The want to stay informed vs the want to retain whatever sanity I have left by not checking the news headlines…the struggle is real.


Basically my reaction whenever I check the news these days

Thankfully, the gaming news is far more palatable on the regular, with less probability of wanting to gouge my eyes out at the horror show affairs going on in the every day. Even slow news cycles don’t stop the existential dread from creeping in, however…

To that point, I’m continuing to try to shake off this terrible case of don’t give a shits at the current moment, but little seems to be helping. This kind of malady tends to muck up the pretense of my everyday, and really globs up the notion of both productivity and generally doing anything of value that isn’t lying in a bed for excessive periods of time. Quite the unfortunate happening, as my weekends are usually prime time to get down on some well needed gaming via epic binge sessions, with which to gather some ideas for writing material, as my work days allot me extremely limited amounts of time to get through titles with any serious gusto. Which, for anyone keeping track, is not good, as I have a seriously massive pile of virtual bullshit to get through.


What my gaming backlog felt like…before this year even started

To that grim and terrifying point, Nintendo just dropped another Direct, this time entitled “Indie World”, which was a more modest showcase (in some ways) of letting Switch 1 &2 owners know what they could sink their claws into, come the holidays and beyond. I read some random asides online referring to this indie based follow up as a “surprise”, coming hot off the heels of Nintendo’s last direct, which was not greeted to much fanfare. Whether the “surprise” comments were being literal, hyperbolic, or well wishing is a moot point beyond fact from my perspective, as whatever the case may be, my head canon is in agreeance with the verbiage involving the idea of a “surprise”, as I was totally unaware the event was even happening, up until this very morning, and I would throw the word “pleasant” in to compliment the usage of the word surprise, as most of what Nintendo showed was positively delightful.


Mina the Hollower, from the same peeps who did Shovel Knight, looks like a turbo charged version of Link’s Awakening. Be still my beating heart…

Clocking in at just 15 minutes, you’d think the lack of content would work against Nintendo, but this direct felt like it was chalk full of excitement, compared to it’s beefier, AAA counterpart we got not so long ago. I don’t know if this is related to the notion that, per my article in elaborating on Kojima’s quote the other day, where the indie scene tends to be more exciting than the big dogs these days, just seems to be a more radically true sentiment with each passing day, the building amount of evidence to suggest such a reality is hard to debate at this point, with most of what was on offer to be of an entirely enticing sentiment.


Well Dweller, a Metroidvania with a twisted art style and sick ass looking bosses. You’d think with all of the Metroidvania’s that have come out, I would grow tired of them. You’d be wrong.

My speculation as to why, outside of the points previously made the other day, may have to deal with some exceptionally simple standards involving time and money. With indie stuff, you generally have smaller teams making headway with more daring concepts, or design ideas and themes that they can experiment with in far more interesting ways then larger titles. Refocusing on my mention of the simple standards I mentioned involving time and money, I also know they’re going to be shorter affairs, and cheaper to boot, two things that make adult me an incredibly happy camper, as I generally have very little to spare of either, much to my chagrin, and any experience I don’t have to drop a lot of dosh on, nor have to carve out a massive chunk from my schedule to enjoy, create a greater probability I have a chance to enjoy them, which in some ways, matter more than genuine quality.


Neverway: Stardew infused with Silent Hill vibes? Yes please.

As I made mention elsewhere, even AAA games I am looking forward to, that are lauded as easy shoe-ins for game of the year, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I couldn’t find money or time to play, with both finally coming into alignment recently, but echoes my point, even amazing games can be too much money or be too long for me to enjoy, which keeps the indie scene winning.

I know this is in many ways a me problem, as I always keep in mind the piece of wisdom I have floating around in my head that, as a grown ass adult, I have enough time to do anything, but not everything, so I must use my wisdom and planning abilities to choose wisely. However, while these notions definitely do crop up in my personal world, I do not think I’m entirely alone in having to deal with random bouts of emotional duress, exhaustion from a busy work schedule, an empty wallet after the bills are all paid, and a tragic twenty four hour period which does it’s best to confound my valiant efforts to find time for the stuff that makes life worth living.


Love the feels I got watching the Herdling trailer

Which is why stupid little quick fixes like cheaper, shorter video games tend to be my favorite “genre” of choice. In a not so surprising twist of fate, I happened to be out of time, or else I would elaborate further on some of my favs from today’s sample platter (Mina the Hollower, Well Dweller, Neverway, Herdling, and UFO 50 rocking the right vibes), check out what Nintendo has coming in your future in the world of indie games.

~Pashford