As usual, I feel very happy giving the Humble Bundle a strong endorsement. This here is some solid value.
First off, we have The Binding of Isaac. This game is weird, but I enjoyed it very much. Imagine a randomly-generated series of dungeons all in the style of The Legend of Zelda. The goal is to get as far as you can before you inevitably die. Oh, you can win, but trust me, you're going to die. It's hard. But that's okay, because each time you do, you'll get closer to unlocking new items and new characters, and you'll gradually learn the enemies' attack patterns and get better and better until you can finally make it to the end. And when you do, you unlock even more stuff for your next try! It's fiendishly difficult and maddeningly addictive, and, oh, did I mention absurdly grotesque? Don't let the cute cartoony art style fool you into thinking the game won't be filled with horrifically disgusting monsters.
I haven't played Snapshot or Closure, but they're puzzle-platformers in the vein of popular indie classic Braid. Closure centers around light; the gimmick is that all the levels are in darkness, and you need to shine light on things. Anything that's not lit up is treated as if it doesn't exist. Snapshot lets you take pictures of things in order to move them around and stuff. They're puzzley, and if you enjoyed games like Braid or And Yet It Moves, I expect you'd probably like these, too.
I also haven't played Shank 2, but I played the first one, and it was quite fun. Shank is a sidescrolling beat-em-up game. Enemies attack you; you stab, shoot, or chainsaw them according to taste; and you move to the right. It's a simple formula, and it's executed well. Imagine something like Mortal Kombat as a single-player sidescroller and you'll have a reasonable idea of what to expect. Shank 2 follows the same formula with a few minor improvements. Oh, and there's a local co-op mode, so you can team up with a friend—a nice bonus.
I think the base bundle is a good buy. Closure and Snapshot aren't all that impressive, if you ask me—puzzle games like that are a dime a dozen—but The Binding of Isaac is sweet, and Shank 2 is good clean fun.
Now, if you beat the average, you also get Dungeon Defenders, Legend of Grimrock, The Basement Collection, Offspring Fling, and Cave Story+.
Offspring Fling is an odd little action-puzzle-platformr game with what might be the worst name of any game in my Steam library. But, sigh, yes, it is about throwing babies. You play as a Kirby lookalike, and you need to rescue all your babies by picking them up and bringing them to the door and, yes, throwing them when necessary. It's not fiendishly difficult, but every level is timed, and part of the challenge is supposed to be in beating your best time and earning medals for finishing quickly. I picked it up briefly, and it seems okay (dime a dozen, etc), but I'm a little surprised that it would be a beat-the-average game; it's not exactly a big-name title.
Legend of Grimrock is an "old-school" dungeon crawler. The kind where it's first-person and you move on a grid and there's no map, so you have to draw one yourself on graphing paper. Well, okay, there is an option to play with the map on, but that would mean you're a wuss. Anyway, there are traps and puzzles and monsters and loot, and you level up and stuff. I was talking to Miles about this bundle and he was excited about this game. Personally, I get a little nostalgia kick from the premise because I remember playing Shining in the Darkness on the Sega Genesis back in the day. I couldn't tell you if this game is any good, since I haven't played it. But if the premise piques your interest, it might be worth a look—it was reasonably well-reviewed.
Dungeon Defenders is a game I think I've talked about before. It's a co-op tower defense action-RPG. You and your teammates (you could play solo, but why would you?) build towers, traps, and barricades to defend against waves of enemies, and once they start coming, you pull out your weapons and jump in the fray yourself. If you've got a friend to play with, then it's a blast. Both online and local co-op are supported, and you can even do both at once. The biggest drawback in my eyes is that the RPG elements can spoil the game if the level disparity between teammates is too great. If one player grossly outlevels another, the lower-level player ends up feeling like a third wheel, unable to meaningfully contribute to the defense. This can be frustrating, so try and play with people of the same level when you can. That aside, I recommend this game pretty highly. The Humble Bundle version here comes with all of the DLC (and there's a ton of DLC), so the value is insane. Snap it up if you can.
Cave Story+ is an awesome Metroidvania game. It's a sidescrolling run-and-gun platformer in the style of, well, Metroid. The controls are great, the story is great, the level design is great, and it's an all-around masterpiece that I'd happily recommend. Granted, the Steam version is a special edition remake—so you could download the original version for free if you wanted. But the original version is in Japanese (you'd need a translation patch too) and it isn't on Steam, and there are a few bonus features you'd be missing out on. I'm not entirely sure what they are, but you'd be missing out on them. Also, one thing you may want to know about this game is that some of the secrets are very well-hidden, often involving intentionally skipping powerful, useful items that it seems like you're obviously supposed to grab. So good luck.
Last but not least is The Basement Collection. Like Cave Story+, this is a "special edition" collection of games that you could otherwise get for free. In this case, it's a bundle of flash games by Edmund McMillen, creator of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac. I don't have much to say about it. If you liked Super Meat Boy and/or The Binding of Isaac, then some of these games might be worth a look. Feel free to try them first; you can find all of them on Newgrounds. Here's Time Fcuk, for example. I don't think The Basement Collection is a reason to buy this bundle; even if you want to buy the "special edition" version, the Steam price is actually cheaper than buying the bundle. But if you are buying the bundle, I'd call it a nice helping of gravy.
Bottom line: Good value. As usual. There's a little under a week left to pick up Humble Indie Bundle 7; grab it while you can.
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