These games are the best minimalist games you can find on current consoles because they show how to do a lot with very little.
It’s still possible to see and play games that are way ahead of their time. Each new version makes the characters, settings, and textures seem more real. It’s almost like you can control the actors in a movie. Though it’s a great goal to work toward, the old saying “less is more” can be more useful sometimes.
Some games don’t even need 4K graphics to be a hit—all they need are a few well-placed pixels or shapes, an interesting story, or fun gameplay. People keep coming back to these simple games because they satisfy their cravings.
Abzu
For me, one of the most amazing things about minimalist games is how much they can say without saying too much. Abzu is a great example of this. Abzu is based on a simple idea: you play as a diver discovering a bright and colorful ocean. The controls are simple, and the game is easy to understand but still a little difficult.
Controlling Abzu is the most rewarding thing in the world, and the simple graphics are beautiful. In addition, the story is told without any long exposition or conversation, which is a nice change from other games that are based on stories.
Solar Ash
Some minimalist games are fun to handle, and Solar Ash is one of the best examples of this. Solar Ash is a fun and relaxing game where you can skate and dash through color-blocked environments. There is also some fighting, but it’s not too hard that it stops you from having fun.
Solar Ash tells a powerful story with well-paced, random dialogue scenes that do a good job of getting across the book’s themes. As you speed through the beautiful scenery, you can choose to pay attention to or ignore as much of the story as you want.
Hollow Knight
People often think that simple games are boring because they don’t have much going on. This is sometimes true, but not always. While Hollow Knight has a lot of choices for exploring and playing, it never wastes time. The story is told mostly through short dialogues and stories that happen in the environment.
The game’s focus stays on the difficult but fun gameplay, with a simple art style that does a good job of setting the mood and a world with lots of details that players can enjoy exploring at their own pace.
Thumper
Most people think of open-world adventure games or relaxing life simulators when they think of minimalist games. A psychedelic rhythm game, on the other hand, is something that most people don’t think of. But Thumper is exactly that.
Thumper is a tough and intense rhythm game, but it’s hard not to call it minimalist because of how simple it is to play and how the story is told through the game itself. Thumper is a unique and memorable experience for anyone who likes rhythm games or being engrossed in games with vague settings.
Tunic
Back in the 1980s, The Legend of Zelda set the bar for adventure games and has been the best in the genre ever since. However, very few of the games in the series can really be called minimalist. That being said, Tunic is a great choice if you want something like Zelda, but with a minimalist twist and a surprising amount of detail.
The way you play is similar to old-school 2D Zelda games, but what makes it different is the story, which is told through a breaking-the-fourth-wall instruction booklet that you find throughout the game.
Hyper-Light Drifter
A lot of people would agree that Hyper Light Drifter is the most difficult game to look at on this list. Retro gamers will always like the 16-bit images, but the story is what really makes it stand out.
The story of this strange mix of Dark Souls, A Link to the Past, and Metroid is up to the player to figure out. There is no one right answer; instead, the player has to figure out and come to the conclusion of each idea. A risky move for a style that is so simple.
Ashen
It’s not easy to make a game like Souls with such a simple look, but it can be done. Ashen looks like it could be a Dark Souls-style game, but the graphics are very simple and made up of polygons.
There’s something else going on as well as the dark and mysterious mood, the tough combat, and everything else that made the game it was based on famous. It’s different from other things of its kind because it has something natural and strange about it.
Journey
Journey is beautiful. That’s something that gamers inside and outside the Indie Circle can all agree on. At least there is an adventure going on here, if not a story. But there isn’t a big, great story, and the art style is simple but clear and definitive. The whole experience is also emotionally powerful in a way that few games can match.
It’s about exploring, telling stories visually through music and settings, and going on a strange spiritual quest to find your own kind. You have to do more than just get from A to B to win.
VVVVVV
You wouldn’t know that this game is about a spaceship captain trying to save his people from a broken transporter device just by looking at it. What did you know? Stick figures had such interesting lives. To say it is deceptively easy would be an understatement.
In Drive Mad, the player controls the flow of gravity to find crewmates in danger and visit different rooms on the spaceship. Its naturally interesting nature and easy-to-understand games are what keep its fans going strong.
Thomas Was Alone
Most platform games don’t need to be very complicated to begin with, but when the images are just rectangles of different colors and the story won an award, people pay attention.
The rectangles are AI programs that run in a dark, geometric computer world. Danny Wallace does a great job telling the story, which is a huge compliment to his work. It’s easy to suggest something, but you really need to use your ideas to make this game happen.
Limbo
It’s sometimes enough to keep things easy to make a truly scary horror game, and Limbo is the best example of that.The scary and intense parts of this dark puzzle-platformer don’t come from any blood or bright colors.
This game has a lot of terrible death, and it will take more than knowing how physics work to get out of the darkness that surrounds the player. That being said, the backgrounds and limited graphics really help the game at this point.
Superhot
A first-person shooter might not seem like a good fit for a simple style, but Superhot’s chunky graphics and nameless enemies make the player feel like they’re in a scene from The Matrix.
As you play, you can change time and shoot things, which makes for an interesting and unique puzzle experience. Also, you can’t help but feel like a hotshot action hero as you use different tools to kill the red enemies that break things.
Geometry Wars Series
The Geometry Wars games are some of the most popular in the Xbox playground. Shapes shooting shapes at other shapes is what the series is all about. It’s simple to understand, drag and drop, and generate. Almost like Atari games in terms of style and ease of use.
This show was a modern-retro title long before it was cool to do that. These games have a lot in common with Arkanoid and Asteroid. Fans of those three games are still playing this one, so it has a strong following.
Tetris
Every gamer in the world has played Tetris or a similar game. The formula has changed a few times over the years, but the core game has stayed the same and is very easy.
The falling of different shaped blocks has been the same since 1984, even though the colors and patterns have changed. It’s as easy as saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
