It’s not all about AAA titles, you know. The ID@Xbox program has shown in the past that Microsoft are as committed as every to bringing the cream of the indie crop to consoles, and it has unveiled a further 18 games that will be heading to GDC 2018, and they range from the ambitious to the downright outrageous.
The games, announced over at the Xbox site, include “a rebirth of the iconic brawler genre”, “a shared-screen pinball arena game” and what sounds like a gritty Psychonauts. Let’s dive in to them, shall we?
- 9 Monkeys of Shaolin – a “rebirth of the iconic brawler genre”
- Apocalypse Cow – “a cinematic adventure that redefines storytelling for platformers”
- BackSlash – “a spell casting brawler”
- Can’t Drive This – “a multiplayer party racing game” where you have to build the track while you drive. Wild.
- Dead Ahead – Plants vs. Zombies but if the sunflowers was a giant bus instead.
- Exception – “A combat platformer set inside a computer system”
- Flipping Death – I guess if The Good Place was part Gravity Rush, part platform puzzler.
- Harold Halibut – “A modern adventure game about the daily routine on a spaceship stuck undersea”
- Once Upon a Coma – “A hauntingly dreamlike fable”
- One Finger Death Punch 2 – “The world’s fastest brawler”
- Pinbrawl – “A shared-screen pinball arena game”
- PLANET ALPHA – Set on “a beautiful alien world filled with mystery and danger”
- Russian Subway Dogs – “A fast-paced systemic arcade game”
- Squadron 51 – a homage to sci-fi B-movies
- Supermarket Shriek – “a unique (shopping) kart racer”
- Thief of Thieves – “Based on the best-selling comic by Robert Kirkman”
- Tormental – A gritty Psychonauts
- Virgo vs. The Zodiac – A “galactic sci-fi/fantasy timed-action JRPG”
I don’t know about you, but I’m hurriedly jotting down names to keep track of for the rest of 2018. The full description of all 50 ID@Xbox games are available on the Xbox site, should you want to know more about them.