Our Blog

While big video game publishers like Sega and Nintendo have created some of my favorite video games, the indie scene is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to games that are mechanically engaging and emotionally compelling. These games are usually developed by small teams, often without the backing of billion-dollar publishers. These independently published games have the freedom to explore new and wild concepts or revive beloved genres that the bigger publishers have arbitrarily turned their backs on. Without the shackles of investor demands, indie games can be anything.

While the relative accessibility of the online market has made it the go-to place for indie games, sufficiently popular titles often make the leap to physical releases for consoles. As a result, we’re lucky enough to have some of these great games in our collection. However, even limiting ourselves to what’s available in Pinnacle’s collection, there are too many amazing indie games for one person to cover. So I’ve assembled a crack team of video game enthusiasts from our Adult and Teen Services Department to help me out!

Untitled Goose Game

Recommended by Jess

You’re a goose. Honk! You cause chaos. Honk! Is there anything more that needs to be said about this game from House House?

No, but for real, you play as a goose wreaking havoc on an English village. You progress through the game by completing objectives, which often require you to use stealth tactics and NPCs to solve. But there is no time limit, so you’re free to ignore the objectives and just be a silly goose.

What I really love about this game is that it has a two-person couch co-op mode. So you can play with a friend, which means you have twice the opportunities to goof off and laugh. Plus, you can work together to complete the objectives, which is nice if you find yourself struggling.

Another thing that I love is the music. Good music is key in a video game, especially in a game without dialogue. Untitled Goose Game does not disappoint. It features music composed by Debussy, arranged by Dan Golding, which really adds a sense of drama and beauty to the game.

Ultimately, I adore this gem of a video game, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking to escape from real life for a little while. There’s no time to focus on your problems when you’re busy causing problems for someone else!

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Recommended by Jason

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim by Vanillaware tells a complex, fascinating science fiction story really unlike any I’ve experienced in a video game recently.

The basic premise sounds simple: high school students in Japan are dragged into a war with invading Kaiju and must pilot giant mecha in a desperate stand against the invading monsters. However, as the game progresses, more and more questions and mysteries begin to present themselves, resulting in a twisting, turning epic that will keep you guessing to the end!

The story in 13 Sentinels unfolds through a mix of side-scrolling adventure-mystery segments and top-down strategic combat. The combat is fun, with a balance of enemies, crisscrossing urban terrain and abilities on the field all contributing to make the player feel like they’re controlling giant, weighty mecha against hordes of lesser enemies and giant monsters.

But the meat of the game is definitely the side-scrolling segments. These are played out through the viewpoints of each of the game’s 13 protagonists and carefully unfold the plot and character relationships through vastly different perspectives and episodes.

The game’s voice acting, music and graphics are also next level, and elevate the game throughout.

If a Japanese-made game is set in Japan, I typically play with the original Japanese voice actors and English subtitles, but in this case, I decided to try the English dub and am glad I did. The voice cast does an excellent job, and it was helpful to understand the background dialogue and tones.

The music is also excellent, including a recurring vocal track that still sends me down memory lane years later.

Graphics are beautifully drawn and animated in the striking Vanillaware style, lending the experience an almost dreamlike, unforgettable look in story segments. The viewpoint and style of the battle sections make it feel like you’re seeing the unfolding battle through instruments and tactical readouts, rather than the more typical bird’s-eye view.

If you’re looking for fast-paced action, deep strategy or punishing difficulty, 13 Sentinels may not be the right choice for now. But if you’d like to experience a twisting, thought-provoking sci-fi tale that keeps you guessing, with a little more mechanical meat on its bones than a visual novel, 13 Sentinels comes highly recommended!

Coffee Talk

Recommended by Alex

Have yourself a seat, why don’t you? Relax and enjoy the atmosphere while you enjoy some coffee you desperately need. Who in the heavens would have a coffee shop open so late at night? They can’t actually be making money. Well, in this case, it’s not about the money, it’s about the stories told to the people who walk through those doors… and the love of coffee.

Coffee Talk is set in a fictional version of modern-day Seattle, filled with different mythical creatures. They live there like anyone else. You are largely a mystery, and your reason for opening a late-night coffee shop—the worst time for a profitable business—is unknown for the most part. All you tell your customers is that you’re “getting by alright,” and for the most part, you just like to listen.

Listening and making coffee take up most, if not all, of the main gameplay in Coffee Talk, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise based on the game’s title. Interjected between characters letting you in on their woes, you’ll be serving them coffee and other beverages—hopefully correctly! (Also, some of the drinks are so yummy looking, you’ll almost be tempted to make them yourself!)

Aside from the coffee, you’ll fall in love with the characters as they make repeat visits and let you know what’s troubling them. There are so many characters to go through, so I’ll just mention my favorite, Freya! Piercing blue eyes and cool green hair, she’s a writer trying to juggle her job while writing a book. She’s around the most out of any character, and she loves to poke fun at us. She also listens in on other characters as they trauma dump and tries to help. She’s great and I love her so much. Freya often says what we’re thinking, and she’s so real for that.

Coffee Talk is a chill experience like no other and one that has so much replayability! If Coffee Talk has any flaws, it’s that the game doesn’t punish the player very much for messing up orders. You get a lot of chances to play around with drinks, so it ends up being very hard to mess up. While there aren’t really any consequences for messing up orders, there is, in fact, a story you miss out on, and if you’re like me, you want the best ending possible for each character. So you should probably still try really hard not to mess up too much.

I hope you check out Coffee Talk, and if you love it as much as I do, you’ll be happy to learn there is a sequel to this game, as well as a third game coming in later in 2025!

Hades

Recommended by Ruby

This game hardly needs my promotion, but it’s too good not to talk about. Hades is a narrative-driven, hack-and-slash roguelike in which you play as Zagreus, Prince of the Underworld and son of Hades. Having long believed that he was born from Nyx, the embodiment of the night, Zagreus learns of his true birthmother and seeks her out on the surface. To get there, Zagreus must battle through four layers of the Underworld. But once Zag finally reaches the surface, that’s far from the end of the story.

As is common with the roguelike genre, the gameplay loop is built around you dying again and again through your runs, developing your skills and relying on a bit of luck to take you further each time. Some roguelikes feature slow progression, sometimes excluding permanent upgrades altogether, forcing you to start every run from square one.

Hades, however, relies heavily on meta progression. Unless you die in the very first chamber you enter, you will almost certainly earn some sort of reward that you can take back to the House of Hades, the hub world that acts as your main base. This meta progression, carried across runs, mostly takes the form of collectibles that can increase your stats or give you additional abilities—you might get to dash more times or increase your starting health.

You also see progression in your growing relationships with the other characters. Due to his sarcastic immaturity and the constant criticisms of his father, Zag has very complicated relationships with almost everyone. While all of these characters are charming in their own way, my personal favorite is Zag’s foster mother, Nyx. Other fans adore the heated rivalry between Zagreus and his ex-and-maybe-future-girlfriend Megaera, or the awkward tension between him and head maid Dusa.

(Head maid as in she’s literally a floating gorgon head. And also, she’s a maid. I played this game for years, and I only just now got that joke. This game is genius.)

Anyway, the game’s heavy use of dialogue and relationship progression brings to mind the visual novel genre, which is almost the polar opposite of an action-driven roguelike. And yet, Hades blends these genres together remarkably well.

I was also very satisfied with the game’s adjustable difficulty. God Mode allows the player to start off with a 20% damage reduction that grows by an additional 2% every time you die, guaranteeing a certain amount of progression no matter how poorly a run goes. The game was a lot more satisfying knowing that I would achieve some kind of lasting progress no matter what.

In terms of both narrative and gameplay, Hades is a blast from beginning to… well, I can’t say “end” because, even though I’ve seen the end credits, there is such an absurd amount of narrative content that I’m still playing the game years later. I’m still fighting my way through the Underworld while developing Zag’s relationships with friends and family, and I’m having a great time with it, and will probably continue to do so for a while. I really recommend giving it a shot. And keep an eye out for Hades II when it comes out on consoles and hits our shelves!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Recommended by Ruby

This is the game that Castlevania fans have wanted for decades! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night helped define the Metroidvania genre of games in 1997. While Konami published a few more similar titles, fans have hungered for more. So, in 2015, programmer Koji Igarashi launched a Kickstarter campaign as proof of the demand to potential publishers and investors. The point was proven when gamers funded the project 11 times over.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the end result of these efforts, and it’s one of my favorite games of all time. Set in an Industrial Revolution England plagued by demons, the Shardbinder Miriam explores a massive castle in search of Gebel, her friend-turned-enemy and the only other survivor of the shardbinding process.

While slaying demons in this side-scrolling adventure, Miriam has a random chance of gaining new shards. Each shard grants her an ability from that demon. Of particular use are the shards gained from boss fights, which allow the player to get into previously inaccessible areas via new abilities. Some of these are your typical Metroidvania abilities. You’ve got your high jump, your double jump and so on. Then you have the invert ability, which flips the entire dang castle upside down so you can walk on the ceiling.

There are tons of lovely little touches to the game. For example, if you hold the up button, Miriam strikes a cool pose, and much of her equipment grants her character model cute accessories. Also, if you come across a piano, I highly recommend you stand in front of it for a minute. Speaking of instruments, the game’s music is written by veteran Castlevania composer Michiru Yamane, who provides tracks that range from hauntingly beautiful baroque melodies to blood-pumping rock.

With a great atmosphere, a compelling story and enjoyably challenging gameplay, I can’t recommend this one enough!

Retro Games from the ’80s and ’90s

Recommended by Debra

If you were introduced to the expansive, odd and experimental games on the Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega or ColecoVision, then our summer program is a great way for you to revisit classic stories and experiences with family and friends. You don’t have to be an expert or hardcore gamer to indulge in a few hours of ’80s and ’90s fun. Retro games often have straightforward mechanics and controls, making them easy to pick up and play, especially for casual or new gamers.

While some retro video game consoles are still available on the commercial market, many retro video games are available to play for free through game emulators. A video game emulator allows you to play retro games designed for an older or different console on a modern device like a PC or smartphone. Most retro games have a single- or two-player mode, in which users take turns completing tasks and actions during gameplay. This is a great way to share strategies, watch out for mistakes and cheer (or boo) your opponent. Let’s take a deep dive into some retro games!