5 top must play Indie games in 2021

5 Must Play Indie Games

Indie games have seen a meteoric rise in today’s modern-day gaming and are now considered to be significant in introducing new ideas and a fresher take on tried and true formulas found in big-budget games. Indie games are usually smaller in scope and have a smaller budget but they make up for it by being more experimental and daring with their game design, story, graphics, and ideas. The developers are just free to do whatever they want with their games and don’t have to adhere to trends or what the investors want to see in the games which are refreshing to experience every now and then. Now the main issue with indie games is that anyone can make one and unfortunately a lot of them are not of the best quality due to probable lack of experience developing a game or they ran out of budget to make it since most indie developers rely on fund-raising sites or they are self-funded through other means. But there are some indie games that just pop up from time to time and can take the world by storm. There are a handful of them but here are the 5 indies games that will be worth your while.

#5 Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Platforms: Playstation 4/Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and PC

Shovel Knight is a great example of a Kickstarter-backed game done right. Yacht Club Games, the developer of Shovel Knight initially asked for $75,000 to fund their game and was able to receive over $200K in funding through Kickstarter, and with the excess money, they were able to add in more to the game with new modes, new options, and new games bundled into the package. The game was a commercial success for Yacht Club Games in that each version of Shovel Knight has exclusive content tied to different consoles. Now with the Treasure Trove collection, they bundled 4 more games which makes the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove bundle a great bang for your buck. The Treasure Trove bundle includes Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, King of Cards, and Showdown. Each game has different main characters, gameplay styles, modes, and stories that will keep you engaged for hours on end.

The game itself is a homage to the NES/SNES era of platformers like Mega Man, Mario, and DuckTales. You get power-ups along the way and get to explore expertly crafted levels that are both challenging and fun. The main gimmick of Shovel Knight is that the game has a great risk/reward system in play. You gather jewels that act as your currency and with that currency, you can buy power-ups or upgrades. Now, whenever you die, you lose a good chunk of that money and you get another chance to get that money as floating money sacks when you return to the place where you died. This will cause you to be more careful and much more alert when trying to get back those money sacks. If you happen to die again before getting those money sacks then those money sacks are gone for good. Another great mechanic they introduced is the checkpoint system. You can either keep the checkpoint or destroy the checkpoint for more money.  This is a great system to really reward your skill-play with the higher risk involved and to check how well you know the level from the beginning until the end.

I recommend Shovel Knight if you are nostalgic for games like Mega Man or DuckTales from the 80’s or 90’s with some decent challenges and a great bang for your buck.

#4. Hollow Knight

Platforms: Playstation 4/Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and PC

Hollow Knight, developed by Team Cherry, is a Metroidvania type of game where you get to explore a huge map to get power-ups to help you traverse more into the map while fighting loads of bosses and enemies along the way. What makes Hollow Knight special among the abundance of indie Metroidvania games is that the game looks, sounds, and plays amazingly that it has gathered a rather large following from gamers and has garnered praise for how expertly and lovingly crafted the game is. The game looks pretty cutesy in design but the world and atmosphere of the game are extremely grim and there is a sense of isolation when exploring the world of Hollow Knight. A fun fact about the game is that Hollow Knight started out as a game in Newgrounds and it developed into its own after that.

You play as the Knight which is this tiny beetle-looking character as it explores the world of Hallownest meeting hostile bugs and trying to uncover story bits of why the Knight is visiting Hallownest and what their goal is. Now the game itself is extremely challenging and can test your skill and patience when fighting enemies but the rewards are great if you overcome them. Hollow Knight is inspired by both the Metroidvania genre and the game Dark Souls. Dark Souls is the main inspiration for the difficulty found in Hollow Knight yet Team Cherry has such a good understanding of how to make the difficulty feel challenging instead of unfair makes the game have this great “One More” try feeling to it.

I definitely recommend this game if you want to experience an unknown world with an amazing art style, music, and gameplay style not seen in other Metroidvania types of games.

#3. Undertale

Platforms: Playstation 4/Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and PC

Undertale is a good example of a passion project turned into a massive success. Undertale was developed by Toby Fox who at a time was known for his fan mod of Earthbound and for his music in the webcomic Homestuck. Undertale was supposed to be this short game that he put up on KickStarter for just $5K but was able to amass $50K once the campaign was over. This prompted Toby Fox to expand his game with more ideas. Undertale did so well critically and commercially that it spawned a fandom that has them telling their own stories within the world of Undertale, recreating iconic scenes in the game, and creating their own rendition of Toby Fox’s music for the game.

The whole premise of Undertale is unique, it is an RPG game where you can either kill the enemy or befriend them by just having a conversation with them. Whichever approach you take will drastically affect the story of the game and how enemies and characters react to seeing you. The game’s combat system is also unique where it incorporates a bullet-hell system in order to dodge attacks. Undertale takes inspiration from two different RPGs. The Mother Series and the Shin Megami Tensei series. The Mother series has been a huge influence on Toby Fox’s works due to the series’ quirky nature and its ability to tell a serious story despite the silliness going on in the world of Mother. As for the Shin Megami Tensei series, it helped inspire the game’s main gimmick as Shin Megami Tensei revolves around recruiting demons by talking to them.

I definitely recommend this game to those looking for something quirky, heart-warming, and generally great story. Also, just a tip when playing the game. Don’t look up videos regarding certain scenes until you finish the game, Undertale has a really great story that it’s a shame if you spoiled yourself looking up the story.

#2. Cuphead

Platforms: Playstation 4/Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and PC

Cuphead is one of the more unique games in terms of the art style on this list. The art style is heavily inspired by 1930’s cartoons. Especially by early Disney and Fleischer Studios animations. Everything in the graphics was hand-drawn and animated exactly like how those studios did back in the 1930s. This extreme dedication by Studio MDHR that they were able to win over millions of gamers with the game and they even had backing from Microsoft themselves to help make this game a reality. Cuphead has been such a success that Netflix is making an animated series out of the game. The game is a run and gun type of game where you fight enemies from beginning to the end while trying to avoid all the attacks being thrown at you. Now what makes Cuphead unique is that almost all the run and gun segments are boss battles and they are difficult boss battles to boot too.

Cuphead takes inspiration from the Contra series where you have to run from the start of the level to the end of the level just running and gunning your way through it. What’s cool about Cuphead is that the game is just a treat to play due to the animation of each stage. It feels like you are playing a cartoon and that you are being tested with your dexterity and skill while jazz music is playing in the background to really solidify that you are in the 1930s watching something straight out of the Golden Age of Animation.

I would definitely recommend this game if you want to see this beauty in action and if you want something rather difficult yet be amazed by how much work was put into the game as well.

#1 Hades

Platforms: Playstation 4/Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and PC

Hades is something truly special in terms of an indie game. Every so often there is an indie game that will just rock the foundation of gaming and it gets recognized for that achievement. Hades was able to combine its story, gameplay, game design, and music spectacularly and I outrightly will consider this as a masterpiece of gaming. Developed by Supergiant games, they have been a veteran in the indie game scene and have released decent games in the past. I was a fan of Bastion when I tried it out back then.

Hades does something special in that it felt like this game had a budget, a story it wanted to tell, and a drive from the team that wanted to make this game happen. Hades is a rogue-lite type of game where if the player dies, they lose every single progress they made but they are able to improve abilities of the characters to make the run a bit easier the next time you attempt. Now, this seems daunting as you don’t want to lose progress at all but the cool part about Hades is that they acknowledge this and make it into a story. In Hades, you control Zagreus, the son of Hades, as he tries to escape the Underworld and other Gods and Goddesses of the Olympian Pantheon are helping Zagreus out by granting him abilities along the way. You also get to meet other well-known Greek figures from Greek Mythology such as Sisyphus, Theseus, and many others. 
What makes Hades unique in its premise is the amount of charm and personality the game has. Every time you die in Hades, you will hear various comments from different characters and you will never hear the same line ever in the game which is unheard of in any form of games and the writing team for Hades should be given an award for the sheer amount of dialogue they had to write just to make the game charming. Each character is extremely likable and Zagreus himself is the star of the show as he exemplifies such great characteristics you want to see in a protagonist. For gameplay, it is something not too special as it is a regular hack and slash type of game but they executed it so well that it is fun to play, and mixing it with various abilities will always result in a run that will be unique every time.

I would say that out of all the games I listed here, definitely get Hades as it is something I consider a game that you should play before-you -ie category. All of the games listed here are must play but Hades is a special breed of game that you don’t see too often happen in the gaming industry at all.