By Nathan Grayson on July 3rd, 2012 at 9:00 am.
It seems like only yesterday that the last Indie Royale bundle graced us with yet another tantalizingly priced collection of independent videogames. But, it was in fact, 19 yesterdays ago, which apparently meets the requisite downtime quota in indie bundle time. So now the Summer Bundle‘s setting up shop on our virtual sidewalks with an adorably misspelled copy edited sign and promises of delicious lemonade games like The Journey Down and Serious Sam 2. In total, there’s a whopping nine games up for grabs here, so you might consider taking a peek.
In addition to the John-tested, John-approved adventure and Serious “I don’t need John’s approval, because I’m Serious Sam” Sam, there’s also freeform, RTS-esque tower defender Harvest: Massive Encounter, anime bullet hell trilogy Gundemonium – which consists of Gundemonium Recollection, GundeadliGne, and Hitogata Happa – equally anime-themed one-on-one shmup/fighter Acceleration Of Suguri X-Edition, prehistoric extinction outrunner Dino Run SE, and good ol’ AirMech, for good measure.
As of now, this sends Journey Down’s price on an even further journey down than its recent price cut, so that alone propels this bundle into temptation territory. And, speaking personally, Summer Bundle actually contains a fair number of interesting-sounding games that I’ve somehow missed out on. For instance, I’m not usually one for shmups or 2D fighters, but both in one game? Hmm, Acceleration Of Suguri. You and your ridiculous name just got my attention. So then, who else is buying?
03/07/2012 at 09:11 Tiax says:
This might be the most “meh” bundle yet.
03/07/2012 at 09:13 DickSocrates says:
The SumMeh Bundle.
03/07/2012 at 09:40 Xzi says:
Agreed. I watched videos for every single game in this bundle, and not a one of them interested me. Save for maybe Serious Sam 2, but I already own that in HD on Steam, so MEEEEEHHH.
03/07/2012 at 09:56 vincio09 says:
That is a different Serious Sam 2. What you are talking about is Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. (Confusing, I know.)
03/07/2012 at 11:01 AngoraFish says:
First indie gala I won’t be picking up.
03/07/2012 at 14:21 Optimaximal says:
But… But… It’s an Indie Royale!
03/07/2012 at 19:42 Phantoon says:
That would be part of why, I’m sure. I haven’t been getting these either, though.
I guess they’re too indie for me- some of the games just aren’t good, or I already own them, and already didn’t play them much.
03/07/2012 at 13:24 galaxion says:
oh no, i gave away my Serious Sam 2 key assuming i had it (i have the second encounter)
03/07/2012 at 11:06 ZephaniahGrey says:
I’ve actually seen less interesting ones, but not by much. This one is pretty easily ignored. NEXT!
03/07/2012 at 09:19 D3xter says:
Yeah, only thing I might be interested in is The Journey Down, and that isn’t on Steam.
I’m surprised this didn’t get a mention though since it seems lots better: http://www.indiegala.com/
Other than that, where is my Steam Summer Seal?
03/07/2012 at 09:25 Simon Hawthorne says:
Arf Arf *clap clap*
03/07/2012 at 09:50 klo3 says:
Thanks for the Gala link, definitely morer interesting. Trauma is nice and now i finally get to play Cargo while waiting for The Seal.
03/07/2012 at 10:20 neolith says:
Thanks for the link. I’ve never played any of the Commandos games, so I might pick this up.
03/07/2012 at 10:49 Avish says:
Same here. I’ll probably get The journey down separately in the near future.
But today I think I’ll buy this Gothic “bundle” for less than 5$ (got the 15% IGN discount):
http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-GCP/gothic-complete-collection-bundle.
Regarding Steam’s summer sale – I read somewhere that it’s supposed to be on the end of July.
03/07/2012 at 12:11 Maxheadroom says:
if earlier years are anything to go by the Summer Sales are usually end of June/beginning of July
Course, I could make the sale start any time I like. All I have to do is buy Arma2 now and it’ll be 50% off tomorrow :)
04/07/2012 at 18:30 JBantha says:
You might be a litle more patient, the team just answer me on twitter that they “are working hard on getting attention from Steam.”
https://twitter.com/Henrik_Englund/status/220483224529403904
03/07/2012 at 09:29 Dominic White says:
The Journey Down is a great adventure game, and if you’ve ever enjoyed a shmup in your life, then there’s FOUR of them in this bundle. Harvest: Massive Encounter is hugely underrated, too.
03/07/2012 at 09:40 felisc says:
The gundemonium trilogy makes me want to put nails in my eyes, but : mmmmh yum shmups.
Two players possible for those, i presume ?
03/07/2012 at 10:20 Dominic White says:
Gundeadligne has two-player co-op off or online. Acceleration of Suguri is a fighting game/shmup hybrid, so very much multiplayer focused. The other two are solo.
03/07/2012 at 12:14 RvLeshrac says:
Vertical? Bullet-hell? No? Meeeeeeeeeeeeeh.
Nothing against ‘normal’ horizontal shmups, but there are *thousands* of them.
(ed: And no, by the trailers, I’ve had more bullets on screen in an R-Type fight)
03/07/2012 at 12:18 Dominic White says:
Only one is vertical. Two are horizontal. And one is a Vs arena game.
Bullet hell shooters are very deceptive in their appearance – 99% of those shots are just for show and will go nowhere near you. It’s not like Raiden where enemies shoot directly at you.
03/07/2012 at 09:44 ProtoMan says:
I don’t see why people are calling this bundle bad.
I got it right away over the gala bundle. Dino Run is great albeit short lived, the gundemonium collection has some fantastic shmups, Serious Sam 2 is a good shooter, and The Journey Down is another good adventure game. I’ve been trying out Ao Suguri (I hadn’t heard of it) and it’s an original and great fighting game. The only two I haven’t tried are Harvest and Airmech.
If you’re lacking 2-3+ of the games in it, it’s 100% worth it.
03/07/2012 at 09:58 Flukie says:
Its not a bad bundle but after that last Humble Bundle people are expecting alot from these things.
03/07/2012 at 10:21 Dominic White says:
Nerds need to learn that not every day can be Christmas, then.
03/07/2012 at 11:11 Zyrocz says:
The humble bundle mostly included “mainstream” indie games, so a lot of people probably already owned them, I know I did. The ones from indieroyale often include smaller games that probably didn’t sell so well.
These indie bundles shouldn’t include games that everyone knows about.
03/07/2012 at 10:11 Inigo says:
How is Serious Sam 2 indie? It was published by 2K and it’s thanks to them pressuring Croteam that SS2 was so “cartoony” compared to the other games.
03/07/2012 at 16:36 Zarunil says:
They certainly are stretching the term.
03/07/2012 at 10:56 maicus says:
But its the dead of winter! ACCURSED SPACE-GLOBE
03/07/2012 at 11:30 Mattressi says:
Well, today the temperature in my part of Australia was around the summer time temperature of Britain anyway, so I guess I can understand their confusion.
03/07/2012 at 12:28 Dominic White says:
Here’s Bullet Heaven (wise old genre sages – pay attention, whippersnappers) with a nicely comprehensive review of the Gundemonium pack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0_8kPJJFJw
That alone is worth the bundle price, I reckon.
03/07/2012 at 13:55 Kitsunin says:
They’re some of the best Shmups I’ve played IMO. I find the Gundemoniums a bit frustrating due to the three life limit making it so that when you do well earlier on it just makes the game harder later on, and it’s so easy to get game over’d just by one boss you find extra tough. (I find the final boss of Gundeadligne easier than some of them on the second stage, go figure.) It would probably be better if I could swallow my pride and up the life max. That said, Hitogata Happa is AWESOME as long as you can learn the more complex mechanics (They aren’t THAT bad though). It’s really strange to think someone could say it’s the worst of the bunch.
Acceleration of Suguri is also pretty great, it doesn’t really play like a shmup, more like a weird hyper-mobile fighter. You need to give it some time though, I found it seemed pretty lame at first, but after I got reasonably good at it, it started becoming very fun. I guess the problem is that now there’s AoS 2 in Japan, which is pretty much better on all accounts.
That’s my perspective as a shmup/doujin lover. Always makes me happy to see some more get localized (Didn’t realize until this bundle AoS had been).
03/07/2012 at 13:45 Totally heterosexual says:
At first i thought Gundemonium was bunny must die. I was bit sad since I kinda liked bunny must die and I dont think RPS had anything about it.
Too anime i guess?
03/07/2012 at 14:25 Dominic White says:
Rockin’ Android are currently working on an updated version of Bunny Must Die. Should be out fairly soon, I think.
03/07/2012 at 15:34 Totally heterosexual says:
Haha! I knew it.
I do hope they work on the issues as well. Rather then just slap on some better graphics and a translation.
03/07/2012 at 15:38 Dominic White says:
There’s a demo of the updated version already. New engine, widescreen support and all that jazz.
http://bunnymustdie.com/
03/07/2012 at 15:48 Totally heterosexual says:
Wait… they changed the cat?
*Shakes fist* REMAKES
03/07/2012 at 17:17 LionsPhil says:
Heretical!
03/07/2012 at 13:57 TechnicalBen says:
I thought AirMech was F2P? How what why is it in an indie bundle?
03/07/2012 at 14:26 Dominic White says:
It’s an extra, not one of the core games in the bundle – it’s a Steam early-access beta key with a bonus item.
03/07/2012 at 15:25 Chmilz says:
I’ve got like 20 games now I haven’t finished. The problems are Steam and these bundles. Oh, good price/sale on mediocre game I read about once? Buy. Don’t have time to finish. My Steam list is getting very long, full of games I haven’t played, haven’t finished, and in the case of some bundles, haven’t even heard of. Me = stupid.
03/07/2012 at 15:50 Shuck says:
Yeah, I’m in the same situation – I’ve got 20 games I’ve started but not finished, but about 100 I’ve not even started. Time to stop digging, I guess.
03/07/2012 at 20:21 Gnoupi says:
Starting to get the same effect, and at same time I see games I wanted to buy on release, or bought on release like Deus Ex or Space Marine, on sale for 5 quids recently.
So the obvious thing to do is this: no more buying games for the next 6 months or little longer. In the meantime, keep busy with the backlog, and the occasional quality F2P (LoL or Tribes Ascend). Then, buy games only on Steam sales or bundles.
The expected result is a smaller backlog and a less starving wallet.
The chances I can actually achieve that are small. But if we just add exceptions like picking up Torchlight 2 and GW2, it should be far enough to resist.
03/07/2012 at 20:28 Gnoupi says:
And at least the Steam list I can organize. The worst is my Desura list, filling with these bundles, in a full list of games that I forgot/didn’t have time to check. And I don’t even know what is what anymore.
03/07/2012 at 15:49 Jupiah says:
I bought it for Serous Sam 2, The Journey Down is a nice bonus. Don’t really care for the rest.
03/07/2012 at 16:21 Hulk Handsome says:
Man, this bundle kicks the crap out of the last Humble Bundle BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY HAS GAMES I DON’T ALREADY OWN. In fact, I owned none of them! And most of the titles seem quite quirky and interesting!
03/07/2012 at 16:57 Skabooga says:
Heh heh, this is more than a little true.
03/07/2012 at 18:04 SkittleDiddler says:
That would be great if any of the games in this bundle were actually compelling. In my case, I’d be buying something I’ll never use.
03/07/2012 at 19:44 porps says:
Harvest is kinda fun for a week or 2
05/07/2012 at 04:53 Fartango says:
I’ve only sampled the sound tracks and Gundelegine so far as the FTP Airmech has already sucked 14 hours from me. I consider the bundle to be a great deal, but even if you aren’t interested consider trying Airmech, it can be had directly from the developer’s website for free right now.
07/07/2012 at 04:31 Theon says:
I’m so extremely disappointed that Airmech turned F2P; it looked like it really had something to offer.
Also a little disappointed in Hitogata no Happa (the only one of the shmups I’ve tried so far), and I usually love shmups (Jamestown, Touhou 10 and Hydorah being my favourites), yet the bundle doesn’t seem bad. I like trying new and different stuff, and more Serious Sam is always welcome.