I blasted through eight demos yesterday (my Mastodon log). There were some very promising ones.

Akimbot is a third-person shooter/platformer in the vein of Ratchet and Clank. I liked the environment art and the combat shows promise, but since the demo is for the start of the game, the combat is pretty simple. The playable duo is a grumpy robot and a Claptrap expy who don’t get along. Their interactions annoy me, so their relationship better improve a lot as the game goes on. This is apparently the debut game for much of the staff, which is very impressive. Wishlisted.

Slash Quest is a lighthearted Zelda-style adventure, but you control the sword and drag the wielder around. It’s a funny use of tank controls. I don’t know how long this gimmick can last, though.

Ash & Adam’s GOBSMACKED is a fast-paced roguish FPS about going goblin mode. The game is a linear chain of arenas against garbage bin robots that only last 1-2 minutes. The combat is intense and chaotic and encourages stylish gameplay without getting exhausting. Compared to Gunfire Reborn, it seems to be less of a “numbers game” with complex build strategy and will take way less time for a run. I can see myself enjoying both at the same time. Wishlisted.

Sparedevil is a bowling-themed FPS, vaguely with the arena gameplay of Devil Daggers. The graphics are goofy and have that 90s crusty 3D look. You get bonus points for trick shots and a powerup when you hit a strike. It’s an amusing and unique theme, but I’m not sure how much more game there can be beyond this demo. A run seems to be extremely short: less than 30 seconds.

NBB.EXE is a 3D platformer with Bomberman-style gameplay. It has a futuristic “sports on TV” theme, which is a niche aesthetic that I like a lot. It has a very stylish presentation and graphic design style that’s kind of metalheart. The singleplayer content I tried was just platforming with a bit of bombing out obstacles; multiplayer wasn’t available in the demo. Unfortunately, the sometimes unresponsive controls, flashy graphics, and high top-down camera angle are awful for platforming. I want to like this game, so I’ll at least keep an eye on it.

Pinball Spire is pinball metroidvania. In practice, it’s a long, interconnected series of tables with some exploration in between. It’s a cool combination of two types of game, but it’s not for me. I spend a lot of time fumbling around with the ball to try to get it to the right opening.

RUBATO is a 2D collectathon platformer. It has a lot of personality and a great sense of humour, with a silly plot, funny cutscenes, and bizarre breaks in the art style. The music is catchy and the pixel art is polished, other than the intentional breaks. This is a true pixel art game, with everything snapped to a pixel grid. Pixel art has definitely been overrepresented in my Next Fest lineup, and so far, this and Pipistrello stand out in the quality of the pixel art. Wishlisted.

Slider is a top-down puzzle game that takes place on a sliding tile puzzle. You slide the pieces of the world around to get to places and unlock more world tiles. This is a cool, novel mechanic that I’ve seen about once before this, in a Flash platformer. The pixel art and music are fine, but not amazing, but it still looks like a complete, polished effort as a student game.