No matter where you look, from television advertisements to random bullshit you see on Twitter (I refuse to call it X), the AI uprising has already begun springing up around us. Massive companies like Jeep are creating ads with AI. We see how "Hollywood will NEVER recover" at least 12 times a day. Yet, even during the AI apocalypse, we see the power of pure human creativity come through the cracks. It's like a flower emerging from the concrete after a Michael Bay-esque battle of man versus machine. Indie games demonstrate that the power of the human mind can never be trounced by something a machine can create.

I'm looking at four different games in total today. Obey the Insect God is an FMV masterpiece. Mr. Sleepy Man (he just like me, frfr) pulls on my nostalgic heartstrings. Colossus: Eternal Blight has some of the most incredible sprite art I've ever seen. And Blood Spiller lets me hit Dracula, of all people, with a Deez Nuts joke in the year of 2026. Incredible stuff by incredible folks, and if you haven't had a chance to check them out? I highly suggest you stop what you're doing at this exact moment and do just that. I don't care if you're driving. Pull over and watch the trailer for Mr. Sleepy Man. Or watch it while you're driving and merge without looking. For legal reasons, that last line is a joke.

Obey the Insect God May Be the Greatest Argument Against AI in Video Games at the Moment

Okay, look. Obey the Insect God is not going to be everybody's cup of tea. But from the moment I stumbled across it randomly on Facebook, I was immediately in love with it. I knew exactly what Charles Davis and Chunkle Freaky's Movie Games was aiming for here, and I FUCK WITH THE VISION. Obey the Insect God is rich in lore, gameplay, and exploration, all while serving up one of the most nightmarishly beautiful art designs that I've seen in recent memory. I'm not being sarcastic about that bit. There's nothing quite like Obey the Insect God out there right now, and this could only have come to life with an incredible vision, and it's one that I'm glad that Charles Davis followed through on.

Once you grasp the control scheme? It has a rhythmic flow that mimics a fighting game, rather than being "Yet Another Metroidvania With Simplistic Combat". Imagine if Nine Sols was feverishly coded by someone who was obsessed with Night Trap, and you've got the most simplistic explanation of what Obey the Insect God attempts to look and feel like. Seriously, even if you don't have the intention of buying the game, at least try out the demo. You may come to realise that you've been waiting for a game like this for longer than you realise.

I’m Not Joking When I Say Obey the Insect God Is My Hollow Knight

Now, that's a sentence that is bound to draw a bit of fire, and understandably so! Hollow Knight is one of those games that is held to a near-untouchable standard. Silksong is regarded in the same way, and held up to the hype after so many years of people flooding every chat imaginable with "SILKSONG RELEASE WHEN?!?" One of the main reasons folks love these games as much as they do is for their unique and striking visual style. For me, Obey the Insect God can unironically be in that same pillar of artistic design. There's something so incredibly charming and interesting about the way that this game is built and functions.

I'm the type of person who will hype a game up when I find something that I absolutely love, and that's why I need to put Obey the Insect God on the pedestal that I have today. I've played many games that are like it, but I've never played anything quite like it. Parries, combos, dodges, insane lore, and FMV cutscenes. Did I stumble upon one of my new favorite indies of all time on a fluke? Potentially. But God, am I glad that this game exists. Even if it isn't for you, it's hard to deny that it has more style and flair than most AAA games, even if it looks like an offshoot of a Mortal Kombat fan project. There's something very, very special here for those willing to dive in.

Mr. Sleepy Man Is a Stream of Consciousness Experience That Never Had Me Feeling Snoozy

Speaking of games that aren't afraid to be who they want to be. Mr. Sleepy Man, the game all about playing as a sleepy man, is more than you may expect. It's a complete and total dream to play and control, and a nightmare to understand what is happening. But not all nightmares are bad, so give me a moment to explain myself before you hang me from the gallows. Mr. Sleepy Man is a surreal experience, a game with a central storyline that tells you to fuck shit up however you can, whenever you can, with whatever you can. Literally, one of the main objects is to just... create chaos and mess things up in Bedtime Town, and it's a perfectly wacky little sandbox to do it in. It's absolutely unhinged in a way that only someone who knows EXACTLY what they want to create can make. And it's all the better for it.

Rather than focusing exclusively on "Zones" like a classic N64 platformer, Mr. Sleepy Man gives you free rein to tackle things how you'd like. Maybe you try to sneak into the lighthouse, only to get thrown in jail. And in said jail, some mice keep callin' you a WISE GUY like they're members of the Sopranos. Oh yeah, did I mention you got there because you flushed yourself down a toilet in the jail cell? That's the type of experience that Mr. Sleepy Man is. It's weird, wacky, wild, and full of that old-school Nickelodeon feel that oozes from every rounded corner of our sleepy protagonist.

Oh Yeah, You Can Also Snag a Car and Just… Run People Over Too. No Consequence. Just Pure Fun.

Much like Obey the Insect God, there are a lot of games that try to be like Mr. Sleepy Man, but can't match the pure kinetic energy that it pushes from the moment you start the game. Everything is so bouncy here. It's got a beautiful visual style that is unwavering in its execution, and every portion of the world that I explored while playing sticks with me. Plus, the soundtrack is filled to the brim with banger after banger, and I need to invest in the soundtrack at some point. There is no room for compromise in Mr. Sleepy Man, and Devin Santi put out exactly the game that he, alongside many other people like myself, wanted.

Its visual style and freeform gameplay aren't the only selling points here, either. If you're a fan of anything that is unabashedly unafraid to be itself? Mr. Sleepy Man is right up your alley. The writing is phenomenal, and it had me in stitches more than once. Characters here are especially chaotic and unhinged, from a suspiciously Papa Bear-shaped friend who lost his son because of... well, I'm not going to spoil that, but I promise that it's nothing as you'd expect. It's just a really, really, REALLY strange experience that is going to speak incredibly loudly to a very specific group of people. And that group of people just so happens to include me. Mr. Sleepy Man may be all about a sleepy man, but I was wide awake while playing through this one.

Speaking of games that had me in stitches from their writing...

BloodSpiller May Be the First Contra-Vania Game That I’ve Ever Seen, and It’s a Great Vertical Slice

I'll be upfront and honest about BloodSpiller. At first glance, it may look like little more than a game that is trying to cash in on the visual stylings of the NES by combining Contra and Castlevania together into an amalgamation. But after diving into it and playing through the, admittedly, brief and entertaining demo, it was immediately added to my wishlist. Why? The writing. The writing in BloodSpiller is absolutely brilliant. Sarcastic heroes are overdone and typically not done well. But our wise-cracking protagonist here has had his girlfriend stolen by Dracula, and he's FUCKING PISSED ABOUT IT. Imagine AVGN writing in a hard-as-nails run-and-gun platformer, and you've got the right idea here.

How many people do you know who would tell Dracula that his castle is a piece of shit? Or hit him with a Deez Nuts joke? Not many, but our chisled hero here is more than happy to do just that. On the gameplay front, Blood Spiller is exactly as it looks. It's a side-scrolling shooter that features a unique gimmick of a degenerating health bar that can only be refilled by eating food like wall chicken, or by shooting enemies until they blink red and dashing into them to get some health back. It takes a second to get used to the controls, but once you do, it's a ton of fun and offers a great experience for those ready to jump in.

It’s Not for Everyone, but as Someone Who Grew up With Adult Swim, BloodSpiller’s Humor Is for Me

BloodSpiller's demo is two levels long. It's short, sweet, and to the point, while offering just enough meat on its bones to get me interested. While the general gameplay wasn't life-changing or anything like that, it's a solid little romp through a retro-styled world. Everything functions as you'd expect, with your gun making satisfying little pew-pew noises when you shoot, and a bit of extra exploration. The demo starts by stating that it's an Alpha/Proof-of-concept, so I'll be keeping an eye on how BloodSpiller evolves. But if there's one thing I don't want the developer to change? It's the humor. It's perfectly on point here for freaks like me, and it could have more of an impact than the general feel of the game does.

The dialogue is by no means "realistic", but I imagine that this is the closest that we're going to get to a Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead 2 kind of protagonist in a game such as this. It's campy, goofy, and immature, and I love it for that fact. One thing that I could suggest, though? Add vertical shooting and diagonal shots. Some of these enemies are a bitch and a half to defeat while jumping, and having this option would make things feel a bit better. Otherwise? Keep on rocking it, and I'll be here day one.

Beauty Is More Than Just Skin Deep in the Demo for Colossus - Eternal Blight

Finally, we have Colossus - Eternal Blight. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, so seeing the beautifully done pixel art was more than enough to get me curious. What I wasn't expecting, however, was tough melee and magic combat, fantastic animations, and a story that already has me drawn in from just a brief demo. Colossus - Eternal Blight has some of the most impressive sprite work that I've seen in a game of this caliber in quite some time, with incredibly tight combat and a fantastic visual language. Somehow, this feels more Final Fantasy than the most recent iteration, even if it isn't turn-based like the classics.

Colossus - Eternal Blight does a lot of things right, especially as an Action-RPG appreciator. Combat is fast, flashy, and weighty. Hits send enemies reeling back, rather than them just staying still and acting as if nothing happened. But enemies, especially in groups, can be dangerous. You need to be smart and plan your attacks before just jumping into a fight; otherwise, you're going to leave battered and bruised with your ego hitting rock bottom. Even as someone who has played plenty of ARPGs before, there was enough build variety here to keep things interesting. We could have a certified banger on our hands with Colossus - Eternal Blight.

Colossus - Eternal Blight Is a Story of Brotherhood and Friendship, Mixed With Plenty of Action and Adventure

Now, what would an RPG adventure be without The Power Of Friendship? Colossus - Eternal Blight's story, from what I can tell from the demo slice that I got to play, is more about The Power of Brotherhood and not falling into the same traps of trying to walk in someone else's footsteps. I'm intrigued to learn more about the brother duo of Lance and Lucian, and how the team at Rustic Panda Games is going to sidestep falling into the footprints of those RPG giants that came before them. But even from this small slice, it feels like this could be different, which would be fantastic. I love beating up Gods, but sometimes, being a little more grounded doesn't hurt, either.

The smooth combat, fantastic visuals, and excellent atmosphere have me extremely excited to see and experience more of what Colossus - Eternal Blight has to offer. While there is no announced release date, it's already feeling incredibly polished, and with more time in the oven? It could turn out to be the next indie RPG gem that people talk about for years to come. Especially if that already great-feeling combat is refined even further, and the story doesn't fall into familiar pitstops that we've experienced time and time again.