Festivus for the Next of Us
Demo season has already returned! I want to say the last one was, what, October? So much has happened in 4 months that it boggles the mind. Rather than just list everything I played and whether or not I wishlisted it, I decided to take 15 of them and rank them from least-to-most exciting. That said, compiling this came with a couple provisos:
- I skipped a few story-focused games I already had my eye on as I didn’t want to spoil myself. INDIKA, Crow Country, and Harold Halibut are notable exclusions. I did try Murders on the Yangtze River and quite enjoyed it, but as it’s not fully translated yet I didn’t want to pass judgement one way or the other.
- I also skipped demos that I was familiar with pre-Next Fest. You won’t see Balatro here, for example, even if there was an updated build. That game slaps by the way.
- There are some other assorted exclusions. Some were technically dodgy, but mostly I just couldn’t get to everything! Abathor and Roman Sands: RE:Build are notable misses that I fully intend to rectify.
15: NADYR
An apt title for the bottom of this list I suppose. I was not aware there was a gap between Alone in the Dark and a turn-based JRPG that needed to be bridged, but NADYR tries and demonstrates that you do not necessarily need to try every flavor combination to know if it’ll work. The controls are awful, the combat would be done better in RPGMaker, and having to slowly trudge each of the 4 characters forward individually just to have them available for said combat was more than I could withstand. The dev on this specifically noted that this demo was a bit rushed for Next Fest and doesn’t paint the game in the best light, and I am curious to see how it develops, but there’s way too much grime on it at present to recommend trying just yet.
14: #BLUD
This feels like an old licensed game for a 2000s cartoon that doesn’t exist, and I specifically mean before licensed games were good. Unfathomably slow paced, not nearly enough energy to match its animation style or tone, and combat that just sucks no matter how you slice it. Fights are stiff and clunky with plenty of animation lock and a lack of i-frames anywhere, including your dodge roll, which felt like an oversight given the attack patterns. Your best option is always to put the enemy in hitstun before they do the same. The other 2/3 of the runtime is tip-toeing through giant empty spaces and reading a ton of dialog, and yeah said dialog usually has personality, but is this what people wanted from a Buffy-adjacent premise that looks like this? There’s no way this game holds the attention spans of the folks that would find it appealing. Who is this for?
13: Bane Murrain
It’s no secret that the boomer shooter renaissance has been a bit of a mixed bag. For every excellent pseudo-retro banger like Prodeus or HROT there are at least twice as many also-rans. Bane Murrain falls in the latter category face-first. I am somewhat willing to look past the limp movement and gunplay, though having the chainsaw be so terrible is an unforgivable sin, and the Fervour mechanic juicing your punches as you shoot more baddies is fairly clever. What really hurts this one’s enjoyability is its dull level design chock full of monster closets and its atrocious main character, who refuses to shut up for even a moment and does not have nearly enough lines to compensate. It feels like what a teenager in the 90s would have wanted in a shooter and that is not a compliment.
12: Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip
Rare is the demo that leaves me with less of an idea of what the game has to offer upon its conclusion, but TTTT delivered a heaping helping of potential without a single bit of gameplay to back it up. Every single objective I discovered or attempted to complete in my time with this was met with “whoops! can’t do that in the demo!” until I eventually tripped over enough collectables to trigger the end. And yes, it’s absolutely fair to limit access to features for a demo, of course. But surely you could have included something to do beyond driving your very slow un-upgradable-in-the-demo car? I am completely willing to believe that this game will be good on release, but the demo itself gives absolutely nothing to back that up.
11: Happy! the Hippo
I suppose it’s nice that we’ve graduated to Haunted PS2 but it doesn’t seem things have much improved. Happy controls like a drunken Sonic, only capable of spindashing or bouncing high while holding the equivalent of an alt key. It makes controling Happy more laborious than it should be, and even at its best (which is quite fast!) it never feels natural. I was even more excited for the other games alluded to in the demo disc-esque bootup menu, but alas, none were playable besides Happy. This game may have some cool twists or subversions of its look, but you still have to play the thing, and playing this makes me Sad! the Human.
10: Tribes 3: Rivals
I enjoy an arena shooter plenty. Surf maps, not so much. Tribes 3 is a surf map with guns. This is not one of the cases where I think these two tastes quite go together. You and your team of sentient bars of soap slide down hills, bonk on level geometry, fire incredibly slow projectile weapons, and (in one particular featured mode) attempt to put your balls in their holes. This game’s wonky physics and speed would make for an amusing diversion as a custom game in a better FPS, but as its own thing? Nah.
9: XF Extreme Formula
We have reached true neutrality. AG racing is a genre I have almost too much experience with. We’re talking “very briefly held a world record for a track in F-Zero X” levels, genuinely unhealthy. XF Extreme Formula takes the most notes from F-Zero, with a simple control scheme including spin attacks, and it’s…fine? It’s fine. From a control perspective the game is functional if uninspired, with no truly new mechanics to be found. I found its sense of speed and sound quite lacking and that’s a massive dealbreaker for any racing game, but especially for one where you’re strapped to a deathrocket. You could play this, and even have a good time, but would you remember it?
8: Hollowbody
Hollowbody is technically cheating as it’s not a Next Fest Demo, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway as it updated on 2/7. It’s a very Silent Hill 2 inspired experience with a splash of Blade Runner, and also this time it’s set in the UK so it’s in perpetual dreary rain. On a technical level what’s shown in the demo is remarkably polished for a solo dev, with solid old-school seek’n’find item chains through a fairly creepy apartment block, and even the obligatory stilted combat is remarkably functional in a genre that tends to ignore it to its own detriment. I only encountered one notable bug (ammo disappearing from the gun I never used after entering a building) and that gives me hope! But what was shown was both short and repetitive, as well as light on actual horror, so it’s hard to say what players will actually be in for just yet. Cautious optimism here.
7: Chasmal Fear
Well this was a lovely surprise! Chasmal Fear is another attempt at integrating a wobbly fish-eye bodycam into an FPS, this time in an underwater survival horror setting that’ll remind you of an even shittier Rapture. As a result the aiming takes some getting used to, requiring awareness of where your gun is actually pointed when you start shooting lest you fire at a 90 degree angle because you haven’t actually aimed the thing yet. The game looks lovely and already has its resource use loop down pat, but where it let me down was the enemy designs, who thus far consist of dull humanoids idling around in open areas or jumping out of literal closets. Also, let it be known that as much as I appreciate the “stab downed enemies before they mutate and get back up” mechanic, a survival horror game finding a way to make me need to reload my knife gives me fear for the future. What else will I need to hit R on someday? Medkits? Flashlights? Being able to see? Wait, this game already has you wipe your visor off after particularly rough fights! Shit!
6: Mullet Mad Jack
I’ll keep this as fast as a level in the game itself: this is a 90’s OVA cut with Post Void and served through the nose. I’m not 100% convinced this fully delivers on the gameplay front and the gun sounds in particular are in desperate need of punching up, but how much does that really matter to you? Look at it. You already know if you’re into this shit, and I sure am.
5: Rotwood
I trust Klei. That’s a major part of why Rotwood is so high, though that’s not to undersell the very effective Castle Crashers-y gameplay here as well as some of the wackiest beat-em-up skills I’ve seen in a minute (I got to produce portals on dodge that worked on friendlies AND enemies). Rather, my trust is in Klei’s ability to apply that to a bigger, more robust overall experience despite that not being shown. We got no real sense for character advancements or town upgrades, only that they exist, and make no mistake I do take some issue with the lack of information available in the demo. But what was there played well, and again, I trust Klei.
4: Throne of Bone
Let me open with a proviso: Throne of Bone feels early. The end result here could be anywhere from meager to fantastic depending on the run to run variety and card options in the release version. That said, this is a clever mechanical mashup! The card management and upgrades mixed with the gambling rush of an autobattler does a lot to make most fights an engaging strategic puzzle, with the remainder being “oh I can just win this”, which is not a complaint in a game that can punish mistakes harshly. Looking forward to seeing where this goes; if the execution of the finished product sticks the landing this is going to kick ass.
3: Astral Party
Sugoroku games are a weakness of mine and 100% Orange Juice is one of the best. Astral Party offers a more casual-friendly riff on OJ’s gameplay with less focus on character strategy and pre-game deck construction in favor of shorter games and sheer chaos. Turns out that’s a solid trade! The learning curve keeps things short and sweet, allowing players to focus on beatdowns and letting wild effects rip on each other. The game seems to be going free to play with monetized cosmetics, and that seems like a solid way to make a game like this widely available for as many friend groups as possible.
2: Helskate
Helskate fucking rules. Its blend of PS1-era Tony Hawk controls with a roguelike structure and sword-swinging combat may seem like buzzword salad, and I mean yeah it kind of is, but that belies how much damn fun this brings. You’ll start out with the basics: grinds, grabs, manuals, etc., as well as swinging your sword at enemies that all need to be cleared before being allowed to leave the level. Optional objectives (including collecting letters to spell “HELSK8” because of course) aside, the highlight is the upgrade system at the end of each park. You’ll fill your trick book as you go and each of these grants you obscene bonuses: supercharged sword attacks, movement tricks, elemental boosts, all sorts of assorted hellish trickery. In a weird way its reliance on combat to continue combos and raise your multiplier reminds me of the eternally underrated Go Go Hypergrind, and I see that as a big win. This was a blast, and it comes out tomorrow at time of this article going live! Hell yeah brother.
1: Mouthwashing
I was always going to play a followup from Wrong Organ after playing How Fish Is Made back in 2022. Mouthwashing offers more of their signature excellent dialogue and wild visual style, but with a bit more to chew (or swish) on as you suffer alongside your crew and their precious cargo and descend into a special kind of hell. I’m grateful this ended when it did so as to not ruin the ride, and I look forward to dying in space when this drifts into Steam’s port like some kind of stellar Obra Dinn, because the odds of anyone making it out of this one alive are just about as likely.
Reviews as Fair as a Die Roll 