The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best" thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.
These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.
Without further ado…
Bill Killem
It feels like we haven’t seen as much from Chillingo as we normally do, but they were back this week and have partnered up with developer Everplay to release unique action platformer called Bill Killem (Free). Out of everything else that was released this week, Bill Killem has definitely grabbed the majority of my attention. As mentioned, it’s an action platformer featuring a tiny, pixelated actor named Bill who can run, jump and shoot a ton of cool weapons. Pretty standard stuff for a platforming game. However, the really unique thing about Bill Killem is how it implements a timer into the gameplay.
Don’t freak out, it’s not like a free to play timer or anything. If I had to compare it to something, I’d say it’s like a racing game that challenges you to make it to each gate in order to keep extending your time. In Bill Killem there’s 25 seconds on the clock that starts ticking down once you start your run. As you progress through the endless, randomized environment, you’ll come across tiny clocks to collect that extend that time. So, it’s like a normal platformer but the timer aspect forces you to constantly be moving. This isn’t a game about exploration or lengthy battle encounters. It almost feels like when you play Super Mario Bros. with your thumb planted down keeping Mario running to the right. It’s a really refreshing twist.
In addition to the timer, Bill Killem also takes a page out of Super Crate Box’s book with how it handles weaponry. Crates are spread throughout the game that will give you a random weapon. All of the standard weapon types are here, like machine guns, rocket launcher, lasers and much more. There’s also several power-ups you can choose to use prior to starting a run and are upgradeable using in-game currency. Speaking of that, Bill Killem is free to play, but nothing is locked behind a paywall. You earn currency at a decent clip through normal play, but there’s a $2.99 doubler if you want to speed things up. So if you like platformers mixed with randomly generated levels and weapons, all set to a clock countdown that ensures you keep up the pace, definitely check out Bill Killem and let us know what you think about it in our forums.
