Apparently, I still have Next Fest games to talk about and frankly, I forgot about this one. Sometimes I open up the gameplay clip folder and see games that I played and just never talked about. No game left behind; this week is Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is an action platformer from Squid Shock Studies, Christopher Stair, and Trevor Youngquist and published by Humble Games. The game will be released for all the modern consoles and PCs on July 17.

You play as Bo, a celestial blossom born to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Use your staff to traverse a wildly otherworldly land and beat the piss out of enemies straight out of Japanese legend. There is not much told directly to the player in the demo but you can witness some unexplained horror blowing up the world behind you and you understand that that is the bad guy.

As you progress through the demo you are introduced to a wide variety of characters, some angry and some joyous of your arrival to aid the world in this dire time. A few like you refuse to believe that you are the one sent to aid the world and refuse to help you. On the other hand, some, like a yin/yang two-headed bird, have awaited your arrival and offer much aid.

If you’ve played any precision platformer or Metroidvania then you’ve played Bo. You are given the ability to platform and swing that staff immediately and are set off on your way. You are introduced to shrines that are used as heal/save points and NPCs that have little side quests for you to do to earn some extra, useful loot.

Combat is just like any other precision platforming action game like Hollow Knight. You are introduced to hard-hitting little guys and you beat them up for a time until you reach a point where there is a bigger bad guy who hits even harder. The game teaches you how to dodge attacks and attack when there is a window so that when face-to-face with a big baddie you are comfortable with the new abilities and new combat tricks. Bo has a few lives and can heal after defeating enemies and collecting their remains.

Bo introduces an ultimate meter that launches a Daruma ball that bounces around and deals damage to enemies, and you have charms that help you like having resource collection distance increased.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a wonderful-looking video game. The trailer was a selling point for me to try the game out and once you get into the game you know a lot of love was put into the art design. I really like the animation when the big baddy just shows up in a burst of purple lightning and just emerges and razes everything.

The sound design is great. I like the Japanese-inspired instruments that cultivate the main melodies. I really enjoy just sitting around and listening to the sounds.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus really has me excited. The main meat of the game is fun acrobatic platforming and then are introduced to a serious but fun combat system. The constant stream of combat and platformer makes my brain feel good and when I would perfectly execute a combat, I feel warm on the inside. I like the look of the game and I really like the sounds.

This is a game that should not be overlooked. Damn fine demo for a damn fine game.