Last Week's Games: 8-Bit Armies, 88 Heroes

I started off this week by beating a game I’ve been playing for a while now: 8-Bit Armies. I reached the end of the campaign, but there wasn’t an ending to speak of as such plot as there was appeared in a text box before each mission. This should have been a bit of a let-down, but I found myself thinking that I shouldn’t be too worried about plot and endings – 8-Bit Armies is not that kind of game. It’s far more about an engaging process than it is about displaying an outcome and getting to the end of the game is its own reward.

This isn't actually the level I'm talking about.
I should do my own screenshots, really.

Last week, I mentioned that I wasn’t always impressed with the level design for much of the game, and while I stand by my words, I did find myself eating them somewhat in favour of the last few levels – they were excellent. Symmetrically designed as ever, but with more factors to consider than just killing the enemy. The last level was particularly memorable, as this was the only mission that I failed all game – I had two allied armies that I was supposed to keep alive, and while I was attacking the nearest enemy to me, one of my allies died! When I had another go, I made sure to attack the enemy base closest to my allies first to keep them safe from the enemy. This worked up to a point, but then something happened that hadn’t happened all game: The resources ran out. I had about $2000 left to spend, and all the oil wells had run dry so there wasn’t going to be any more. I had about half the force I’d used to attack the enemy base, too – I had to take out two more, with only minimal reinforcements! I used some of my remaining money to fill in the gaps in the ground forces, and the rest of it to buy some mechanics to repair my units. I took the fight to the enemy bases, hitting the power plants first where possible to disable the gun turrets. (By then, the enemy had run out of resources as well, so his gun turrets were his only line of defence.) This worked up until I attacked the final enemy base, where I lost most of my units to not realising there was another set of power plants on the other side of the base! Thankfully, I’d kept a flight of helicopters in reserve so they could destroy all the remaining buildings and take the win.

I’ll write a full review of 8-Bit Armies in the week, but I wanted to share that last level with you as it’s far too specific to put into a general review.

He's rubbish, obviously.

Later, I had a go with a game that I’d owned for some time and never played 88 Heroes. This is a mad platforming game, where you must traverse several levels, defeat the boss at the end of a stage and save the world. To someone who grew up during the 3^rd and 4^th generation of consoles, this is nothing new. But the winning card of this game is the randomised selection of the titular 88 heroes. Each level starts you off with a different hero, each with his or her own gimmick that makes them unique to play. Some are better than others, from kittens that fire laser beams, to a barbarian that flourishes with his sword every time you try to attack, to an escaped convict who must hold down the action button all the way through the level or he will explode, to a woman made entirely out of glass and can’t fall any significant distance, to a man who can’t attack but can float around the level and dodge most of the traps. You never quite know what you’re going to get – but you must make the best of what you have because once those heroes are gone, they’re (mostly) not coming back and after all 88 heroes have fallen, you lose the game.

This wouldn’t have been anybody’s Game of the Year but I’ve really enjoyed it so far. It’s nice to see a game not take itself too seriously!