Gamescom '13: Take a look at the 24 indie games that are heading to PS Vita
Fez! Joe Danger! Velocity 2X! Minecraft! Volume! Broken Sword!
The PS Vita is an indie machine.
You only had to sit through Sony's Gamescom keynote and hear about its cavalcade of upcoming indie collaborations to know that.
It seems like every bedroom coder and tiny team wants to get their game onto the PS Vita, and Sony made a huge deal yesterday about these handmade games and their imaginative creators.
So, we will, too, with this enormous round-up.
Here are all the games that were shown during Sony's keynote, plus a few that showed up afterwards.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong NumberA sequel to Dennaton Games's ultra violent, neon-dipped murder sim Hotline Miami. This blood-soaked brawler will take place after the events of the first game. You'll be able to choose from multiple characters.
VolumeIt's the new game from cheeky Thomas Was Alone chappy Mike Bithell. No talking rectangles in this one - it's a stealth puzzler about throwing sound around abstract rooms to lure away guards. In Volume, you will also be able to make and share your own levels.
MinecraftEveryone's heard of Minecraft. It's a digital Lego-like block-building playground in which you have to forcibly dig your blocks out of the ground and protect your creations from explosive Creepers. It's a PS4 launch game, but it's heading to Vita, too.
Age of ZombiesPreviously on iOS, Android, and PSP, Halfbrick's time-travelling twin-stick shooter Age of Zombies will also surface on PS Vita at some point. This one's got a zombified Tyrannosaurus rex, so that's something.
FezBrain-bending puzzle-platformer Fez is all about perception, 2D vs 3D, giant owls, Tetronimos, secret languages, mysterious telescopes, exploration, and discovery. It's a beautiful little indie opus, and it's heading Vita-wards.
Final HorizonWe know next to nothing about Final Horizon, other than the fact that it comes from Eiconic Games (maker of the decidedly average Total Recoil and the decidedly less average PulzAR).
Flame OverWe also know nothing about Flame Over. Just its developer - Laughing Jackal (of Hungry Giraffe and OMG HD Zombies! fame).
Gravity Crash UltraJust Add Water's Gravity Crash was a sternly challenging PS3 shooter with retro vector graphics and a soundtrack by CoLD SToRAGE. The developer told Eurogamer that this Vita version is a "remixed and amped up" remake of the PS3 game, with a handful of new levels and spiffy updated visuals.
GunslugsOrangePixel's Metal Slug-inspired shooter Gunslugs is Vita-bound. In our review of the mobile version, we called it "a fun, frenetic, and feature-packed tribute to the run-and-gun arcade shooters of yesteryear."
Joe Danger and Joe Danger 2Wacky stuntman simulator Joe Danger and its sequel are accelerating towards everyone's favourite twin-stick handheld. In these games, you ride bikes (and skis and mine carts) through obstacle courses, and try to unleash high-scoring stunts. Terrific fun, and will be right at home on Vita.
Kick & FennickKick & Fennick is a cute and colourful platform adventure from Rotterdam dev Jaywalkers. We don't know much about it, but the screenshots sure are pretty. It was originally slated for iOS, but it will hit Vita, too.
Rogue LegacyRogue Legacy is Infinity Blade-meets-Castlevania. So, you'll wander about a side-scrolling castle duffing up beasties and avoiding traps. But if you die mid-adventure, it's up to your darling offspring to finish the job. Let's just hope your kid doesn't suffer from crappy genetic traits like colour blindness, vertigo, or irritable bowel syndrome.
Samurai GunnIn Beau "Teknopants" Blyth's scrappy multiplayer epic Samurai Gunn, each player is armed with a gun, though you only get three bullets to a life. After that, you're going to have to rely on your sword. It's been a huge hit at loads of indie events, and we simply can't wait to get our hands on the Vita version.
SupermagicalSupermagical is a bubble-popping iOS import. When we reviewed the mobile game, we said: "While there's nothing painfully bad about Supermagical, the sum of its parts add up to a mediocre whole." High praise, indeed!
Switch Galaxy UltraSwitch Galaxy was a Silver Award-winning racer on PS Mobile, and now its getting a spiffy makeover for PS4 and Vita. The devs are from Psygnosis, which was responsible for WipEout. And Captain Fizz Meets The Blaster-Trons for the ZX Spectrum. But that's hardly relevant, is it? A-Men 2
A-Men was a Lost Vikings-style puzzle-platformer, featuring little soldiers. So, not a prayer simulator, then. Darn. Anyway, there's a sequel on the way, and it's got its sights set firmly on Vita.
Assault Android CactusIt's a high-intensity, neon-dipped bullet-hell twin-stick shooter on lots of drugs. It looks good, and it's heading to Vita. You don't need to Greenlight it or anything.
Avoid DroidIn Avoid Droid, you've got to eat fruit that makes you explode so you can blow up waves of 'orrible snake baddies. It sounds like our sort of party, and it's from the guys who made the charming plasticine and pipe cleaner puzzler Frutorious.
Broken Sword: The Serpent's CurseThanks to Kickstarter, there'll be a fifth instalment of Broken Sword, the UK-made adventure series about a thrill-seeking lawyer with an uncanny knack of stumbling upon ancient curses and cults. Thanks to Sony, this fifth iteration of Broken Sword is heading to Vita.
Eufloria HDEufloria is a clever petal-powered strategy game about spreading your seeds from planetoid to planetoid. It's available on everything from PC to iPad, but Vita fans will get a chance to play it soonish. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Randomly generated roguelike The Binding of Isaac was inspired by Zelda... and The Bible. You play as a nude and crying child who would rather stumble through a nightmare dungeon of traps and monsters than be sacrificed. This complete remake is heading to Vita next year.
Wasteland KingsWhether its addictive angler Ridiculous Fishing or twitchy arena shooter Super Crate Box, Vlambeer has a proven track record of blowing our goddamn brains. So, we don't even care what Wasteland Kings is. Just hook it up to my veins already.
Velocity 2XHey, top-down shmup Velocity was a good game. And so was Vita remake Velocity Ultra. So, sequel Velocity 2X, which contains puzzle-platforming, shooting, on-foot infiltration, and spaceship piloting, sounds good to us.