“Phunky Physics” is a terrible name for a game bundle, and if I told you that Humble Bundle was offering just such a thing without elaborating, you’d be forgiven for closing this tab immediately. But if I told you that you can score the excellent Hardspace: Shipbreaker, along with What the Golf?, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Instruments of Destruction, and several other games about building and/or smashing things for less than the cost of a decent lunch, you’d be interested, wouldn’t you?
You absolutely would, which is why we’re here, looking at Humble’s new—sigh—Phunky Physics bundle, a collection of nine games, most of them really good, for just $13.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Blackbird Interactive’s game about dismantling massive spaceships in the cold void of space and workplace safety violations, is the headliner in this one: “A satisfying disassembly sim wrapped in cutting workplace commentary, we said in our 91% review. It normally goes for $35 all by itself, so picking it for considerably less than half that amount is a deal unto itself.
However! We also have:
◾ Instruments of Destruction – A “vehicle action game” that PC Gamer’s Morgan Park said is “such a joy” that he had to tear himself away from the tutorial so he could go to work.
◾ Goat Simulator 3 – Okay, it’s not likely to enthrall you for hours, but it’s occasionally clever and even funny, and fun to bang around in now and then.
◾ What the Golf? – Back to the good stuff: What the Golf? is “a delightful puzzle game where sometimes golf is bowling or archery and sometimes you’re a horse or a moon lander.” It’s also (mostly) simple to play, and filled with surprises.
◾ Totally Accurate Battle Simulator – Maybe not totally accurate, but really good times if you like watching hordes of googly-eyed goons ragdolling each other in new and interesting ways. PC Gamer’s mayhemmeister Chris Livingston threw it a literal hail to the king while it was still in early access.
◾ Human Fall Flat – An unassuming physics-based puzzle game with an odd title, Human Fall Flat is actually one of the best-selling videogames of all time, having racked up more than 55 million copies sold since its launch in 2016. 55 million people can’t be wrong, right?
◾ Poly Bridge 2 – Build bridges as best you can, then force innocent people to drive over them. What could possibly go wrong? That’s an “overwhelmingly positive” rating across more than 7,500 user reviews on Steam, by the way.
◾ Besiege – “Notionally a game about engineering medieval siege weapons,” Rick Lane wrote in his 85% review, “but I think of it as a metaphor for the creative process.” I’m not really sure what that means but it’s also “a construction game to savour,” he added, “with a fun concept, superb creation tools, and finely crafted puzzles.”
◾ Stick Fight: The Game – Is there a more iconic physics game than Stick Fight? I don’t know, but I do know that Stick Fight is a multiplayer brawler for 2-4 people with local and online support, a level editor, and more than 100,000 levels made by the community. That should keep you swinging for a good while.
The full bundle is $13, as mentioned, although you can kick in more if you want to throw a bigger bone to charity—in this case Cool Effect, a registered non-profit that works to “give people the power and confidence to band together and reduce carbon pollution.”
You can save a few bucks too, if you’d rather, with $5 and $8 options containing fewer games. But dropping to the $8 bundle, for instance, means giving up Hardspace, Instruments of Destruction, and Goat Sim, and getting all three of those for just five bucks is a tremendously good deal. This is really one of those bundles where it makes no sense going to a lower tier unless you really, really want one specific game and don’t care about the rest.
The Phunky Physics—ugh—Humble Bundle is live now and will be up for grabs until October 1.
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