Humble Bundle goes Android - some great games and you name the price!

[Guest Victor von Zeppelin]

The humble indie bundle is a PC gaming institution these days. Now, the same sense of smug satisfaction is is available to Android owners too. Each bundle consists of a small group of indie games made available on a name-your-price purchase - simply go to the website, enter what you want to pay (from $0 to thousands of dollars) and enjoy.

Of course, where this bundle differs from buying apps in the market is that a certain, selectable percentage of what you pay is donated to charity, and you can also chose how much you want to give each developer.

The 4 games on offer from the bundle are Anomaly HD, Osmos HD, Edge and World of Goo. I'll preface my short reviews by saying that all of these games are excellent. To the point where you shouldn't hesitate paying at least something to get hold of them. You can even get codes to unlock the games on steam and play them on your PC. For that reason I’m writing this instead as an incentive to pick up the bundle. Remember guys, Charity!

Just be quick. As of writing there’s only 11 days remaining on the deal.

Source: Humble Bundle for Android

My reviews after the break.

First up: Osmos HD. This is a game I hadn’t actually heard of before the bundle, it came out on the PC in 2009 and was voted best iPad game of 2010. It’s a shame I hadn’t noticed it before, because it’s brilliant. The soundtrack is a standout feature – relaxing and chilled- but it’s the gameplay that excels here. You play as a blob, analogous to a cell, perhaps, that has to absorb the blobs in an area. You can’t absorb blobs bigger than you, but smaller blobs make you bigger until you can swallow those that previously dwarfed you. A layer of strategy is added by your propulsion system: you expel your own blob’s material to travel but have to balance how much you’re willing to shrink vs. the reward you’ll get from collecting a large blob. As is evident from how much I’ve written here, I love this game.

Next: Edge. I admit I haven’t had time to play this as much as Osmos which has taken up most of my time. Still, this is a very clever maze game. It follows the age old collect-stuff-and-reach-goal objective, but advances the genre with the help of a beautiful aesthetic and a clever twist- You play as a cube, and control like a cube. You don’t roll like a sphere, you’ve got defined edges that make acceleration your primary concern if you stop- getting going immediately is a problem, so you have to factor that in. My only quibble is the controls taking some getting used to, but it’s otherwise a good little game.

Next up: Anomaly Warzone Earth HD. A clever game of tower defence with one very important twist: You play as the attackers. This is the one I’ve played the least of because it doesn’t really appeal to me, but I still have to say it’s very fun. It introduces some very clever gameplay elements, and keeps you on your toes with some fast paced action. Also, and it’s only a small thing but a nice bit of polish, the blueprint transition after you select your route really amazed me. I don’t know why, but I may have thought…”Oh, it looks like this?” Then it promptly transformed to the real graphics and I was amazed.

Finally: World of Goo. This was a game I had played on the PC prior to its inclusion in the bundle, and it’s possibly one of my all-time favourites. Now I’ve got it on Android I feel so very happy. It’s simple in premise; build a tower or structure out of little anthropomorphised balls of goo to reach a suction pipe somewhere else in the level. Along the way you get increasingly complicated puzzles enhanced with novel uses of new types of goo. What really made me fall in love with this title was the presentation. The graphics are beautiful hand drawn pieces, the music is just fantastic and so fitting and there even manages to be a story that you don’t mind following. However, you only get this game as part of the bundle if you spend more than the average user. They couldn’t have chosen a better game to incentivise you to do so.

This item was promoted to the News page - click here to view.