Indie Gala: Monday Bundle #10

With Indie Gala doing weekly bundles, I figured it was time to go through all the current offerings and provide a short synopsis of the bundles and games. The new Monday Bundle #10 just launched, which means $1 for the next few days will get you all the games in the bundle. Only a buck for six games!? Yup, but there’s probably a reason for the low price. There are other bundles as well, but I’m not sure how long each bundle runs; I’ll cover those separately.

Monday Bundle #10 (June 2, 2014 - $1 right now)

Short summary: it’s hard to argue with the price, but of the six games you’ll probably pass on at least half of them. Desolate Hope is my pick of this group so far, but Subject 9 and Zack Zero might be worth a shot as well.

• 8BitBoy (N/A, 05/2014): If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Super Mario Bros. should be feeling pretty good right now. This is about as much of a clone of SMB as possible; sometimes reinventing the wheel isn’t necessary, but this is a pretty tough sell…except for $1 for the bundle, why not?
• The Desolate Hope (N/A, 04/2012): Side-scrolling game where you control a coffee pot (yay!) with JRPG “boss” battles interspersed throughout. It has an interesting story and somewhat novel graphics, but I’ll admit that some of the JRPG battles have been a bit difficult for me.
• The Race for the White House (N/A, 06/2012): Relive the glory of the 2012 presidential election, or something like that. Not so much political as it is a game of managing the people…so I guess it is political. This game is listed on Steam Greenlight, so until/unless it’s accepted you’ll need to use Desura.
• Subject 9 (N/A, 08/2013): A third-person shooter with a camera that can get in the way of playing, you control super human experiment Subject 9 and take on an evil corporation. Too bad it’s not more like Crusader: No Remorse.
• Unearthed: Trail of Ibn Battuta (~35%, 01/2014): Almost universally panned by the user and critic reviews, this is a knock-off of Uncharted, and it’s apparently nowhere near that quality. There’s only about 1.5 hours of game play here, though, so at least you won’t have to suffer too long.
• Zack Zero (~60%, 04/2013): Side-scrolling action game, some people like it and others think it’s pretty weak. YMMV.