It’s episode seven of Indiescovery and this week, wow, the gang is tired. With a busy four days in Boston for PAX East, mine and Liam’s brains were basically mush last week, so Rebecca – an absolute angel – graciously said she could host a special PAX East episode where she chats with Liam and me about the indies we saw on the show floor and try desperately to string together a coherent sentence. She also made bulletpoints of our entire chat so writing up the shownotes would be easier; we do not deserve her.
Saying that, our exhaustion doesn’t stop us from kicking up a riot over the BAFTA Game Awards at the start of the episode. We then delve into our PAX East indie round up and, as always, we end with our current hyperfixations.
When you think of the titles of some of Nintendo’s most iconic platform games, many of them just make sense as they are: Super Mario World, Kirby’s Dream Land, and Donkey Kong Country. It all fits as a naming convention, right? Well, according to ex-Rare dev Kev Bayliss, the inclusion of the word ‘Country’ in Donkey Kong Country for the SNES actually has a more significant meaning behind it.
In a reply to a question on Twitter as to how the addition of the word ‘Country’ came to be, Bayliss confirmed that the game had been known as ‘The Country Project’ during development, owing to the fact that Rare was effectively situated in the middle of the countryside. Bayliss states that Nintendo had simply decided to keep ‘Country’ in the name, and so Donkey Kong Country was born.
A Little to the Left is dropping its second free Special Event, running from April 7th to April 10th (that’s this weekend coming!). This Easter-themed Something Eggstra event will introduce four new egg-themed messes for players to unscramble. Not sticky egg messes in real life, but cute egg puzzles in a warm, charming video game. Something Eggstra follows on from December’s Christmas freebies.
For the first two decades of my life, I was torn in a war between two foes: spring cleaning season and video games. My mother always dragged me away from my controller and forced me to tidy up my room. But this year, I decided to spend the day with A Little to the Left; I prefer to enjoy neatness and order by solving puzzles in games, leaving my actual wardrobe in chaos. Of course, if you have to stick to the traditions of spring cleaning season in the physical world, you’ll still get a chance to access limited-time event puzzles you may have missed. According to Max Inferno, the game’s developer, a puzzle archive mode is currently “in incubation”, set to release later this year.
The new patch includes various bug fixes and will be available as a free update on PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch. You can find the Easter puzzles in the game’s Daily Tidy Delivery mode, from 00:00 in your local timezone on Friday, April 7th. There will be a brand new puzzle everyday of the event, playable until 23:59 on April 10th. If you haven’t got the game, it’s also a good chance to start your healing, tidying experience, accompanied by a cute naughty kitten. A Little To The Left costs £13 on Steam.
Fire Emblem Engage has had an update jumping all the way up to Version 2.0.0. This update makes way for Wave 4 of the game’s Expansion Pass content.
Apart from this, an “update bonus” has been added, collaboration content with the mobile app Fire Emblem Heroes can now be downloaded and various issues have also been resolved to make for a more enjoyable experience.
Explosive, colorful, and punchy, Everspace 2 combines the looter-shooter RPG treadmill with arcade space dogfights to build an interesting combo that has surprising diversity in how you can play it. While it looks like a space sim on the outside, and it has nods to the stuff you do in that genre like fight pirates, mine asteroids, and build reputation, Everspace 2 shouldn’t be mistaken for one. To its benefit and its detriment, this is a through-and-through lootin’ and shootin’ beast that’s much more interested in entertaining you with flashy fights and reconfiguring your fighter in a mind-boggling number of ways rather than simulating – or stimulating you with – anything else.
That right there should probably tell a lot of you whether you want to play it at all. The other bit is that this is technically a sequel, but… not really. The first Everspace is a roguelite where every mission is procedurally generated, while this one is a more traditional action RPG about taking on a main story quest and side missions, solving open-world puzzles, and blowing through randomly generated contracts for the 50 or so hours it takes to finish the main story. Or 100 hours to play all of it. Then a few dozen more optimizing your builds to bash away at the randomly generated endgame bits, if you like those.
That’s all to say Everspace 2 is pretty different from the original, though it is a direct sequel in terms of story: You’re one of those clone pilots you played as in the first one’s roguelite framework, but there’s no more coming back from the dead. You might be happy about that if you loved the story in the first one, and you might be a bit confused at times if you skipped it, but there’s a cache of really thorough – if largely forgettable – log entries to bring you up to speed on the story and world you’re dumped into. The writing and characters are something between stiff and disposable – though there are a few winners and good gags, my favorite among them being a broken garbage-disposal robot.
It’s kind of a shame, really, because you do spend a lot of time in this world. Characters have conversations as you jump at high speed from encounter to encounter within systems, and you pick up missions from the same people over and over. There’s even a great “story so far” log for those who take big breaks between game sessions—so it feels like a waste that characters spend so much time on empty dialogue or redundant explanations. But honestly, you’re not playing Everspace 2 for the dialogue, you’re playing it for the spaceships blowing up – which it does pretty dang well.
It’s good combat doesn’t get old, because it’s all Everspace 2 has going for it.
Flying around is smooth, with nary a technical hitch or slowdown in sight delivering a classic adaptation of generally short-range dogfights where you rock-paper-scissors your equipped damage types to optimize against enemy shields and armor. Enemies are numerous, and on most difficulties can overwhelm you if you’re not careful – it’s all about positioning and approach. Picking out priority targets early is important, knocking down enemies like snipers or ensnaring web drones before they can strike and leave you vulnerable, all while choosing to take the fight somewhere you can dodge behind asteroids to get cover between your lone fighter and heavier enemy ships. It’s combat that didn’t get old for me, and even when I had outleveled a mission I found it pretty relaxing to jump on and take down squads of baddies.
It’s good that it didn’t get old, because combat – and preparing for more combat – is really all that Everspace 2 has going for it. The vast majority of missions are either “go somewhere and have a fight” or “retrieve something from people after you fight them.” The rest of the time is spent hopping between ports, docking, fetching, and listening to all of that rambling dialogue. The other thing to do is figuring out environmental puzzles. Most locations have some hidden hatches to discover and blow open, a timed challenge to carry something from one spot to another, or one of many, many hunts through random debris for whatever generator core or battery you need to open a door to some loot. Those are nice in the early hours when you’re still encountering bits of debris you haven’t seen before, but by the end they’re just repetitive hunts among familiar bits of broken space station and asteroid.
Those maneuvering challenges might’ve been more interesting if Everspace 2 had more sim chops than it does, where piloting your ship is a challenge and first-person perspective is encouraged. As it is, the controls are good for arcade spaceflight, and they feel reactive and crisp on both mouse and keyboard and controller, and are fine for a flightstick. However, those who prefer a more “traditional” Newtonian spaceflight experience will be disappointed in Everspace 2’s version: The ship controls just aren’t fine enough to let you execute tight maneuvers without frustration when the ship doesn’t automatically correct its motion for you.
Which is a missed opportunity, because experiencing the different ships and how they fly is a strength of Everspace 2. Sure, the 30-some enemy types might get stale by the end, but that’s where the looter part of this looter-shooter comes in. There are three ship classes: Light, Medium, and Heavy – all fighters. Each has three further classes, all of which play quite differently. Ships can equip any of an array of modules like boosters, armor, and shields, of which there are variants that meaningfully change your combat style. Do you want a shield that’s tougher, or one that’ll recharge faster after it breaks? Do you want a big boost of speed for a short time, or a small boost that can be sustained for longer than you’ll ever use? Then there are 10 primary weapons, from beam lasers to autocannons, and a bevy of missiles, mines, and rockets to use as secondary armaments.
This is exactly the kind of customization I want from a loot-driven game.
And did I mention devices? That’s stuff like a localized EMP generator, viral attack programs, an invincible frontal shield, a teleporter, and more, all of which you can level up.
And you tweak all of that stuff with boosts to range or damage or energy capacitors or speed, and you can put it on every one of those nine ship types. There are more ways to build a cool space fighter in this game than I could even begin to try out in one 50-hour playthrough. It’s exactly the kind of customization I want from a loot-driven, class-based game like this one.
Take the Interceptor, for example: it’s a Medium fighter class that focuses on absolutely never having to stop shooting. It laughs full-auto at energy-hungry guns other fighters can only fire in bursts, and once equipped with a fast-charging capacitor it’ll never disappoint. Alternatively you could try out the light ships, like the Vanguard, which boosts its shields when the afterburner is on and does extra damage when striking enemies from behind. Kitted out with high-damage, low-range weapons, it’s a nightmare for enemies who can’t keep you off their tail.
That’s not all: one of the Heavy class ships is basically a necromancer that makes drones out of enemy wrecks, and another is a bomber that has unlimited missile ammunition. My favorite Heavy, though, is the Gunship. True to its name, it just has literally twice as many guns as any other ship available. Does that mean it drains its batteries twice as fast? Yes. Did I care? Not one whit.
That array of options does come at a cost, of course: you’re constantly shuffling new loot and consumables through your inventory. It’s a lot of busywork that comes with the genre, but the barrage of new gear in Everspace 2 is constant because you level up a lot, which means gear gets outdated fast. That’s especially true if you’re plowing into new storylines rather than taking your time on random jobs or side missions. You need to break down loot for crafting materials, which you use to upgrade the loot you actually want to keep or to make new loot, but you also set some materials aside to pay for perks from people you meet. You need a high tolerance for picking through new numbers or you’ll go cross-eyed fast.
The upshot, however, is that I always felt like I could try new things. That was a blessing when there were so many new guns and ships to play with. I didn’t feel penalized for never picking a “main” ship and sticking with it, or for repeatedly changing weapon selection and devices to experiment with.
The road to Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been a long and winding one. Originally announced in 2018 before the reveal of the much-discussed voice cast in 2021, we have long been unsure as to whether Mario’s big-screen debut (ahem, of the animated kind) was going to do the venerable gaming icon justice. Well, we now have our answer and it is just as we expected: The Mario Movie is a sufficiently fun time so long as you’re not all that fussed about story.
So what exactly is the story? Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are going about setting up a plumbing business in Brooklyn, New York, but the going is tough. Their clients are few and far between and their parents are disappointed, but hey, at least they have each other, right? You’ll want to remember that bit, it’s important.
Mario is, without a doubt, one of the most well known and iconic characters in any medium. He’s appeared in hundreds of games across about a dozen platforms, and has had at least twice as many jobs. Now with the arrival of the new Super Mario Bros. Movie, it’s clear that the era of Mario is only just getting started.
At the end of the day, though, it’s been the core Mario platformer games that have kept players coming back for forty years. So, without further ado, these are our picks for the the 10 best Super Mario games of all time.
Note: This list was originally published in 2017, but has been updated to factor in newer games. We’ve excluded non-platformer titles like Super Mario Maker from our rankings.
10. Super Mario 3D Land
Super Mario 3D Land was the clear front-runner for best handheld Mario game until the Nintendo Switch came along. The 3DS entry is chockfull of some of the most fun, bite-sized Mario levels and absolutely filled to the brim with content. Perfect for on-the-go play, Super Mario 3D Land dug through every trick in the Mario design handbook whether it was immaculate 3D platforming, or throwback retro 2.5D retro levels. It also took advantage of the system’s glasses-free 3D in a way that no other game has come close to, making the game feel truly alive. – Matt Kim
Super Mario Sunshine may have tried to sell itself on a strange premise (Mario cleaning up gunk around a tropical island?), however the addition of the F.L.U.D.D. as both a cleaning tool and platforming device let the series soar to new heights in some very clever ways. Featuring some of the most vibrant levels worth coming back to multiple times, it also finally gave us access to Yoshi in a 3D playground teeming with excellent platforming possibilities, alongside some truly challenging segments. – Brendan Graeber
You could write a book on how Super Mario Bros. not only helped save the video game industry, but also paved the way for the 30 years of our medium that followed. It solidified our fearless plumber as an icon synonymous with video games. It offered a perfectly-tuned challenge while also encouraging exploration and experimentation. And it gave players a sense of ownership via Mario’s pinpoint inertia that had rarely been seen in games before that. But apart from the NES masterpiece’s undeniable mark on history, it’s the little details that stick with us after all this time. Like the way that the clouds are just palette-swapped bushes. Or how the increased tempo of Koji Kondo’s incredible score is matched with the dwindling timer. There’s a reason Super Mario Bros. has been re-released about a hundred times in the past three decades — simply put, it’s one of the foundations of our medium. – Marty Sliva
Not only is Super Mario 3D World one of the very best games on the Wii U, but it stands tall as one of Mario’s absolute best adventures. It builds upon the diorama-feel of 3D Land by making the stages larger, filling them with interesting puzzles, and constantly switching up the aesthetic. You can also play through all of 3D World alongside three friends, which makes for some of the absolute best multiplayer the series has ever offered. Finally, it pulls in a ton of classic Mario power-ups, while also introducing a few that pretty much need to be in every Mario adventure for the rest of time. Seriously, once you see Mario and pals wearing cat costumes then cloning themselves using Double Cherries, your life will never be the same again. – Marty Sliva
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is to 3D Mario games as Super Mario Bros. 3 is to the 2D iterations: pure platforming goodness. Coming so quickly on the heels of Galaxy 1, SMG 2 is not nearly as surprising as its predecessor, but it is so much more refined. Focusing on pushing players from one level to the next rather than having them explore for challenges, SMG 2 hones in on what made the first game such a breath of fresh air while making smart tweaks and additions to the formula. The inclusion of Yoshi and new powers like the Drill and Cloud suits only further push the possibilities of the gravity-based challenges. But more so than just throwing new ideas at an already solid foundation, Galaxy 2 feels like a culmination of so many ideas from past Mario experiences pieced together in a brilliant platformer that, even at its most difficult, is still a joy to play. – Jonathon Dornbush
If there was one Mario game that exemplified the sheer creativity and sense of wonder that’s at the heart of the series, it’s the first Super Mario Galaxy. Galaxy 2 may have improved upon many of its ideas, but it was also built on the foundation that Galaxy laid down, and that’s one of the strongest foundations you’ll find in the world of video games. Levels went from being just worlds to being galaxies, with tons of planets and open space in between, with each new area offering up their own unique gameplay challenges that pushed the boundaries of what was possible on the Wii hardware. Couple that outstanding design with the unforgettable, whimsical, orchestral soundtrack, and impressive visuals that still look great even today, and it’s not hard to see why Galaxy still stand tall as one of the best Mario games of all time. – Mitchell Saltzman
Much has been made of Super Mario 64’s influence on game design and how it nails “feel” and control in a 3D environment. How it’s hard to resist wasting minutes in the opening castle garden just running, jumping, and flipping about. Or how thoughtful it is about introducing players to 3D platforming – the game actually has you meet your Lakitu cameraman! But what is most notable about the game is how fresh, fun, and playable it still feels today, a full 27 years later, despite being part of an era of games whose graphics haven’t aged gracefully.
If you think Mario 64 finds its way into Top 10s merely on pedigree and influence alone, give it another go. It takes the concept of multiple stage exits from its 2D predecessors and presents us with perfect little playgrounds filled with tasks and scavenger hunts of carefully escalating difficulty levels. At the core of this timeless game system is a physics engine that lets you have fun with mass, weight, inertia, size, and even time. It’s obvious the designers carefully placed each block, seesaw, slide, trap, and enemy to challenge and delight. It may not be the single greatest Mario game on our list, but there’s no denying that Super Mario 64 is a rare timeless 3D classic of the highest quality. – Peer Schneider
Super Mario World expanded on the potential of a Mario game to be more than just a level-completing platformer challenge, but that challenge has rarely been as pixel perfect as it is in Super Mario Bros. 3. While establishing the series’ penchant for secrets (the Warp Whistle in World 1-3 is still one of the 8-bit generation’s best surprises), SMB 3 also delivered on some truly difficult challenges throughout its eight kingdoms. From the hilarious perspective shifts of Giant Land to the brutal challenge of Dark Land, SMB 3 never lacked for inventive world design, all while setting a precedent for Mario worlds and power-ups in future installments. After all, there are few wardrobe changes better than the Tanooki Suit. – Jonathon Dornbush
Super Mario Odyssey brought the plumber truly into the new generation. As part of the Nintendo Switch launch, Nintendo busted out everyone’s favorite plumber for a new, globe-trotting adventure. It truly felt like a back-to-basics approach, save for the unique hat mechanic that allowed Mario to transfer his consciousness into objects and enemies. But while the new mechanic is fun, Super Mario Odyssey’s strength lies in its pure game-feel. Not since Mario 64 has there been a 3D platformer that just plays so great, and looks this amazing. – Matt Kim
Super Mario World took everything that was great about Mario on the original Nintendo, and multiplied it by at least 100. As a testament to its pitch perfect gameplay and outright , Super Mario World appears in the number one spot of countless “Greatest of All Time” lists, and for good reason. Built on the framework of Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World expanded the overworld map, introduced more challenges and powers, and packed more secrets into a 16-bit cart then anyone could have anticipated back in 1990. Super Mario World’s biggest contribution the future of the franchise is, without a doubt, it’s emphasis on exploration. Some levels contain multiple paths and exits, which in turn reveal switch palaces, secret levels and even entire secret worlds filled with some of the most challenging platforming levels ever created.
Mechanically, it’s a dream to play. Every jump, every fireball, and every cape spin perform exactly the same as the one before it, and this reliability allows masterful players to navigate Dinosaur Lands whopping 96 levels with the fluidity of someone composing a symphony. On top of this, the game is full of little details and charm in some of the best sprite animation to this day. When Mario jumps, his hat pops off his head just a bit, when he flies, he holds the corners of his cape to catch the wind. Animations that would seem commonplace now showed an attention to detail and added an enormous amount of character to every action and solidified Mario, and his goofy supporting cast of friends and enemies, as Nintendo mainstays, not just on the NES, but forever. – Zach Ryan
Crusader Kings 3‘s next expansion has been announced. Tours & Tournaments will introduce new events to the medieval grand strategy game including jousting events, grand weddings and the ability to send you ruler on a tour of their domain. All offer an opportunity to impress your subjects and rivals – or, I’d guess, to fall off your horse and die.
EA is currently the most popular games publisher across PlayStation and Xbox by monthly active users (MAUs), according to new data from Ampere Analysis. But Xbox stands to surpass it if the Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through.
According to Ampere Analysis, EA has consistently been the top publisher across PlayStation and Xbox based on share of MAUs since September, which is when Ampere Analysis started tracking. Speaking to IGN, analyst Piers Harding-Rolls says he suspects EA’s dominance has gone on “for some time” prior.
Since September, EA has consistently held above 16% of the market share of MAUs. Epic and Activision Blizzard have battled over second place, hovering between 9% and almost 15% of MAU market share, with Activision Blizzard overtaking Epic in October and November thanks to the launch of Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Epic, of course, continues to rely primarily on Fortnite.
Xbox retains a surprising lead on PlayStation
As for the first-party platform holders, Microsoft has held between 6% and 8% of the MAU market share during that time, trailing Take-Two. Sony has been on Microsoft’s heels, though it did overtake Microsoft briefly at the end of last year around the release of God of War: Ragnarok.
Why is Microsoft largely beating out Sony for MAUs when it has fewer console sales and thus fewer users to play its first-party games overall? According to Ampere Analysis, it’s because of Minecraft, which is available on PlayStation and many other platforms.
“In pure volume terms, around 35% of Xbox and PlayStation users playing Microsoft games are on PlayStation,” says Harding-Rolls.
So if acquisition goes ahead, that means Activision Blizzard will vanish from the graph, and Microsoft may stand to challenge EA’s lead, “potentially having a share over two times that of Sony.”
EA wins out
For now though, EA’s succeeding thanks to a diverse portfolio that includes games like Apex Legends, Madden NFL 23, UFC 4, Need for Speed Heat, The Sims 4, and Battlefield 2042. And it doesn’t hurt that its subscription service, EA Play, is bundled in with Xbox Game Pass.
EA’s crown jewel, of course, is FIFA, and not just the most recent one either. While FIFA 23 was the highest ranked game by daily engagement for February, Harding-Rolls points out that three older generations of FIFA were in the top ten games by MAU. Apparently, more people played FIFA 20 in February across both PlayStation and Xbox than played the new Dead Space remake, which came out at the tail end of January.
But the deal still has to win approval in other countries, including the US, where legal experts IGN spoke to were divided as to whether or not the Federal Trade Commission would grind the acquisition to a halt when hearings begin this August.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
