Thursday, August 4, 2011

Humble Indie Bundle 3

You've probably heard about the third Humble Indie Bundle. You choose what you want to pay for five indie games (you could even just pay $0.01, though I think they're worth more than that). I love this idea; my problem is that I can never tell what kind of games are for sale. Well, fear no more. I'll do a quick rundown of each game in the bundle here (informed by 10 minutes to a few hours of play).

Crayon Physics Deluxe
The main gimmick of this game is that you draw things and they act like real-world objects (there's a kind of Scribblenautish quality, only more primal because you don't have to name it). I quickly solved a puzzle the day after it stumped me, which I consider a sign of a good game. I still haven't figured out why some shapes seem to weigh more than others, but I like the idea and have enjoyed playing so far.





Cogs
A steampunk puzzle game without a narrative, only the repeating missing-piece-shifting puzzles which are often frustratingly satisfying to solve. They get into 3D and double-sided, which makes my brain hurt, but in a good way.







VVVVVV
A retro-styled platformer where you change gravity to proceed with the level. It sounds like it should be a puzzle game, but it quickly turns into a battle of reflexes (in the screenshot here, the rectangle in the upper right-hand corner is a platform that moves side-to-side, which you must touch on three times to get to the thing you probably don't really need). The graphics and sound effects are way cute, but I admit that I suck at this game.


Hammerfight
It's hard to tell from the screenshot, but this is a fighting game. You control this flying thing with your mouse that has a big weight on the end, which you use to hit other, similar flying things. It's set in some kind of fantasy middle eastern setting? It has some pretty cool art. The gameplay is kind of bizarre; it's like throwing around a ball and chain (but I think it makes use of mouse movement in a way few other games do).




And Yet It Moves
Along the same lines as VVVVVV, you control which direction is up. However, you must choose between four options instead of two (basically you can rotate the world 90 degrees whenever you want). Velocity is preserved over screen shifts, making it more of a puzzler than VVVVVV. Kind of cool to play around with, kind of frustrating to get stuck on a puzzle.




Along with these games comes Steel Storm, an overhead shoot-'em-up with stealth elements (you're a fighter plane). And, if you pay more than the average price (currently $5.35), you get the previous indie bundle too, which includes the tower defense game Revenge of the Titans. It is currently kicking my butt, and my husband is reminded that Plants vs Zombies is an easy tower-defense game. Maybe more about that later.