Nintendo is leaning hard into its indie initiative. In a pre-PAX “Nindies at Night” event in Seattle tonight, 19 games were in tow that showed off the big plans the publisher has in mind for Wii U and 3DS, including some great spiritual successors to Nintendo franchises we know and love, new versions of games we’ve enjoyed on other platforms, and a bright future for Yacht Club’s Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight amiibo gallery 6 IMAGES

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While we know new Star Fox, Zelda, and Mario games are on the way, plenty of the Nintendo games and franchises fans are longing for are missing in action. With indies, Nintendo can fill that gap. Fast Racing Neo, prominently featured in tonight’s event and developed by Shin’en, is essentially the F-Zero game you’ve been waiting for , complete with breakneck turns and bright, shiny colors.Hive Jump, developed by Graphite Lab and Black Lantern Studios, clearly draws heavy inspiration from Super Metroid and scratches the itch of 2D exploration Metroid fans have been missing. With spiritual successors like these, Wii U’s library becomes more robust and delivers the games that fans want without taking resources away from Nintendo’s internal teams.Aside from these two, the entire night of Nintendo Indies culminated in a celebration of all-things Shovel Knight. One of IGN’s Best of 2014 Nominees, Yacht Club’s first game is still going strong a year later. Nintendo showcased the Plague of Shadows DLC, which gives you control of the awesome boss character who comes equipped with a new campaign and an entirely new set of moves. Even after we played through that gorgeous 8-bit platformer on Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One, the free Plague Knight campaign DLC makes the entire thing feel fresh again.On top of all of this, Yacht Club confirmed the rumor that there will in fact be a Shovel Knight amiibo hitting retail stores later this year. Aside from just looking super rad, it will add a whole bunch of new content to the game on both Wii U and 3DS. For both, it’ll add additional challenge modes and character customization. On Wii U, there will be a Nintendo-exclusive two-player mode that the amiibo will unlock. The fact that the amiibo with the most robust feature set to date is from an independent developer is a strong sign that Nintendo cares about its indie future.Case in point: Nintendo is also making a concerted effort to fill the void left by years of absent indies. Wii U and 3DS seemed a great fit for lot of major players that seemed disinterested or unable to join Nintendo’s eShop. Now, finally, we’re seeing significant progress.Kerbal Space Program’s sophisticated space simulation is a smart port for Wii U. New features, such as driving the ship from the GamePad, where you can see inside your custom-built spacecraft from its pilot’s perspective, give the Wii U version its own distinct identity. It’s a massive, complex game on PC that has a lot to prove on Nintendo, but it’s an exciting game that’s bursting with exactly the right amount of Nintendo-sized personality.Simogo’s Year Walk also represents developers putting in a little extra effort to make their Nintendo version something different, if not special. Year Walk has new puzzles the iOS version didn’t, and the means by which you solve older ones works a bit differently. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, against all odds, finally exists in its gorgeous, gory, weird little way on Nintendo, and 3DS is the perfect home for its the obsessive types it’s made for.But it isn’t just about covering older gaps -- this is hugely important for Nintendo, no matter how late to the party it may be. Nindies at Night welcomes back the idea that Nintendo’s name means something in the eShop. Pushmo, Box Boy, and Shovel Knight -- when you hear their names, you think nintendo. This isn’t true of most other eShop games, even if they’re exclusive or first on Wii U or 3DS, because they’re either more popular elsewhere or don’t gain the necessary traction to become a public darling on Nintendo platforms.Now when we hear Poncho, Runbow, Hive Jump, Fast Racing Neo, or Typoman, Nintendo is the name that comes along with it.The eShop is growing, getting more notable, and making up for lost time. Hopefully Nindies at Night is a sign of greater things to come for Wii U, 3DS, and beyond toward Nintendo NX. Nintendo players deserve the small-scale, big-creativity kind of innovation eShop/indie games enable.

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