Herman, by developer Todd Snarl and Dirge Game Studio, is a prime example of why I love the Xbox Live Indie Games service so much. With the indie games that are available on XBLA, PSN, or even WiiWare there is a certain set of criteria that must be met before any of the console makers will allow them to be put on their respective services. This, inherently, limits what a developer can do. While there are plenty of great indie games on all three services, XBLIG gives us indie games that are more in common with what you’d find on the PC. Of course, the flip side of this being that, often times, the games are a bit rough around the edges, so to say.

Herman is a prime example of the differences between Microsoft’s XBLA channel and their XBLIG channel. Never, in a million years, would you find Herman on XBLA, but that’s OK. It wasn’t meant to be there. It’s an indie game that is so ballsy and ridiculous that it truly belongs on the “other” channel… the one with the real, tried and true indie games.

Anyways, enough blabbering, let’s get on with the review:

Gameplay

Herman is a 2D platformer of sorts. Unfortunately, it’s the gameplay that really keeps Herman from flying as high as it should. You see, the main character is large and slow. As most people who enjoy platformers can tell you, one of the key ingredients in making a successful platformer is having a character that is fun to control. Herman, unfortunately, isn’t all that fun to control, especially in the beginning of the game. That said, however, the longer you play the game the more upgrades you are able to purchase for Herman — like increasing his speed. While he will never be the best platforming character in the world, the game definitely gets a bit more lively with a few upgrades.

One of the best parts about Herman is the enemies in the game. While the actual platforming leaves much to be desired, the enemies in the game make up for it by a wide margin. Each consecutive level adds a new enemy and each enemy adds a different dynamic to the game as a whole. Some enemies merely stand as roadblocks, others will charge you and attack, some will roll bowling balls at you, while others are driving go-karts that will run you over. Each new enemy gives a fresh feeling to the game.

In addition to a new enemy for every level, the actual levels are never exactly the same. Should you die half-way through a level you’ll instantly notice that enemies aren’t coming from the same area, and blockades are in different locations. This makes it so each level won’t be a cake-walk after you’ve died a few times.

Speaking of cakewalks, Herman is not easy. In fact, it’s damn hard. I attempted the game on the mid-level difficulty at first, but after the first level I quickly dropped down to the “Easy” setting. A couple levels after that I was on the “Very Easy” setting. Even at that point I still found myself dying a few times each level. While some may see this as a good thing — nobody likes an easy game after all — I feel like the difficulty was random at best. Sometimes you’d coast through a level and then other times you’d get absolutely swamped with enemies. It was far more frustrating than I’d have preferred… and embarrassing being on the easiest difficulty setting.

Style

Herman has a unique style to it. It’s very primitive, but, at the same time, reminds me a lot of the old Rocko’s Modern Life cartoon mixed with maybe a splash of Home Movies. While I was initially put off by the oddball artwork, I actually found it growing on me about 20-30 minutes into the game and, in all honesty, I’m not sure if they game would have felt “right” without artwork to match it’s already outlandish storyline.

Additionally, the music was surprisingly pretty good. In fact it had one of the better tracklists I’ve  ever heard on an XBLIG game, and, believe me, I’ve played a lot of XBLIG games.

Story

Herman has an odd storyline. It basically entails Herman, the main character, growing tired and frustrated with his job until one day he decides to just up and quit. His fellow employees, jealous of his attempt to escape, decide to take him out before he can make his way out of the building. At about the half-way mark there’s a decent twist in the storyline, although the game never fully explains what it was about…

Everything Else

The game opens with a delightful homage to Braid and ends in the same way. Fans of the unique method of storytelling in Braid (walking by objects as text appears) will find a familiar tone in Herman. Although the rest of the game is missing this Braid-esque feel it was still nice to see an a game pay tribute to what some consider to be the holy grail of indie gaming.

Herman isn’t for everybody. In fact, I fully believe most people won’t give Herman five minutes of their time before casting it aside. It really is a shame too because, while XBLIG is certainly chock-full of bad games, it’s also full of plenty of experimental titles which unwittingly get the label of being bad. Herman, I fully expect, is to fall under that latter category. An unfortunate reality, but some games are just too far out there to be acceptable.

Still though, at $5, perhaps the developer created a barrier that was just a bit too high to be fully appreciated by the masses on Xbox Live…