VVVVVV

VVVVVV was a Humble Bundle purchase and while I can't say I hate the game I didn't particularly enjoy it. A study in gaming mechanics it is, but an engaging means of spending several hours it is not.

This is pretty close to an Atari 2600 level side scroller, although the physics are much more impressive than I would have expected from an Atari game.

Graphics intensive it is not

You move through the levels and jump from ceiling to floor of each level with no problems, using a combination of these movements to navigate through each screen. There is a story tied in here, but not one that I cared enough about to learn.

My real problem is the game play appears to be largely memory based navigation, study a screen and attempt different moves until you get the timing/pattern correct, not a winning combo for me. I understand gaming is all about patterns, but I like to strive for more with my games.

I'm giving this one a 6/10, it gets points for the concept, but loses a lot for being a memory building tool.

Heavy Weapon

Heavy Weapon is a game very near and dear to my heart. This my idea of a casual game, no moving jewels, finding clues, or solving anything, just driving a tank and shooting airplanes out of the sky. Seriously, what more can you ask for?

Heavy Weapon in all it's shooty gloriousness

You're not getting a lot with this game, in complexity or longevity, a handful of levels where you drive a tank back and forth across the bottom of the screen shooting airplanes, tanks, helicopters, and trucks with the occasional boss fight in it. Whole campaign can be beaten in an hour without really trying, but at 4.99, how much can you expect?

I'm giving this one a 8/10, it gives exactly what it promises with no apologies, and who doesn't love anti-communist humor?

All Zombies Must Die

All Zombies must Die is, in a word, fun. The title gives you everything you need to know about it: you need to live, so all zombies must die. In case you care, it's a top down 3rd person shooter.

It's a cartoony styled game with a lot of humour thrown in, some good, some overused and tired, but all well employed. It also appears to be multi-player, but those type of games are for people with social skills transcending my meagre supply and, therefore, shall not be covered other than this: some quests would appear to be easier to complete with access to other weapon types, which could be carried by team mates; this makes the single player campaign playable, but slightly less than ideal.

Gimme a girl who's good with a gun any day of the week!

The game has multiple characters that can be played, either in turn, or by other people joining in, a quest driven upgrade system, and endless zombies to shoot, beat, or blow up. I found the game to be lots of fun, but the zombie genre is overdone these days, and the art style may not appeal to some people, so take your own tastes into account.

I'm giving this an 8/10. I was inclined to go 9/10, but I just don't know if it has enough going on to rate another point, especially considering my multi-player hangup. Still, a am giving this one an unqualified recommendation, especially for the price,  there are much worse ways to spend 9.99 and a few hours.

Banished

Banished is an interesting study in gaming, I thought I should love this game, but, although I enjoyed it, there just wasn't as much as I thought there would be. True, as stated, I did enjoy the game, but not unreservedly. Good interface, tight control mechanics, and really nice graphics are all present, but that alone won't stave of eventual boredom.

Not much story here, you control a village of people who have been banished (hence the name) from their own community and have to start fresh. You build homes and produce everything your village needs to thrive, growing crops, creating tools, etc., while facing inclement weather, random disasters, ranging from tornadoes to flat out starvation and even the odd suicide, and just plain dealing with the environment.

A village on the verge of collapse.

It's largely an exercise in resource management with very little micro-management: you tell your villagers to build tools or grow crops, but beyond telling them what kind you have no control over how they do it. The goal is to make your village thrive with no real endgame, just keep on building more houses, trying to keep people happy and healthy.

I played quite a few hours of this game, so obviously I didn't hate it, however, with no endgame goal to achieve I found myself getting bored; generally when this happens I work toward achievements, as I'm very goal oriented in my gaming, but I found they require a fair amount of skill/effort to get, so that was met with mixed results.

I'm giving this one a 7/10, at least partly because I got it so cheap during the last Stem Summer Sale. If I had to pay the full price of 19.99 the score would have skewed much lower, but if you enjoy that SimCity vibe and want a well constructed game to play it on, this is a hard one to pass up.

Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb

Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb was another member of the PopCap bundle from a few years back. There is a whole genre of the point and click puzzle games that appeal to some people (my wife loves them) and while I do see why people enjoy them, I generally prefer a bit more action in my games

I took this screencap from Steam

Gameplay is pretty basic, you're given a picture with a jumble of junk and they ask you to pick out certain items (the screenshot above demonstrates this perfectly); find all the items and they give you a puzzle to solve so you can get the next picture; rinse and repeat.

I've played a couple of these games but I don't believe I've ever finished them, I tend to get bored when I'm not creating bullet sized ventilation holes in anything, so I may not be the best individual to judge these games, but I think this is the best game it can be given it's own rules. The only thing I can complain about is sometimes the names of object can be a bit obscure, I mean who the hell knows what a "Radiator Key" is in this day and age, but I think they did that on purpose to add at least a little difficulty to it.

I'm going to put this as a 6/10, perfect for a casual game (with an ok price tag at 4.99), no story to bog down or game mechanics to get fowled up, but not enticing enough to be interesting to a wide scope of people or for very long.