Bleed 2

After the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, the good folk at itch.io created the “Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality” in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement. 1,741 items from 1,391 creators were included in this bundle. This column not only serves to highlight those games, projects and other items from these generous creators, but is also a reminder that Black Lives do, and always will, Matter.

While the fight for racial equality and justice was news story #1 for only a few weeks, the movement did not stop when the coverage moved away. Protests march on, human rights violation occur daily, and justice continues to not be served. We must never stop fighting for what is right.

Breonna Taylor, an innocent woman, was shot and murdered in her bed at the hands of plain cloth police when they stormed her house as she lay asleep. Of the three officers involved, two were not charged, while the other was only charged with shooting through a wall and potentially endangering neighbors. This is not justice. This is why we fight.

f you have the means and/or time, you can find ways to help at https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/.

Bleed 2 - $10

Fast paced bull hell action is the name of the game in Bleed 2, and for someone who doesn’t overly like this style of game, I was surprised at how well it pulled me in anyway.

When I first loaded up the game, I thought I’d play through enough to get an idea of what to write - then I played all the way through to the end.

Thankfully there are plenty of ways to customize your play - this can be a tough as nails high score pushing experience, or you can breeze through the campaign with infinite lives and forgiving checkpoints. It’s testament to the design of the game that it can be enjoyed by spring chickens and professional roosters alike.

Designed to be a fun light-hearted romp through a bombastic series of set pieces and boss fights, the story mode is just pure fun from start to end. The few characters are immediately likeable, including the intermission-led news anchor. 

Breezing through in an hour was the perfect play time for me, but I could see this being one of those games some would totally dig into and run again and again, perfecting their scores and smashing through the competition.

You can find Bleed 2 on itch.io, and also on many other platforms, often on deep discount.