SGC: Short Games Collection #1

More sophisticated curation would have made this a genuinely new way to engage with games and gaming: a prompt to see all games in a new light, promote the whole indie game proposition and popularise the appreciation of gaming as – ugh, dare we use the word? – "art". But the star feature is instead just an animated menu. As it stands, Short Games Collection is great if you can bring some inquisitiveness and insight of your own to the table – the games themselves are worth the time – but it's nothing more than the sum of its parts.

Each of the short games included in Short Games Collection #1 delivers truly different experiences, and generally fulfills Nerd Monkeys' stated purpose of quickly giving the player something to think about. However, the value of this set is affected by the existence and accessibility of the PC versions, and because there are no major additions. A larger amount of games in the set or extrinsic bonuses such as "making of" videos would be fundamental to make the package more appetizing.

Short Games Collection is a good format to release five short-length indie games which would go mostly unnoticed if released individually. In this collection we find original games with variable levels of challenge and entirely distinct mechanics, put together by a neat and efficient presentation. A lower price would be very welcome, however, as there are more ambitious collections available on the Nintendo Switch on a similar price range.