If you don't know what the Humble Bundle is (if you do you can skip this paragraph), it's a collection of (usually) independent games which are released in a small group, a bundle if you will, using a 'pay-what-you-want' scheme. As an incentive to pay a bit more, if you pay above the average, you get a couple of extra games thrown in... bargains! During the payment process, there are sliders determining how exactly your money is being split up between the developers of the games, and charity. After all that you can then download the games direct, or enter a code into Steam and get them that way. It's awesome.
So I paid above the average and downloaded the games, and got to work spending a few minutes on each of them to get a feel for how it works and whether I think I'll enjoy it or not. Here's the list:
BIT.TRIP RUNNER
Jamestown
NightSky
Shank
Super Meat Boy
...and the extra two:
Cave Story+
Gratuitous Space Battles
I've actually been wanting to play Super Meat Boy and Bit Trip for a while, just can never be bothered to spend money/ put in the time. I also saw some gameplay of Shank 2 which is being released at some point, and I thought, "hey that looks cool, I wonder what the original game was like"...and then forgot about it. That's part of the reason why I think the Humble Bundle is such a good idea, as even though you can pay as little as you want for the games, its money that the developers wouldn't normally get because of people like me who don't exactly want to pay the full price for their games. So it takes some of the shame of that away for me...kind of.
Anyways, here's my thoughts on the games in the bundle...talk about some unforgiving, yet addictive, games...
BIT.TRIP RUNNER
There's loads of Bit Trip games, and I've never played any of them, which is a shame because I'm big into music, and they are essentially music/rhythm games. My main thing to say about it will become a theme for most of these games... it is hella addictive... but my God is it frustrating. You're this little dude who is constantly running to the right, no reason is given for this... you just kind of go with it since you're dumped straight into the action. While you're running you are faced with obstacles which you either have to jump over, or duck under according to the rhythm of the music (these are the only mechanics I've come across so far, there may be more along the way). You also have to pick up gold (again, no reason is given for this, you don't even have to collect all the gold in the level), and these other pickups which make the music go CRRRAZZZYY and a rainbow comes off of your back while you run because it's CRRRAZZZYY. It's a super simple game, which makes it all the more frustrating when you die (by hitting an obstacle), not only because you have to go aaaaallll the way back to the start of the level. Here's a video which should hopefully explain what's going on a bit.
Jamestown
I haven't played Jamestown yet, because I've seen some videos of it before, and although it looks cool, it's still one of those vertically scrolling shooters where there's usually about 5 pixels on screen which are safe for you to be in at any one time. I'm not saying they're bad games (in fact it does look cool, and I will play it at some point), it's just I have to be in a certain mood to play a game so stressful, and most of the time I'm not in one. The premise for the story looks weird as hell for a game like this... and I kind of like it in a strange way. Anyway, here's the trailer.
NightSky
Now here's a game more up my street. I love the artsy type games where you're not really doing much, it's more about the atmosphere, experience and solving a few basic puzzles. If you like that sort of thing you should play stuff like Machinarium, And Yet It Moves and LIMBO. In NightSky you're a little ball, and pretty much the only thing you can do is roll around in this 2d world... At this point you're either sold on the game, or you've totally zoned out. If you're in the former, poke those in the latter group and tell them this probably isn't the game for them.
So far there have been no enemies, and no Game Over screens. Although there are times where you can get stuck in a level, and the game admits this to you right at the start and tells you how to reset the level if this happens, but you will only lose a few seconds progress because each stage is so short. Beyond rolling you'll be using momentum and gravity to get to the end of the level. Sometimes you get extra powers such as being able to roll faster, slower, or change the direction of the gravity, but so far it's all been very simple and enjoyable.
Here's some gameplay:
Shank
Shank is a side scrolling beat-em up, with the premise being that this big dude called 'The Butcher' has stolen your girlfriend, and you're on a mission to get her back. I'm playing with a gamepad (the game straight up tells you at the start that this is the way it's intended), and your face buttons are mapped to a quick melee knife attack, a heavy chainsaw (hell yeah) attack, and your ranged dual pistols. You've also got a pounce button where you fly through the air and land on your enemies, some grenades and a grapple. The combat is super satisfying, and is made more so by the really cool art style and sound effects. As you get a feel for the controls you begin to start racking up combos against the different types of enemies, and feel really cool while you're doing it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be playing this game to completion.
Super Meat Boy
Now we're back to the super frustrating, yet annoyingly addictive games. Does anyone remember that game 'N' where you were this little ninja running around and wall jumping and stuff? It's kind of like that. The premise of the game is that this big dude has stolen your girlfriend, and you're on a mission to get her back. Hang on a minute...
So you're this sack of meat running around, jumping off walls and avoiding buzz saws to get to the end of the level. It follows a similar pattern to the Angry Birds style game, where you complete levels within stages, and then there's a mini cutscene at the end of the stage showing something else going wrong for the protagonist. It seems like you unlock extra characters as you go after completing special bonus stages (for example I just unlocked Commander Video, the character from BIT.TRIP RUNNER).
As usual, it's best explained with a video:
Cave Story+
I'm not sure why there's a plus at the end of the title. Maybe there was an original game which this adds features to, I haven't really checked. I haven't played much of this yet, but it's your old style platforming adventure type game. You're running around avoiding enemies / shooting them with your little gun, and that's about as complicated as it's been after my ten minutes or so with it. I'm not even sure what the story is yet...there's a guy in a room somewhere, trying to get in contact with someone called Sue, and she's supposed to be this 'outsider' in this village I've just arrived at. Anyway, I might play some more at some point, I'm not particularly drawn in by the game yet though.
Gratuitous Space Battles
And finally we get to this, a game I haven't played yet... it's got a cool name though. I loaded it up and it looked super complicated for what I was wanting at the time, especially after playing all those really simple, yet addictive games. I believe what happens is, you select certain types of space ship, and build a fleet, and then give them certain orders, or ways to behave...maybe, and then the battle happens and everything looks really cool and explodey. Sorry I'm not more specific, I'll have to play some of it and get back to you, but as always, a gameplay video comes to my rescue:
So overall, a pretty sweet collection of games...and you can pay what you like for them! You've got a couple of weeks before the deal ends, so go and snap it up! Thanks for reading.
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