Indies I've Been Playing

 It's been ages since I last covered some indie games so I decided to dedicate a post to talk about the ones that I've been playing recently. A few were on my radar for a while and others came as a neat find. So here are the indies I've been playing recently: 

Pizza Tower (PC)

Pizza time.

 Pizza Tower is a 2D gem from Tour De Pizza that turned heads last year when it released. Inspired by Nintendo's Wario Land series, it stars a pizza chef named Peppino who must protect his restaurant from a sinister-looking pizza called "Pizza Face" by climbing his tower. If you think the premise is odd, wait till you see the rest of the game as it's jam-packed with bizarre characters and downright weird levels-- all of which gives the game its signature charm. It's a 2D platormer where you control Peppino and sometimes fellow chef Gustavo who rides on top of a fast giant rat, as you dash, roll, jump, parry and slam enemies across the game's 20 levels, each offering a unique theme. The likes included a wacky Golf course, breezy beach, western-styled saloon, and even an alien planet to name a bunch.

The core gameplay has you aiming for high score and grade as you must collect the level's pizza ingredients that allow you to purchase the floor's boss door. You'll play through a level normally until you reach the end and must hit a giant stone, which then must quickly rush back to the entrance before the time limit as when that's up, Pizza Face will show up and instantly kill Peppino. Additionally, there are secret rooms and levels that house neat collectables. Boss fights are among the game's strong suits as they're tough, demanding constant pattern memorization as they'll quickly change or speed up their attacks to throw you off guard. I didn't like that checkpoints were few and failure to reach the entrance before the time limit has you replaying the whole level again. Also, some levels require precise timing while speeding through them, so expect to lose speed due to mistimed jumps or bumping into something.

The game boasts a outlandish art-style (literally!) as you greeted with loud colors and crude-yet-expressive character designs that immediately grab your attention. There are Wario Land nods here, but Pizza Tower does a fine job of carving-out its own identity. The designs of the bosses you'll encounter ended up being my favorites too. It ran well on my PC with no instances of crashes and slowdown. The soundtrack was infectious, featuring many catchy tracks that complement the game's eccentric nature. Pizza Tower was a lot of fun as it was always entertaining with never a dull moment since you're busy making sense of how weird it all was. Fans of platformers shouldn't miss out on it.

Prodigal (PC)

A familiar-looking adventure.

 Prodigal is an 2D platformer from Colorgrove that recently caught my eye when I was browsing on Steam. It takes heavy inspiration from the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on the GameBoy Color. Prodigal has you playing as a young adventurer Oran, who fled his town for a life of excitement. He returns and must mend his strained relationships while battling an evil force that looms over his town. The story was decent enough with its own unique backstory told in books and journals. The characters were good as you get to romance 10 girls ranging from your childhood friend, oddball alchemist, and shy medic to name a few. 

 Playing very similarly to Link's Awakening, you get to explore dungeons, solve many puzzles, collect items to help you advance in certain parts of the map, and defeat bosses with said item. Enemies are plentiful and here, you'll be using an axe instead of a sword to beat them. It's a faithful enough game that also offer side-quests and sizeable post-game content to indulge after the credits. My biggest issue was that upon defeat, you always respawn back in town instead of entrance to your last location, so expect tedious backtracking.

 Prodigal looks and sounds almost exactly like a GameBoy Color game, though it features more expressive character portraits and effects. The soundtrack too was great despite being repetitive, packing many catchy tracks. All in all, Prodigal was a brief seven hour adventure that's worth a play if you're a fan of the classic Zelda games.

Heaven Dust I & II (PC)

Bite-sized survival-horror.

The Heaven Dust games are bite-sized Resident Evil clones where you play as a lone survivor named Steve as he must escape a zombie outbreak. The first game has you mysteriously waking up in a mansion overrun with zombies and must find a way out. The sequel follows Steve waking up again from an infected facility and must escape with the help of Alexander, a researcher. Both games are filled with backstory regarding major events as they're told via journals and notes, so you'll be doing some light reading to get an understanding of things. The stories weren't anything special as its just an excuse for you to shoot zombies.

The core gameplay of the games have you control Steve in almost top-down view as you explore around for keys to unlock doors, gather items to solve puzzles and shoot enemies with a variety of weapons. The first game features only six inventory slots, making backtracking to the item box a chore. Also, it's shallow with you only having a single pistol with no additional weapons. Thankfully, Heaven Dust II improves upon the first by adding more weapons, inventory slots, enemy variety, and more interesting areas to explore. Whereas the first took just under two hours to beat, the second was close to seven. 

The games are presented in a cartoony look with the character and monster designs being neat. The dialogue is filled with typos and mistranslated words as it's from a Chinese developer, so reading journals can be confusing sometimes. The music was generic with nothing really catchy. With all that said, the Heaven Dust games were decent-enough indie alternatives to Resident Evil. Heaven Dust II is easily the better of the two, so I'd play the first just to appreciate the sequel.