Nintendo is a company often lampooned for the lack of third-party support on its systems. Though there has been plentiful third-party support for the 3DS, the Wii U has seen a severe drought of new titles in general, much less ones from outside Nintendo. The Nindies@Home program looks to fix that and show consumers that Nintendo can still have strong relationships with indie developers. Each game featured in the program has a free preview you can download and try before the full version releases this year, and doing so will save you 15% off the purchase price. After eagerly downloading and playing all nine previews, I compiled them into three categories: The Top 3, The Most Potential, and The Doubtfuls. The other two posts in this three-part series will come on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Keeping in mind Nindies@Home ends Monday morning, I recommend downloading all the previews this weekend while they're still available and deleting any unwanted ones later. Though these are early builds of each game and aren't necessarily representative of the final products, here are my impressions of what they gave us to try. ______________________________ Runbow (Wii U Exclusive) We're starting out strong here. Runbow is a party game, pure and simple. It supports up to nine players either locally or online, a great option for those without a ton of friends to play with locally (like myself). The base concept is pretty simple: players dash to the end of a level that's manipulated by constant changes of color that wipe across the screen--platforms appear and disappear, openings are blocked off based on what the current color is, and so on (this is only one mode; there are four different ones, all with optional multiplayer). I invited a couple friends over to play the preview with me, and it was a pretty good time! We laughed, shouted, and screwed each other over to gain an advantage--all signs of a great party game. The character designs and animations are full of personality, and out of all the previews Runbow probably made me feel the happiest while playing it. I highly recommend getting some friends together and trying this preview out for yourself! The Nintendo Treehouse gameplay is also great if you want to see it in action first. Forma.8 (multi-platform) This was by far my favorite single-player experience. You control a tiny space ship as it flies around beautifully-stylized cave environments armed only with mines and a protective force field. The exploration in this game fully enveloped me, and I found myself playing the lengthy demo for about an hour and a half. The art and sound design do a fantastic job creating this ominous, foreboding atmosphere, and it really pulls you in. Depending on the final release's length and variety, I could easily see myself putting a couple-dozen hours into Forma.8. It's a shame it isn't an exclusive (apparently it was originally an iOS game, but later expanded to consoles), but it nonetheless controls smoothly and naturally on the gamepad, so I'm not complaining. Lovely Planet (multi-platform) You've never played anything like this. From the super-cutesy art style to the earworm main theme, the first-person shooter is unapologetically Japanese. It feels strange to call it a FPS, though, because it's so different from others in the genre. Though it was originally released almost a year ago on PC, Lovely Planet feels right at home with the gamepad controls. The game introduces new mechanics gradually, and I never felt like I was cheated when I died. There isn't room for much frustration since you restart a level almost instantly after dying. The reason for picking LP up isn't the lackadaisical, appropriately floaty gameplay, however--it's the aesthetic. While playing I couldn't help but feel encouraged by the cheery music, and I felt admittedly awesome wielding my strange flower-gun weapon. This is definitely a divisive title, though, so I'd overwhelmingly recommend playing the demo before buying the game. Thanks for reading guys, and look for the other two posts in the series early next week. Follow me @CreamBasics on Twitter to know right when they go up. Hope you all have a great weekend!
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