Indie games are often some of the best titles of the year, with Blue Prince and Hollow Knight: Silksong being true standouts in 2025. Silksong could very well change gaming for the better, shattering numerous industry rules in the process, and it’s a great title on its own. However, Silksong is also a sequel.
Indie game sequels are fewer and far between compared to triple-A and even AA games, as indie studios tend to be far more risky, crafting entirely new experiences for their follow-up projects. The indie game sequels that do exist, though, are often leaps and bounds better than their predecessors. For a game to be considered a sequel, it simply has to be a follow-up title. That means sequels, prequels, and even remakes, if they add enough, will count.
Amnesia: The Bunker Gives You Goosebumps
World War I Has Never Been Scarier
Amnesia: The Bunker’s protagonist holding a grenade.
The Amnesia franchise has a complicated history regarding its sequels. The first one, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, was a disappointment in every regard, while Amnesia: Rebirth proved to be a step in the right direction, but still left a lot to be desired. However, Amnesia: The Bunker brought the series back to form.
Easily the best installment since the original, Amnesia: The Bunker is a hardcore survival horror game, placing you in a nightmarish bunker with a monster hunting you down relentlessly. The survival horror mechanics are brutal. Everything is limited; there’s a time limit mechanic with the generators, plus everything is randomized each time you play.
In fact, it might be a little too hardcore for some people, but that’s what makes indie games great. Some indie games aren’t for everyone, unlike most triple-A titles, which aim for the widest audience possible. Amnesia: The Bunker is a great example compared to triple-A horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It’s one of the best horror games you can play right now, and it’s a must-check title.
Trials HD Was So Good That The Developer Got Purchased By Ubisoft
No Mustard On My Bike
About to go up a vertical wall in a Trials HD extreme track.
Trials might be the most underrated game series of all time. It contains some of the best platformers ever made, but the series started with humble beginnings. Trials began as a series of free Java and Flash games before making its paid debut with 2008’s Trials 2: Second Edition on Steam. The game performed well enough that RedLynx improved upon the formula with its sequel, which became a breakout smash hit.
Trials HD launched on the Xbox 360 in 2009, becoming one of the highest-selling Xbox Live Arcade games, and for good reason. Unlike prior installments, which exclusively used the keyboard, Trials HD utilized the Xbox 360’s analog controls. This was a game-changer.
Having full analog control for throttle and lean made a huge difference compared to older games, allowing you to throttle anywhere from 1 to 99% on the triggers instead of having to use full gas or nothing on a keyboard. To boot, the tracks were incredible and a lot of fun to replay time and again.
It’s a phenomenal game from top to bottom, and it remains available today on Xbox Series X|S through backward compatibility. The game was so good that, just a few months away from the release of its successor, Trials Evolution, RedLynx was acquired by Ubisoft, transforming a once-tiny developer making free browser games on the internet into a full-fledged major studio.
Prepare For Brutality In Super Meat Boy
One Of The Best Indie Platformers Ever Made
Meat Boy going through the Salt Factory in Super Meat Boy.
Another incredible sequel to a game that started in Flash was Super Meat Boy. The original title, Meat Boy, was a Newgrounds Flash game, but its sequel on the Xbox 360 changed everything. Super Meat Boy is an over 300-level brutal platformer that demands precision to beat.
Like Amnesia: The Bunker, Super Meat Boy isn’t a game for everyone because it controls like no other platformer out there. Since you play as a literal block of meat, the movement is incredibly slippery and takes a lot to get used to. When or if you nail it down, it’s so tight and smooth to play.
Sure, Super Meat Boy is a hardcore platformer. However, there’s a ton of content here for an Xbox Live Arcade game, including numerous other playable characters, level variants, and bonus levels, plus an entire other side world in Teh Internets. Super Meat Boy must be one of the best indie games ever made, let alone an all-time great indie sequel.
Ion Fury Takes It Old School
An Amazing Prequel
Shooting a robot with a crossbow in Ion Fury.
Indie game prequels are pretty rare, but Ion Fury might be the best of the bunch. The original title, Bombshell, was one of the worst-reviewed games of 2016, but Ion Fury made up for it tenfold. Turning the series into what it should have been in the first place, an FPS, Ion Fury takes it old school, echoing Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior to create a phenomenal retro FPS with some twists.
The levels in Ion Fury are all interconnected, much like those in Half-Life, which is a cool feature. The level design must also be top-tier. Ion Fury’s enemies are great to fight against, too, but the weapons could use a bit of work.
Duke Nukem 3D still has the best combination of level design, arsenal, and enemies, but Ion Fury is still a great game. Considering Bombshell was one of the worst-reviewed games of the year, Ion Fury earns its place among the best indie game sequels.
Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair Destroyed All Expectations
A Night And Day Difference
Navigating through buzzsaws in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.
One of the most disappointing games of the last 10 years for hardcore Nintendo and Xbox fans had to be the original Yooka-Laylee. It was intended to revive the glory of Nintendo 64 platformers. However, it lacked what made games like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 special in the first place. When a 2D platforming sequel was announced, expectations were low, but Playtonic excelled against all odds.
While Yooka-Laylee failed as a 3D collect-a-thon, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair hit its stride as a 2D platformer. The levels and movement are fantastic, but Impossible Lair has a great gimmick with its final level. You can play the final level at any time, but beating the main ones allows you to take extra hits, which you’ll need to survive the titular Impossible Lair.
However, if you’re skilled enough, you can beat the game early on, and this is a great aspect of the title. Impossible Lair was shockingly good, being one of the most underrated games of 2019, and a must-play 2D platformer.
The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth Is An All-Time Great Roguelike
Roguelike Perfection
Dodging a laser attack in The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a remake of the original Binding of Isaac, but it adds enough content and improvements that I would consider it a follow-up. The original title was already a top-tier roguelike when it came out in 2011, but Rebirth turns it into debatably the best roguelike game ever made. It’s such a blast every time you play, and the amount of content here, due to the numerous expansions, is vast.
It has a great style with that nostalgic Newgrounds flair, and it addresses all the issues in the class game, such as the downright unprofessional controller implementation on PC. That was ridiculous in 2011, but that’s all fixed now. The Binding of Issac: Rebirth is one of the best indie games of all time, and one of the best roguelikes you can play today.
The Wait Was Worth It For Hollow Knight: Silksong
Blew Away All Expectations
Even for a game this anticipated, Hollow Knight: Silksong still exceeded expectations. Silksong might change the industry, breaking player count records and numerous rules upon release, and the game earns its success. Silksong takes the original Hollow Knight and improves virtually every aspect of it.
The movement and soundtrack remain phenomenal, and there’s a lot of content to chew on for only a $20 game. There’s an entire secret area unlocked towards the end if you clear all the wishes, and you can easily miss it. It’s a blast from start to finish, plus it’s available for free on Xbox Game Pass, so there’s no reason not to check it out. However, Silksong isn’t the best indie game sequel.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Is Greatness On A Different Level
One Of The Best Video Games Of All Time
Baldur’s Gate 3 Screenshot of Shadowheart, Karlach, Astarion and tiefling Tav Looking At Haarlep in the House of Hope
Every decade or so, a video game emerges that is so groundbreaking, innovative, and genre-defining that it changes the course of gaming going forward. A key example would be Baldur’s Gate 3, one of the best games ever made. It showed the entire industry how quality RPGs are done, giving you endless choice in how to approach things with great writing, tons of content, and an admittedly safe D&D combat system.
While developer Larian Studios isn’t indie in the same way as many other studios on this list, it remains independent of any larger publishers. The road to making Baldur’s Gate 3 required the studio to place all bets on the success of Divinity: Original Sin, and the company would have gone bankrupt if that game hadn’t been a success.
Besides the combat system, which I find underwhelming, Baldur’s Gate 3 is essentially a perfect video game. The title was on a whole other level compared to the rest of the industry, and no doubt will influence countless RPGs to come. It’s the best game of the decade so far, and the greatest indie game of all time.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Systems
Released
August 3, 2023
ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
Developer(s)
Larian Studios
Publisher(s)
Larian Studios
Engine
Divinity 4.0
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play
Full cross-platform play.