Plus, Mouse: PI for Hire arrives and Hades 2 hits PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. Once again, there are some neat new games for you to check out this weekend. We've got a bunch of updates and announcements for upcoming titles to tell you about too. There have been a bunch of solid indie showcases lately (and highlights from another one to tell you about below).

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. A bunch of intriguing games arrived this week, including a mobile port of one of the most absorbing things I've played in years and two completely different titles with the same name. Let's get things started with a look at a few projects that were featured in the latest edition of the Future Games Show . To recharge your weapons and systems, you have to plug a cable that trails behind your spaceship into a socket. While you're plugged in, your movement is restricted by the length of the tether, but you gain more firepower.

When you think of Nintendo, it's almost impossible not to picture Donkey Kong. Yet despite Donkers' undeniable place in gaming history – and obligatory appearances in Smash Bros and Mario Kart – for the last few console generations, Donkey Kong platformers have been MIA. Enter DK's first standalone adventure in 11 years, Donkey Kong Bananza. While Mario's recent adventures saw him exploring the reaches of outer space or deftly possessing enemies with an anthropomorphic hat, DK's grand return is all about primal rage. As you smash and punch your way through walls, floors and ceilings, you can burrow all the way to the ground below, forging new paths and unearthing hidden treasures.

This year may not have been as jam packed as 2023 was for gaming, but there were still plenty of amazing new releases. Whether you love a good indie or a big-budget production, this year had you covered. All you needed to do was look a bit deeper than you might have in 2023. The core of Animal Well isn't that structurally complicated: It's a lock-and-key Metroidvania. You go to places to unlock other places and abilities. Beating the core "story" opens up a couple layers of admirably elaborate and increasingly meta secrets, but let's be real, most people interested in those are just going to look up the answers online. And yet, you play it, and you can't help but think there isn't much like it nowadays. It's the fact that you never learn what your little blob guy is. It's giving you a map to mark up yourself instead of providing any instructions.

The latest Day of the Devs showcase has come and gone, but the stream placed a spotlight on a whole bunch of promising indie games. The event is curated by Double Fine and iam8bit and this digital showcase highlighted dozens of in-progress titles to keep an eye on. The virtual show included some world premieres and release date announcements, along with a bunch of new trailers about games we already knew about. These are all vastly different titles, with their own publishers, genres, budgets and visual styles. They have just one thing in common.

If you were an obsessive video game fan in the summer of 1994, you'll remember where you were when Edge magazine's August issue dropped. By then, Sony had already announced its intention to develop the PlayStation console – the previous October – but it was the cover feature in the world's most forward-looking game publication that really blew open the possibilities of the machine. As well as listing its specifications in full, Edge secured enthusiastic statements of support from Capcom, Namco and Konami. One breathless developer told the mag: "It's going to revolutionise the way computers are at the moment." Suddenly, the whole structure of the console games business was being threatened. All it needed was a push.

When I say that Astro Bot reminds me of Super Mario Galaxy, I could pay it no higher compliment. It has taken me around its own small galaxy of planetoid-style levels, from bathhouses to diorama-sized jungle temples to rainy islands, each host to a brilliant one-shot idea, such as a pair of frog boxing gloves or a backpack monkey or a time-stopping watch that lets you freeze giant zooming darts in place so you can jump on them. It is splendid to witness this development team's creativity let loose. Team Asobi has previously made a couple of short-form Astro Bot games – one for the PSVR, Rescue Mission, and another that came packaged with the PS5 at launch, Astro's Playroom – but this one is full-length, complete with challenging bonus levels that play out like electrified skill-check gauntlets for the generation raised on 3D platformers. It is supremely funny and characterful, thanks to the titular chibi blue-and-white robot and his crowd of friends, many of whom are dressed up as characters from the most obscure crevices of PlayStation history.

When it comes to video games, one thing is universal: releasing one is tough. This is the challenge for the team behind UFO 50. This much anticipated 8-bit anthology of retro-styled games is finally due to release this September, seven years after its announcement. With 50 games included, the wait is justified. UFO 50 is a jumbo variety pack of complete video games, each with its own title, genre and story. "They're not minigames," asserts developer Derek Yu and creator of 2008 platformer Spelunky, named one of the greatest games ever made.

There are only two video games my wife has ever enjoyed: Mario Kart, in which she has gleefully brought up the rear for the entirety of our family life; and Crash Bandicoot, of which she was, at one stage, the greatest player in the world. She completed every molecule of every Crash game in the 90s. I swear I saw her get 105% on one of them, but this being the 90s, I have filed that memory under "things I may have hallucinated in an altered state", along with Gary McAllister missing that penalty at Wembley, and the band Menswear. I have never been a completionist like her. For me, platformers are the greatest video game genre that I absolutely hate – be it manic miners, plumbers, hedgehogs, Mega Man, Aladdin or Earthworm Jim.

Genie often adds this effect to the games it generates. While Genie is an in-house research project and won't be released, Guzdial notes that the Google DeepMind team says it could one day be turned into a game-making tool--something he's working on too. "I'm definitely interested to see what they build," he says.