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chuckroMr Nibbles Forever - A cute little side-scrolling runner in which you play a tiny hamster zipping around, collecting corn and trying to avoid spiders. It actually reminds me a bit of a less-offensively-oriented Sonic the Hedgehog. You can either go for distance, or take on challenges to try to unlock extra skins. There's a random wheel of prizes, but they seem to mostly be one-use (Magnet and Double Jump both vanish after one run, and you can only use an extra life once per run). Not a lot to it, as the stages don't vary much and there are only a couple of areas (that all link together), but amusing.
So Much Blood - A dungeon-crawl shoot-em-up which only allows you to fire left or right; you try to collect enough "blood points" to buy better weapons and more life hearts so you can reach and beat the boss at the end of each area. Every 30 seconds, more enemies spawn. I applaud them for building a "respawning enemies" shooter into something that actually has a goal, but that doesn't mean I found it fun for more than a few minutes. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the graphics scheme: It’s right there in the title.
Virtual Rogue - I think there should be a rule that if you use the word "rogue" in your title, you need to have made a roguelike to some degree. This is a survival shooter (with an “inside the computer” theme), in which you travel through randomly generated maps, fight enemies, pick up power-ups and periodically face a boss. The only roguelike part is that there's permadeath.
Curvatron - Do you remember the "snakes" game that typically came with QBASIC installs on old computers, where you needed to eat numbers but your tail kept growing and you needed to not hit yourself? This is that, only the snake automatically curves and you constantly need to be moving with a "wave" motion to avoid hitting yourself or other obstacles. It's a gimmick puzzler that didn't win me.
Cosmic Leap - Help the former rebels / current game show contestants circle and jump from planetoid to planetoid in individual puzzle-ish levels that usually end with them getting blown up. Cute concept and framing story, that actual action gets old fast.
Spunk and Moxie - A hybrid runner / puzzle-platformer where you try to guide a bouncing blob of goo through various obstacle courses and collect gems while doing it. The graphics and bright and cheery and the controls are one-button simple. It didn’t grab me for long, but I think it’s a decent little game if your reflexes are up to snuff.
Raining Blobs - Variation on the "Mean Bean Machine" concept, for when you're in the mood for that. (The main variation is that some blobs have stars, and you need two stars to make a set disappear. This makes the strategies for setting up chain reactions slightly different.) They get credit for having arcade, versus and puzzle modes, but the “crazy speed up” every few levels gets out of hand quickly.
Super Ubie Island REMIX - A level-based platformer where you play as a little green alien trying to collect various coins, gems and bugs and eventually the pieces of his crashed spaceship. The controls are good and the graphics are cute (and non-pixelated), but this doesn’t have anything that makes it stand apart from the platformer crowd.
This Book Is A Dungeon - This is effectively a text adventure (just one with a few pictures and a map) with a horror exploration theme. You find a mysterious book and are drawn into a horrible dungeon world, where you have opportunities to solve puzzles and/or die horribly.
Mazement - The evil Pyramid has enlisted the foolish Squares to lock up all the Balls...except you! You need to roll around, avoiding enemies and rescuing everything round. If you remember the old marble-based labyrinth game (or have ever played Super Monkey Ball) you'll be well-suited for the control scheme here. There are a dozen levels in the prison, then half a dozen more in the witch's dungeon where she turns you into an egg for spilling her brew. Decent fun.
This bundle also included Overture, a shoot-em-up which I already had.
Overall: I definitely enjoyed Mr. Nibbles. Most of the others were thoroughly middling; not so bad that I have anything against them, but not so good that I was really hooked by them.
So Much Blood - A dungeon-crawl shoot-em-up which only allows you to fire left or right; you try to collect enough "blood points" to buy better weapons and more life hearts so you can reach and beat the boss at the end of each area. Every 30 seconds, more enemies spawn. I applaud them for building a "respawning enemies" shooter into something that actually has a goal, but that doesn't mean I found it fun for more than a few minutes. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the graphics scheme: It’s right there in the title.
Virtual Rogue - I think there should be a rule that if you use the word "rogue" in your title, you need to have made a roguelike to some degree. This is a survival shooter (with an “inside the computer” theme), in which you travel through randomly generated maps, fight enemies, pick up power-ups and periodically face a boss. The only roguelike part is that there's permadeath.
Curvatron - Do you remember the "snakes" game that typically came with QBASIC installs on old computers, where you needed to eat numbers but your tail kept growing and you needed to not hit yourself? This is that, only the snake automatically curves and you constantly need to be moving with a "wave" motion to avoid hitting yourself or other obstacles. It's a gimmick puzzler that didn't win me.
Cosmic Leap - Help the former rebels / current game show contestants circle and jump from planetoid to planetoid in individual puzzle-ish levels that usually end with them getting blown up. Cute concept and framing story, that actual action gets old fast.
Spunk and Moxie - A hybrid runner / puzzle-platformer where you try to guide a bouncing blob of goo through various obstacle courses and collect gems while doing it. The graphics and bright and cheery and the controls are one-button simple. It didn’t grab me for long, but I think it’s a decent little game if your reflexes are up to snuff.
Raining Blobs - Variation on the "Mean Bean Machine" concept, for when you're in the mood for that. (The main variation is that some blobs have stars, and you need two stars to make a set disappear. This makes the strategies for setting up chain reactions slightly different.) They get credit for having arcade, versus and puzzle modes, but the “crazy speed up” every few levels gets out of hand quickly.
Super Ubie Island REMIX - A level-based platformer where you play as a little green alien trying to collect various coins, gems and bugs and eventually the pieces of his crashed spaceship. The controls are good and the graphics are cute (and non-pixelated), but this doesn’t have anything that makes it stand apart from the platformer crowd.
This Book Is A Dungeon - This is effectively a text adventure (just one with a few pictures and a map) with a horror exploration theme. You find a mysterious book and are drawn into a horrible dungeon world, where you have opportunities to solve puzzles and/or die horribly.
Mazement - The evil Pyramid has enlisted the foolish Squares to lock up all the Balls...except you! You need to roll around, avoiding enemies and rescuing everything round. If you remember the old marble-based labyrinth game (or have ever played Super Monkey Ball) you'll be well-suited for the control scheme here. There are a dozen levels in the prison, then half a dozen more in the witch's dungeon where she turns you into an egg for spilling her brew. Decent fun.
This bundle also included Overture, a shoot-em-up which I already had.
Overall: I definitely enjoyed Mr. Nibbles. Most of the others were thoroughly middling; not so bad that I have anything against them, but not so good that I was really hooked by them.
