#3.5.19

"Collaboration"

I conceptualised this list a while ago, and while I had already decided nearly all of the choices back when I did so (not the order though), I decided to save writing it until after I had beaten Celeste, since that game was super promising. Since I recently did beat Celeste, it’s about time I got this list out of the way. I’ve excluded stuff like Smash which is technically indie since Sakurai doesn’t work at Nintendo or Sonic Mania which was mostly made by an independent team because I felt it would be most fair that way. Shall we begin?

5. Shovel Knight

Definitely the poster child of retro throwback games, and perhaps the poster child of indie games in general, Shovel Knight’s pretty sick. The gameplay is ridiculously simple but thanks to the incredible level design, fun items and great bosses, the game is hella fun to play. Helps that, as will be a common theme for this list, the visuals and soundtrack are really, really good as well. It feels dirty putting Shovel Knight so low on this list when it’s actually 3 entire games of equally brilliant quality, with more coming soon, I just like the next few games that bit more.

4. Freedom Planet

See I’m a gigantic Sonic fan and that’s probably what pushes this above Shovel Knight. I mean I also prefer the soundtrack and visuals to those of Shovel Knight. To stop talking about Shovel Knight, Freedom Planet was originally a Sonic fangame but evolved into its own unique IP and I’m a big fan of it! The gameplay is kinda like Sonic, though with a bit more of a focus on combat and a pretty different movement, momentum and physics system. It’s still super fun though and it’s an absolute blast to plow through levels at breakneck speeds with Lilac or do this one momentum exploit to do the same with Milla and completely ignore Carol because she sucks. Story’s shite but the game has a classic mode that literally just skips all cutscenes for you which is great. Also I really like this game’s entire aesthetic and the trophies are all super fun too – Freedom Planet rewards you for playing a bit more out of the box in that sense and it’s great. Fun fact: this is the only game on this list that I haven’t bought for my Switch – I do own it on both Wii U and Steam though. I probably have nearly 100 hours in this game just from replaying it and individual levels time and time again, and chances are I’ll end up buying it on Switch at one point to play through it all again. Looking forward to the sequel when that releases in 2057.

3. Celeste

Celeste has a reputation for being a really difficult precision platformer, so I was super looking forward to playing it because platformers are my favourite genre and I’m especially a massive fan of the types of ridiculously hard precision platforming that you get to see in this game. In that sense, Celeste was literally exactly what I wanted it to be – a beautifully precise and extraordinarily difficult platforming game. I absolutely adore the dash and climbing mechanics and the way the game builds levels around them is nothing short of masterful. On top of that every stage has its own unique gimmick that compliments the regular gameplay well and are used in a variety of amazing ways. There’s no feeling quite like walking into a room, thinking it’s literally impossible, grinding it for what feels like hours, and then finally coming out on top – you overcame that room. Great, now here are like 10 more rooms that are even harder. God I love this game. Also the story’s pretty good if you care about that? I don’t relate to it because I don’t have depression or anxiety but it seems to do a good job with them so that’s neat.

2. Hollow Knight

Minor spoilers for #1, but this is the only non-pixel art game on the entire list! Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania, and while I prefer precision platformers (like Celeste) to those most of the time, this is the big exception. Hollow Knight has it all, really. Wonderful controls, incredible movement, very simple yet enjoyable and challenging combat, a variety of ways to go about playing the game thanks to the really good charm system, absolutely beautiful visuals, an atmospheric soundtrack, and so many other things. The story is really good if you can piece it together and while I definitely couldn’t do that on my own (quick shoutouts to Mossbag), I still really respected how the game told its story. Also thanks to the Path of Pain I’ve got precision platforming in this game too. For real Hollow Knight just does a nearly perfect job of accomplishing everything it sets out to do and the fact that it’s like £15 is so fucking baffling because this game has significantly more content than so many full price games and it’s incredible. Hell Hollow Knight is one of the best value-for-your-money games I can even think of. Silksong’s gonna be hype.

1. Undertale

To be honest, when it comes down to gameplay, I’d say Hollow Knight is way better than Undertale. In fact, if it’s just gameplay, Undertale is probably the worst game on this list. Not to say the gameplay is bad or anything, just that it’s rather barebones compared to the rest of this list, and doesn’t revel in its simplicity to the same beautiful effect as any of the others. But a videogame is so much more than just its gameplay, and Undertale revels in that fact, hell the main message of the game can be intrinsically linked to that fact, probably, depends what your main takeaway from Undertale is. The thing is this game’s story and characters are easily the best and most enjoyable on this entire list and the sheer amount of “wow” moments Undertale has completely dwarfs the rest of them too. None of them have left me feeling nearly the amount of things Undertale has, from the happy laughs to the feeling of frustration-turned-guilt-turned-emptiness. I don’t wanna sound like a pretentious asshole or anything, and I usually value gameplay above all else in a videogame, but Undertale’s narrative alone elevates it above everything else on this list. And I mean despite what I had to say about the gameplay it’s still really good – the puzzle elements of ACTing are neat and dodging is always super fun, plus the game’s got more than its fair share of really fun boss battles, and also sans to crave that itch for a challenge. And hey that soundtrack slaps hard as shit too. Excited to see what the full Delta Rune experience will be like.

Redshift 3.5.19 for Cinema 4D [En] Program version: 2023.2.2Official site: linkInterface language: English Treatment: includedType of medicine: replacing files System requirements: Windows 10 64-bit Version 1809 or higher. Intel 64-bit CPU or AMD 64-bit CPU with SSE3 support. 8 GB RAM, recommended 16 GB. Description: RedShift is an incredibly fast and powerful 3D rendering solution. Offers…