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What's New in Indie |
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Each month GameTunnel Editor-in-Chief Russell
Carroll plays dozens of new downloadable games, and then opines away
to bring you the best and worst of what's new in independent gaming. |
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Scoring Scale |
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A game to check out if you have nothing
better to do during lunch |
A game worth
breaking a date to play (and it'll be more fun anyways!) |
Call your boss, close the shades
and turn on a great game! |
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March 2008: |
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Astro Avenger 2 |
Astro Avenger 2
($19.95)
by Sahmon Games
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Faced with extinction the human race must press forward against a hostile alien race that is
destroying everything in its path or be destroyed. In this dark hour you step forward to pilot
a space craft with a powerful and upgradeable arsenal as you take to the skies to defend all
mankind.
The
Verdict:
The original
AstroAvenger brought my otherwise pretty up-to-date system to a screeching
halt
when the game was released nearly 4 years ago. The sequel builds upon that luster with some
really slick production values that quickly take you in with the CG movie that launches when
you first play the game. All the menus show a level of polish that is
absolutely out of this
world, and the shop is full of guns, bots and heavy payload missiles that you'll be dying to
get your hands on. AstroAvenger 2 is thoroughly enjoyable, if somewhat
repetitive, it's a great
way to kill a weekend!
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AudioSurf |
AudioSurf
($9.95)
by Dylan Fitterer
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AudioSurf takes your music and turns it into a race track of sorts where you make color-matches
to score points. The track is created from your music and so follows the intensity and
rhythm
to create a unique entertainment-wrapped appreciation of the music itself.
The
Verdict:
AudioSurf is really the kind of Independent game that people love to play. It is
original and
different, but easy to pick-up and play, and the experience is absolutely one of a kind. If
you haven't played it yet, I heartily recommend downloading the huge demo off of Steam as, like
so many rhythm games, you really have to play it to get a feel for what this game is (and
thankfully the demo is fully featured and limited only in the number of songs you get to play).
The sensation of interacting with your music is much akin to Guitar Hero, giving a deeper
sense of understanding of the intricacies of the music and highlighting things you probably
didn't even realize were a part of your favorite tunes. Brilliant fun!
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Zombie Shooter |
Zombie Shooter
($19.95)
by Sigma Team
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Coming upon hordes of Zombies you shoot them...
The
Verdict:
Ok, so it's a pretty basic plot, and the game is sometimes a little over the top (the main
character doing their best Leon impression while also holding one of their two hand-guns
gangster style is nearly laughable), but it's easy to get past that once you start playing.
Alien Shooter was, and remains, one of the best shoot-em-up games ever made. There has been
expansion packs and one remake on the series already in Theseus, and unfortunately, none of
them has quite lived up to the quality of the original.
When I first got Zombie Shooter I was
sure it was going to be another lackluster extension of the Alien Shooter line. However,
Zombie Shooter quickly proved my misgivings wrong. The graphics are nicely tuned up with a
higher resolution than Alien Shooter, and the environments have been very carefully put
together and crafted with lots of tiny touches in detail that really make the game shine.
Whereas the levels in Alien Shooter were essentially the same thing over and over again, Zombie
Shooter has a variety of levels, ranging indoors and outside, each with a distinct graphical
look and style. The variety of levels is matched only by the variety of enemies, each armed
with its own attack method and weaponry.
Honestly, Zombie Shooter blew me away. From playing the
demo, I had thought it was just another sad attempt at remaking the original Alien Shooter, but
after playing through the game, I can only suggest that you take a good long look at this game.
It's a worthy successor to
Alien Shooter, and that is a significant amount of praise.
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Bloom Busters |
Bloom Busters
($19.99)
by UBrothers
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It seems like a nice day on the farm until the evil scientist puts his vile liquid into the
water. While there is still plenty of fluffy animals running around, not everything is nice
anymore and many of the animals are trying to eat your crops and ruin your flowers. Armed with
your trusty spatula and a slime gun, you and your wife must work together to save your farm.
The
Verdict:
I remember playing Bloom Busters well over a year ago when it was in the Independent Games
Festival as FlowerMan. I thought the concept then was a bit odd. It's a friendly game of
beating enemies to death. The game is at once cutesy and gruesome, featuring an overweight
Italian character in a bright and notably well-drawn locales mixed with strange creatures that
splatter green goo when you smash them with your spatula.
The game has improved a lot over the
last year plus, taking away what became mindless enemy mashing and mixing in a lot of different
tasks such as protecting the growing flower, feeding the pigs and yes,
corralling the sheep with
a spatula! The co-op provides some additional fun and though the voice work and translation
could both use a little more work, the game is strangely addicting and worth taking a longer
look at than you might first guess.
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Magic Farm |
Magic Farm
($19.99)
by Meridian'93
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When your parents go missing, you return home to find out what happened. Of course, searching
for them means hiring people and hiring people means money, and you have none. However, in
today's world, anyone can get money, they just need to open their very own flower farm...and so
you do.
The
Verdict:
Similar to last year's
Grimm's Hatchery, Magic Farm mixes some light RPG with lots of clicking
ala Insanaquarium. You set-up your farm hand-picking your plants and arranging them on the
lot. The game plays out as you care for the farm each day by keeping the pests away, watering
the plants and harvesting the flowers. Each action is done with a simple click, or in the case
of killing the pests with a shovel, a number of clicks. The faster you do take any action, the
more experience points you get for it, which is a nice motivator. After harvesting the
flowers, you can sell them one at a time, or build bouquets that have been requested by
customers. The bouquets earn you a lot more money, though they unfortunately are rather
tedious to build (why you can't just click on a flower in the bouquet and have it auto-pull
from your obscuring pile of flowers is beyond me!).
Along the way a dragon is donated to your cause, which gives you a
choice when it comes to leveling-up, as you can't level both you and
your dragon up at the same time. It's all good
simple fun wrapped around a rather flat storyline. Regardless of that, Magic
Farm is a pretty
addicting that can suck away an evening before you realize it.
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Wonderful End of the World |
Wonderful End of the World
($19.95)
by Dejobaan Games, LLC
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The world is about to be eaten, by you! In Wonderful End of the World, your goal is to grow
from a small little critter to the size of the planet by absorbing everything that you run
into. You can only absorb things that are smaller than you, which at first really limits what
you can eat, but you'll quickly grow and be able to absorb more and more until you are
collecting the very barriers that used to limit your movement.
The Verdict:
Wonderful End of the World is a pretty unabashed Katamari clone. Notably it is a lot of fun
thanks to some great level design. For example one level has you starting out in a maze
collecting power-pellets and soon you grow to absorbing the maze and turning your attention to
mushrooms and blocks left behind by speeding cycles. Another level, the Word Forge, is filled
with blocks of various sizes that have either letters or complete words on them. The words
were clearly chosen with care, and the end result is really something to see.
For someone who
has never played Katamari, WEotW is a reasonable substitute, though I missed the
sense that my growth expanded the world that was available to me. Wonderful End of the World felt a
little more boxed in some-how, and the graphics and collision aren't on par with Katamari.
However, the level variety and vision of WEotW make it more than worth your
time, and something that you should check out.
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Azgard Defence |
Azgard Defence
($19.95)
by Moregames Entertainment
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From Moregames we get another Tower Defense to add to the seemingly endless
number that have been released recently. This one is set in medieval times
and has players guard the castle by
placing an assortment of ballistic defenses on the castle walls to eliminate the on-coming
hordes of enemies. Towers can both increase their levels as well as be upgraded, the later of
which allows for customization in attack and approach.
The
Verdict:
Azgard Defence is definitely deeper than your average Tower Defense game. The upgrade path for
the towers is very smartly done, starting players with just a few tower types, and then letting
them branch out from those types from within the individual tower upgrade menus. The feel is
nice and the game is just as addictive as any other Tower Defense game (though perhaps just a
bit slow in the ramp up as it is on the easy side). Still, there are so many of these games available, that a
little improvement on the theme isn't really enough to pull you away from your old favorites
(Master of Defense is mine!).
However, if you're looking for another Tower Defense game, this is one,
and it's pretty decent.
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Bloo Land |
Bloo Land
(freeware)
by Two Bros Games
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When Blooland is attacked by cats you set out on a quest to save the city and your friends by
retrieving the Golden Donuts and defeating the kitties in battle. Along the way you'll clear
waterfalls, hunt through dungeons and complete a grand prix!
The
Verdict:
I really wanted to like Bloo Land. Visually it's got a unique style that makes it appealing,
but the game play is just, well, horrible. The game is essentially a side-scrolling RPG mixed
with lots of dumb humor. You control Bloo, who after nearly killing you with text-reading, will get
into fights where you will run around jumping on cat heads to stun them and then punch them
over and over and over again.
The battles are the worst kind of RPG grind, mixing poor controls with overly long battles, and
are really the reason that the game un-enjoyable. Still there is enough here to make
something of a 'good'
BAD game just because it is so quirky and sooo under-produced. It is free, so perhaps if you keep
your expectations low, you'll find it worth the entry price.
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Covert Warfare |
Covert Warfare
($19.95)
by ClandestineWorks
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A tactical combat game over real terrain, Covert Warfare bills itself as 'level design for
Google Earth enthusiasts' and it is easy to see why. The game is built to make it 'easy' for
players to create levels from real world images and share them with the world.
The Verdict:
I liked this game in theory, and it still has the potential to be something interesting, but at
the moment it is sort of a sputtering disaster. The game play occurs as you pilot a tiny helicopter image
around a map, blasting at enemy installations, foot soldiers and enemy choppers. The action is
very slow and deliberate, which will turn off most action fans, and the sense of control of the
situation is very low as the response time of your chopper often isn't fast
enough to get you out of harm's way. I would guess that the realism is high in this regard, but like the website forum where levels are traded, the game feels a bit barren and
over-run by stuff that doesn't appeal to the majority of gamers. It's interesting, but not
ready for prime-time yet.
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Lost Geishas |
Lost Geishas
($20.00)
by Anvil Garage
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In a maze filled with ninjas the Samurai sets out to rescue the lost geishas. Using cunning,
you must avoid your enemies, fighting them only when you are strong enough to defeat them.
Though a dozen ninjas would normally mean instant death for any average Samurai, you are no
average Samurai.
The
Verdict:
Of all the bad ideas about using Ninjas and Samurais in a game this has to be the worst.
Essentially Lost Geishas is PacMan, if PacMan were horrifically sluggish and featured some of
the worst AI ever created. I suppose the lack of difficult 'ghosts' should be seen as a
positive, as the extreme number of Ninjas on the screen would make the game impossible without
the stupid AI that makes the Ninjas run randomly...away from you.
The power-ups are
highlighted by a sword that lets you kill a single Ninja. The sound effects are flat-out
awful, taking away from the visuals which at times are kind of nice to look at. Lost Geishas
is not worth the download, but it's not a total loss. Just thinking about the game might lead
you to play some other ninja game. One that is good.
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By: Russell Carroll Posted: Friday March 28, 2008
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