Ye Indie Game Corner Volume 5: Vessel, Killer Smileys, To Be Or Not To Be. Nice, BlamBurgers and What Botched Rescue!

Written By: Tyler

Hello and welcome everybody to another random mixture of indie games. If you're unfamiliar with me or this feature, once in a while I'll just go on a site like Gamejolt and pick a few random indie games that were released recently. Then I will play them and give a really short review on each one.


Killer Smileys
Get It Here: http://gamejolt.com/games/platformer/killer-smileys/32754/

This game has three levels, and you are that robot thing on the left of the picture above. You shoot the bees and the smileys. The twist is that you can only shoot in one direction as far as I know, which makes it kind of weird if you're walking the other way. That's not really my problem with the game though... my problem is simply that it's not much fun. You can platform if you want but it's pointless because it's better just to stand in one place and blast until everything dies.

The developer throws in a space level, but it's awkward. I got stuck on nothingness and had to jump over said nothingness.

Rating: 3/10


What Botched Rescue
Get It Here: http://gamejolt.com/games/shooter/what-botched-rescue/32701/

If you follow my blog, it's probably no shock to you that I enjoy weird games. What Botched Rescue is a weird one. I think it's about a relationship, but it seems to be about more. It's one of these strangely told games with slightly odd visuals and tone. Luckily the gameplay is fun, though simplistic. It's just basically a side-scrolling shooter, but you do lose points when you blast so you have to make sure you hit them.

My only real complaint is with how the story is told. The text in between "levels" scrolls down automatically and it makes it really hard to read, so you just have to wait for it to come back around again. Besides that though, this is a fun little romp through an interesting and strange world.

Rating: 8/10



BlamBurgers
Get It Here: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/blamburgers/32775/

The gameplay in BlamBurgers only requires using the directional pads, and enter to progress the story. You go from room to room, platforming your way to get the burger bomb things before they explode. When they drop, there's a counter that counts down from 8 and when it hits 0 it explodes, thus damaging your ship. Luckily you can just run into them and disarm them.

The game suffers from PC controls. I hate platforming on PC, but the game is actually a lot of fun. It's a simple idea, but it's tense and difficult, and the developer threw in some things each level to change it up a little bit... like things that fling you in certain directions. This variety does help keep things fresh.

Rating: 8.5/10


To be or not to be. Nice
Get It Here: http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/to-be-or-not-to-be-nice/32744/

You in need of an epic tale while you wait for The Witcher 3? Here is your game. Okay, it's not an epic tale, but I actually had some fun with this one. Basically you just walk around, collect things and solve very basic puzzles. I quite enjoyed the numerous jokes sprinkled in, and the little touches like what your equipment is, or the choices you have in what to attack things with (I picked a "cool look"). I also really enjoyed the choice of music.

There are some minor bugs like being able to walk up a wall, but it really is minor and the developer said there wasn't time to properly test it. Having dabbled in RPG maker a little myself I know how long it can take to do things.

It's a fun little adventure game with a sense of humour.

Rating: 7/10



Vessel
Get It Here: http://gamejolt.com/games/other/vessel/29980/

Here we are with another Jack King-Spooner game, and it's about more of the same. The visuals basically consist of bombarding you with images, in a style that is very much like a short film I really liked by Peter Tscherkassky called Outer Space. It's hard on the eyes in ways, but I really just love that he does this. His games can almost always just get by on his images and the usage of music, even if he rarely includes what I call "real" gameplay.

His games mostly consist of walking a bit and then watching. He's one of the few who can consistently do this and keep me as a fan. A big fan, even.

The story in this seems more straightforward than he has done in the past, but it's incredibly effective... telling a heart-wrenching tale of a robot.

Rating: 8.5/10



That's it for this edition. There were a couple other games I was going to play but I need to go off and do something so I think five games is enough. I got pretty lucky this time, played some solid games with only one blemish.

If you want me to play your game I will! Just let me know in the comments below or message/follow me on Twitter @ArtBathednCrime

Let's Play Death of the Augnob -- Squishy, squishy

Written By: Tyler

Hello everybody. This is my first actual Let's Play that I've done since this blog started (I've done a machinima with Goat Simulator), and I've chosen an indie game called Death of the Augnob... which was created by the wonderful Jake Clover.


http://youtu.be/cigIqK6PKu8

Ye Indie Game Corner 2 - Spaceshippy, Cave and Heart Break Simulator

Written By: Tyler

It has been a long time since I did a Ye Indie Game Corner, but never fear people because I have done another one. I basically just went to Gamejolt, picked a bunch of the newly added games randomly and then played them. So now I will give you a quick rundown of what I think about each and every one.


Spaceshippy!
Get it here: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/spaceshippy/23985/

Spaceshippy! is a Flappy Bird clone, and I think Flappy Bird is crap. However, I did enjoy this more than Flappy Bird because a) it doesn't feel like I'm getting advertising shoved up my rectum, and b) it's just an improvement.

The basic premise is the same: tap the screen (or press the mouse in this case) to move up. You have to use your thruster engines to kill Flappy and Floppy birds. You don't just hit the birds, you have to position yourself correctly or you'll take damage. There aren't any pipes, but there are wrecking balls and laundry. You take more than one hit to kill, and your spaceship does show damage, so it's more in depth than the game that influenced it.

It's better than Flappy Bird, but Flappy Bird itself was only tolerable on mobile when you're out somewhere you're just waiting to do something better or more important. Maybe it's unfair to Spaceshippy! to review this on PC because of this, but actually sitting down at my PC to play this was not ideal. As it stands, is it okay? Yeah, but will I play it again? Nope.

Rating: 5/10


Cave
Get it here: http://gamejolt.com/games/other/cave/23987/

In cave you walk. To the right. That's about it as far as I can tell. There's no challenge and no enemies as you progress in the same direction. I was critical of Sluggish Morss 3 when I reviewed it and the Sluggish Morss trilogy influenced Cave, which is the first game by the developer. While I gave Sluggish Morss 3 a 9.5, I commented on how I believe games should have engaging gameplay first and foremost (an opinion that some people disagree with, I know). I refused to give it a 10 for that reason, even though everything else was spot-on and really appealed to me.

I know I'm talking about the Jack King-Spooner game, but there's a reason for that. This game lacks on gameplay but is high on atmosphere and creativity. From the opening screen you can see the Sluggish Morss influence, but maybe it's a little too similar... though I'm sure the developer will create their own identity more fully as more games are created. However, I can't hate on this stuff. I'm a sucker for surreal, weird, thought-provoking games, and that's the reason I gravitate towards games like this, games from cactus, Jake Clover and Jack King-Spooner. It's a thrill to see what each new screen is going to present to me, as the different mixture of art-styles is visually appealing, and by the time the fantastic ending hits, you're left going, "huh?" But in a good way.

The developer has a bright future because this is a great first game... but only if you can give yourself to something like this.

Rating: 8/10



Heart Break Simulator
Get it here: http://gamejolt.com/games/strategy-sim/heart-breaker-simulator/23971/

No... just... no.

Heart Break Simulator allows you to play as one of the most popular and beautiful girls in school, who also happens to be Tifa from Final Fantasy 7. I'm not really sure what I expected from this, but I certainly didn't get it. Simply put, this game is awful.

All you do is click "Start Level" and a bunch of nerdy looking kids pop up. They don't say anything but you have a few choices on how to break their heart. The choices themselves aren't bad and are reasonably clever (I guess), but there's no control to this game. It gives you points depending on how badly you break their heart, but it's the same choices over and over with no reason to keep trying.

When Silver Dollar Games makes a morally questionable game about something like cheating on as many girls as you can, at least there's a little bit of gameplay and challenge there... a reason to get a little stressed out. I'm not saying Silver Dollar Games are the pinnacle of excellence, but they should have made Heart Break Simulator because this is one of the worst games I've ever played. Having poitns does not a game make.

Rating: 0/10