Spindle (2025)

Spindle is a delightful little action‑adventure that wears its retro influences proudly while layering in thoughtful narrative, expressive characters, and a surprisingly weighty theme about death and what comes after. The controls are responsive, and the visuals are quite nice to behold. If you’re a fan of top‑down 2D adventures, keen on something both light and meaningful, this is a worthwhile play. If you crave groundbreaking mechanics or very long playtimes, you may find it a bit short and familiar, but there are hidden trinkets to find and side quests to help pad your play time if you want to go for the completionist route.

Spindle from developer Let’s GameDev and publisher Deck 13 is a marvelous action-RPG adventure that hits all the right notes when it comes to action, puzzles, and payoff. It’s incredibly balanced with all three, which makes it feel like you don’t waste a minute playing it.

Spindle is a satisfactory Zelda-like, in the final analysis. It tackles difficult topics with grace and empathy, features multiple engaging boss battles, introduces several atypical tools to solve puzzles and outmaneuver enemies, and provides rewarding content even after the credits have rolled.

Spindle is not only a great indie game, but also a successful example of careful and intelligent design in the Zelda-like style. If you're looking for an experience that's fun, challenging, beautiful, and cohesive, Spindle is a must-have. The game's various components, from combat and puzzles to exploration and narrative, combine to create a satisfying experience. It's the kind of experience that will leave you not only feeling accomplished after finishing the game, but eager to return to the world of Spindle again and again.

Old-school Zelda fans will find a lot to love about Spindle so if those kinds of games appeal to you then definitely play it, chum. 💀