The best indie games on Xbox One

Despite multiple awards and a huge amount of buzz, Supergiant’s Hades still qualifies as an indie game, and a classic example of just how good a game can be when everything lines up right. Here, you play the defiant son of Hades trying to escape the underworld. Your adventures are roguelike, spanning a variety of dungeon sections across several kingdoms, and if you die you have to start over…but don’t expect to get bored. There are numerous ways to level up, collect different weapons, unlock abilities, or change how you fight (especially when it comes to boons from friendly gods). Add the near-perfect level design, and it’s no surprise so many players were captured by the game.

Castle Crashers, by The Behemoth, was one of the early examples of just how good indie games on Xbox could be, especially with friends. It’s a brawler that’s packed with as many upgrades and unlockable characters as it is with irreverent humor. The premise is simple: Pick a knight with the elemental powers you like, and hack your way through maps of enemies to earn currency that allows you to buy new weapons as you level up. But the fun (and mayhem) really begins when you add in a couple of friends — and the remastered version on Xbox One makes it even better.