A little behind in posting but here are thoughts on a few more demos:
Terra Nil
Stunning and relaxing reverse city builder where your goal is to reclaim the land. Best with KB/
M but wonderful to play on Steam Deck.
Lone Ruin
Twin stick isometric dungeon crawler/shooter. At least I assume it’s a dungeon crawler, but the demo only provides a single area style survival mode. Controls are clunky and visuals are hyper stylized but aren’t a doing a lot for me. I’ve played better twin stick shooter with tighter controls. This one is a pass. Works out of the box on Steam Deck.
Pirates of Mara
Cute but very much a 3D collectathon in the vein of old N64 and PS platformers. I got a little tired of it the moment I was sent on multiple quests to collect items hidden around the map. Plays perfectly out of the box on Steam Deck.
Lapin
cute, hand drawn, oddly pixel art backgrounds, Celeste clone with rabbits. Even has secret areas to collect nuts instead of strawberries. Odd controls that need to be mapped to a controller (e.g. Z to jump, C to interact)
Neko Delivery
Really rough, clearly a very early demo. Controls are awkward. It seems to be a life sim complete with a home to decorate but the main mechanic or thing to do is to fly about delivering letters. Think Kiki’s Deliver Service if Kiki was the cat. Works fine in Steam Deck but as I mentioned the controls leave a lot to be desired at The moment.
Ghost Song
Aesthetically very interesting and gameplay is enjoyable. I don’t know what to make of it. I like it but the demo doesn’t seem to go anywhere. I spent over half an hour attacking an enemy and nothing happened. I presume I’m supposed to do something different, but I can’t figure out what that it. Tried to make the enemy follow me somewhere but to no avail. I want this to be something because it’s interesting so far but I can’t really say I’d buy it based on this demo. Works out of the box on Steam Deck.
Eyes in the Dark
An absolutely winning formula. 2D platforming game where you rid your grandfather’s mansion of monsters using a flashlight and other tools and weapons. The flashlight also doubles as a navigational tool that helps you find your way through the darkness. Styled as a black & white silent film, this game is oozing with charm. A little gothy and a lot of fun. Occasionally movement is a bit clunky but I think that will get ironed out. Jumping takes getting used to because it’s bound to RT/R2. This seems odd at first (I remapped it to A/X) until you realize you need your right thumb on the right analogue stick at all times to control the flashlight direction (I mapped it back to default when that clicked for me). Be warned though, if you don’t like roguelites, this might not be fore you. From what I’ve played it seems modelled on Rogue Legacy with a pinch of Dead Cells, but far more the former than the latter. I’m enjoying it quite a bit.
Plays beautifully out of the box on Steam Deck.
Gruund
A slightly overwrought point and click. It has some striking visual compositions but isn’t grabbing me. Plays out if the box on Steam Deck but is best played with KB/M despite the fact that the game devs themselves have mapped mouse controls to a gamepad in game.
Master Key
Certainly Zelda inspired with a splash of Minit minus the time limit. I suppose if Tunic is to the original Zelda mixed with ALttP, this is to Link’s Awakening. However it’s both quite quaint in design and a bit lacking. Often it’s hard to tell what it what and even after cutting down bushes that block your path you often find yourself forgetting what bushes look like because they blend in with the rest of the monochromatic scenery. Despite the fox protagonist, Tunic this is not. Combat is simplistic and mostly made difficult by clunky movement.
Harmon’s Odyssey
Super good time in a bonkers magical land where some magical mixups means that you need to rearrange everything and restore normality. It’s a fun puzzle game with an array of different puzzles from mixed up scenes that need to be put right to spot the difference scenes. Lots of fun, super cute and funny too. Works perfectly out of the box on Steam Deck.
The Cub
A post apocalyptic platformer starring a kid raised by wolves and then by a radio. It’s very aesthetically pleasing but the platforming in the demo lacks polish. Works out of the box on Steam Deck.
Cursed to Golf
Incredible game. I can’t believe I’m only playing a demo. It’s so rich and layered, funny and fun. This feels like Nintendo level polish. It’s fabulous. This game is going to be a hit. So here I am having a blast with Cursed to Golf and I thought to myself “I should look up the devs.” Who are the devs? Chuhai Labs. I said “I know them, don’t I?” Damn straight I do, they made Whitewater Wipeout for PlayDate. These devs are absolutely smashing it out of the park. Incredible. I’m enjoying this so much I hope it gets a physical release for Switch. Highly recommended!
Spirit and the Mouse
Cute 3D platformer and collectathon that wins you over with charm. There really isn’t anything new to the game but the platforming is enjoyable enough that I had fun playing the demo. It feels very approachable for children but still had me entertained for a while. Maybe that will wear off in time but what little I played made me feel I could play more. Works out of the box on Steam Deck.
The Tarnishing of Juxtia
I’m playing this as part of Next Fest and it was clear from moment one that this is a unabashed 2D Dark Souls clone. It’s very Salt & Sanctuary if that were more solidly just a Dark Souls clone than a clone of Bloodborne. I was pretty sure the generic nature of it being a Soulslike was going to mean I’d bounce off it knowing I could just go play Dark Souls. But, for some reason I can’t put it down. It’s doing nothing new, it’s as obvious and generic as they come and for god’s sake it has Tarnish in the title, and everyone is constantly saying “The Tarnishing” in game. But it’s fun. I just want to keep playing it. I looked at Mastifg’s other games and they all feel like generic filler titles. And I guess this is a generic filler Soulslike, but damn if I can’t see myself playing it through to completion.
Bright Seeker
Very Hades meets Hyper Light Drifter meets Transistor. Fairly poor performance on Steam Deck made it hard to really enjoy but it felt very derivative and uninteresting regardless.
The Courier
I bounced off this one pretty early due to sloppy bicycle controls. The sloppiness of the controls might be intentional but It might be that the game just needs some Polish before it’s complete. There could be something here but I didn’t feel like sticking around to find out. Call it demo burnout maybe.
= Good, recommended.