Which of the Nindie games are we most excited for? There are 62 to choose from!

Nintendo showed off a whopping 17 indie games during yesterday’s live stream event dedicated to the Nindies, and it is also sitting on a further 45 that it didn’t show off. Before the end of the year, you’ll have plenty to keep you busy in between your bouts with The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Odyssey.

Of course, 62 games is a lot to cover, so if we had to boil it down to a handful, these would be the ones to get the most excited for, whether they are old favorites we just can’t stop buying or newcomers with a whole lot to prove. If you missed it, here is the full list:

Stardew Valley

We’ll get the “well, duh…” portion of this list out of the way first. Stardew Valley is an addiction that I need to feed, and the Nintendo Switch is providing both the optimal and most convenient way to play this wonderful little life simulator. Unlike the PlayStation 4 and PC versions, the Nintendo Switch can be taken and played absolutely anywhere thanks to the Switch’s unique portability options. Chucklefish also confirmed that the Switch version will be the first to allow multiplayer, so rock on!

I am totally going to jump into your farm and mess stuff up! Wait… is this Stardew Valley or Dark Souls?

SteamWorld Dig 2

SteamWorld Dig and SteamWorld Heist combine to make one of our favorite, blooming indie franchises. One is a really solid platformer with resource management, mining, and Metroid-esque exploration. The other is an excellent strategy game that we called one of our favorite games of 2015.

And we’re going to be getting a third game on the Nintendo Switch first! This is the first direct sequel from Image & Form, and I have no doubt it will keep their winning streak alive. The team has established itself as one of the most trusted on the indie scene thanks to its genuine understanding of game design and brilliant artwork. I really dig the new starring character, and I can’t wait to see how powerful she can become by the game’s end.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

This list is brought to you by the letter “S.” Years from now, when we look back on the Nintendo Switch, “S” is just going to dominate in the alphabetical categories, just like the Super Nintendo did.

At any rate, I have no problem buying Shovel Knight again. The game is one of my favorites from the last decade, and Yacht Club Games has even more content for me to pour over with these Switch releases. After all the free entertainment the studio has provided me over the years, I feel like I’m mooching at this point. Consider this a welcome payment for more of what the world needs: new Shovel Knight campaigns. I really hope they just surrender us a Polar Knight campaign, even though one was never promised.

Is it selfish for me to want these guys to work on this game for the rest of their careers?

Wargroove

Chucklefish, the company behind Starbound, is making huge promises to the Nintendo faithful with this one by saying it will deliver a full-on spiritual successor to the Game Boy Advance era games from Intelligent Systems. We’re talking Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and none other than one of the finest strategy games ever made, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Those are some very large shoes to ill.

Yeah, best of luck to Chucklefish on this one. The first trailer looks like a fine blend between Fire Emblem and Advance Wars with the fantasy setting mixed with Advance Wars presentation, combat, and general strategy. We can’t wait to see more.

Blaster Master Zero

It’s one thing to revive a classic franchise, but it’s something entirely different when you let the right people do it. Blaster Master Zero is bringing the NES classic into the modern era, music and all, and this project is the passion project of Inti Creates. If you fell like you’ve heard the name before, it’s because the company has found recent success with the excellent Azure Striker GUNVOLT games on the Nintendo 3DS, PC, Wii U… speaking of indie games that should be on the Switch.

However, you might also know Inti Creates as the developers of Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10.

Exactly my point. This team knows what it’s doing with classic revivals, and Blaster Master Zero is going to be a stone cold retro hit. That remix of the classic Blaster Master theme is just a little too beautiful for my ears.

Yooka-Laylee

You can actually anticipate Yooka-Laylee on many platforms, and believe me, everyone wants to play this game. However, the Nintendo Switch version comes with a little bit of extra sentimentality attached to it.

Playtonic Games modeled this game after the classic Rareware titles from the days of the Nintendo 64. While those will most likely never find their way to the Virtual Console, thanks to Microsoft owning them and Virtual Console being both non-existant and a total mess, this is your best option if you’re looking to recapture that classic Rareware experience. Yooka-Laylee will look great on your digital shelf next to Super Mario 64, the rest of the games from that era, and maybe even Super Mario Odyssey.

Plus, it will just look fabulous as an indie game standing on its own. You can keep your flashy AAA action games, this is where my heart lies these days.