Earlier this month we covered the then upcoming Hubworld 2021, a digital event similar to a Nintendo Direct, but built by fans and indie devs and focused solely on 3D platformers. Today, Hubworld’s direct went live and featured 20+ cool-looking games including some games inspired by classics like Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie.
The full video, posted above, contains about 40 minutes of trailers and gameplay footage of new, upcoming, or recently released indie platformers. The event was hosted by two animated and voiced characters — Kiwi and Melon — and is just as slick and well put together as anything I’ve seen from bigger events and Nintendo Directs. Many of the games featured in the event are equally impressive.
Zera: Myths Awaken
One that immediately caught my eye is Zera: Myths Awaken, which visually looks a lot like the classic PS1 platformer Spyro The Dragon. That makes sense considering the game started out in 2017 as a Spyro fan game but has evolved greatly in the years since. You can play an Early Access version of the game now via itch.io.
Hell Pie
Hell Pie is a colorful action-platformer that features a chained-up, ugly little angel and a cool-looking demon “working” together to fight baddies and traverse various levels. I’m interested in any game that describes itself as a “Filthy 3D Platformer.” Hell Pie is out later this year.
Frogun
This game looks like a modern PS1 game. I often remember PS1 games looking, much better before I go back and actually look at them and remember how messy they often were. Frogun looks like what those PS1 games looked like in my head before reality reminded me otherwise. It also features a frog that you use as a grappling gun and boss fights. It’s coming consoles and PC sometime next year.
Psilosybil
After a few moments of watching the trailer for Psilosybil, I screamed out to myself “Oh... this is like a new retro take on Crash Bandicoot!” I’m a bit nervous to play it because the trailer touts how difficult it will be, but it just looks and sounds so good that I don’t care. I’ll suffer to enjoy it. Psilosybil is out later this year, but you can play a demo of it right now on Steam.
That’s just a few of the games that caught my attention. The full direct includes many more, some clearly inspired by classic and others more modern or unique. Check out the full video to see them all and you can follow the Hubworld Twitter account to stay in the loop on future events and directs.