Indie Games On Consoles: Why bother?

There are tons of indie games on both Xbox Live and PSN. But are any of them actually any good? Who has the time to play these 'lesser' games anyways?

[NukaCola]

I play these lesser games and a lot of the time they are better than the AAA million dollar block busters.

Flower
Trials HD
LIMBO
DeathSpank
Stacking
Bastion

All epic games.

[pangitkqb]

Great point, NukaCola.

And although the title of the piece may be jarring, the argument is at least worth reading even though I don't agree. In a nutshell, should somebody with limited time and money risk those things on a "no-name" indie game rather than something more certain to be a good time, such as a "AAA" game? And isn't the answer very personal to each gamer?

I enjoyed both Flower and Trails, as well as Mushroom Wars, Zen Pinball, Fat Princess, and Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered BattleCars.

This gamer enjoys some good indie work as well as "AAA" titles.

[Controversy]

I love Indie games, but I must admit that "AAA" games are often a safer purchase considering my limited fundage. Big games cost more, but they tend to offer more playtime, bigger communities, and are less likely to disappoint.

Thi s doesn't mean I avoid Indie games, cuz i love many of them, I'm just more cautious with my purchases.

[Godmars290]

The point are the titles which get no real pre-production attention from console makers or publishers. Games like Cthulhu Saves the World only got notoriety after they were done. The score of $1 titles that clog up download libraries just to clog them up.

[ryhanon]

Agreed. The author implies that these sorts of games are for the "casual" crowd and not the "hardcore" gamer. I couldn't disagree more. I'd argue that most "casual" gamers don't even know many of these games exist. It's the "hardcore" among us that follow these games and are aware of them despite the lack of serious marketing attention. This generation is full of some incredible gems on the download space that sadly get overlooked by people unwilling to experiment a little and step out of their comfort zones.

[Zashule]

Indie games I can somewhat understand someone having this view of, but to blow off XBLA games because they aren't "‘regular’, disc-based, ‘full-fledged’" titles is just plain ignorant. Some of the best games this Gen are XBLA games: LIMBO, Torchlight, Trials HD, Super Meat Boy, Splosion Man, Castle Crashers, Shadow Complex, Braid, Marble Blast Ultra... The list goes on for a long while.
Then throw in the fact that I can catch up on games I wanted to play but missed out on, or didn't even know about, such as: Beyond Good and Evil HD, Castlevania: SOTN, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Perfect Dark, Resident Evil 4/CV, etc... that adds to the greatness of arcade titles.
To be 100% honest, I spend more time enjoying these "Less Hardcore, Gap filling, Simple" Games then I do trudging through the average AAA 6 hour FPS.
If your "time and money is just too valuable to throw at anything else" then you sir are missing out on some of the greatest games ever made this generation.

[WarMachine539]

My girlfriend loves Indie games! Its the only way I can get her to play!

[pat_11_5]

I wish my gf would play indie games

[SSpy]

I buy and play indie games all the time! Especially because of the odd amount of points that come on each Microsoft Points card (1400 - 800 per standard DLC = 600 almost useless points, unless you like to play dress-up with your avatar..)