Some Cool Games From 2013 You Might Have Missed

With the end of the year fast approaching, now is a good time to look back and reflect on the many games that came out over the course of 2013. With so many hyped-up, big budget titles having been released this year, it’s easy to overlook some of the smaller gems. Here are just a few that are worth checking out.

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Created by Playdead’s Jeppe Carlsen, who was the lead designer of atmospheric platformer Limbo, this short, hypnotic indie treat is another platform game, but with a very different sensibility to Playdead’s monochrome masterpiece. The premise is simple: playing as a small square/triangle/circle, you move and jump left to right across a series of platforms in a minimalistic, geometric landscape. However, the shapes you have to traverse shift about in time to the game’s pulsing dance soundtrack, and one wrong step will send you back to the next checkpoint. This is as much a rhythm-action game as it is a platformer.

It is short, clocking in at about 40 minutes, but it’s available at a very reasonable price, and its tight design makes it well worth checking out. It gets tough as nails towards the end, too, so if you like your platformers challenging, this could be right up your street.

Anodyne

Anodyne is a seriously weird game. On the surface, it looks like a pared-down 2D Zelda game from the Game Boy Colour era, but it embraces a level of surrealism that would make Link cack himself. Dreamlike and disjointed, it tells the tale of Young, a man wandering through a strange world ostensibly to save it from “the evil darkness”, although it quickly becomes apparent that something’s not quite right.

There’s a compelling level of unpredictability to Anodyne’s abstract environments, with abandoned post-apocalyptic highways existing in the same realm as luscious forests, insect-infested hotels, a futuristic universe run by cube people, and a haunted suburban town. The game also has a wonderfully dark, self-aware sense of humour, and what it lacks in mechanical depth it makes up for with its unique personality.

Anodyne is surprisingly immersive, occasionally disturbing, and even poignant towards it conclusion. It isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re at all partial to 2D Zelda and the works of David Lynch, I recommend giving this one a look.

The Bridge

Anyone who enjoyed Antichamber’s head-spinning M.C. Escher inspired puzzles should check out The Bridge. This charming 2D platform puzzle game gives you little control over your character, only allowing you to move him left to right. However, you can also rotate the entire world 360 degrees, which enables you to manipulate the position of the various keys and obstacles that stand between you and the exit door. The game adds other complicating factors as you progress, and puzzles quickly become a challenging balance of perspective shifts, gravity alterations, and careful timing.

As is often the case with this type of indie game, The Bridge features a distinctive aesthetic, with a hand-drawn black and white art style that’s a pleasure to look at in motion. It’s far from perfect, and executing later puzzles can be frustrating thanks to difficulty spikes and the world’s slightly lethargic rotation speed. However, as far as Escher-esque puzzlers go, The Bridge does manage to be far less smug, vague and annoying than Antichamber, and there are worse brainteasers you could spend a rainy afternoon with.

If there are any other games you feel have been overlooked in 2013, give them a mention in the comments below.