Absolum – 2.5 hours completed demo. This one is a beat em up akin to the old D&D arcade games and the demo was buggy with sound, sometimes slowdown, sometimes just awkward feeling, but the comboin’ and action was generally very good. The bosses are very hard but fair and this is made for co-op play, but works OK enough single player. The graphics are excellent, as are the voices and the music isn’t too bad either. Like the D&D arcade beat em ups, there are secrets, multiple paths and Hades like room rewards that power up your moves, give gold, give long term currency and a few other things. There was some lack of polish, but I was having a really good time and just haven’t played a beat em up like this in a while. 8/10
AbstractPunk – 3 minutes abandoned. I really didn’t like this at all. It’s a hard to see around FPS about throwing happiness and weird voice lines and it was a mess graphically. I wasn’t having fun and the difficulty was through the roof. 4.5/10
AEROMACHINA – 15 minutes played until demo hard crashed. This one is a very solid Metroidvania retro feeling 3D platforming action game where you go around and platform (hard at times since it’s a little floaty) and find your way through an area. It was pretty fun and I did get stuck, but it crashed and I didn’t feel like playing anymore. Still relatively solid and seemed pretty high quality and polished. 7.5/10
Allogloom – 33 minutes completed demo. This one is a strange adventure game about moths that eat meat, ceremonies, a missing mom and lots of puzzles and stories. It’s a weird that has cool looking graphical assets that look like papercraft or puppets. The puzzles weren’t too hard, and it was an interesting story. I would likely only get it bundled or cheap, but that’s mainly because I don’t play adventure games often. 7/10
Ambrosia Sky – 14 minutes finished a level. This is a weird go around space station cleaning up some alien stuff while getting items and then you rush back to the beginning. Really didn’t care for this and the movement was very clunky with the mouse and keyboard. The graphics were just OK, and most of the game was reading logs, spraying stuff and exploring. Not for me at all. 5.5/10
Ascend to Zero – 18 minutes. This one is kind of a mix between a Vampire Survivors game where you level up with XP dropped from enemies, but you level quickly and have to go to different rooms and try to get as far. You have a time stop ability which is used for travelling mainly between rooms. There is a limited amount of time, and once time stops you lose that level. Overall, it’s interesting, but not really for me. It was getting very repetitive already and the gimmick wasn’t very fun to me. The graphics were decent enough though. 6/10
Baby Steps – 15 minutes. One of those QWOP style games where you have to control the legs separately and the guy flops around if you miss time things. The graphics are alright, as is the voice work. This was a very annoying game and not for me at all, but I could see people having a kick out of it overall. You get sucked into a TV and just walk around. 6/10
Baki Hanma: Blood Arena – 9 minutes completed demo. This one is Baki themed Punch Out clone that has decent graphics, but not as fluid gameplay. It’s still alright enough, but I wasn’t crazy about it. There is only one full fight in the demo. 6.5/10
Battle Suit Aces – 25 minutes completed a few missions. This one is an OK deck building game with pilots and you try to get rid of defenses and eventually try to finish off the ship, or get rid of all the defenses. The pilots/drones you have out produce the energy you’ll use to battle. You can usually move once a turn and can mod the pilots/drones between battles and collect resources to build stuff. The story is not super interesting, but it’s there and the crew is looking for stuff. The graphics are pretty nice and the voices are good too. Nothing amazing, but solid overall. 7/10
Beatdown City Survivors – 14 minutes lost 4 runs. This is a slight twist on the Vampire Survivors genre where the player uses melee attacks as the basic attacks, can dodge and can activate a skill now and then that Is unique to the character. The graphics are nice, the music is interesting being some hip-hop music, and it controls well with the Series X controller. I feel the damage due to the environment (like burning) was a bit much, but it was fun enough to get bundled or cheap. 6.5/10
Big Hops – 47 minutes completed demo. Just a very solid 3D platformer where you play a frog who can use its tongue to swing around, get items, and do some other stuff. There is different movement, a not crazy interesting story, but it’s there, a lot of puzzle solving (getting nuts can grow vines when thrown, etc..). I had a lot of fun, the graphics were nice, the controls with the Series X controller were solid enough (a little floaty now and then), and it was very polished. I think it’s on Kickstarter now. I would get this one on sale or bundled.
Kickstarter 8.5/10
Blaze of Storm – 10 minutes completed 5-minute score attack. This one is shmup that isn’t crazy hard and has the usual main attack, sub weapons, powering up your main shot and losing it when you get hit and health and lives. It looks fine, sounds OK, controls well with the Series X controller and was just fine. I’m not much of a shmup fan, but this was very playable and I would get it bundled. 7/10
Brebman – 10 minutes finish tutorial and a level. This one is a weird rhythm move back and forth shooting records to take out enemies that damage you with shots, if they come to close and eventually you get an attack that clears everything and also blocks boss damage. Overall, it felt a little floaty and off at times, looked decent, catchy music with very loud sounds, and it was just OK overall. I wasn’t too crazy about this one, and it does need a bit more polish overall. 6/10
Constance – 26 minutes completed demo. This one is a well animated, somewhat floaty feeling 2D Metroidvania where the main gimmick is the character and ink which you can use in an attack and to neutralize energy for a bit. The graphics and sound are nice. The difficulty is tough at times but doable. I liked this enough to get it bundled or very cheap, but it doesn’t have as much to stand out. Also the timing hit the lights puzzles are awful and luckily optional since it’s very hard to get the timing the same for all the lights. 6.5/10
Consume Me – 15 minutes abandoned demo. This one is a simulation game about a young girl who is seen as eating too much and she tries to lose weight and do things to try to get the weight off. It’s an autobiographical work of the creator and it’s mainly to show how she was thinking growing up. It’s interesting and insightful but not as much for me. It does have charm though. 6.5/10
Corebreaker – 6 minutes abandoned demo after 2 lost lives. This one is a rogue lite 2D platforming single room shooter/brawler. You go around and shoot a lot of enemies with way too much life usually and can some use some melee attacks on them and dodge. The graphics are really solid, the controls are alright enough with the Series X controller, but the gameplay is not too fun. I just don’t enjoy these more generic rogue lite room shooter games like Neon Abyss, but not as good. I would only get it bundled, but it was polished. 6/10
Cresecent County – 12 minutes completed a mission. It’s just an open world broom driving/flying job completing, racing done game with a story of friends and it’s just alright. The graphics are pretty nice and the controls handle well enough. Honestly it just wasn’t that exciting at all. It would be fine enough bundled, but it’s not a game for me. 6.5/10
Crimson Capes – 8 minutes abandoned demo. This one was a 2D side scrolling weighty fighting type game where you fight people like in Bushido Blade. The graphics are a little fuzzy, but interesting and it was a bit hard to control, but there is some interesting stuff here. It’s not for me at all, but it’s alright. 6/10
Cubic Cosmos – 9 minutes abandoned demo. This one is a Hearthstone like except the enemies you see come down to you lane by lane instead of being in one lane. A lot of this one was confusing due to the translation and somewhat bad UI at times. I wasn’t really feeling this and felt it needed polish. It feels like it would end up in a cheaper bundle someday. 5.5/10
Danchi Days – 18 minutes abandoned demo. This one was a cute game about kids from a Danchi in Japan. The Grandma is full of life and shows them the wonders of the area as a kid. Later on she gets dementia and isn’t so full of life. She only seems to respond when old Summer Festival flyers are found. You then go and pledge the Summer Festival and try to invite others to it. There are some mini games, an interesting timing game inspection and a few other things. It’s cute and I’m sure something of all this will do with the grandma. A lot of heart in this one. 7.5/10
DaveyXJones - 32 minutes abandoned demo. This one is a weird FPS arena open worldish thing where you play as Davey Jones looking for revenge on Blackbeard. It looks decent, plays a bit clunkily, isn’t crazy fun, has good voice acting, and I would overall only get it bundled. It’s just an arena slasher (with you cutlass) and shooting with your gun. 6.5/10
Dono’s Tales – 11 minutes completed a few levels. This is a throwback to the 16-bit games in this case like a Super Mario World game. It doesn’t feel as polished as that, but it still feels pretty cool. It’s basic enough, nice looking, has some stuff to collect and you reach the flag poles at the ends of levels. 7/10
Dungeon Sweeper – 11 minutes died 3 times. This is a strange mix between dungeon crawler and Minesweeper. You pretty much face basic lower number enemies first, get some equipment, face higher levels and avoid traps which damage. In battles it’s an automatic fighting system. This is just OK, but seems way more RNG than I like in my games. I didn’t have a chance my last game for sure. 6/10
Elementallis – 45 minutes abandoned demo. This is a Legend of Zelda Link to the Past like game where you play an elementalist in a world where elementals were destroyed. The story is very, very slow and delivered too slow as well. The graphics are solid and the action is alright enough. The pacing is awful, but overall, it felt decent. The demo felt too long, and I was ready for it to end. 7/10
Flick Shot Rogues – 10 minutes abandoned demo. This is a PC version of the mobile games where you flick heroes around. It’s kind of fun, but it gets old quickly. Nothing crazy and pretty simple mechanics of switching characters and such. 6.5/10
Gecko Gods – 36 minutes completed demo. This is a 3D platformer where you play as a gecko. It controls very well with the Series X controller where you stick to walls, can use your young, jump, dash, and a few other things exploring a world with gecko gods and completing tasks for them. It has a very good soundtrack and the world was alright to explore. Nothing to complain about although I wasn’t super intrigued either. Was just some good clean exploring and platforming. 7.5/10
Gigasword – 15 minutes abandoned demo. Just a 2D platforming action exploring kind of game where the gimmick is you have a very big sword that limits your movement and jumping especially. So for puzzles and exploration you can put your sword into the floor and explore without it. It was okay overall, but I was getting bored already. Nothing was really exciting to find mainly being a key or some gems. Overall, I could see this being a bundle game, but I wouldn’t buy it myself. Interesting enough, but not for me. 6.5/10
Henry Halfhead – 26 minutes completed demo. This one is a weird one about a half head person who can possess objects and in doing so you get a narration and get to solve puzzles. It wouldn’t be something I buy, but it was fun enough and the narration was fun. It controlled pretty well other than the stacking puzzles with some funky physics. It’s very lighthearted and would be good bundled. 7.5/10
Hordelord – 12 minutes survived a few waves. A bit of a boring arena wave FPS game where you get rewarded guns, cards (pretty much passive abilities) and keys to open up other stuff. This was one OK, but got boring even though new enemies are introduced. I just wasn’t having too much fun as I prefer my FPS to be a little bit more level based and exploratory. It is polished but just not exciting for me. 6.5/10
HOTEL BARCELONA – 13 minutes abandoned demo. From some No More Heroes and Deadly Premonition developer comes an ultra jank side to side 2D arena fighter thing. Honestly it has some style but is jank just about everywhere. I didn’t like it at all and the boss fight was hard it didn’t control very well. There is potential, but I would only get it bundled. 6/10
Infinitevania – 21 minutes completed demo. This one is another Metroidvania where not much is explained, there are souls of sorts (you buy them), you explore to get pretty boring them like gems and bosses are HP sponges. It looks and plays well enough, but this feels more like something I’d only get bundled. Nothing too amazing, but nothing too bad either. 6/10
Into the Inferno – 5 minutes completed demo. This one is very floaty feeling Link to the Past like with a bunch of rooms collecting gems and items here and there. This one isn’t very fun at all, and I was ready to be done after said boss, which was not fun to fight. This needs a lot of work. 5/10
Kill The Music – 24 minutes completed demo. This one is a combination between a Vampire Survivors game in rounds and a rhythm game. It’s very okay and a bit floaty in movement, dodging and attacking. It wasn’t amazing, but it was original. I did love the style of the graphics and the music was pretty alright. I probably would only get it bundled, but it has potential. 6.5/10
KuloNiku: Bowl Up! – 46 minutes completed demo. This one is a very solid meatball soup restaurant running simulator. You mainly make the food and interact and make sure the meal matches what the customers want. All the games are interactive and you also have Iron Chef challenges to get your restaurant reputation up. I had a pretty good time with this game and loved the graphics. The controls were solid with the mouse and keyboard and the story and characters were fun. A simulator game I can recommend, which is very uncommon nowadays. 8/10
L8R SK8R – 25 minutes finished demo, I think. This one is a roller-skating time trial-ish platformer through stages trying to get to the end quickly and also collecting CDs hidden around. It has old school lo-fi 3D visuals and controls pretty decently with the Series X controllers. There is a hub world of sorts for levels. It’s a pretty decent game, but I think I would only get it bundled since I’m not too much into time trial games. 7/10
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