Back to a brief look at some indie gems/disasters that are all available absolutely FREE to download on www.thefreebundle.com. Once again, these games are FREE so don’t let any nasty snarky remarks below stop you from giving them a go if they sound like your kind of thing.
Another indie survival horror game created in Game Maker, but this one comes with one of the bizarre messages you could ever see at the start of a game. When you boot the game up the first thing you read after pressing start is “When playing the game, you should not play to win. Instead focus on immersing yourself in the game.” The thing about immersion is that immersive games are just…immersion. Demanding the player to make a special effort to immerse themselves in the atmosphere before the game even starts shows a stunning lack of faith in your own product. It’s like those people who tell you not to overthink dumb movies and to turn your brain off to convince yourself that Indiana Jones surviving in a fridge is totally fine, sure they have a point you would probably enjoy the film more than way but when things don’t work…they don’t work and there’s not much you can do to force yourself into enjoying it.
To break reviewer non-blog type writing for a second, I’ll openly admit I gave up on Ascension very early on. Two reasons for this, the first is the writing is so god damn awful I looked up the developer to see if they were non-English speaking or something and this had been translated, they’re based in Vancouver so it’s a 50-50 coin toss on that. Secondly, this game is impossible to play on the laptop. You need to use the mouse for the flashlight to work constantly, switching weapons and moving and attacking and checking items etc. all gets really irritating with the keyboard layout and I was starting to get cramps.
So, yea, pretty much gave on this one. It was really silly and nothing engaging about it, the monsters and horror element certainly weren’t striking a chord and the game can’t bully its way it making it work either. Maybe if you have a proper keyboard and mouse set up and are more patient you can get something out of it, if not go download Mad Father from the site instead.
The best way to describe this one is “Metroid gameplay designed entirely around the Gutsman ability from Mega Man 1.” If that’s a little too nerdy to understand you can also take it as “retro non-linear platformer where you can throw stuff.”
Lyle ticks all the usual indie boxes, bouncy chiptuned soundtrack and retro looks, basic back to roots platforming and lots and lots of cubes. The biggest issue with the game and the main reason why it’s not as good as Metroid is lack of direction and context. The “story” has Lyle, a victim of catnapping, pursue the villain but other than that it’s just box rooms and random corridors. Metroid had you searching for powerups and armour which made sense in the context of the world and characters, and searching for keys to doors so you had a sense of progression, with Lyle you get powerups and go a certain direction because it’s a video game and that’s what video games. It’s not awful game design by any means, it’s simple to follow often, you get the double jump power up, you backtrack to the previous room and there’s a route where you can only access via double jump, fair enough. The lack of sense of progression really sets the game back though, and you’re never entirely certain that you actually are ever going the right way even if you are.
Overall, it’s simple game and it comes recommended to people who are fans of the Metroid style of gameplay. Unless they haven’t played Cave Story, oh my god, don’t you even THINK of playing Lyle in Cube Sector if you haven’t tried Cave Story yet, it’s so much better. But, good effort Lyle…
Here’s what happens when you play Nitronic Rush for the first time, you’ll crash into a wall. Immediately, because the controls don’t work, it’s a driving game with the weirdest car physics imaginable and it’s weird as hell. The games also stupid, the announcer in it is stupid, the look is stupid, the physics are stupid even the title is stupid, so Nitronic Rush is hot garbage then? Nope.
The game is based on driving but with a focus on survival and tricks, and also getting high scores for those who care about that sort of thing. Your car has the ability to boost, quick turn, backflip, barrel roll, fly…wait what were those last three again? As much as it would be nice if the game handled a little more comfortably, it’s impossible not to recommend Nitronic Rush for a quick (and free) download, when the game has an occasional moment of actually working it’s a riot.
You will crash a lot though, and a lot means A LOT, that would be fine but every time it happens you get an explosion and an unbelievably cheesy line from the announcer and it all takes just long enough to be annoying, games like this all need a quick reset button. It’s okay though because every time it happens it’s hilarious, flying off the track and crashing into a building or just watch your car cart wheeling into an inferno at 200mph takes surprisingly long to get old. It’s also fun just to try and break the game and play with the bizarre physics engine which presumably were based on some animated dream sequence or something.
Nitronic Rush is hard to seriously call a “good game”, but it’s got a deserved place in this world and that’s more than can be said for a lot of indie games. Give it a try and play one of the dumbest racers out there.
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