As is customary for the PlayStation Experience, indie titles were out in full force on the show floor. Although I didn’t get a chance to check them all out, I’m going to take this opportunity to shout out the titles that really stood out to me. To be honest, it’s not that hard to catch my attention: does the game have an interesting mechanic attached to its gameplay? Does it have an awesome soundtrack? Is it a MetroidVania style game? If the answer is yes to any of these, chances are it caught my eye. So, without further ad0, here are my top three games of PSX 2016! Hit the jump to read on!
Nex Machina
Nex Machina was the first game I touched at PSX 2016, and I was not disappointed. Created by the wonderful people over at Housemarque, Nex Machina is a isometric top-down twin stick shooter that puts you in control of a character that reminds me of Mega Man X. Your character has a canon strapped to his or her arm (it’s unclear if the character is male or female), can dash through enemies and hazards alike, and can gain upgrades overtime. Taking queues from their previous title Resogun, Nex Machina let’s you be the ultimate glass canon by letting you take on hoards of mechanical enemies that can kill you with one touch. The game is all about movement and constantly attacking the machines that are coming to get you while you also try to rescue the last remaining humans. Nex Machina is slated to release in mid 2017.
Aaero
Aaero is a fast-paced on rails rhythm shooter. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but let me explain. Developed by Mad Fellows, Aaero lets you take control of a spaceship that’s hurdling through a bunch of tunnels as enemies attack you. As you’re going through these tunnels, you’re tasked with maintaining contact with a bright glowing rail. As you continuously make contact with the rail, the accompanying soundtrack in the background continues playing correctly. If you fly off of the rail, you’ll begin to lose health until you reattach yourself to the rail. In addition to that, the song in the background will start to become heavily distorted as it would if you were playing off beat in a rhythm game. In the demo I played at PSX, the track I played was relatively easy. Granted, I had the advantage of watching someone play the game before me. But what really drew me in was the heavy bass of one of my favorite dubstep tracks “Bass Canon by Flux Pavilion. The track alone basically secured Aaero’s spot in my heart, but the gameplay that went along with it felt perfect and fluid. Aaero is set to release in early 2017.
Celeste
If there was a game that could steal my heart on gameplay alone, it’d have to be Celeste. Developed by Matt Makes Games, Celeste is a precision platformer that’s out to make you break your controller. The titular character, Celeste, is a girl out on a quest to climb a mountain. That’s literally all of the information the developers were willing to give during the show, but that’s totally fine because the gameplay of Celeste is sheer perfection. I don’t really even want to talk about it more because the gameplay itself is so good that describing it here would be an injustice to it. But, I will say that as you play the game, each level will get significantly harder and harder as more and more mechanics are added to it. There were two levels available with two difficulty levels available. I picked the first level on hard difficulty and proceeded to spend thirty minutes playing the level to completion. And I wanted more. Celeste is slated to release in mid 2017.
I played much more than these three games at the PlayStation Experience, but they were certainly the three that stood out to me the most based on their unique gameplay mechanics. Stay tuned for more PSX coverage in the next fews days! But if you went to PSX 2016, what were some of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below!