The latest Xbox indie showcase featured a healthy output of titles ranging from the quirky to the ambitious. Here are some standouts.
The reputation of the mighty Green Machine has not been stellar as of late. Between internal
shake-ups at the top, an overwhelming distrust of parent company Microsoft’s love affair with AI, and the plague of industry-wide issues such as ballooning costs and career instability, Xbox has managed to step on as many rakes as possible over the past several months. But one arena where Xbox has always managed to shine is its championing of the indie game scene, and today’s Indie Showcase confirmed that indies are still finding a home on the Microsoft console.
Today’s ID@Xbox Indie Showcase, presented in partnership with IGN, laid out various titles either currently on the console or coming soon, and the buffet of offerings meant that everyone could find a little something to salivate over.
Major standouts among the offerings include Aphelion, a sci-fi tale of two astronauts seeking to survive and reunite on a hostile alien planet being developed by critical darling Dontnod. With an art style reminiscent of Life is Strange but more action-oriented, akin to Remember Me, Aphelion crash lands on Xbox on April 28.
Vampire Crawlers has already been sucking the life out of indie gamers’ plans for a few days
now and shows no signs of slowing down on Xbox. The deckbuilding roguelite has been out for a few days and currently holds an “overwhelmingly positive” rating on Steam.
The best part of any indie showcase includes finding the games that surprise you. One that didn’t show us a whole lot but captivated many was Lofsöng, a puzzler from Unrelated Studio that evoked memories of Ico in its monochromatic but beautiful environments that could turn into the next big “play for the experience” game.
Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the concept of the escape room and blends it with an open-world setting, while CrashOut Crew takes the frenetic gameplay of Overcooked and puts it in heavy machinery for competitive mayhem.
Other games that belong on Xbox players’ radars include the hybrid renovation
sim/ghostbusting adventure There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, promising the calming
gameplay of titles like PowerWash Simulator set in a haunted hotel with a good chunk of eldritch horror thrown in. Plus, there’s a talking cat.
For those who prefer their fusion games with high fantasy, this next one might pique your interest: Beastro combines a cooking sim, cafe sim, farm sim, and deckbuilding roguelite, throws it all in a blender, adds anthropomorphic animal citizens and a charming paper-doll art style in battles, and says bon appétit. Cooking fans, as prominently featured in Final Fantasy XV or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Beastro just might tempt your tummy.
For a full recap of the Showcase, you can click here.
