E3 2014 - Xbox One Indie Roundup: Hyperlight Drifter, Cuphead, Ori And The Blind Forest, Hellraid, Inside, Aztez

Microsoft unveiled a full slew of indie titles as part of their revised, gaming centric strategy for E3 this year -And to be honest we're relieved to see them learn from the mistakes of last year's event with the Xbox One reveal, which focused on anything but that aspect. There were zero mentions of the Kinect at the conference, and their press conference was close to 90 minutes of just pure gameplay with little fluff in between.

One of the coolest indie titles to be unveiled was Ori And The Blind Forest, a title that's been in development for close to 4 years now at the German Moon Studios. Featuring beautiful, painterly environments with story driven 2D gameplay, the title gave off a vibe that I've come to expect from the likes of Team Ico (Fingers crossed for The Last Guardian later today!). We've picked a few of our favorite indie titles from their upcoming lineup, which you can check out after the break.

Ori and the Blind Forest is an action-adventure platformer that combines deep exploratory gameplay with emotional storytelling. Join Ori to solve the mysteries of a dying forest while escaping the evil clutches of Kuro, the dark owl.



Cuphead is a single player or co-op run and gun platformer, heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by 1930s cartoons, the visuals are hand drawn and inked and the music is all original jazz recordings. Cuphead & Mugman traverse strange worlds, acquire new weapons, learn powerful super moves, and uncover hidden secrets.

Explore a beautiful, vast and ruined world riddled with unknown dangers and lost technologies. Inspired by nightmares and dreams alike.

Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D Action RPG in the vein of the best 8-bit and 16-bit classics, with modernized mechanics and designs on a much grander scale.



Hellraid is a dark fantasy action game from the studio behind Dying Light, the Dead Island and the Call of Juarez series. The game is a unique mix of melee, magic and ranged combat and can be played both in single-player and 2-4 player co-op.



Since the release of LIMBO in 2010, Playdead has been working very hard on their next game, INSIDE. Expect INSIDE in the first half of 2015, debuting on Xbox.



Aztez is a real-time action and turn-based strategy hybrid set in the world of the Aztecs! Push on the borders of the empire and manage political chaos with thrilling combat segments, where victory or defeat has immediate ramifications in your burgeoning empire!