The Humble Bundle

One perk of having a gamer boyfriend/fiancé is that you get updated gaming news a lot and my favorite is getting introduced to different and new games. Jex told me to check out The Humble Bundle, which I did, and now I really need to blog about it.

What is The Humble Bundle? Simply:

Pay what you want. Support charity. Get awesome games.

So the idea is you pay what you want (seriously) to get a bundle of awesome games, at the same time you also donate something to charity. Who wouldn't like this idea?

The Humble Bundle currently up for grabs includes the following games:

• Swords & Soldiers
• Canabalt
• Zen Bound 2
• Cogs
• Avadon: The Black Fortress

And donations coming from purchases of the Humble Bundle will be supporting the Child's Play charity,  a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games.

I downloaded all the games to my Android, except for Avadon, since it says it's for a tablet. By the way, when you purchase The Humble Bundle for Android 2, you not only get the games for installing on your Android device, but you'll also be able to get the game installers for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You also gets Steam keys for Avadon, Cogs, Zen Bound 2, and  Swords & Soldier. I swear, it's a really good and awesome deal.

You can still purchase the Humble Bundle, there's still time (8 days, 5 hours, 56 minutes, and 54 seconds as of posting)! Just go to their website and scroll down. You can set what amount you want to pay for the games and even decide how your contribution will be divided. Payments can be made through PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout.

Swords & Soldiers

Jex downloaded this game on the Wii so I've already played it before. When I saw it was part of the Humble Bundle for Android I just had to get it. Swords & Soldiers is a side-scrolling tower defense game with really cute graphics and funny dialogue. Cute as the graphics may be, this game gets pretty difficult after a while. Or maybe that's just me. *shrugs*

I've installed this both on my Android, PC, and through Steam (just because I wanted to try it). I've only played a couple of stages on Campaign mode on my phone and it works really well. So far I haven't experienced any noticeable or significant lag nor any force closing. The game moves smoothly and the controls are easy to use for playing on a mobile device.

If anyone else wants to play the game on your device it'll be no problem because there are 6 profiles/save slots available for use. No need to worry if your game will get overwritten!

Canabalt

Canabalt is a black and white, side-scrolling, jumping game. Think Temple Run, but you're looking at the game from the side.

For maximum awesome =)

It's fairly simple to play because there's only one thing you need to control, which is when your character will jump. The goal is to get as far as you can by running. Since the controls are already simple the environment is there to make it more challenging. You'll encounter crates, chairs, collapsing buildings, glass windows, and other obstacles that will make your character trip and possibly fall if you don't time your jumps accordingly.

The game has a retro feel with grayish tones and pixel graphics. I especially like the splash page with the headphones recommendation. The environment is different each time you start a game, so you can't memorize obstacles. I haven't played this game a lot yet, just enough to know how to play it. Just like Swords & Soldiers, the game performs well on my phone. No lags and force closing experienced so far. This will be one of those games I'll be playing when I don't want to think too much but want to waste time.

Zen Bound 2

The first time I tried playing Zen Bound 2 I was just wowed by its graphics. It's so pretty. Seriously, the graphics are gorgeous. The application of textures and colors gives the game a zen feel.

Zen Bound 2 is a puzzle game like I've never played before. At each stage you are given a 3D wooden or stone figurine that you need to wrap in rope. Areas on the figurine touched by the rope will apply color onto the figurine. The goal is to color as much surface area of the figurine as you can. Factors that will determine your score are the percentage of surface area colored/covered and the length of rope you used. Less rope length + high percentage of area covered = good! You control the figurine by turning and twisting it around, while the rope is bound to a certain point on the figurine.

I also noticed that the game automatically changes orientation depending on how you hold your phone. Even when I had my phone's auto-rotation setting disabled the game still adjusts the orientation accordingly. I personally like playing the game on portrait mode because it feels more natural.

Horizontal orientation

Vertical orientation

The game itself is challenging. The stages on the introduction level are pretty easy, but the next level, I think, is significantly more difficult. Like graduating from college and being thrown into the real world. Lots of patience is needed when playing this game. Thank god, there isn't a timer or there will just be too much stress!

Unfortunately, at first launch of the game I already experienced problems. The game didn't start up and just left me with a black, blank screen. I manually killed the running application and restart the game for it to finally work. And it isn't an isolated issue, I've already experienced loading problems at different parts of the application on different instances. It's a bit discouraging and disappointing. I'm not sure if this is just a performance problem on my phone or if other users have also experienced it on their own devices.

Cogs

Do you remember those sliding picture puzzle games? The ones where you need to slide around tiles to form the picture? What about those puzzle games where you need to arrange gears so that when you turn them they move a certain way? Put those two types of puzzles together and you have Cogs. Aside from gears some stages also have pipes. Yes, similar to the pipes game where you need to route the water from one point to another.

While slide puzzle games are usually in 2D, most stages in Cogs are in 3D. Meaning faces of a cube will have different but interconnected puzzles on them. Some stages will also require some timing.

Each stage completed is scored with stars. Factors that will affect the number of stars you get are time & number of moves (slides) you make. The less time & number of moves, the better.

I haven't played this game that much yet, but so far it's performing really well. No significant lags and no force closes. I really like how the interface was designed, especially the menu. It's so steampunk.