Bleed Complete Bundle

Genre: Compilation / Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Bleed Complete Bundle is a Compilation of Bleed and Bleed 2, both Action-Platformers with 2-Stick Shooter action, and a goofy story with a cartoony presentation.

I should note that each of these games appears in multiple other bundles on the Nintendo Switch. Bleed is also included in the Couch Co-Op Bundle Vol. 2, along with Black Paradox, Shikhondo – Soul Eater, and Vertical Drop Heroes HD, as well as in the Pixel Art Bundle Vol. 1 along with Slain: Back From Hell and Uncanny Valley, and it is also in the Digerati Presents: Make It Quick Bundle Vol. 1 along with Chicken Assassin and Don’t Die, Mr. Robot! DX. Bleed 2 is also included in the Indie Darling Bundle Vol. 2 along with Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut and The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, as well as The Pew Pew Bundle Vol. 1 along with Black Paradox and XenoRaptor.

Here’s what I thought of these two games:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Bleed	Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B
tl;dr Bleed is an Action-Platformer and 2-Stick Shooter with a simple, cartoony presentation and a silly story about a young woman hunting down heroes to prove she’s a better hero. The gameplay here is absolutely fantastic, with some really inventive level design, great controls, a lot of variety, and excellent co-op. Unfortunately, this game is painfully short and insultingly overpriced, and as good as it is, I cannot recommend spending $15 for what amounts to about an hour of gameplay. If you can get it on sale at a good price, definitely do, but otherwise it isn’t worth the cost.
Bleed 2	Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B+
tl;dr Bleed 2 is an Action-Platformer and 2-Stick Shooter with a simple, cartoony presentation and a silly story about a girl fending off an invasion. This game improves on the first one in almost every way, with even better action, better visuals, a great soundtrack, and the same wonderful variety, great level design, and excellent co-op. However, where it doesn’t improve on the first game is value – the main campaign can still be finished in an hour or so, and the extra game modes don’t stretch things out much more than that. For $20, I simply cannot recommend this game, but definitely get it if you see it on sale.

The short version is this – both games feature incredibly fun gameplay that I absolutely love… but both are extremely short, and drastically overpriced.

Unfortunately, this bundle does little to mitigate that problem. At $30, you’re only saving $5 of the cost of buying both of these games separately, and given that this entire collection contains just 2-3 hours of gameplay, that $30 is still way overpriced.

In addition, playing these games back to back highlights one of the flaws in Bleed 2 – that game recycles many of the ideas from the first game. Bleed 2 is definitely still the better game of the pair despite this, but it does contribute to the lack of value plaguing this collection.

I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but my recommendation for Bleed Complete Bundle is the same as for the individual games – if you can buy it at a significant discount, absolutely do so. These are two fantastic games that are a thrill to play while they last. But given how short both of these games are, and how pricey this collection is, I’d say definitely don’t buy this bundle at full price.

tl;dr – Bleed Complete Bundle includes Bleed and Bleed 2, both excellent Action-Platformers with 2-Stick Shooter gunplay, and both also extremely short and extremely overpriced games. Much as with the individual games, if you can get this collection at a discount, absolutely do so because the games are immensely fun. However, even with the savings this bundle provides, it’s still horribly overpriced at its normal price.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Compilation/Collection

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