Jamesbuc and the Backlog: Love+, Platformance Temple Death/Castle Pain and The Network

Throwing in four titles here all at once, all very short titles completed in one day and all four available over Desura for £1.99 each. Lets dig into the buffet of unknown titles shall we?

First up is 'Love+' or as its also known as 'Love: By Fred Wood'. This is basically Platforming at its most minimal, race from the start point to the end and try not to die. It also style-wise is as minimal as possible with few colours being used in each level and music bleeping out simple bit-tunes.

That said the game is also a little TOO simple as well, nothing ever appears that really gives a challenge, there isn't very many levels to go through and while there is a custom editor to use, there isn't enough of an online community to really assist the game in staying afloat outside of bundles.

For the £1.99 asking price you could be arguing that you get what you pay for, however this just feels far too little to even cover the asking price and I get the feeling it if wasn't for Desura enforcing a minimum price-point on pay-games, it would be an even lower price. As it stands, unless its part of a bundle, don't grab it.

Next up is the two 'Platformance' Games which both originated on the Xbox Indie Games service and are both available for £1.99 each. Both again are platformers and both fit the 'Indie Hard' motto that developers seem to love for some reason.

Both are also 'One-Screen' games where the objective is to battle through all the traps and tricks in each screen, rescue the damsel in distress and then go through it all again in reverse, taking the princess to the exit. Both games are over and done with quickly though and both just feel... well... empty?

Its just that neither of these games are particularly likable by themselves. The music gets irritating, the difficulty often feels unfair with random and unpredictable death appearing often. Together in one small price-point, they could work well but split up into separate games makes each games lack of length a lot more noticeable. I cant recommend these unless they stick them both together into one pack.

Finally on the quick game runthrough is 'The Network', a action title which sees you controlling a small orb, zapping some enemies to destroy them and collecting little 'Node' things which you can partly control, using them like guided missiles to destroy other enemies and eventually the large box-like items. Destroying all of these boxes equals a pass to the next level.

Occasionally the game chucks a random extra sort of challenge at you. Some being 'Survival' levels where the only objective is to survive for the amount of time given. Then there are more 'Puzzle' levels which cloud everything in darkness bar a small area around you, then, using the background, you have to find out what to do.

All of it is quite simple but fun. Its also a bit repetitive and the ending a real kick to the nads. The short length this time however being more of a blessing than anything, any longer and the game would have gotten very dull. As it stands however this is worth the asking price and I would definitely recommend it to others.