Have you heard of Shovel Knight? The latest NES-looking game to land and make waves big enough for the majority of gamers to start taking notice? Crafted in such a way so that it perfectly imitates the old school retro look of classic 8-bit titles, along with some fantastic sound effects and supremely tight controls, it's already on many critics' 'Game of the Year' lists. However as any Playstation 4 owner with a PS Plus subscription can attest to; the indie scene inside gaming is growing considerably. With their free monthly offerings we're seeing a hell of a lot more of these sorts of titles alongside other smaller-budget games filling up the roster, rather than anything you'd more commonly class as a 'system-seller'. Ever since 2012's Fez proved they had a place in a world otherwise dominated by very shiny things like Battlefield, Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty, newer titles like Shovel Knight, multiplayer stab-fest Nidhogg or the brutally uncompromising Gods Will Be Watching have all released to open arms in terms of their graphics being something different from the norm. With gaming as an industry being the most expensive of all entertainment mediums (upcoming shooter Destiny has already broke $500 million, and that's before the marketing budget has kicked in) as well as graphics being one of the aspects of development that takes the most time to polish - is it all really worth it? Would you ever buy a cheaper version of Battlefield if it looked like the original Goldeneye but played the same? Do these retro-styled graphics only really apply to games that feel at home on 2D planes like platformers? Which newer titles do you think would have failed if their graphics weren't as good as they were? Could you stand to hear less about how important this sort of thing is to the overall gaming experience? Did you find something like the recent re-release of The Last of Us on PS4 fairly pointless, as all it did was make things a bit shinier? Let us know in the comments!
