Indie Rodeo for WB 3rd March 2014

This weeks Indie Rodeo is brought to by the letters H (for hungry) and P (for painkillers), so a little more random and prone to insanity. I’d love to say normal service will resume next week, but I have no idea what normal actually is.

Blink Bundle: Hidden Gems Bundle

Link

Available until 7/3/14

Price: $4.99 (£2.98)

Blue Toad Murder Files - A very English murder mystery, like a playable version Midsomer murders. Brave attempt at pulling multiplayer into non-multiplayer genre, sadly doesn't quite work.
Vox - Not another bloody voxel game. It would be unfair to grumble, just because I'm sick of voxel clones. This isn't a bad game, just early in its development. Potential to be quite good.
Mutant Storm Reloaded - Twin stick shooter, which made its debut on the XBOX before being ported across to the PC. Has an interesting scaling difficulty level like the Judo belts.
Bumbledore - So this sounds like a game about a bumble bee wizard. It is. That's about as interesting as it gets, as its just another tower defense game. Graphics are nice though.
King Arthur’s Gold - Part Terraria, part LOL. A 2D multiplayer brawler that revolves around rebuilding your castle and defending it from the ravaging hordes. Can have up to 32 players!
Legends of Aethereus - Very bland action game with RPG elements tacked on. Not worth downloading.
Iesabel - Disappointing Diablo clone, the flaws heavily outweigh the merits. At least the music is good
Kairo - Very odd adventure game. Stark landscape, no dialogue, just big ancient machines that you need to fix.
Little Racers STREET - 3D racing game, nothing groundbreaking but quite a good laugh with a few friends online.

Worth it?

Not really, unless you don’t already own Kairo or fancy King Arthur’s Gold. I don’t consider £3 for seven rather mediocre games a good deal.

Indie Royale: Mixer 2

Link

Available until 13/3/14

Price £2

Face Noir - By the numbers point and click adventure. Nothing special but will entertain for a few hours.

The 39 Steps - Based on the book of the same name. Disappointing, just feels like a barely playable point and click.

Data Jammers: FastForward - Simple and to the point blaster game. Easy to pick up but a swine to master. Its something you can pick up and play for ten minutes.

Fairy Bloom Freesia - Short and vaguely amusing brawler in a manga style. Little replayability and can get a little repetitive. 

LightFish - Action arcade style game, with the same style as the classic Qix. Nothing groundbreaking.

Fish vs. Crabs - Underwater tower defence game. Can build your own reef and have it as a screen saver. Still in active development adding new features, but so far a solid game.

Primal Fears - Rubbish isometric shooter. At least it has nice graphics.

Dawn of Fantasy: Kingdom Wars - Until today I didn't know that MMORTS were a _thing_ This is one of them. Its an ok game, just not my cup of tea.

Worth it?

Sadly many of IRs recent bundles have been a bit of a let down. Fish vs. Crabs and Data Jammers are good, so probably worth it if you don’t have them from elsewhere.

Flying Bundle 6

Link

Available until 11/3/14

Price: $3 (£1.79)

Crater Maker - A game that is still in the Alpha phase of development. A space sim with a mix of modes that should keep gameplay interesting.

Cubetractor - Some sort of mental hybrid of puzzle and tower defence with a chiptune soundtrack. Bonkers, tricky but fun.

Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project - Oh look its Duke, NEXT.

Hero Siege - HacknSlash adventure game. Fun graphics and straight forward game play. Death mechanic can be punishing. Oh yes, and loot, we like loot.

Perfection - Randomly generated puzzler, entailing the trimming of shapes. Once complete, its gone forever. There is no continuing agonizing over levels and high scores.

Skyward Collapse - Brilliant turn based version of Populous, only you have to stop the two nations wiping each other out. Can be as laid back or as difficult as you want.

Skyward Collapse: Nihon no Mura - DLC for Skyward Collapse, adding in Japan and its mythology. Nice addition to a great game.

Swarm Arena - Arcade shooter much like Geometry Wars, with tight game-play and lush graphics. A little short but will entertain for a few hours.

Worth it?

Yes. Skyward Collapse and DLC in of itself is worth the tiny price tag. The others are a nice extra. Flying Bundle is a greatly underrated collection that really needs more coverage.

Crossposted to MatureGamerPodcast