I guess it’s my turn to talk new indies I played at MCM Comic Con eh? The four games below represent the best of the best for me that I played (that haven’t already been talked about here and here. Oh, and here.
The most fun I get from going to game shows like this is discovering new indie gems. My four favourites are below.
HYPER SENTINEL FUSION – A Shmupin’ Good Time
Who doesn’t love a shmup?! Hyper Sentinel Fusion was an immediate eye catcher with its colourful visuals and bullet hell wizardry. I sat down and played this one for a good half an hour before I started to see a queue forming behind me. The visuals are complimented by the smooth controls and the amount of detail in the backgrounds of each level, all of which are procedurally generated.
You’ll dogfight your way through a plethora of surface defences that are definitely not happy to have you there, and board vessels before blowing them the heck outta the sky.
It’s an absolute blast and if you’re all about the retro experience you should be keeping a solid eye on this one. Look out for Hyper Sentinel Fusion over on Steam.
MORSE / .–. .-.. .- -.– / – …. .. … / –. .- — .
If you were to tell me that the game I enjoyed playing the most at EGX Birmingham 2025 was going to be a Battleship-esque puzzle game where you have to learn morse code to proceed through it, there’s every chance I wouldn’t have believed you. And yet, here we are.
Unquestionably my most exciting find at the show, MORSE took me completely by surprise. I can think of only two times I’ve played a game at a show and immediately brought it the same day. One was Knights and Bikes, the other was MORSE. When I walked away from the game after speaking to the developer – Alex Johannson, whose passion and love for the game shone through with every conversation we had – I sat down with a drink and immediately added the game to my Steam library. Yeah, it was that good.
So what on earth is MORSE? It’s…well, Battleship played through Alan Turing’s enigma machine. Okay, so it’s not exactly that, but the games stand had a makeshift telegraph machine with an arcade button – I was instantly intrigued. After speaking to Alex I sat down with the game and before I knew it I was being taught how to morse code to take down battleships that appeared on a grid on the screen. I had to correspond my dots and dashes to the letters on the grid in order for my artillery to hit, whilst paying attention to on screen prompts to dash dot dot dot dash as quickly as I could.
Perhaps it sounds bizarre but it was just exhilarating, in a way it had no right to be. I powered through a couple levels until I came stuck, getting a little frustrated with myself that I wasn’t ‘morse coding’ as quickly enough to ensure a victorious battle. I wasn’t mad. I wanted to play more, hence buying the game to play at my leisure.
And I’m always a sucker for learning as you play and this was no exception. MORSE caught me completely off guard and I was thinking about it for the rest of the day.
The coolest thinig about the game? It will provide instructions on how to create your own telegraph to use in your own home – y’know, if you don’t happen to have one just lying around. I suddenly have an urge to get very good at morse code to see what else this game has to offer. I’m very excited to get stuck in and you can check the game out on Steam right here.
My Grandad would be proud.
PROJECT LEO – Real Rally Racing
Project Leo stood out from the rest of the games at the gaming space, purely because it was a pure straight as an arrow rally title. Set before the gorgeous backdrops of the British countryside, Project Leo shines in its visuals, with delightful sunsets draping itself over rally tracks as you drift around. The game itself is straight as an arrow in its ‘advanced physics’ mechanics. I played it for a little while and came to the conclusion that it’s a rally racer that harkens back to the genre classics of Colin McRae and V-Rally, both games I thoroughly enjoyed growing up so I felt right at home here. Any fan of those games will definitely find something to enjoy here.
You can have a nosey at the game over at Steam.
SHUTTER STORY – Paranormal Activity
The last game I imagine you’d expect to see on my list of favourite games – a horror based point and click adventure. Yeah, this game isn’t usually anywhere near my kind of thing, but I found myself drawn to this paranormal adventure with a twist.
The demo wasn’t enormously long but it gave us a good enough look at what to expect from this creepy concept. Your best friend is sure there are haunts happening in his house. He claims to have photographic evidence, or at least he thinks he does. You play as a character who has a little bit of experience in photo editing, so you get to work looking through what your friend has provided, and put these ghosts to rest once and for all.
Admittedly, on our podcast episode for this event I did dismiss Shutter Story a little, but I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot since then. Through the lens of an old school photo editing program, you’re looking for paranormal hidings by turning up the exposure, contrast, noise or by looking at the photo in a negative light. If you don’t spot anything you can mark the photo as ‘safe’, but if you spot some strange goings on, it’s ‘haunted’.
It’s a cool concept. There are no jumpscares because you’re literally searching through very subtle clues to find any evidence of ghostly beings. It’s a unique experience that has stayed with me, and I reckon it’s worth checking out if you’re on the hunt for some old school ghouling.
Check out Shutter Story on Steam.
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