IndieRoyal released their newest Bundle recently, and it’s a good one.
Grab Indie Royal’s “Spring Bundle” Here
In case you aren’t already in the know: Indie Royal Bundles work a lot like the original Humble Indie Bundles, but with a couple differences. There’s a minimum price for the bundle, and the minimum price slowly goes up over time. (So if you’re interested in the bundle it might behoove you to get in sooner than later.) On the other hand if you pay $10 USD or more, you can help send the minimum price back down for others and get bonus content.
I had a chance to spend a bit of time with each of the games this evening, so I’ll be getting back to you tomorrow with some more in-depth reviews, but for now here’s the game list and a short breakdown. [Update: Reviews now available below the list.]
- Unstoppable Gorg: Unique “tower” defense game in which you defend various objects in space from an onslaught of alien ships with defensive satellites on various orbital tracks. Solid TD game, absolutely hilarious cut-scenes and style, definitely give the trailer a look at least.
- Depths of Peril: A single player Diablo-style hack and slack with a really interesting AI aspect. You’re in competition with other “Covenants” (factions) for power and influence around your town. Also there’s lots of quests and monster killing.
- Tobe’s Vertical Adventure: In a word, charming. This is an adorable, short-level platformer that’s a bit like Toki Tori with a touch of Super Meat Boy. Also has a side-by-side co-op mode that I haven’t had a chance to try.
- Inferno+: I’m usually not a big fan of twin-stick shooters, but this one incorporates actual levels with locked doors and keys and things like that along with a persistent upgrade system. Honestly I can’t wait to get back to this one.
- Slydris: It looks familiar on first glance, but this new take on the top-down, disappearing-blocks puzzle game will definitely make you lose track of time. Great little pick-up-and-play.
- Ballistic: Here’s your classic twin-stick shooter. You’re a ship, you have shields, you shoot the asinine amount of enemies (differently shaded circles) that come at you and try not to get blowed up. Flashy, but nothing too mind-blowing here. Still, I definitely spent a lot more time playing it than I thought I would.
- Bonus: If you pay $10 USD or more you’ll also get a bonus chiptune album, Danimal Cannon’s Roots.
You can snag Steam keys for Unstoppable Gorg, Depths of Peril, and Tobe’s Vertical Adventure. Desura keys or standalone installers for everything except Tobe. You can also grab the soundtrack for Tobe & Friends Hookshot Escape. Quick note: Tobe, Inferno, and Ballistic are all way more fun if you’ve got a PC gamepad handy.
Unstoppable Gorg
This is probably the main draw of the bundle for me. I’m a big fan of Tower Defense games, and Gorg takes the traditional model and spins it on a new axis. Besides being a solid TD game, it is completely infused with self-aware campy-ness inspired by old alien invasion flicks. Let me just say, the cut-scenes are positively tickling.
As for gameplay, in Gorg you defend planets, space stations, satellites and the like by manufacturing objects and placing them on a limited number of spaces in orbital rings. You have your classic machine-gun turret satellite (tower), cannon satellite, missile launchers, etc, but you also need to create money-production satellites, like the sunflowers in Plants vs. Zombies. Another interesting twist revolves around the “Research Lab” satellites you can create. These will slowly fill a research bar at the top of your screen. Filling this bar doesn’t help you in the current level, but grants you an extra “Research Token” to use while setting up for the next level. If you want to be able to upgrade, say, your machine-gun turret during the upcoming level, you must spend a research token during set-up to unlock the options—three more tokens will unlock max-upgrade.
The attackers come in waves, and instead of coming at you along the same path every wave has a different approach path—marked by a glowing green dotted line. You can spin each orbital ring individually, but every satellite on that ring will move as well. This makes proper defensive positioning quite a challenge—especially on your first playthrough, having no idea where the next wave will be approaching. If you’re looking to get all 5 Achievement Medals on every level, you’ll probably have to play each level multiple times. Like I said above, if nothing else make sure you watch the trailer for Unstoppable Gorg it is awesome.
Depths of Peril
If you’re a fan of the isometric hack-and-slash genre this is a great entry. The basics are there: monsters to kill, inventory slots to fill, skills to learn, quests to complete. The defining feature of Depths of Peril is an interesting AI mechanic that pits you against rival Covenants (factions) for power and influence around town. You can also make friendships and alliances with the other Covenants, or end up in a bitter rivalry if you, say, refuse one too many trade offers (regardless of whether or not the offered item is helpful to you at all). The Covenants also execute relationships amongst themselves, and making friends with one Covenant might stick you into a rivalry with their rivals. It’s an interesting new take on the genre, with very very modest system requirements—that last bit is going to be a big selling point for some folks.
Tobe’s Vertical Adventure
Punctuated by adorable illustrations and animations, this short-level platformer is a surprising treat. There is a bit of a Toki Tori feel to Tobe because you have limited-use tools at your disposal as you try gathering all the gems and saving all the cute baby chickens scattered through the levels. Managing to gather them all grants persistent upgrades like higher max-health and the ability to hold more of a given item at a time.
You descend through the levels using typical sprinting, jumping, rolling (sliding), wall-slides and wall-jumps—and in the case of the female character Nana. The goal is a big treasure chest at the bottom of each level, and here’s where the “Vertical” part of the title really comes in. After you open the chest, you have a limited amount of time to ascend back up through the level which is now altered by an earthquake. On the ascent, new paths are open, and oftentimes some of the gems and chicks won’t be reachable until you’re on your way back up. All the while, a big red counter is ticking down to zero, and sometimes you have to outrun things like a slowly climbing floor of insta-death spikes. The levels are pretty short so this is another great pick-up-and-play. There’s also a side-by-side co-op mode which I haven’t had a chance to try, but looks like fun. This is also a very gamepad-friendly game if you have one.
Inferno+
This is a great take on the twin-stick shooter, instead of just a Smash TV-style arena of death-killing, you navigate 40+ top-down levels littered with stationary turrets, mobile enemies that try to collide with you, mines, and more. You have to track down keys to unlock doors to move forward, picking up as much money as possible along the way. Then you use this money to unlock persistent upgrade options for your ship, the option to combine different types of upgrades offers a ton of customization. You also have the opportunity to change your upgrade point allocations at any time—assuming you can make it back to an upgrade shop—so you can switch up the gameplay quite a bit at any time. Again, break out the gamepad for this one. It’s a blast.
Slydris
It looks familiar, and even the name is a play on Tetris, but this is an interesting new take on the falling-and-disappearing blocks puzzler. One big difference here, Slydris is actually turn-based rather than twitch-reflex based. A set of bars—either one, two, or three blocks wide—falls from the top of the play area, Your job is to slide one bar to the left or the right to create a full row which will then disappear a la Tetris. The bars are one of two colors, and you get big point bonuses if you manage to create a full row of a single color, or at least a sizeable area of adjacent color. After each slide, another row of bars drop down and you have to get rid of the blocks before they reach the roof. Slydris has three game modes, great ambient music, and a soft, pleasant style. This is a great pick-up-and-play for people who love this type of genre. And let’s face it, that’s most people.
Ballistic
I’m not a huge fan of the twin-stick shooter genre in general, I just get tired of it. But I did find myself oddly compelled to keep playing this one. Definitely break out your gamepad for this one though, that’s the way it’s meant to be played—it’s in the genre name after all.
Your ship has a shield battery that drains out as you collide with the enemies that swarm at you from every direction. You’ve got two different weapons to choose from on the fly, 4-Way and Pulse. 4-Way is a spread-shot, better for crowd control fighting your way out of a corner, whereas Pulse is stronger, but only fires 2 bolts. The most interesting mechanic here is called “Ballistics Mode.” You activate it by holding down a button, it makes your ship move slower but your weapons go into overdrive, higher power and better rate of fire. But if you stay in Ballistics mode too long, your ship will overheat and explode, so you have to pace your use.