Welcome to our latest recap of what's going on in the indie game space. This week, the revived Acclaim held a very fun showcase (and we'll get to some of the games from that). But on Friday, Nintendo soaked up all the attention with an hour-long Direct. Sure, it included some first-party games, such as Mario Tennis Fever, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and a Donkey Kong Bananza expansion. But Nintendo highlighted several indie games in the newsy showcase, too.
Hades 2 is arguably the highest-profile name among those, and the full version isn't far away at all — it'll hit Switch, Switch 2, Steam and Epic Games Store on September 25. Stardew Valley, Human Fall Flat, Overcooked 2 and PowerWash Simulator 2 are getting Switch 2 versions as well.
It wouldn't be a Nintendo Direct without a shadowdrop. Sure enough, Lynked: Banner of the Spark landed on Switch and Switch 2 on Friday, with mouse control and GameShare support on the newer system. This is an action RPG from FuzzyBot and publisher Dreamhaven that looks a bit like a cross between Hades and Hi-Fi Rush.
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I'll be honest, I've had Lynked: Banner of the Spark sitting on my PC for months. I'm definitely interested in checking it out, but it's just one of those things that's unfortunately slipped further and further down my to-play list. I'm still hoping to carve out time to properly check it out before it's time to start putting together our games of the year list.
Popucom (which debuted on Steam earlier this year) also looks pretty intriguing. From Hypergryph and publisher Gryph Frontier, this is a multiplayer-only adventure platformer in which you take out enemies with match three-style shooting.
Here's the twist: each player only has two colors, so you'll need to work together to fire the correct blobs at bad guys and obstacles. Popucom is coming to Switch this holiday season.
New releases
Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game is a new title from the small team at female-led Indonesian developer Posh Cat Studio and publisher Amplified Games. As the name suggests, it's a slice-of-life detective game that sees you getting to the bottom of misunderstandings and minor inconveniences.
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