Back to the grind of informing the people about fun little demos that I played the last week on Steam. I have a record of this week’s game from Steam Nextfest, but it is so far past the point of naming the title after Steam Nextfest. I really wanted to talk about this game earlier, but with everything that has happened in the past few weeks, I just couldn’t bring myself to write up something.

I’m back baby and this week I’m going to talk about the Islets demo.

Islets is a Metroidvania platformer from Kyle Thompson and will be published under Armor Game Studios. The game will be available exclusively on PC and has a release date of 2022, so literally, anytime.

You take the role of a creature named Iko, a warrior whose aim is to bring the floating islands of their world back together. Long ago the lands were inhospitable up until the floating islands were connected through magnetic cores created by the people of the region. After that, the world became bountiful and civilization prospered. Time passed and the cores wore down and were forgotten about until the islands began to separate once again.

This is where our friend Iko comes in.

Islets is a Metroidvania, so running around and back-tracking is part of the game plan. The floating island that is part of the demo is a vast area that took me a significant amount of time to go through. With the Metroidvania aspect comes MUCH platforming. Abilities like a double jump and grapple-like ability make traversing the floating islands much easier.

Creating friendships is also a huge part of Islets. As I traveled around the floating island I met many NPCs, all attempting the same goal as you, reuniting the islands. A few NPCs are complete jerks but a majority of them are quirky, cute, and will assist you later on in the game if you help them.

Environmental obstacles are not the only foe. There are enemies plentiful ready to take your life from you. Iko, at the start, has only three lives, and the enemies hit hard and fast. There are many enemy types in the demo. You have your base types that are simple to dispatch, then you have your mini-boss that challenges your ability to remember how you dispatched the previous enemies. One instance is what looks like to be a frog wearing a skull named the Grave Crawler.

Difficult boy, I had to fight it at least three times.

Shrines that save the game are littered throughout the island, and so too are rouge-like upgrades, which threw me off. Increases in fire rate, more damage, and more arrows are only a small glimpse into the available upgrades. It is to note that the upgrades can come in the form of a vending machine with a cat on it.

Islets is a gorgeous game. I really like the style that was chosen. Lots of bright colors that are also easy on the eyes.

I have been into Lo-fi music for some time now and to hear it while I am playing this game makes me so happy. The music really matches the aesthetic of the game.

Islets demo was a damn good one. The platforming is good, the combat is good enough for me, and the music and environments are absolutely gorgeous. The story is something that I am not necessarily remembering quite too well but maybe that is because I played a demo with a small taste of the story.

Overall: Great demo. It has been wish-listed and will purchase the day it releases.