbow 126. Hohokum 127. Brawlout 128. Super Time Force Ultra 129. Sound Shapes 130. Zen Pinball 2 131. Erica 132. Apotheon 133. Fez 134. Afterparty 135. That Dragon, Cancer 136. A Little to the Left 137. Reus 138. Plague Inc. 139. Crayon Physics Deluxe 140. Grow Home 141. The Cave 142. My Friend Pedro 143. Sportsfriends 144. Pony Island 145. Everybodys Gone to the Rapture 146. Cibele 147. Dungeons & Lesbians 148. Bastion 149. Monument Valley 2 150. If On a Winter's Night, Four Travelers 151. Coffee Talk 152. The Binding of Isaac 153. Rime 154. Pizza Tower 155. Mark of the Ninja 156. Skullgirls 157. We Happy Few 158. BattleBlock Theater 159. Tokyo Jungle 160. Florence 161. Abobos Big Adventure 162. Disc Jam 163. Sky: Children of the Light 164. House Party 165. Rubber Bandits 166. Kentucky Route Zero (Chapters 1 & 2) 167. Lost In Random 168. Hue 169. I Am Bread 170. Naughty Bear 171. TowerFall Ascension 172. Happy Wheels 173. Friday the 13th: The Game 174. Human: Fall Flat 175. Foul Play 176. This Is The Only Level 177. Burly Men At Sea 178. Virginia 179. World of Goo 180. Party Crashers 181. Deltarune Chapter 1 182. Sunset 183. Toribash 184. Stephens Sausage Roll 185. KickBeat 186. Tales from Space: About a Blob 187. Quantum Conundrum 188. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit 189. Escape Plan 190. The Bridge 191. The Swapper 192. Dear Esther 193. Surgeon Simulator 194. Joe Danger 195. Angry Birds 196. here 197. Racing Bros 198. Goat Simulator 199. We Become What We Behold 200. Facade 201. Run Sausage Run! 202. Five Nights at Freddys 203. Interactive Buddy 204. Threes 205. Slender: The Eight Pages 206. KIDS 207. Cookie Clicker 208. Bounty Battle 209. Flappy Bird 210. Hello Neighbor 211. The Unknown City (Horror Begins Now..Episode 1) --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/28/23 12:10:54 AM #249 | --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/28/23 12:10:09 AM #248 | 54. From Dust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdAssf3kJA Apparently this one was technically developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, whoops. It definitely felt like an indie game, and it's primarily designed by one guy, Eric Chahi. There have been a lot of these god games to come along, but none blew me away the way From Dust did. Remember that guy from the Miiverse that would just comment on every game saying how good the water looked? That was essentially me while playing this. Seriously, for a $15 2011 game, the environmental manipulation effects were way ahead of their time. You essentially play as a faceless, invisible orb of elemental material, manipulating the earth and rivers and lava to help your villagers survive in a way that is endlessly satisfying. Eric Chahi wouldn't put out another game until 2020 called Paper Beast (which I've never heard of until now). 53. Jazzpunk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrZqGO6iBb8 When I try to think of the funniest games I've played, Jazzpunk pretty much always comes to mind. I have no idea how to actually describe this game. It's vaguely about an undercover 1950s spy that feels kind of like a James Bond/Hitman mashup, but that barely matters. This is quite possibly the most absurd game I've played. None of it makes any sense, but it's hilarious and worth experincing for yourself. 52. Nidhogg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPD0Ya4YWDU' Nidhogg is really kind of a barebones game. Only 4 levels, all of which are fairly simple. Not much in the way of modes or variety. It's visually not super impressive; there's really not much here at all. And yet, somehow this game has never gotten uninstalled from my console, and I don't know that it will. It is absurdly fun and surprisingly deep for such a simple game. You can sword fight in different positions, block, throw your weapon, pick up dropped weapons, including those of your own dead selves, dodge, move faster if you drop your weapon, break the opponents neck if you're unarmed, and so on. My favorite strategy was the frog method, throwing away my sword to distract my enemy and then getting into a crouch position and rapidly hopping across the levels to make for an easy-to-miss target. For as little as the game has, it is endlessly replayable. 51. Limbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4HSyVXKYz8 Limbo basically defined indie horror platforming as a genre. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but not by much? Games like Little Nightmares and The Missing absolutely would not have existed if not for Limbo. Tons of puzzle platformers will see the player character die over and over with your little mistakes, but few games do it as horrifyingly as Limbo. Seeing your silhouetted child get impaled by a giant spider leg is the kind of thing that sticks with you, even a decade later. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/26/23 10:47:25 PM #245 | 57. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGcL4bcCbSU ok so this one doesn't actually match the name of the tier, it didn't change the way I experienced games. But Oxenfree did, and Oxenfree II is a very good sequel even if it doesn't quite hit the highs of the original. This weird, creepy dimensional horror is just very appealing. 56. Chants of Sennaar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__hzPH3tcvA This sort of problem-solving type of game seems to be slowly becoming more prominent in the indie a scene and I love to see it. Chants of Sennaar's main goal is to become a translator for several five different communities of people, each with an entirely different symbol-based language, none of which your character is familiar with. The order in which you navigate each community is open-ended, and you can pick up little bits of context in the way people talk to you, the symbols you see on signs, etc. The most exciting thing is when you can start to decipher how the design of a symbol can explain what type of word it denotes. For example, one language might use a vertical | symbol to suggest the word is a type of person, other languages might have recurring bits of symbols indicating verbs or adjectives or locations. One language uses repeated nouns to indicate plurality (ex. "man man" instead of "men") while others will have entirely different words or symbols to show the same thing. The only thing holding the game back from cracking the top 50 is some entirely unnecessary stealth sections that just distract from the language learning. 55. Deaths Door https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjnEg3ucXpc I believe this is the last indie game I finished before creating this topic. Death's Door admittedly plays like a pretty standard isometric action-adventure. You've got your melee, your magic/ranged, your dodge rolls, etc. It's challenging but maybe nothing all that new for the genre. It feels kind of like an isometric Metroidvania. It falls into a very nice level of challenge; it's very difficult without ever getting into the zone that it becomes exhausting to try to continue. Where Death's Door succeeds the most is in its lore, as you play as a crow working as essentially one of many beaurecratic grim reapers under the leadership of the Lord of Doors, a godlike being that controls teleportation, allowing the death crows to collect their soul. You're tasked with collecting the souls of ancient and giants to access the door of True Death, and it's all just effortlessly cool and intriguing. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/26/23 8:35:31 PM #243 | foolm0r0n posted...
Now we're getting some good games. The zeitgeist of Robot Unicorn Attack 1 was incredible.it became big enough that every friend I had in high school could sing along to Always by heart, which is crazy for what was basically a browser flash game at the time --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
| Topic | Johnbobb ranks every indie game he's ever played |
| Johnbobb 11/26/23 7:42:27 PM #241 | The "Games That Have Legitimately Changed the Way I've Experienced Games In a Way Others Hadn't Done Before" Tier
60. Robot Unicorn Attack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdw0XGAgqUw For convenience sake, I'm going to include all the different versions and the sequel into this listing, because it had a bunch of slight stylistic alterations that were all basically the same game. There are only so many games I could really consider myself to have been addicted to, and Robot Unicorn Attack is absolutely one of them. Something about the looping "Always" by Erasure and the style of the ridiculously flamboyant visuals and the weirdly satisfying feel of its platforming compared to other similar endless runners. For whatever reason, I just couldn't put it down, and when they started adding additional features and versions it only got me more hooked. I think RUA2 added more songs, including "The Touch" by Stan Bush, one of my all-time favorite songs, and once I had that unlocked, I could sit there singing along and to Stan Bush for hours. 59. Thumper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtPGX8i1Eaw I can only really describe this as a horror rhythm game? Which is a weird concept but I want to see it done more, because Thumper is a blast. It manages to be deeply unsettling. The visuals are dark and trippy and fly at you at what seems like 1000 miles an hour, with demonic bosses showing up every few levels to loom in the background. It feels like you're a sci-fi spaceship desperately trying to survive while hyper jumping through the universe. When you miss, it's not like Guitar Hero where you get a simple string break noise, it feels like you just got punched in the gut. 58. Storyteller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MVuffKFbVA I only have one complaint about Storyteller and that's that it isn't much, much longer. It's a concept that seems like it has endless possibilities, but it's over in just about 2-3 hours. It's extremely simple in its basic structure, giving you a super simple objective like "the prince becomes king" and then gives you a limited amount of locations and characters to work with. Most levels have more than one way to achieve the goal, for instance you could have the prince marry a princess, or maybe have him kill his father, as long as the story is told. I feel like I could play this for ages without getting bored; it scratches a very particular puzzle itch in my head. --- Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs |
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