Midnight City is turning gaming on its head. They're doing what gamers have always wanted: cross-releasing previous platform exclusives for the other side. They've announced that they will be bringing one of the scariest games ever to the Xbox 360 and PS3 and that one of the coolest digital downloads for consoles will make its way to PC.
Just a little backstory: Midnight City is an intermediary publishing company for indie titles. Their main goal is to help mostly small but notable independent games get published on platforms they otherwise wouldn't be able to in a timely and affordable fashion. Hence, they're like a neon-influenced Weinstein Co.
Midnight City focuses a lot on indie games that almost bridge the gap into the mid-stream and mainstream market brackets, so usually it's stuff you may have briefly heard about but weren't too familiar with, such as Slender or Double Dragon.
However, they have three games waiting in their wings that will be launched in the first quarter of 2014, all for $9.99 or less. The one I'm most excited about is probably Double Dragon: Neon, but I'm also pretty stoked for Krautscape, an indie title that found its way across Steam's Greenlight service. It's a hybrid kart-flying game that allows players to race on the ground or in the air at the press of a button. Split-screen, online play and a dynamic art-style help round out the game's catchy flair. You can check it out in the trailer below.
Double Dragon: Neon is a throwback to the classic NES title with a new coat of 3D paint and some snazzy shaders thrown in for good measure. This game, I never got around to playing. However, I've heard a lot of mixed results about the title, from people claiming it was really terri-bad to people saying it was a great experience and very nostalgic. It's hard to get a proper gauge on it given that you would probably have to play it for yourself to find out if it suits your tastes or not. One thing is for sure: the soundtrack is pretty radical and well worth a listen (assuming you like 80s retro tunes). You can check out a brief glimpse of the gameplay below. I imagine the first 15 seconds or so is the sort of stuff that gets the feminists' boy panties rustled like no Jimmies have been rustled before.
Last and most important is Slender: The Arrival. This game is hailed as a sort of horror masterpiece within the esoteric niches of the deep corners of the interwebs. In fact, horror fans who love Slender: The Arrival are so hip and so indie that even hip-indie fans think that they're too hip and too indie for normal indie games. It takes a certain Bohemian attitude to adopt that kind of hipsterness. Anyway, Slender: The Arrival's mass appeal mostly comes from “Let's Play” videos from annoying YouTube personalities screaming and hollering and being ridiculously mush-brained about the whole affair. It is a thrilling experience, so long as you're not watching someone with the mental efficiency of an autistic slug. The game is set to arrive as a digital download on the Xbox 360 and PS3 for $9.99, so all you console gamers who missed out on this little gem will finally get to experience it first hand. As for that autistic slug... check out the video below.
