Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Bummin' A Ride - Game of the Day
Tough economy getting you down? Bummin’ A Ride, a new hobo-centric role-playing-game by developer FineFin (Air Drop) and BumArcade, lets you hitchhike and scavenge your way across the country, without ever leaving the comfort of your own desk chair.
The setup is basic, but effective. You play as a New York vagrant who receives a surprise letter. Sadly, it turns out that Uncle Bob passed away. Not so sadly, he’s left you one million dollars in cash, with a catch: If you don’t make it to Los Angeles within 25 days, all of the money goes to an orphanage.
In major cities, you’ll have several activities to choose from. Each activity you participate in will have various positive and negative effects on your stats, and you’ll only have a certain amount of “action points” to spend each day before you’ll need to sleep. Money can be gathered by begging, can collecting, and scavenging mini-games. Some are side-scrolling affairs where you collect money, cans, and food while avoiding wild animals, and others will have you hitchhiking or sifting through piles of trash. There are over half-dozen different mini-games to play, and they get progressively more difficult the further you travel. (Buying helpful items and food at city stores can make life a lot easier.)
The game will end if your bum runs out of health, or doesn’t reach L.A. within the allotted 25 days. The key to succeeding is effectively managing your daily activities so that you always have enough health, money, and action points.
Bummin’ a Ride is surprisingly fun game. While none of the included mini-games are meaty enough to stand alone, they add just enough extra flavors to the game’s strategy/role-playing elements to keep things interesting.
Posted by Ponged at 3:07 PM