The Indie Mixtape

5 juegos

The Indie Mixtape is a collection of 5 small indie games of various genres and styles. As such, I'll split my review into sections for each game, and I'll keep it brief for each. The order I'll talk about these games is from best to worst IMO. [h1]Roguelight[/h1] I'll be perfectly honest: [b]The Indie Mixtape is worth buying just for this game![/b] That's how high quality it is. Rouguelight is a roguelite game where you traverse deeper and deeper into a dungeon that gets progressively darker. Your way of lighting the path ahead is with your bow and arrow, and in there lies the biggest charm of the game: you constantly have a limited amount of arrows. Choosing whether to draw an arrow to light the way or to brave the dark blindly, or wether to kill an enemy or dodge them to preserve the ammo is a constant worry, which keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging on every run. The roguelite progression also happens at a pretty perfect pace, so you'll learn more strategies and get "stronger" at a consistent pace. You should be able to max out and be ready for venturing into the deepest levels after about 90 minutes, which is about the duration promised from each of the small games in this collection. Roguelight remained fun from top to bottom, and made the admission price worthwhile right out of the gate. [h1]Test Chamber[/h1] Test Chamber is your traditional sokoban inspired puzzle game, comprised of 29 short levels. The puzzle design was the highlight, it felt really well made and the later levels provided a decent challenge. There is a subtle lack of polish, as the lack of a dedicated reset key-bind makes resetting levels a bit more cumbersome than usual, and rewinding moves feels a bit too slow. Visually it's pretty mundane, and I just muted the background song after 15 minutes or so of playing. Should take about an hour to beat all levels, overall a fun time. [h1]Laza Knitez!![/h1] Laza Knitez!! is an arena fighter game that can be played in single or multiplayer. I loved the pixellated visuals, and the gameplay is pretty unique as you constantly move forward while trying to either joust or shoot your enemies. Lots of powerups to grab, with some feeling like negative effects, though since you can never slow down/brake, those "downgrades" act more as stage hazards, and I like that. Seeing as I didn't have anyone to play this with in MP, I only got about 10 minutes out of this in SP and felt satisfied. Cool game. [h1]Detective Chirpums[/h1] Detective Chirmpus is a point & click adventure game/visual novel. I'll be honest, I didn't get much mileage out of this one, as I really don't care for point & click games, but beyond that the game didn't have any music or SFX while I played it, and the controls and menus felt extremely barebones. The best part of it is the art, which is charming, cool and cute in equal amounts. Maybe you'll like this more than I did. [h1]hets[/h1] Okay, this is the stinker. hets is a rouguelike 2D platformer. Each time you play you start from scratch, and have to kill 3 statues on each level while many enemies try and stop you. You gain powerups between each level, and after around 15 or so levels there's a boss. There's many design issues with this game: [list] [*] Each level has many enemies on them, however other than not dying to them, there is 0 incentive to go after the enemies on the level. In fact, if the 3 statues spawn close to you and the exit, it's just better to get them fast and leave without even looking at the rest of the level. [*] Some powerups vastly outclass others; extra bullets and HP is so much better than retaliating after losing health. Also, the "statues drop hearts" powerup straight up feels necessary to get far. [*] The game recommends keeping shake on by default: [b]DO NOT KEEP IT ON[/b]. The visuals are pretty colorful, but with the excessive shake on, playing this is simply unbearable and headache inducing. [*] The biggest issue: [b]You don't have any form of i-frames, at all.[/b] Couple that with the fact that enemies and bullets push you as they damage you, this means any melee enemy can potentially kill you in mere instants with 0 counterplay. It's especially bad on the final boss, which can just move over you IN A PHASE TRANSITION and take half your HP. [/list] hets simply isn't it, but don't let it's presence in the bundle dissuade you from buying it. And if Ditto ever reads this: [i]please keep making more games, I know you can do better.[/i] [h1]Final thoughts[/h1] I really liked this Mixtape. Simply learning about Roguelight and it's developer would be worth it, but I also had fun with most of the other games. A really cool collection of small indie games, well worth the cost. Highly recommend it!