Playing through AAA games is great, and this year was filled with a lot of awesome bangers like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. As great as those and others were, it’s hard not to anticipate and appreciate smaller experiences more. We’re talking about indie games.
Between higher profile teams and some lesser known developers, literally hundreds are released every year, and 2019 was no different. We sifted through PS4, Switch, and Xbox One reviews to see which ten ranked the highest. Who is at number one and who got snubbed? There’s only one way to find out, so get to reading!
10 Katana ZERO (83)
Hotline Miami sort of created this one hit kill genre with weird stories and psychedelic visuals. There have been many since, but Katana ZERO is the best in a while. Going through each level and finding the perfect way to kill everyone is always enjoyable, even if it takes dozens of times.
Besides the pixel perfect controls, we also dug the visuals, soundtrack, and murky story that slowly unraveled. Playing as a samurai in a neo-punk future is an inherently cool idea.
9 Killer Queen Black (83)
Killer Queen started in arcades in 2013. It slowly built up its reputation before becoming a smash hit. After several delays it’s finally here on Switch via Killer Queen Black. Yes, this is technically not a 2019 game then, but we felt the arcade launch didn’t really matter in this case.
Semantics aside, for those looking for the next great party game akin to TowerFall and or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this is it. It is guaranteed to brighten up the holidays with family and friends.
8 Baba Is You (84)
Baba Is You starts off as a simple puzzle game, but increasingly becomes more and more complex. Each stage has a set of rules, which can be manipulated in order to achieve said goal. For example, an early puzzle states that "Baba is You," "Wall is Stop," "Rock is Push," and "Flag is Win." This means that the player, Baba, is able to push rocks, but not past the walls.
Simply make it to the the flag and that is it. Some later puzzles have one change the rules by pushing new things in for them. It's a brain teaser for sure, but one that's deeply satisfying.
7 Wargroove (84)
Intelligent Systems is primarily known for two franchises within Nintendo: Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. Both were built in tandem for a while before Fire Emblem: Awakening changed everything. Hey Nintendo! Try that for Advance Wars too, please.
If they are unwilling to do so, the indie scene is here, and there couldn’t be a better example than Wargroove. It is such a love letter to that series while changing some things for the better, like difficulty adjustments. Plus it has adorable dog units. There were so many good boys.
6 Sayonara Wild Hearts (84)
Sayonara Wild Hearts can best be described as an interactive music video for an album. One can complete it under an hour, or two at most even with extra challenges. That price may seem steep for a game, but at $13 it is priced accordingly to typical music albums.
Putting it in that perspective makes it the perfect excuse to jam out to some poppy melodies and visuals straight out of Persona meets Rez.
5 Ape Out (84)
Ape Out is a simple game in both premise and in its art design. You're an ape, seemingly caged for experimentation, and one day it has had enough. Through each floor one will blast their way through an onslaught of soldiers, barricades, windows and so forth armed only with, well, the arms of an ape.
Smash down foes into bloody puddles, or grab them as human shields. It's hard, but deeply enjoyable thanks to the jazzy soundtrack.
4 Tangle Tower (84)
Point and click adventure games used to be all the rage in the 80s and 90s, but they eventually died off only to be reborn again this past decade, thanks to enthusiastic indie developers. Tangle Tower has the quality of LucasArts behind them spiritually, while toting some impressive work as studio.
For example, previous to this they made Snipperclips. While this lacks the rich puzzles of that and the co-op appeal, the writing is this game is second to none. Even for non-adventure game fans, this is a high recommend for a good laugh.
3 Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda (86)
Except for the terribly long and clunky name, Cadence of Hyrule is perfect. For our money it is the best indie game this year on any platform. Nay! Dare we say it is an actual Game of the Year contender overall?
While The Legend of Zelda name and theme does help, Brace Yourself Games is the true hero of this story and makes this an indie game. The original Crypt of the NecroDancer was a great idea that blended roguelikes and rhythm games together and this is all that goodness, but better.
2 Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark (86)
Fans of the original Final Fantasy Tactics, released in 1998 for the PS1 in North America, have been chasing that high for decades now. There have been plenty of great tactical RPGs, even in this series, but again, none have touched this one's greatness.
Well, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is the next challenger and it's a pretty decent attempt at upending the Japanese giant. The gameplay is there, but we will admit that the art, animations, and overall graphics look a little generic. That is to say this aggregated score is a little too high for our liking, but still worth checking out.
1 Slay the Spire (88)
Even though our heart belongs to Cadence of Hyrule, we also can’t argue against Slay the Spire as Metacritic’s best reviewed game. This comes from the PS4 version with the Switch trailing behind at an 85 just as a reference point.
We know the idea of a card game seems redundant at this point. There have been a lot, but not many using cards. It doesn’t have any sort of visual pizazz, but this roguelike is hard to put down.