EGX Rezzed, EGX‘s smaller, more indie-geared sibling, drew to a close this weekend after a three-day showcase of some of the most amazingly imaginative upcoming indie games due out over the next couple of years.
With so many games out there on the show-floor, it’s hard to pick a definitive “best” game of Rezzed, but we’ve narrowed it down to ten unique indies that are absolutely worth looking out for.
Katana ZERO
A slick, neon-noir action platformer, Askiisoft‘s Katana Zero was one of Rezzed’s and Devolver‘s highlights.
The game focuses on tight, acrobatic combat that includes instant death. Armed with your trusty katana and precognitive ability, you can slash, dash, and rewind time in your journey to regain your memories.
The way each level works, story-wise, is that you haven’t started it yet. You’re merely planning out what you will do when you enter that room.
After rewinding and replaying to complete the level without dying, your character decides this is how they’ll proceed. You’re then treated to a long cinematic of you effortlessly slicing your way through hordes of goons.
The game releases on PC and the Switch later this month on April 18.
Gato Roboto
Gato Roboto combines two of the best things in the world, cats and mech-suits obviously, and combines them into a fantastic retro metroidvania set in space. When a crash leaves your spaceship captain owner out of commission and stranded on an alien underworld, he tasks you, his pet cat, with exploring.
Jumping inside your mech-suit you’re armed with a blaster and the ability to dash, everything you need to tackle the alien crawlies that come after you. You can even crawl out of your suit whenever you want, although it’s risky, to squeeze through small tunnels and explore further.
The world is full of secrets waiting to be unearthed, if you can get to them. In your travels you’ll also pick up new weapons and open up new areas.
Gato Roboto comes out later this Spring.
Heave Ho
Heave Ho comes out this year on the Switch and PC. It’s a co-op game from Le Cartel and Devolver about holding hands with your friends and lobbing them into the air. You and up to three others play as a head attached to a pair of gangly arms, where you each have the power grab onto things and swing.
With a loose-feeling physics not unlike Pikuniku, Heave Ho’s levels throw a series of challenges at you and your pals. The first few include simply getting to a finish point across the map, but it soon gets more dangerous.
It’s not as easy as it sounds, as telling your left hand from right takes a while to get used to. The longer your chain of friends, the more gravity works against you. And more often than not you end up tumbling towards your grizzly doom.
Inmost
Hidden Layer Games‘ Inmost is an eerie story-driven puzzle platformer that ended up being a surprise favorite at the Chucklefish booth. Its spooky visuals and blue-tinted color palette are a huge standout, as are the malformed apparitions that haunt your steps.
In the game you play as three different characters exploring a gloomy house, crumbling and rife with malevolent beings of black slime.
The surprisingly difficult puzzles will have you crawling, jumping, dodge rolling, and dragging objects around in order to reach key items and tools that help you progress.
A mystery lurks under the surface of this game. That’s clear even from the demo, but the root of this mystery is something we’ll have to wait to unravel when it expects to release later this year.
Eastward
In this beautiful post-apocalyptic adventure RPG, miner John meets an unusual girl named Sam in a secret underground facility. Together they travel through what’s left of the world, journeying across ruined cities and overgrown forests alike.
Colorful characters fill the world, not to mention the weird and wonderful creatures, of which not all are friendly. You have to use John’s wits and Sam’s special powers to survive mutated monsters and bosses.
From Pixpil and Chucklefish, 90’s anime inspires Eastward‘s bright, gorgeous pixel art brings the dystopian setting to life. There’s no release date yet, sadly, though the Steam page lists the game as “coming soon”.
Close to the Sun
It’s hard not to think about Bioshock when you play Storm in a Teacup‘s Close to the Sun, thanks to its vintage feel, grizzly violence, and survival horror mechanics. But that doesn’t stop it being its own game.
Set in 1897, Nikola Tesla’s Helios, a ship dedicated to great scientific minds, stands adrift in international waters. You play as journalist Rose Archer as you explore the ship in search of your sister.
You’re tasked with exploring the ship and using problem-solving to figure out just what went wrong here. This game aims to keep you on your toes. As defenseless Rose, your main weapon here is stealth and quick thinking.
Originally set for a March release, Close to the Sun will come out later this year on PS4, Xbox One, and PC exclusively on the Epic store.
Afterparty
Afterparty asks the question: what if Hell was one massive bar crawl? Newly deceased besties Lola and Milo get the answer to this question when they find themselves facing eternal damnation.
In a bid to get into Satan’s party to challenge him to release them, the two friends have to out-drink hordes of boozing demons. Challenge them to shots, beer pong, and even dance battles.
There are a number of hellish concoctions to choose from at the bar, some of which have powerful effects and open up new dialogue choices. The right drink can let you trash talk a demonic bouncer just enough that he’ll let you into the club.
Night School Studio developed Afterparty, which was on show at the ID@Xbox booth, but will also be available for PC.
Knights and Bikes
Kickstarter game Knights and Bikes is a game from Foam Sword centered around childhood nostalgia and the sense of adventure and freedom that comes with getting your first bike.
Set on a tiny British island in the 80s, the game follows best friends Nessa and Demelza(and their pet goose, Captain Honkers). They spend their time adventuring around their island, rescuing grown-ups, and searching for treasure.
The hand-painted art style does a great job of representing a retro yet childlike world. The chalk overlay signifies Nessa and Demelza’s imagination turning the mundane into fantasy.
While Knights and Bikes will be coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One, no release date has been set.
LUNA The Shadow Dust
LUNA The Shadow Dust is a story driven point-and-click puzzle adventure that was in the basement at Rezzed. Another game from Kickstarter, You play as a young boy and his odd companion in an dark, enchanted world.
Your job is to bring the light and life back into this world. Set mostly in a tower filled with curious objects, you solve room after room of puzzles. These puzzles can be pretty obscure and many are time-based, requiring you to be extremely patient.
Developed by Lantern Studio, LUNA has already already won awards for its visuals and music and is set to come to PC, Mac, and Linux later this year.
Untitled Goose Game
In this game you play as one mean goose. House House‘s Untitled Goose Game sets out to ruin a lovely Summer morning for a sleepy farming village.
You may be surprised to learn that this is a sandbox game and has stealth elements, but as a particularly pesky goose, that’s just what you need to appropriately torment the villagers. The game gives you objectives at first, like “steal the farmer’s hat”. These get more complicated over time, requiring you to really think about how you’re going to wreak havoc.
Probably the best thing about this game is that there’s a dedicated honk button, that you’re free to abuse as much as you like.
Untitled Goose Game comes out this year on PC and the Switch.
