Nintendo's interest in the indie game community hit a new peak last week as the company showcased 17 upcoming indie games for the Wii U and 3DS eShop at IndieCade. This was the first time Nintendo had a booth without a single piece of first-party content.

Below are 9 promising indie games for Nintendo's platforms you need to keep your eyes on.

Teslagrad

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Teslagrad is a puzzle platformer that bravely follows in the footsteps of trailblazing indies like Limbo and Braid. When I saw the care and attention to detail that went into Teslagrad’s hand-drawn steampunk world, I was instantly drawn in. In terms of the puzzling and platforming, your character’s ability to control magnetism, polarity, and electricity makes for some interesting physics puzzles and environmental problem-solving. While not nearly as devious as Braid or as haunting as Limbo, Teslagrad carves its own path — and the results are looking great.

pierSolar HD

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This JRPG-inspired trip down memory lane has had a particularly strange development life. Released originally as a game made for the Sega Genesis postmortem in 2010, pierSolar was then Kickstarted into the modern era in 2012. The refreshed version, pierSolar HD, features a distinctive new art style that blends pixelated character sprites with beautiful, hand drawn worlds. It’s a breathtaking look — exactly what a traditional turn-based RPG like pierSolar needs to find a new audience.

Wooden Sen'SeY

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Wooden Sen Sey is an indie game, but it has the look and feel of an AAA action-platformer. Everything from the fantastic sidescrolling 3D graphics to the stylized animation feels perfectly polished — even the attention to detail in the background is impressive. You play as an axe-wielding village chief (in a silly Kung Fu Panda-esque Japanese setting) who sets out to do typical platforming things like beat up baddies, collect things, and jump on platforms. While the gameplay starts out pretty straightforward, the puzzles and level design quickly prove to have that Nintendo feeling of pure fun — proof that indie developers like Upper Byte have the design chops to compete with the big boys.

Tengami

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This touch-based puzzle adventure game also appeared in IndieCade’s official selection last year. This year, Tengami found a new home on the Wii U and its beautiful worlds of origami and Japanese pop-up books have never looked better. Tengami is a slower paced game that patiently asks you to discover its secrets through experimentation and immersive touch-based puzzle-solving. The developers of Tengami have taken a unique concept and developed it into a fully realized world that is begging to be explored.

Q.u.b.e. Director’s Cut

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Qube is exactly the kind of game that Wii U needs more of in its eStore. No cartoony characters, simple physics-based platforming, or anything else that might come off as remotely Mario-inspired. Instead, qube takes a page out of the Portal series and delivers a series of challenging environmental puzzles all revolving around a single mechanic. But rather than portals, Qube has you moving around mysterious, color-coded blocks to pass through each room. Qube eases you into the puzzle-solving with a masterful guiding hand and eventually leads you into the real world, where things start to get really interesting.

Shovel Knight

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Sometimes a game needn’t a slew of innovative new features to make it stand out. Sometimes just a steadfast devotion to a particular genre is a enough to inspire a loving creation as solid as Shovel Knight. This action-platformer takes direct inspiration from the old 8-bit era Mega Man games — big boss fights, pixelated graphics, and energetic soundtrack included. According to the developers, the concept of a knight armed with a gardening tool was supposedly inspired from the downward thrust from Zelda 2, which makes for some fun combat and attack combos. It’s impossible to deny a game with this much personality — the nostalgic game mechanics are just icing on the cake.

Treasurenauts

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The only 3DS game to make this list, Treasurenauts, is for the greedy treasure-luster in all of us. From the makers of the critically-acclaimed Mutant Mudds, Treasurenauts is another puzzle platformer, but with a more straightforward style. There are a host of wacky characters to choose from, as well as three weapons you can use to take out baddies with as you try to collect as much treasure as possible. The catch? Every time you take damage, all the treasure you’ve collected bursts — kind of like when Sonic would lose his rings, but more fun to watch. There are endless puzzle platformers on the 3DS, but Treasurenauts easily stands out among the hordes.

Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails

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Scram Kitty prides itself on being the embodiment of every Internet meme. Built as an on-rails action platformer, Scram Kitty really is more about the sidekick than the kitty. Even beyond the strange partners behind the title, Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails definitely takes some getting used to. But once you learn tricky angles, Scram Kitty proves to have some interesting puzzles and gameplay mechanics up its sleeve. Only a few levels were available to play, but they left me wanting to more — which is always the true mark of a promising indie.

1001 Spikes

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From a distance, 1001 Spikes look like just another pixelated action platformer. But take one play through of just the first couple of levels and you’ll realize you are dealing with something entirely different. More on par with the staggering difficulty of Spelunky, Super Meat Boy, or even Rick Dangerous, 1001 Spikes delights in killing off your character time and time again. But the true fun happens in the game’s cooperative mode, which lets up to four players traverse the spike-filled levels — eruptions of laughter and yelping are almost inevitable.

Luke Larsen is a freelance writer based out of Portland, Oregon. You can follow him on Twitter at @lalarsen11