Voxatron, so many Voxels yet so little time. This charming indie title was recently made available to the public in alpha state. Following the success Minecraft had releasing an unfinished game these guys decided to give it a go. This game does not have a lot of substance to it but when you first pick it up you realize that it really doesn't need it.  Without any story to speak of, or purpose other than platforming, Lexaloffle still manages to make an enjoyable experience.  There are three game modes and an editor, which is what I am going to try and cover in this preview.

            First there is the Adventure mode, which is a simple mode where you travel from area to area slaying all the monsters on the screen using your little peashooter. You can get better weapons but they do have limited ammo, and you drop them once they are empty.  There are several types of enemies that you get introduced to very quickly, and they will occasionally drop items to increase your score. The point of all of this running around, shooting, and platforming is to beat your high score that is saved after every playthrough.  This mode is mostly there to give you ideas for what you can create in your own levels using the Editor.

            The Editor, in its current state, is not worth using unless you have plenty of patience. The mouse functionality is very poor from my experience and I can see this being a priority to be fixed in the future. Along with no tutorials, you can spend a good bit of time just trying to figure out how to do simple things; although, the things you can create in the editor can be pretty creative. With a lot of community content already made for this game, you can load them up and play all the levels people have made and uploaded with just a simple button click. You can also load up people games by firing up the BBS Levels mode.

            The BBS Levels are the levels that the community makes, and playing them can be fun or really obnoxious. While testing around with the community levels there were a couple gems that played well and felt like they could of been included in the adventure mode. There were also some levels that were simply a bunch of monsters spawning and your job was to figure out what to do and run through the level as fast as you can. The latter that is how most community content is in other content creation games such as Little Big Planet, so as you may know, its a mixed bag.

            The last mode is called Arcade, which is simply the Voxatron version of Hoard Mode, Last Stand, Firefight etc, take your pick. The task is to survive and get a high score with multiple waves of enemies coming at you. The first couple of minutes are a cakewalk with some of the big and bad enemies showing up later to punish you.  This mode has a lot of potential to be a lot of fun if they add a multiplayer element to this game. Playing this with your buddies could be fun though only for a short time. This overall game is short but I can't wait to see where they take it from here.

            Those are the modes that the game offers in its current state and what to expect from each one. You can still get this game if you want to partake in the Humble Bundle, pay what you want for this game and it is yours forever along with all the updates. To recap, there is the Adventure mode with all of the running around, unlocking doors, and shooting baddies. Then there is the editor where you can make any level you want using the tools they give you. Want a level made out of ice cream? You can do that, but be prepared to spend a little time in the editor. Then there are the BBS Levels where you can play the content that the community have created, which is always fun if you want to burn around 10 minutes playing something new before moving to another game. Lastly, there is the Arcade mode, which tallies your points to see how high will your score be in this endless wave after wave of monsters. If you're interested in Voxatron, then grab it now because it is going to be $15 after it is released. People who download it now will be donating to charity along with playing a very promising game.

http://www.lexaloffle.com/voxatron.php