Best ID@Xbox Digital Showcase announcements

Similarly to presentations like the Nintendo Indie World and Triple-I initiative, Xbox hosts its own showcase specifically to highlight independent games coming to the platform. For its second year, the ID@Xbox Digital Showcase is hoping to raise the bar even further with more announcements, trailers, and reveals. While the announcement did tease some news about a couple of known indies, the majority of the show was kept under lock and key to keep the show as exciting as possible. In fact, we didn’t even know how long the showcase would be until it ended.

Now that the dust has settled and all the trailers and news have been revealed, I couldn’t contain my excitement about what was shown. The entire show moved at a break-neck pace, so I suspect even those watching closely might have missed something, let alone those who couldn’t catch it live and just skimmed some headlines. Here are the announcements I just have to put some extra attention on, to make sure you catch them.

1 Jackbox Naughty Pack

This one’s for you, Carol

The Jackbox Party Pack titles have been hit each and every year a new version is released. I personally love whipping out Quiplash, Fibbage, and Drawful at any social event, since they’re so easy to play — even with those who don’t normally game. While the group you’re in can dictate how “adult” the games are to some extent, the games themselves always stick to family-friendly themes and prompts. That will all change with the first Jackbox Naughty Pack.

This is explicitly an M-rated package featuring three brand-new games. We don’t know anything about these games yet, though it is a smaller number than a normal Party Pack title comes with. There’s no release date for the Naughty Pack just yet, but more information will be coming this summer, so stay tuned.

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2 Astor Blade of the Monolith

The Legend of Astor

Astor kicked off the show with a new montage, but the exciting news is that it is arriving very soon, on May 30. This game has a slightly generic visual style, but it works for almost the Zelda-style game it appears to be going for. The trailer showed off a bit of platforming, but combat is clearly what we will be doing most. The gameplay showed off multiple weapons, a combo counter, and large AoE spells. The slowdown on hit in particular makes me think this could be a very satisfying game to play, and we won’t have to wait long to find out, since it was revealed to be arriving on May 30.

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3 33 Immortals

Bring your friends

33 Immortals is yet another unique take on the rogue-like genre, but this time allowing for 33 players to team up in a single dungeon. That might sound like a ton, but the trailer makes it perfectly clear that the final boss, Lucifer, will require all 33 players to be on point to defeat. The massive attack zones, patterns, and range of powers and weapons each player has, make it look as dynamic and exciting as a raid boss. In typical rogue-like fashion, each dungeon you explore will be unique on every run, but always increasing in difficulty as your team of up to 33 players beats the boss and moves on to the next.

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4 Centum

Creepy clicker

Aside from the old I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream game, I can’t think of any other horror game to take the point-and-click approach. Centum wowed me with its strikingly twisted and eerie visual style and the sense of dread it managed to convey despite the genre generally being such a passive one.

There appears to be a more meta element to the game with various shots of a computer screen with various files alongside the twisted imagery of things like a cat clock (not the cute kind) and what can only be described as Lovecraftian horrors. I wouldn’t be surprised if it also does some fourth-wall-breaking things when it arrives this summer.

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5 Lost Records Bloom & Rage

Warm nostalgia

Don’t Nod knows how to make a great game about teenagers. People might have complained about some of the writing in Life is Strange, but the tone and story were pitch perfect to me. Lost Records looks like another winner in that regard from the trailer. Taking the perspective of a homemade video, we see teens skating, chilling at playgrounds, and just hanging around on lazy summer evenings together as Lo-Fi music flows in the background.

I have no idea if it will take a completely grounded approach or not, but the vibes this trailer evoked made me nostalgic for a time I didn’t personally experience, which is an accomplishment enough to want to check out the full release late this year.

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6 Stampede Racing Royale

No blue shells

Don’t get me wrong, Mario Kart 8 is amazing, but it’s been way too long since a true competitor has stepped into the ring to challenge it. I’m not sure Stampede Racing Royale will be able to hit those same highs, but it is at least not just attempting to be a pure copy by packing in dozens of racers onto a single track.

This could be chaotic fun or an infuriating mess. The characters seem appealing, and I suspect there will be a ton of cosmetics to earn and unlock to customize your racer. I’ll need to actually feel how the races handle, but I’m optimistic about this one.

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7 All You Need is Help

Tetris for two

No doubt the most adorable trailer of the show was for All You Need is Help. Honestly, I don’t think anyone could watch this without a massive grin on their face, but the game itself looks like a great family game beyond its cute aesthetics. You take control of cubes in various configurations, much like Tetris blocks, and participate in what look like different challenges.

Many seem to be focused on figuring out how to arrange each player’s different shapes to create the design on the ground, while others involve pushing objects around while trying to control your physics. Granted, that’s not a lot of information, but its presentation here was enough to sell me.

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8 Trails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter

The rats are back in town

Trails of Iron felt like a dark, bloody take on the classic Redwall books. The almost paper-craft art style was stunning, and the combat was heavy and chunky in the best way, but the exploration and quests didn’t always feel as great. This sequel so far looks like it will be addressing all those concerns. You are playing as a descendant of the first game’s hero on a new quest far beyond the kingdom.

Alongside tons of new weapons, armor, and enemies, a grappling hook was shown off that looks like it will answer a ton of woes surrounding traversal. The scope looks to be massively expanded this time around with an entire management system added.

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9 Promise Mascot Agency

Criminally weird

A Yakuza is in charge of a mascot agency? Sign me up. This is the kind of concept that can only come from an indie game and is exactly why I love these showcases. Whether or not the gameplay itself turns out to be good, I have no idea. Very little of that aspect of the game was shown off, but the humor and bizarre nature are on point.

All the various mascots you can recruit look delightfully odd, and the battle against the “normal-sized door” is a stroke of brilliance that I have to believe will be pouring out of every screen in this game. I think this one won’t be to everyone’s taste, but for those that it will hit for, I think it will hit hard.

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