Antonblast - 11 minutes completed first stage. This one is a very janky controlling 2D side scrolling Wario platformer. The animations are decent, but very messy in motion. The controls are OK, but feel weird on the dashing attacks and jumping. I wanted to like it, but it felt more of a chore to play and just never controlled right. Would only get in a bundle. 5.5/10
Between Horizons - 23 minutes completed beginning part. This one is a side scrolling 2.5D mystery adventure game. The voices are decent, as is the graphics. It takes place in a sc-fi ship thing, and seems alright. The UI is extremely clunky for things, but it works. It’s an alright game overall and would be great bundled. 6/10
Big Boy Boxing - 4 minutes completed demo fight. This one is an inspired from Punch Out boxing game. The graphics are pretty nice, average voice acting, okay music and not very good sounds. Overall it feels solid enough, and for a cheaper price it wouldn’t be a bad buy. 6.5/10
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales - 40 minutes completed demo. This one is a pretty solid adventure game where you have the power to go into books and take special things from them. It has decent enough controls, a great atmosphere, good music and voice acting, a pretty cool puzzle solving where you can bring stuff from the real world into the books, and generally was very solid. Honestly only the controls with the Series X controller could be a little finicky for dragging things and for also selecting items in the environment. There are also weird RPG battles in the game, which don’t really add much, but aren’t too difficult to me either. Would get this one bundled or on a slight sale. 7.5/10
Dead Pets Unleashed - 15 minutes. This one is a pretty cool looking life simulation with mini games game about a demon in a punk band and her and her bandmates doing things as they get older. This one was alright and had decent music and graphics. Could be fun for sure, and would be great bundled. This also has a rhythm game for their songs. 7/10
Distant Bloom - 21 minutes. This one is a very nice looking adventure type game where you are an alien crash landing on a planet. You explore, clean up and build to get your colony going. This had decent graphics and was pretty fun. Not much happened, but it felt worth playing. 7/10
Ebenezer and The Invisible World - 19 minutes. This is a 2D platformer Metroidvania game about Ebenezer Scrooge after the book I guess where he sees ghosts and helps them. This one had a pretty good art style, but didn’t feel as good in motion. The animation feels floaty which isn’t great for an action game. I could get used to it, but I kept getting hurt since there felt like a delay to actions. This just felt really linear and boring without knowing much of what to do. I didn’t like this very much. 6/10
En Garde! - 31 minutes finished demo. This one was a neat swashbuckler 3D action game with arenas, platforming like Prince of Persia, and great voice acting and graphics. I wasn’t amazing at this (it was a bit tough), but it was really fun. The action was great and did feel like sword fighting. This one is worth it bundled or even on a slight sale. 8/10
Gori: Cuddly Carnage - 25 minutes completed demo. Very, very cringe humor in a 3D beat em up skateboarding arena action game with action similar to Devil May Cry. I liked the graphics enough and the sound was pretty good although the voices were just OK. Its tricky traversing the world in your hoverboard, but it is fun. It’s more of a bundle game for me, but it’s a higher end one. Only thing that really sucked was the camera at times. 7/10
Grimfield Mystery - 15 minutes completed demo. This one is a nicely drawn horror mystery adventure game. It sucks to control with a Series X controller. This one felt clunky overall, and I’m not sure why the main character is so disgusting looking. There is even a boss fight with horrible action segments. I hate those in adventure games. Overall it was average, but would be OK bundled. 6/10
HELLCARD: Prologue - 67 minutes died at end of one run. This one is a weird one. You are in circle arenas with a far and near field. You play cards using energy and it’s really zoomed out and doesn’t look great. It’s a bit hard to figure out where your damage is coming from. You can get companions and play co-op. It’s a bit unbalanced single player, so co-op is likely where it’s at. It was fun and okay polished, but felt a little underwhelming at times. 6.5/10
Let's! Revolution! - 27 minutes completed demo. This one is kind of a puzzle turn based action game where you play a hero trying to defeat enemies with skills and weapons while not revealing them and getting hurt tile by tile, till you find the king and go to the next stage. You fight and the characters have powers. They also have weapons, but they’re not infinite on uses. Overall this one was kind of fun, but also a little bland. It was easy to understand after a while, and felt like a puzzle. I wouldn’t mind this one for cheaper or in a bundle. 7.5/10
Lil' Guardsman - 27 minutes completed demo. This one is a Papers Please type adventure game where you take over as a younger daughter of the guard position for a castle. It was kind of fun and there where tools and people you can talk to figure out if they are good people. Lots of okay humor with good artwork makes this a decent bundle game. 7/10
Little Nemo and the Guardians of Slumberland - 24 minutes completed most of the demo. This one is another 2D Metroidvania game where you play Nemo in a dream world and explore a land and try to get the nightmares away. This one was gorgeous with great animations and a great art style. The movement and all was a little floaty, but nothing horrible. Overall it was great and felt really nice. 7.5/10
Love Shore - 13 minutes. This one is a cyberpunk visual novel life simulation type game. You play a guy who just gets out of jail and tries to figure out who to help and what to do in his life. During his day back he comes home to a weird voice mail of someone he once knew and has to figure out the mystery and also getting to know the place he hasn’t seen for months. This one was pretty interesting. I liked the art quite a bit and the atmosphere was great. The story was a bit confusing, but I’m sure if I played more I’d figure out things. I liked this one and would get it on sale. I wish it had voices. 7.5/10
LunarLux - 107 minutes completed demo. This was more than I wanted to play this for, but this game was excellent. It is a sci-fi RPG with a battle system consisting of skills using energy that can have augments (support skills) in an active battle system where you have to raise your shields (if you have them) and must dodge and all. There aren’t enough Sci-fi RPGs and this one hit all the right notes. There are also some tricky environmental puzzles. They’re tricky but it felt good when I finished a harder laser shooting one. This also had very passable graphics with good character art and some good sound and music. I really liked this and will purchase it on release. 8.5/10
Odinfall - 61 minutes. This one is a rougelite Nuclear Throne like game where you play some berserker in a future apocalypse where robot AI norse machines took over the earth. It is okay to play overall. When stuff starts happening you take damage quickly. I like you have a melee to start and get some guns as well. Overall it was polished enough, but still felt floaty to play. Not amazing, but has some potential. The story is bollocks and means very little to the game. 6.5/10
A Tiny Sticker Tale - 14 minutes completed demo. This is a cute game where you can turn things into stickers to solve puzzles by using them in the correct place. I liked the art and music. The controls were okay with just a bit of finicky controls mainly for the stickers. Overall a decent enough game bundled or on an OK sale. 7/10
Toxic Crusaders - 17 minutes completed first stage which was the whole demo. This is pretty cool and looks really nice. It’s a lot shallower than say Streets of Rage 2-4, but it’s still decent. The characters and story are corny, but it was fun. It’s another quality beatemup to add to the recent retro revival we’ve been seeing. 7/10
Venba - 10 minutes completed demo. This one is about a family of a husband and wife who are Indians who immigrated to Canada. It’s a narrative story about cooking, living, and family. I liked the art style and the characters seemed pretty cool. The actual cooking was simple but nice as well. I’d likely get it bundled or with a slight discount, as it’s likely a shorter game. 7/10
VIDEOVERSE - 26 minutes completed demo. This one kind of reminded me of Emily Is Away, which I beat the first of. That simulated AOL Instant Messenger and also Myspace. This simulates a gaming community that may be on its last legs, but you chat with friends and draw and such for this game. It had a pretty cozy atmosphere and reminded me of days forgone when I myself used to participate in MUDs. Those days were fun, and you usually had a little tight nit community, but they probably weren’t amazing. I do want to see where this online community goes, and it also is about a teenager growing up. I would buy this or get it bundled. 7.5/10
Alan Wake.
