Humble Indie Bundle 3 Quick Reviews

The Humble Indie Bundle is an interesting experiment. Developers of various indie games get together to sell their games in one bundle on a “pay what you want” basis. People can spend any amount they choose, whether it is as low as one cent, or as high as four thousand dollars. The money goes towards the developers and charities such as Child’s Play. The third and latest Humble Indie Bundle was the most successful so far bringing in over two million dollars for 372,399 bundles sold. I finally finished playing through these titles, so here are some quick reviews for those of you who missed out on the bundle.

 

I will kick things off with an unusual title. And Yet It Moves might look like your average platformer at a quick glance, but a closer look will show that it has a bit of a twist, pun intended. Players can turn the level in 90 or 180 degree increments to get past the various obstacles, and at times use the environment to their advantage. This is cool at first, but after a while you will notice similar obstacles being used repeatedly, and things like floaty controls and platforms that break apart with no warning will frustrate you. Also, the sound the game makes when you die gets to be downright infuriating after the first few times you die. And Yet It Moves seems like a love it or hate it title, so I would encourage you to look before you leap and download the demo.

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Name: And Yet It Moves

Available on: PC, Mac OS X, Linux, WiiWare

Developed by: Broken Rules

Published by: Broken Rules

Release date: April 2, 2009

EG Score: 3 out of 5 / “Worth Trying”

 

This game is proof that graphics are not everything. In Atom Zombie Smasher you are given an overhead view of a city and it is your job to evacuate the citizens (yellow squares) from the zombies (purple squares) via helicopter while minimizing casualties. It reminds me a little of Playstation’s The Last Guy, only in this game you get help in the form of soldiers, airstrikes, mines and more, and instead of people just dying when coming in contact with zombies, they turn and become part of the zombie army. The only problem I saw with this title is the random selection of items you get to assist you on the levels. Sometimes you will be given a load out that makes a level laughably easy, and other times you get one that makes another level almost impossible. Still, Atom Zombie Smasher is a fun and fast paced strategy title that will give fans of the genre a good bang for their buck.

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Name: Atom Zombie Smasher

Available on: PC, Mac OS X, Linux

Developed by: Blendo Games

Release date: January 24, 2011

EG Score: 4 out of 5 / “Worth Buying”

 

Cogs is a mind-bending puzzle whose framework is based on those sliding puzzles that make a picture if you don’t get frustrated and throw them against a wall first. To put it simply, the point of the game is to connect all of the cogs, and sometimes pipes, to complete the puzzle. Sounds easy enough, but it starts to get tricky when multiple sides get involved. Some levels are just one sided, some are front and back, and some are cubes, but the objective remains the same. Connect all of the cogs and pipes in the fewest moves possible for the highest score. You will probably spend a good amount of times on some of these puzzles, but you will always want to see what challenges the next one has to offer.

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Name: Cogs

Available on: PC, Mac OS X, iOS, Linux

Developed by: Lazy 8 Studios

Release date: June 9, 2009

EG Score: 4 out of 5 / “Worth Buying”

 

Physics games are usually entertaining. Combining physics with coloring somehow makes them even better. The object of Crayon Physics is to get the ball to the star by any means necessary. There are multiple ways to complete each level, so you can be as creative or boring as you want. There are plenty of levels to keep you busy, and optional objectives on how to complete them if you choose to take that challenge. Overall it is a game that you play for a few minutes every now and then, but you will keep coming back for more.

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Name: Crayon Physics Deluxe

Available on: PC, Mac OSX, iOS, Linux

Developed by: Petri Purho

Published by: Petri Purho

Release date: August 16, 2011

EG Score: 4 out of 5 / “Worth Buying”

 

I wasn’t sure what to think about this game when I started playing it. You control a strange looking ship with just your mouse and use the swinging wrecking ball-like device to bash the ships you are fighting. While it is an interesting concept, it is executed poorly. In the end the game comes down to big, flailing mouse movements and trying to hit your enemies in the small window of time when they are not off screen or obscured by the user interface. Progressing in this game is slow going since you will probably have to repeat levels multiple times because of seemingly unfair tactics being used by the enemies, and that just leads to frustration. Unfortunately, Hammerfight is the game you should skip over in this bundle.

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Name: Hammerfight

Available on: PC, Mac OS X, Linux

Developed by: Konstantin Koshutin

Published by: Kranx Productions, 1C

Release date: October 29, 2009

EG Score: 1 out of 5 / “Don’t Bother”

 

Along with Atom Zombies Smasher, Steel Storm is a bonus game people received if they spent more than the average dollar amount on the bundle. This game has a unique feel to it. It’s a top down shooter, but instead of a scrolling level, it feels like a bare-bones dungeon crawler. You progress through levels by blowing up enemies and completing the mission objectives, which usually involves blowing everything else up. While it is not a complicated game, I had a good amount of fun just flying around and making stuff go boom, but some gamers might be turned off by its lack of complexity.

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Name: Steel Storm

Available on: PC, Max OS X, Linux

Developed by: Kot-in-Action Creative Artel

Release date: May 11, 2011

EG Score: 3 out of 5 / “Worth Buying / Worth Trying”

 

I had been very curious about this game because of its unique title. VVVVVV is a difficult platformer, but instead of it having static levels, it employs the exploration system seen in games like Metroid and Castlevania. The object of the game is to find your crew after you ship crash lands in an alternate dimension. Instead of jumping you can control whether your little pixel person stands on the ground, or floats up and stands on the ceiling. This makes for some interesting, and most of the time frantic platforming. There are numerous checkpoints which make the game more forgiving, but I still died just over 600 times in my play through. The main game is not very long, but I’m looking forward to going back and exploring everything.

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Name: VVVVVV

Available on: PC, Mac OS X, Linux, Adobe Flash

Developed by: Terry Cavanagh

Release date: January 11, 2010

EG Score: 4 out of 5 / “Worth Buying”