Everything featured in today's Nintendo Indie World Showcase
Cats! Crimes! Plates! Dance! Cats!
Nintendo's latest Indie World Showcase has been and gone, serving up another busy, breakneck run-down of indie titles heading to Switch before the year is through. Obvious highlights included a release date for the highly anticipated Oxenfree 2, as well as a first look at Blasphemous 2, but you'll find a full breakdown of everything featured during the show below.
Mineko's Night Market
The lovely looking Mineko's Night Market from Meowza Games is part narrative adventure, part social sim, all inspired by Japanese culture. It promises a mix of exploration, puzzle solving, and village life - and cats! - as player prepare for a weekly visit from the titular Night Market. After a long old wait, this one finally has a release date and is coming to Switch on 26th September.
My Time at Sandrock
The follow-up to developer Panthea Games well-received My Time at Portia brings another helping of life-sim action, this time shifting from the idyllic island setting of the original to a post-apocalyptic desert 300 years after most of the world's technology was destroyed. Alongside the usual farming and socialising, Sandrock features more elaborate combat for scavenging missions in ancient ruins, mini games, and more. Expect this one on Switch "this summer".
PlateUp!
Despite obvious similarities to the much-loved Overcooked, PlateUp is aiming to carve its own niche by adding a mix of rogue-like progression and cooking management to its chaotic top-down, co-operative kitchen action. Essentially, after each successfully completed "shift", in which up to four players must work together to satisfy customer orders, players can rearrange their kitchen and apply any unlocked upgrades to improve efficiency and automation when the next shift begins. PlateUp arrives on Switch this October.
Quilts and Cats of Calico
Quilts and Cats of Calico is an adaptation of acclaimed tile-laying board game Calico. The basic premise is that players must lay patches in order to create colour and pattern combinations that form aesthetically pleasing and, importantly, cat-attracting quilts. Local and online multiplayer for up to three friends is supported, and the game also features ranked matches against random players, weekly challenges, cat customisation, and more. This one's out on Switch this autumn.
Rift of the Necrodancer
Announced last August, Rift of the Necrodancer is a standalone rhythm game set in the same universe as the acclaimed Crypt of the Necrodancer. Rift, though, is quite a departure from its predecessor, trading top-down, rhythm-based dungeon-crawling for Guitar-Hero-like lane combat where players must battle a host of monsters with different movement patterns. It features five characters, each with their own mini-games and storylines, and is out later this year.
Animal Well
Animal Well is a pixel-art Metroidvania from developer Shared Memories that sees players exploring a surreal and dangerous labyrinthine filled with secrets and animals. There are puzzles to solve, new abilities to acquire, and it's designed as a "layered experience" where dedicated players can uncover more elaborate puzzles and secrets - some of which might go unnoticed for years or require community collaboration to solve. Animal Well is out this "winter" on Switch.
Crime O'Clock
Developer Bad Seed's Crime O'Clock is a time-travelling point-and-click-style escapade in which players attempt to prevent crimes before they happen by scouring large, evolving maps for clues. Each map represents one of five interlinked eras - the Steam Age, Atlantean Age, Information Age, Lost Age, and Aeon Age - and resolving different cases in each, through a combination of action and puzzles, will progress the story. Crime O'Clock features 40 cases to solve across time and space and comes to Switch on 30th June.
Teslagrad 2
The sequel to developer Rain Games' well-recieved physics-based puzzler from 2013, Teslagrad 2 offers another blast of puzzly platform action where players - in the role of a young Teslamancer named Lumina - must harness electromagnetic power to overcome challenges and defeat mighty creatures as they explore a wild, untamed land. The exceedingly lovely looking Teslagrad 2 launches today on Switch and is joined by the enhanced Teslagrad Remastered. They're available to purchase separately on Switch's eShop or as a two-game bundle.
Shadows Over Loathing
Shadows Over Loathing, the follow-up to developer Asymmetric's 2017 wild west stick-figure comedy West of Loathing, sends players on a knockabout open-world adventure to find their Uncle Murray - an investigation that soon takes a turn with the discovery of a shadowy plot of distinctly eldritch origins threatening to bring about the end of the world. Shadows Over Loathing launches today on Switch's eShop and there's a physical version coming in autumn.
Blasphemous 2
18 months after developer The Game Kitchen announced it was working on a sequel to its gorgeous, gothic action-platformer Blasphemous, a first trailer has been revealed. Blasphemous 2 sees the return of its predecessor's pointy hatted protagonist The Penitent One for more Souls-esque Metroidvania action - bolstered this time by the likes of distinctive new weapons - and it's coming to Switch this summer.
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals
It's been a long old wait for Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, but developer Night School Studio has finally confirmed it'll be launching on 12th July. This second supernatural adventure focuses on new protagonist Riley Poverly, who returns to her small coastal hometown of Camena to investigate a series of mysterious radio signals. There are new features - including a walkie talkie conversation system - a strange cult attempting to open a portal between worlds, and more. All will be revealed when Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals arrives on Switch in July.
Cult of the Lamb, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, and A Little to the Left DLC
Alongside all the brand-new stuff - which concluded with a fleeting montage of Paper Trail, Chants of Sennar, Brotato, Escape Academy: Complete Edition, Five Nights at Freddys: Security Break, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Little Kitty, Big City - Nintendo also took a few minutes to showcase some imminent DLC for a number of already released indie games.
Tidy-em-up puzzler A Little to the Left, for instance, is launching its paid Cupboards and Drawers DLC in June, adding 25 new puzzles, new illustrations, and scenarios. Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, meanwhile, is bringing its free Puzzlers Pack DLC to Switch this "spring", adding two new playable characters, new puzzle-like Quandry Challenges, 20 new run-modifying hats to purchase from Mr. Hat, and new Relics from Chester's shop.
And finally, Cult of the Lamb's free Relics of the Old Faith update arrives on 24th April. This adds "dozens" of new items to the dungeon-crawling management sim, alongside new Relics, enemies, and remixed dungeons guarded by new versions of the base game's four Guardian Bishops. It also includes new cult buildings and followers to recruit, a new unlockable quest, plus new Permadeath, Gauntlet, and Boss-rush modes playable after completing the game.