Never Alone tells an impactful tale of native culture, delivering an experience that is both unique and influential. Though a lack of stark puzzles and technical bugs does hinder the experience as a game, the alluring narrative is well worth the price of admission alone.

Infernax is a love letter to the action-adventure games of old while simultaneously excelling in the modern definition of the genre. Delivering a balanced experience, Berzerk Studio sticks the landing within the sweet spot between challenge and downright fun.

Grapple Dog is an accessible, fun, and charming collectathon platformer with a great sense of challenge - but it’s missing a core driving force with missteps in narrative. As a love letter reminiscent of the beloved Game Boy Advanced library, Grapple Dog is worth sinking your hooks into.

5AM Games delivers a fun, concise game where the written words are the puzzles themselves. Explore the wonder of a burgeoning pen pal friendship in the ‘90s in the ever so charming Letters.

Between the astonishing aesthetic paired with remarkable sound direction, Sifu is a presentational marvel. But unfortunately, punishing gameplay and overly-complex systems make for an inaccessible and overwhelmingly difficult experience.

Blek is a simple game that rewards creativity, visualization, and out-of-the-box efforts. Blek isn’t trying to be the next AAA franchise. Instead, it’s just trying to be Blek.

Summertime Madness is an earnest attempt at making an emotionally appealing puzzle game, but ultimately misses the mark. Beautiful visuals paired with a melodic score unfortunately couldn't elevate the overly bloated puzzles and sterile storytelling.

The Pedestrian is a beautiful, well thought out puzzler that nails that mark between a relaxing and challenging experience. Skookum Arts has crafted an experience worth the time of those looking for a beautiful new brain teaser.

Sundae Month successfully grasps what a simple game made to boost one’s serotonin with lovable dogs should look like. If there was ever a game that achieved its vision to the nth degree, it’s Pupperazzi.

Nobody Saves The World delivers an enthralling experience within a fantastical world of imaginative characters. This is not only Drinkbox Studios’ most ambitious game to date, but is easily the best in their catalog of celebrated titles.

Echo Generation’s active turn-based combat system and beautiful visuals make for a fun experience; one that was overlooked in 2021 and worth circling back to in the new year.

It’s nearly impossible to compile a short list of the years most anticipated indie titles. But in what may seem to be the strongest year for the indie scene in recent memory, we did our best.

Another year under the shadow of the pandemic, we close out this chapter by celebrating the games that kept us hopeful, inspired, grounded, and blissful throughout 2021.

In times of emptiness and invalidity, What Comes After is a simply presented resource I wish I had access to in my darkest days - but one I’m eternally grateful to experience in the present.

Aspire: Ina’s Tale is a visual showcase of how beautiful games can be, especially on the OLED Switch. However, the occasionally frustrating puzzles resulting in consistent resets or annoying sequences deter from the zen-like experience.

Laying the groundwork for an intelligent puzzle-narrative adventure wrapped within a sci-fi mystery, Ever Forward is quite the heartbreaker. Unfortunately, not in the sense we typically prefer.

With an extremely simple to understand, yet hard to master gameplay approach, Exbleative’s debut proved capable of creating a stunning trance-like experience.

Moncage strikes a delicate balance in its art, puzzles, and narrative, setting an impressive precedent for perspective art and puzzles alike.

Tantalizing secrets within a horrifying nightmare lay the foundation of the mystery behind New Elysian City. With the appropriate dominos in place, Happy’s Humble Burger Farm marks a promising future for the PSX-inspired grunge horror genre.

Witch Beam delivers a relaxed and creatively open approach to gameplay, with an ordinary but intimate narrative in a unique fashion. With little-to-no hiccups, Unpacking ultimately succeeds as the accessible, zen puzzler it set out to be.