Just a heads up to the nice folks at PixelJam, if you expect to receive a review of a bundle deal, it’s probably best to supply everything the bundle contains to the writer. The PixelJam Octology also contains Dino Run SE, a beta
of Bitku (a pixel comic creator) and soundtracks of Potatoman and a collection of other PixelJam games. Oh well, let’s do our best we what we have which is still four games to sink our teeth into.
First up is the Marathon of Doom, which seems to be pretty much the same game as Dino Run but anyway. You play a dinosaur running away from an explosion caused by the meteorite that wiped them out. There’s really not much to it other than running to the right and occasionally jumping over the odd ditch, you can rack up more points by riding other dinosaurs and surfing boulders but it’s still all very simple. There is fun to be had with the Atari style sound effects, especially when the explosion starts to close in on you. On the whole, it’s a very simple run and jump pixel game, good in short bursts (very short bursts) and little else. Moving on.
Next up is Planeteri, which isn’t really game at all but a bunch of chiptuned music with pixelised visuals and colours. What even is there to comment on? It’s like reviewing a copy of Windows Media Player ported to the Atari 2600, it’s just weird. It has one thing on Windows Media Player as you can drag the 
animations around for no apparent reason, but I suppose it works as a boredom neutraliser. This does have the side effect of accidentally making it so you click away from the program and unintentionally bring up your folders or start menu or something, and nothing breaks immersion faster than your porn collection randomly flashing in your face. Not a game, not much to say about it, moving on.
The next game is Potatoman, a more traditional 2D platformer, and by more traditional I mean a lot more annoying. It’s hard to call Potatoman anything other than a trial and error game, it’s one of those games where the rules just seem to change from obstacle to obstacle. The first set of cacti you jump over just normally, but then AHA these cacti that look identical jump when you jump over them so you have to walk under them, you fell for our clever little trap didn’t you? It’s just irritating, especially since Potatoman insists on using the archaic lives system to destroy game flow even further. NEXT.
The next game is Snowball, it’s pinball. You know pinball, you shoot the ball, it hits bumpers, it hit things and they go DING DING DING and then you miss it with the flippers and rage quit. IT’S PINBALL, it’s functional, it has an extra thing where the ball can break into multiple little balls to get more points, and it has the innovative extra challenge of making the ball and the background the exact same colour so WHO KNOWS WHAT COULD HAPPEN? It’s pinball, if you like pinball and that weird space version that Windows XP has doesn’t satisfy your taste, here’s some pinball.
There you go, a quick run through of four items on a bundle of eight disguised as a review of the entire time. The main problem with these “games” is they’re all the kind of thing you can play on the internet for free on Newgrounds or something, it’s borderline impossible to recommend paying ten dollars for this bundle particularly since nothing on it is especially good. There’s a flash version of Dino Run on the internet, give that a play, if you really love it that much then consider picking this up if you pixel style games….and pinball.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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