Humble Weekly Bundle: Japan Edition – Review
For those unaware, the Weekly Humble Bundle is a collection of games available on www.humblebundle.com that allows gamers to pay the price they deem fair for a huge amount of games, with most of the proceeds going to charity. It’s a fantastic way of giving to charity and buying games, while also helping to broaden your gaming horizons. For this week’s bundle I’ll be reviewing each one individually, with a conclusion as to what I think they’re worth, and whether you should buy them.
This week’s bundle is dubbed the ‘Japan Edition’ – a collection of seven indie games which strongly reflect the culture, styles and genres of Japan.
Games for $1 dollar – The following three games can be unlocked with donations of $1 dollar or more.
Unholy Heights is a tower defense/landlord simulator, where you play as Satan himself. You being the devious devil that you are, plan to conquer earth and make some cash on the side through the most sinister means ever – property leasing. The aim of the game is to attract monsters to your block of apartments and make them content, as they are your only line of defense against nosy human adventurers. The graphics are basic and the gameplay is simple, but it’s both challenging and addictive. There’s a lot of depth here too, when advanced furnishings, battle strategy and babymaking become involved. 8/10
One Way Heroics is a rogue-like, SNES-esque RPG with a few interesting premises. Each time you play, the world is randomly generated and you must continually advance to the right side of the screen. If you touch the left border of the screen you’ll die, hence the name One Way Heroics. The game has countless items, skills and classes for you to choose from, but ultimately the gameplay boils down to luck, pressing attack, and more luck. Due to the randomly generated nature of the game, sometimes it’ll be incredibly easy, sometimes unwinnable, leading to an unfulfilled experience that leaves you feeling like skill was never a factor. 6/10
Gigantic Army is a 2D scrolling shooter that feels reminiscent of Contra. The controls are sloppy and unintuitive, but the biggest problem is the lack of real innovation in Gigantic Army. Other than using your jet boost, your special weapon or your shield, there’s very little to this title besides shooting a lot. The bosses I encountered were also disappointing, I simply found a region of the screen where his massive attacks couldn’t hit me. There’s simply too many 2D shooter/platformers similar to this, but of a much higher quality, for Gigantic Army to be worth your time. 4/10
Games for $6 dollars – The following games can be unlocked with donations of $6 or more.
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae is an arena based slash-em-up. You play as a Japanese school girl who claims to be some kind of holy templar (I skipped the cutscene). Using your array of holy powers and katana, you must save the world from loads of robot agent smith types. The core mechanics and gameplay are fine, you’ve multiple attacks, special moves and evasive maneuvers to use, it’s all just a bit dull. You’re confined to a very small arena, facing palette swapped versions of the same enemy, wave after wave. There’s just little variation to keep you playing Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, unless you really have a thing for Japanese school girls and excessive fan service (if so, seek help). 5/10
In PixelJunk Shooter, you’re tasked with piloting your ship through hostile environments in order to save your crew members left behind. While it is level-based, it’s done in a way that feels like you’re exploring the environment, as you encounter new challenges, terrains and threats. The controls are incredibly basic, but the environmental design requires some actual thought as to how you’ll progress past various puzzles in each stage. PixelJunk Shooter is relaxing, rewarding and quite fun. 7/10
YS Origin is a recent prequel to the ‘YS’ Series of J-RPGs from Falcom. Unlike most J-RPGs, it is not turn-based, but burrows more from the character action template. You play as Hugo Fact, an arrogant young sorcerer who sets out to find the missing twin goddesses of YS, before the demons do. The combat is fun, responsive and challenging when boss fights occur. Exploration and puzzle solving are also big factors in the YS series, often being compared to the MetroidVania style of backtracking. YS has an okay story, good dialogue and fantastic gameplay. Enough to make any RPG fan happy. 8/10
Games for $10 dollars – The following game is unlocked with donations of $10 dollars or more
Astebreed is a 3D scrolling shooter with multiple perspective. Lore-wise, it seems to borrow heavily from the ‘mecha’ genre of Japanese culture, specifically inspired by the likes of Gundam and Evangelion. As galactic war breaks out, the end of all things seem near, as pilot Roy Becket takes control of an otherworldly war machine in hopes of saving humanity. The graphics are fantastic and the story is relatively compelling, but the game itself can be a little repetitive at times. It feels somewhat akin to the gummy ship segments in Kingdom Hearts. Astebreed is interesting in story, graphics and lore, but lacks where it matters most. 6/10
To summarize, Unholy Heights and YS Origins are great games that certainly warrant their donation limits, respectively. PixelJunk Shooter is also quite fun if it appeals, where as One Way Heroics is too unpolished to hold the attention of most. Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae and Gigantic Army aren’t recommended, while if you like.scrolling shooters, you’ll probably fall in love with Astebreed. All in all, both the $1 and $6 limits have great titles and some mediocre ones, where as $10 is a fair deal if Astebreed really appeals to you.