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The MIX Summer Game Showcase key art. Four video game consoles with bodies descend on a city landscape.

Six indie highlights from the MIX Summer Game Showcase

Most of them have post-MIX Showcase demos out now!

Nate Hermanson

Jun 37 min read

The Summer Game Fest key art. It has one orchid-colored bubble at the center with text in the center: Summer Game Fest. Multicolored sands are the background, with beads or colored water droplets atop the sands.

Summer Game Fest 2025: June's showcase schedule

Live reacting to 14 Summer Game Fest events from June 3 to 8: Here's how to watch with us.

Nate and Julie

Jun 15 min read

An in-game screenshot of TMNT: Tactical Takedown. Michelangelo, an anthropomorphic turtle ninja with an orange hachimaki band around his eyes, stands triumphantly, pumping his fist in the air. He says: "There's nothing we can't do together, dude!" Donatello, an anthropomorphic ninja turtle with a purple hachimaki band around his eyes, beams back with pride. Behind their illustrated cutouts is the backdrop of a grid-based city street.

REVIEW: TMNT: Tactical Takedown turns beat-em-ups tactical without sacrificing any of the adrenaline

TMNT: Tactical Takedown is full of great ideas that, while only half-realized at times, make for an undeniably fun tactics experience for gamers of all levels.

Nate Hermanson

May 297 min read

An in-game screenshot of StarVaders. It depicts the game's combat screen. A wave of alien invaders descend downward through a tile-based grid. Two long snake-like aliens prepare shots that go straight forward and down two diagonals. Many of the invaders have blue shields around them. The player controls a red robot at the bottom of the screen by choosing from one of a few cards shown in their hand.

REVIEW: I never want to stop playing StarVaders

StarVaders burns bright and is no flash in the pan. I can't stay away from it and neither should you.

Nate Hermanson

May 217 min read

The key art of Every Day We Fight. Three soldiers stand on a pile of rubble, each wearing a yellow band somewhere on their body to signify their team. Two floating orbs and a giant monolith loom behind them.

Mini-Preview: Every Day We Fight feels like the evolution the turn-based tactics genre needs

More active than the usual tactics game, but in a way that preserves why people love the genre.

Nate Hermanson

May 76 min read

The key art for the game Despelote. A photograph of a city is tinged with a dark pink tone while black and white line art of kids playing soccer on the street is overlaid. There is a black and white flag of Ecuador, a group of people sitting around a TV in plastic chairs, and various other people milling about.

REVIEW: Despelote's part-game part-documentary speaks to the power of sports in community and simpler times

Ecuador, 2001: A boy, a ball and a country on the cusp of greatness.

Nate Hermanson

May 57 min read

An animated GIF of Wanderstop. It starts with a sword flying through darkness before cutting to the main character Alta wincing and shaking her head on a bench. She's got white hair done up with a yellow bandana and what looks to be a black leather jacket. It cuts to serene shots of nature and hanging pots before cycling again.

REVIEW: Wanderstop's therapeutic and tactile tea-making brought me to tears

Walked a chamo-mile in Alta's worn warrior boots.

Nate Hermanson

Apr 298 min read

An in-game screenshot of Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3. A man with short brown hair who wears a green t-shirt and a black bulletproof vest stands with his hands at his sides and he speaks nervously to a tiny raptor with a pistol. Their conversation goes: "Freeze!" "You freeze! I've got a gun!" "OH MY GOD YOU TALK."

REVIEW: Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 - A matchroidvania RPG about a fake game series represents the rage of an entire industry

When passionate folks fight for the marvelously strange ideas, for the oddball characters, and for match-3 games, a clever little project like Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 just might make it to your PC against the odds.

Nate Hermanson

Apr 227 min read

An in-game screenshot of Promise Mascot Agency. It depicts a conversation between Pinky, the severed finger, and Tofu, a giant block of Tofu. Pinky says: "We're all about making dreams come true and if your dream is to make a difference in people's lives and crush old men under your boot, we're here to help."

REVIEW: The stray mascots of Promise Mascot Agency gave me hope we'll survive 2025

The last place I expected to find hope for the nightmare year that has been 2025 is in the giant sparkly eyes of a severed pinky. But that's just the kind of world we live in right now.

Nate Hermanson

Apr 108 min read

An in-game screenshot of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza. On the deck of a pirate ship, various crew members pose for a photo. Some cross their arms, some raise a fist in glory. In the front, the game's protagonist Majima points at the camera. Next to him, a young boy stands with his hands at his waist, and his father stands next to him in a backwards cap raising his fist. A baby tiger sits off to the side as well.

REVIEW: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the definition of a side story... and that's not a bad thing

Being a pirate captain for a "short" 40 hours in the Like a Dragon universe is a dream I never knew I had.

Nate Hermanson

Apr 78 min read

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Six indie highlights from the MIX Summer Game Showcase

Summer Game Fest 2025: June's showcase schedule

REVIEW: TMNT: Tactical Takedown turns beat-em-ups tactical without sacrificing any of the adrenaline

REVIEW: I never want to stop playing StarVaders

Mini-Preview: Every Day We Fight feels like the evolution the turn-based tactics genre needs

REVIEW: Despelote's part-game part-documentary speaks to the power of sports in community and simpler times

REVIEW: Wanderstop's therapeutic and tactile tea-making brought me to tears

REVIEW: Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 - A matchroidvania RPG about a fake game series represents the rage of an entire industry

REVIEW: The stray mascots of Promise Mascot Agency gave me hope we'll survive 2025

REVIEW: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the definition of a side story... and that's not a bad thing

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