Game Announcement: Band of Bugs
I recently added another excellent NinjaBee game to the Rampant Games Strategy & Puzzle Games section.

Band of Bugs PC, by NinjaBee

Band of Bugs is a game of turn-based tactical combat, called a "tactics game" in the console gaming world. If you are unfamiliar with the term, but have played some "old school" RPGs with turn-based movement in combat (the old D&D "Gold Box" games like Pool of Radiance are a great example), or games like "X-Com," then you are familiar with the gameplay if not the genre name. Tactics games tend to be faster-playing, friendlier, and a bit easier to get into than the old warhorses like X-Com. Beyond that, Band of Bugs it is full of NinjaBee's trademark cartoon humor. It's an ideal game for newcomers to strategy games.

Band of Bugs goes even further with a rich storyline that develops as you play, not just in cut-scenes between battles. The campaign follows the young bug hero Maal as he joins the royal army of the Central Kingdom under the guidance of mantis warrior Tiernan. As Maal grows in understanding and ability, he commands more powerful heroes in larger groups on his way to saving his Queen and defeating the menace that threatens his kingdom. Strategy is everything to young Maal, for his every command will determine whether he succeeds and saves the kingdom, or he fails, taking the kingdom down with him.

As it was originally released for the XBox 360, you'd expect Band of Bugs to feature really gorgeous visuals, and it does. Besides being fast-playing, pretty, funny, and easy to get into, Band of Bugs really does have some deep strategic elements. Go figger! So there should be enough depth for you hard-core gamers who like min-maxing your D&D characters and plotting out every move with miniatures and stuff, but the game definitely takes the extra effort to help out the newbie to the genre and bring them up to speed quickly.

I did note that it was a little bit confusing to play with just a mouse, so be prepared to actually touch the keyboard on this one. I think this was an area where the translation from console controller to mouse came out a little weak, but as with Aveyond 2, I found I prefer keyboard controls anyway.

The real fun of these kinds of strategy games - even "light" strategy games like this one - is playing it with friends. While the AI is great, there's nothing that compares to playing with a real, live human, especially someone you know. Band of Bugs was built with a strong online multiplayer capability from the get-go. It includes several multiplayer game variants like "Escape," "Capture," "Elimination," and the more open-ended and relaxed "Spider Hunter" mode, which allows up to 8 players to come and go as they choose.

Band of Bugs rounds things out with a map editor so you can create and share your own custom battlefields.

As some of you know, I was working at NinjaBee while this game was in development, so I got to see its evolution first-hand. And I've mentioned it before. I wasn't on the development team, so I never got the chance to get sick of it. :) That DOES make me a little more biased towards that game, so feel free to take anything I say with a grain of salt. Good thing indie games come with free demos so you don't have to take my word for it, huh?

Oh, and Band of Bugs was an IGF 2007 finalist for technical excellence.

So who would I recommend this game to? If you enjoy turn-based strategy games or RPGs, this one is definitely a game you should look at. If you liked Outpost Kaloki, another awesome game by NinjaBee, then you probably already started downloading this game when you saw the top link, and it is probably done downloading by now. In fact, unless you REALLY have some kind of allergic reaction to turn-based games, or you already own the XBox 360 version, I can't think of why you shouldn't at least give this game a shot.

Band of Bugs PC

Labels: Game Announcements, strategy games

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