Altered Alma – 40 minutes completed demo. This one is an action based 2D Metroidvania in a futuristic setting where you play some girl who wants to assemble a crew to get out of an area. The 2D pixel art is great. The movement and everything has this slightly weighty floaty feeling to it. The game controls well enough with the Series X controller. Parrying isn’t super bad for normal enemies, but felt pretty hard for bosses. It’s much better to try to dodge with this kind of strange dash thing. Sometimes it goes through enemies and sometimes not quite. It’s a strange dash, but it’s decent enough. Overall, it needs some polishing but the setting and graphics are nice, and the story was not complete garbage even though it’s not amazing. There is also a
Kickstarter running for less than a month if you want to support the developer. 7/10
The Alters – 30 minutes. This one is a strange narrative based base building survival in a sc-fi world about a guy who finds a base and tries to figure out how to survive and get off this planet. The key is later on (which I believe I quit right before) where he can clone himself. I have no idea about the story, but there is one and part of it is communicating with some unknown entity. The actual movement is a bit clunky everywhere including the base. The graphics are really solid and the voice acting is very decent. I do feel some of the story segments moved very, very slowly and weren’t paced well. I think this has potential and does need some polishing, but it’s pretty solid enough and probably has a lot of quirks with the story and possibly the gameplay later. 6.5/10
Caravan SandWitch – 23 minutes. Just a really boring open world maybe post-apocalyptic game where you come down from a space city to find your sister. You make your way to your hometown and meet with people. The controls aren’t as amazing with the Series X controller with movement and jumping feeling a bit floaty. The graphics are pretty decent and one of the first tasks is find components to find radar jammers. I got bored exploring the city and I could go other places but I just wasn’t having it and it didn’t really feel like much was happening and I was not connecting to anyone. 6/10
Card-en-Ciel – 4 hours. I completed the demo (pretty long 2 full levels plus a good length tutorial). This game is a weird combination of rogue lite Mega Man Battle Network, Slay the Spire and believe it or not Super Bullet Break (I doubt many have played this one). In this one there is a very wonky story about a guy who is a hacker getting an invite to a game and then having to eradicate anomalies from the in-game world. This is very similar feeling to Super Bullet Break where each world is themed in this case to a game from the company (not sure if these are real games, but I’m guessing no). This is by Inti Creates and many cards in games represent characters from their games. I think the game controlled decently well with the Series X controller and the game ran well. This is going to be a very niche game on release. Every level has you starting with a new basic deck. There is a lot more to the game like certain areas, treasures, muses that activate when cards are played with what they’re looking for, and different things in battle too. You can counter like in a Mario & Luigi game if you have yellow cards and time the button presses correctly to avoid the enemy. There is also stunning by doing another type of damage which is necessary as the enemies stop acting when stunned and take double damage. There is also timers to when the enemy will attack. There is a lot of strategy especially compared to simple Mega Man Battle Network games and Super Bullet Break as well. I think the story being kind of nonsense and a little otaku pandering wont appeal to as many. This is my type of rogue lite although it’s best to play these games in shorter bursts as it can be a bit repetitive. I will likely get this one release. I wish there was a physical that was going to be made of it. 8/10
Concealed – 21 minutes. This is a mystery horror visual novel based off a short independent story. This has a pretty stilted English translation with rough at parts translations. The art is very similar to a manga like Uzumaki and is excellently done. The transitions are also kind of slow overall. I actually like the idea and most things here, but it seems like a heavier discount game because of the overall quality of the translation. I do think there is an interesting story here about murders and strange things going on in the town. 6.5/10
Drill Core – 30 minutes. This is a drilling game kind of RTS where you choose where to dig, upgrade stuff and at the end of the day defeat enemies attacking you with turrents. It has some quaint graphics, pretty good voices, atmospheric music and controls well enough with keyboard and mouse. It was also just one of those resource gathering upgrading type games like Steam World Dig, but this one seems a bit more boring. I wasn’t like amazed or anything, but it was solid enough. I would find this one pretty repetitive quickly though. Very decently polished other than the moving around controls. 6.5/10
FAIRY TAIL: DUNGEONS – 21 minutes completed 1 floor and demo. This one is a roguelite game set in the Fairy Tale universe. You get sucked into a dungeon through a portal and must fight through floors. This is done traversing a space at a time and a countdown is on (the number on the lamp counts down and when it reaches 0 you fight the boss). Every space moved has enemies and events. The main quirk of this one is using cards as skills and some moves used together cause magical chains. Overall, I thought the music was very grating, the graphics alright, the gameplay a bit monotonous but fun, and the actual combat good but the enemies can be damage sponges. This is a decent enough game, but would nicely gotten in a bundle or cheaper as the only really nice thing was the card system for skills in combat. 7/10
Fishlike – 6 minutes completed demo. This is the very definition of we have Warioware at home. It’s about micro games and a timer similar to Warioware with some okay but basic music, okay but basic graphics, some not great sounds and voice over samples, and at the end of the levels you face a boss. Nothing special here but is alright enough to likely waste an evening or two beating the games. 6/10
Garbanzo Quest – 29 minutes completed demo. This one is a 2D platformer with a little blob guy and a forever winter and he is the hero try to stop it. You end up going through levels until you find friends at the end. There is an overlord similar to Super Mario World. The controls themselves are pretty decent with the Series X controller. You spit to destroy blocks, venerable orbs, stun enemies and in the last part of the demo damage a boss. It’s pretty decently fun although it would likely be a heavy sale or bundle game only. It still played excellently, but just didn’t excite me a lot. 7/10
Garlant: My Story – 13 minutes completed an area. This one was just really boring to me. It’s an arena action game where you have to defeat enemies and clear areas similar to Binding of Isaac. The story is really basic and about a guy who comes to help a guild out and you just go around liberating areas, gathering items, farming and some other stuff. I believe it’s made in RPGMaker and feels super basic overall. The music is generic kind of Super Nintendo sounding music, the graphics are better for portraits and some animation but overall feel basic. The controls are mouse and keyboard and are OK enough. This just feels like one of those repetitive games where you slowly level up and do some quests until you can fight bosses or such. I was not interested in this much after the first area and wouldn’t get this one unless bundled. 6/10
The Guardian of Nature – 21 minutes. This one was just a very nice looking, okay music walking back and forth in a 2D plane adventure game about the guardian of nature and solving puzzle with weird electricity vines. I solved a few of puzzles and got stuck and was pretty bored the whole time. The voices are very low in the opening movie without subs so I missed most of the story. I just couldn’t get into this at all. It controlled OK with the Series X Controller, but somehow the guy was floaty to move in the 2D plane. Selecting items wasn’t too hard but placing them to use in the environment was clunky. 6/10
Hadley's Run: A Starship Saga – 26 minutes lost my run. This one is pretty much single screen survive and then get a level up twin stick shooter with average graphics, okay controls with the Series X controller, decent music, a confusing story and just not the best gameplay loop. It felt pretty repetitive already. This one is pretty much just an amped up Asteroids. After a few levels you face a harder boss. Nothing too special overall here. 6/10
KILL THE WITCH – 15 minutes completed demo. This one is a run and hit things with your bat game. You try to not take damage and eventually you can transform where you attack faster and have no damage dealt to you. This is a 2D game and controls decently well with the Series X controller. The jumps are the main thing that feels floaty along with the upward swing. The story is about a player character who is a hero or anti-hero or something and goes around wanting to take out everything with her bat. It was fun and challenging enough. You also get lots of lives on easy but likely can’t finish the game. Decent enough game that would be fun bundled or very cheap, but not super exciting. 6.5/10
Maid Survivors : Little Angels – 60 minutes Completed a few runs and won the last one. This is pretty much a Brotato clone with maids who lose some of their clothing when their health gets low. You do a few rounds and upgrade items by combining 2 like items, level up, get money for items and just keep getting more power in order to survive until the last wave with a big boss. The balancing in this didn’t seem amazing. I died in like one bullet hit to the last boss so it did at least 20ish damage. The graphics are pretty nice and animate well enough. The controls can be a bit loose especially for dodging, but otherwise are not that hard to use. There aren’t enough clones of Brotato and this one is solid enough. I think it barely squeaks by a 7/10, but it needs more polishing.
Recesses – 20 minutes lost a run. This one is a strange visual novel x rogue lite card game where you are friends with someone who plays some alien card game. In this one You can have up to 8 cards in your ship and try to be the last one standing. There are 3 types of cards in the demo (cute, scary, weird) and they are all strong vs another element. Better rarity cards have more power and better abilities. A lot of the abilities are random like in choices. It’s basically War honestly, but has a lot more going for it. The art/sound/music are all very basic, but have a charm as well. This is not a pretty game, and the characters look kind of ugly too. The story itself is okay where you don’t know what happened to your friend after you played the game with her since she wasn’t at school the next day. You need to beat so many kids to find out what happened while strengthening your deck. Honestly it has a lot of heart and supposedly an okay story. The gameplay for the card game isn’t super fun, but still alright. It is very cheap and I would get it bundled or on a heavy sale. 7/10
Speedollama – 8 minutes. This one is an open area collect crystal and shoot alpacas and lots of blood and okay sound/music with somewhat floaty Series X controls. This I believe can be played co-op and characters have different stats. Frankly this was really boring and didn’t feel like it had much of a purpose. It boils down to just surviving, getting enough crystals and then getting out. 6/10
S4U: CITYPUNK 2011 AND LOVE PUNCH – 33 minutes completed a full day. This one is a strange adventure game where you play some college student who works with someone else and they hack in a way where they can pose as people to get things done. You have to fake type similar to Emily is Away and can choose a few things here and there (although many are just for different responses). You keep going until the end of the day where you can walk around an area, buy something (the protagonist says they love to buy things), try to pay off debt, and interact with people maybe finding love in a futuristic society. This one is so weird, but pretty interesting as well. I wasn’t crazy into your employer character, but this had potential and had great music with some interesting vibes. 7/10
To Pixelia – 25 minutes. This one is a decent looking Stardew Valley like game with okay pixel graphics, not amazing sounds/music, a pretty big city to do things. Socializing from what I did felt too mathy and nothing really interesting going on. You can build up your run-down apartment, work (the diner job felt awful and clunky), and just go around and get your wants done. I think this is just a bit too unpolished especially in the UI. I couldn’t even get furniture down easily in my apartment. I gave up and I was already getting bored anyway. This needs a lot more to make it feel any special. 6/10
Tomb of the Brave – 5 minutes. This is an open world kind of RPG game thing and has you grinding in specific areas or something. The combat is very basic and everything looks and feels basic. The story is nonexistent as well. I got bored very, very quickly. 5/10
Virtua Unlimited Project – 33 minutes. This is a Mega Man Zero clone where you play some girl and can use a sword and a gun and go and fight and platform through levels until you get to a boss. There is quite a bit of story here, but it’s nothing too crazy. It is a bit too verbose at times though. The music is pretty solid and the graphics look quite excellent. It didn’t wow me at all, but controlled well with the Series X controller and was very polished. It would be nice in a bundle or a decent bit cheaper. 7/10
Weirdo – 7 minutes. This was almost exactly the same style as Concealed by the same company with a little worse art. This one had a stinky story about a creepy guy who used some inhaler smoke thing to make him look hot and all. He wants to use this to get girls. While I thought Concealed felt interesting, this just felt creepy and I felt the English was even worse in this. This wasn’t polished at all, but had decent art nonetheless. 6/10
The Wrath of the Goose King – 39 minutes completed demo. This one is a turn based RPG rogue lite game where you are a red panda and the goose king is crazy and says you stole a feather. You found it on the floor but it starts with that accusation and then escalates to the king wanting to execute you. You leave and try to get out of this royal carnival and eventually get some other party members. The game acts like a turn-based RPG except the enemies have hidden weaknesses that are exposed when attacked by the correct attacks. Every attack/skill/spell cost mana and some have cooldowns or are swift allowing them to not count towards an action for the turn. Every part of the level has 3 areas you can choose along with what rewards you can get, unless it’s a boss fight. You can take them all on but the difficulty gets harder with each. I believe this is made in RPGMaker, but it feels a bit cleaner although the controls are funky (best to use mouse and keyboard) and the graphics aren’t super amazing but charming. Overall, this is a fun enough game and I wish there were more rogue lite turn-based RPGs where you build according to what you get and your classes. I also have to mention the challenge is pretty good as the bosses and the leveled-up enemies’ battles can take a while. I would still likely only get it on a deeper sale or bundled, but I believe it’s a cheap game. 7/10
AI during the campaign if you're playing alone and you've got a frustrating time on anything but Easy or Normal difficulties.
