[Featurama] It’s That Time of the Season For Bundles

The holiday season is upon us and those looking for presents to hand out to people need not look any further than the deluge of game bundles that have been popping up like rabbits. My wallet is simply being crushed by all these bundled savings and I think I’m not the only one. So instead of stumbling blind into all these gaming deals, I figured we should highlight all that there is.

This way you can plan out your holiday cheer.

Below I’ve listed all of the current holiday bundles and judged them on what they are.  So whip out your credit cards and read on as we look at all the Holiday Bundles for this week.

LA Game Space Bundle

End Date for the Bundle: Friday December 7, 5 PM EST

$5 Level

Game Included: Keita Takahashi’s unfinished new game.

$15 Level

Games Included: Aquaria, Super Crate Box (Santa Hat Edition), the Edmund McMillen Collection, Noitu Love 2, Off Road Velociraptor and 30 other games currently in production from big name indie developers like Ben Esposito, Pen Ward, and more. Includes Keita Takahashi’s game.

Value of the Bundle: Unknown but potentially amazing

The $5 level is really only for those that loved Noby Noby Boy and Katamari Damacy.  At the $15 level we have 5 games that are arguably worth $3 a piece and even if you have purchased them before, there is the fun mystery factor of 30 experimental games.  Let’s be fair though.  These games are probably going to be quirky.  It’s an experiment and they can either yield greatness or not so greatness.

Charity the Bundle Supports: All proceeds of the donation go to the construction of a indie developer community center and museum in Los Angeles.

Indie Royale Winter Bundle

End Date for the Bundle: Tuesday December 11, 10 AM EST

Beat the Average Level

Games Included: Bit.Trip Runner, Greed Corp, Conquest of Elysium 3, They Breathe, Ideabox Game, Hamlet and Leave Home

Value of Bundle: Low

Unfortunately, this bundle is a lot of really hardcore games from a lot of different genres coming together in a pleasant package.  While this is good for gamers that want a shmup, adventure game and strategy game all in the same bundle, it’s not for everyone.  Since Bit.Trip Runner and Greed Corp have been part of bundles before, there is also a chance some of you more obsessive bundle buyers already have these games.

Charity the Bundle Supports: None

Indie Gala 11 Bundle

End Date for the Bundle: Wednesday December 12, 2 AM EST

$0.01-0.99 Level

Games Included: Imperial Glory

$1.00-Below the average Level

Games Included: Necrovision Lost Company, XII Century Gold Edition and Introductory Level

Above the averageLevel

Games Included: Star Wolves 3, Fantasy Wars, Kings Bounty the Legend, Men of War, Men of War Red Tide, Necrovision, Cryostasis and both the Introductory and Secondary levels

Value of Bundle: Amazing for an extremely small demographic. Meh to everybody else.

Indie Gala is predictably super confusing and really only worth it for the top level, but what a top level it is. Not many places where you can get 10 games for less than the average. I don’t know many who are dying for any of these games, but I guarantee that this is the only bundle chock full of games not in your steam library.

Charity the Bundle Supports: Help Emilia which supports a relief effort in Italy and Able Gamers which helps people with disabilities heal through gaming.  Only donations that are specifically awarded to charity actually goes to these organizations.

Humble Double Fine Bundle

End Date of the Bundle: Wednesday December 12, 3 AM EST

$1.00+ Level

Games Included: Costume Quest Prototype, Once Upon a Monster Prototype, Black Lake, Autonomous, Hack n’ Slash, Spacebase DF9, and The White Birch

Beat the Average Level

Games Included: Brazen and all the other prototypes

Value of Bundle: Incomplete

This is a game jam from one of the most beloved developers around.  Originally it was a pitch for 4 experimental games that has expanded to 5.  How that effects the quality is unknown, but sponsoring this gives you a behind the scenes look into everyone at Double Fine’s thought process with prototypes and that’s almost worth the admission itself.

Charity the Bundle Supports: Child’s Play which buys toys for sick kids. Only donations that are specifically awarded to charity actually goes to these organizations.

Humble THQ Bundle

End Date for the Bundle: Wednesday December 12, 5 PM EST

$1.00+ Level

Games Included: Company of Heroes Complete, Darksiders, Metro 2033 and Red Faction: Armageddon

Beat the Average Level

Games Included: Saints Row 3, Titan Quest, Red Faction Armageddon DLC and the 4 other games above

Value of Bundle: Very High

There aren’t too many deals as good as this. For $1, you can get 4 AAA games.  Say what you want about this demeaning what the great humble bundle once stood for, it’s a damn good deal and you can donate it all to charity.  Which you all should be doing since none of the sales in this bundle are going to the developers.

Charity the Bundle Supports: Child’s Play which buys toys for sick kids and the Electronic Frontier Foundation which is a lobby group created for the protection of consumers in the digital age. Only donations that are specifically awarded to charity actually goes to these organizations.

Indie Fort Oxygen Bundle

End Date for the Bundle: Thursday December 13

$4 Level

Games Included: Terror Hedron, Eryi’s Action, Bridge It, and Alien Hallway

Value of Bundle: Depends

The third wave of the Indie Fort Bundle is in full effect and if you’ve purchased one of these before, it is 25% off each bundle after the first.  This being a bundle that builds and builds on itself makes the justification hard.  The rewards unlocked in the previous  bundle are the same here so you are only buying this for the 4 games promoted.  Those that haven’t purchased before, Eryi’s Action is the big game here and the rest are going to be an experiment for you.

Charity the Bundle Supports: 5% of all purchases goes to Help Daniel which raises money for a game artist in Arizona’s brain cancer treatment. You can pay more on top of the bundle and give that amount to Help Daniel

Oni Press Bundle

End Date for the Bundle: Friday December 14th, 3 AM EST

$1.00-$4.99 Level

Comics Included: Secret History of D.B. Cooper issues 1-5

$5.00+ Level

Comics Included: Guerillas Volume 1 and the Introductory Level

Value of Bundle: Intriguing

While not game related on content, it is going to support Child’s Play so that actually puts it in gaming territory.  This bundle is an odd collection of Oni’s recent series and the descriptions on both series sound as intriguing as they are bizarre. A whopping 296 .PDF pages of comics isn’t too shabby of a deal for those looking to pick up a new series or two. Those who are not comic fans should probably skip down to the next bundle.

Charity the Bundle Supports: 20% of the donation goes to Child’s Play which buys toys for sick kids if you select the donate to charity button.  Make sure you check that button.

Be Mine Music and Game Bundle 6

End Date for the Bundle: Friday December 14, 8 AM EST

$1.00-$4.99 Level

Games Included: Echelon Pt. 1, Paranormal, Ceville, and Enclave Gold Edition

Music Included: Comfort from Giraffage, Special Edition from J@LLY, and Monarchy from Mosh

$5.00 Level

Games Included: Two Worlds Epic Edition, Worms Reloaded, Earth 2160, Dawn of Fantasy, Gorky 17, and all the games above

Music Included: Dawn of Fantasy Soundtrack, Two Worlds Soundtrack and all the music above.

Value of Bundle: Decent

This bundle is going to hit more niche audiences, but it’s still a decent bundle. I’m not sure the lower level has a must have deal, but the music bonus works on top of it.  The $5 level is kinda the same way with Two Worlds being the only big name (and an old one at that), but even still it’s priced nicely and there is certainly plenty to get out of this.

Charity the Bundle Supports: 20% of the donation goes towards any combination of Habitat For Humanity who builds houses for people in need, Keep A Breast which supports breast cancer awareness and Child’s Play which buys toys for sick kids if you select the donate to charity button.  Make sure you check that button.

Bundle in a Box: Eclectic Delights

End Date for the Bundle: Tuesday December 18, 5 PM EST

$0.99 Level

Games Included: Delve Deeper Complete, Fibrillation, Eversion, Shadows of the Vatican Pt. 1, and War of the Human Tanks

Beat the Minimum Level

Games Included: The 4th Wall, Adventures of Shuggy, Stay Dead and Fibble.  Includes introductory level.

Value of Bundle: High

This is a really cheap bundle full of really cheap games which is good for those looking to get some bang out of their buck.  It is also the first time Delve Deeper has had their DLC included with the game, so this is the first occasion to buy a full game for what equates to less than a quarter.  Bundle in a Box simply made a dirt cheap bundle.  You can’t do much better than that.

Charity the Bundle Supports: 5% goes to The Little Garden to treat children for autism or psychosis and $10 of every 100 sales goes to the Indie Dev Grant to support independent developers.

Bundle Stars Bundle #1: Dynamite

End Date For the Bundle: December 20, 2 AM EST or Bundle Sells Out

$6.71 Level

Games Included: Real Warfare 2, Real Warfare 1242,  Star Wolves 2, Reign Conflict of Nations, Off-Road Drive, Men of War Vietnam, Death to Spies Moment of Truth, and Death Track

Value of Bundle:Decent

Interestingly, this bundle picks up a few stragglers from the others. Indie Gala 11 has Star Wolves 3 and 2 Men of war games in their cheaper bundle, so it’s not really breaking out much.  The diversity is good for those itching to finally getting a racing game or two as part of a bundle.

Charity the Bundle Supports: None