Nextfest is back, and I had some game demos on the docket that I wanted to get through and a few that I picked up along the way. I did have 10, but the last game had more A. I then liked it, so I excluded it from the list.

SO YOU GET MY TOP 9!

9. Last Man Sitting – Doublemoose Games / Raw Fury

Last Man Sitting is a game that I remember seeing that really clicked with me to be the “meme” goofy game with a man sliding in a chair, shooting baddies, doing sick tricks and stuff, but this demo ended up being a Vampire Survivors-esque game with stiff animations and colors that made my eyes vomit. I did like the goofy anime arted text windows. The demo was fun, but I don’t remember it being advertised as this type of game.

8. Super Meat Boy 3D – Sluggerfly/ Team Meat

I didn’t know they made more meatboys. Regardless, this demo was fun only because I was nostalgic for the Meat Boy of old. I really liked the demo for a time. Platforming is fast, frantic, and the levels are short. The translation from 2D to 3D apparently means that Bandage Girl and Meatboy just get abused more by the main badie. This game has some great ideas, but the camera falls behind sometimes and makes some of the sections, even in the demo, wayyyy too difficult. I’ll keep an eye on it from afar.

7. Dodo Duckie – Bornmonkie

A platformer about a duck trying to find their friends, and then they pick up a cool hat, and now the duck can change perspectives. The 3D to 2D is great. The different perspectives provide different platforms and avenues for that sweet coin/golden egg collecting. It is like two games in one from just he demo alone! This simple platformer with its adorable little duck captured my heart.

6. Truckful – MythicOwl/ Pocketpair Publishing

A game about driving a truck and delivering stuff during the apocalypse and from some wild camera angles that my brain cannot handle. One moment left is left and then it’s right. The driving feels good, and the world is bright and colorful. I didn’t get to the part where it got spooky, and that was because the game got stuck and refused to fix itself, even on closing the game. Regardless, the demo was super fun and I cannot wait to learn more about this game.

5. Outbound – Square Glade Games

I am always here for a cozy collect-athon, and I will be here for Outbound. Driving around what looks and feels like an abandoned national park, collecting wood, rock, and metal, upgrading items to unlock other areas, and building a super cool house on top of my Volkswagen van. Nothing I want more than to customize my own van home with a full-fledged home on top of it. I am here for it.

4. Hozy – Come On Studio/ tinyBuild

Another cozy cleaning game. Hozy is all about making a roughed-up space your own, and it looks really good. Clean up an area, paint and decorate to a really nice, soft soundtrack. Just the ability to open up boxes full of stuff and place rugs, lamps, potted plants, and the like anywhere that I wanted was great. I really liked the cleaning of the windows; the rubber hitting the glass sound had me wanting to exclusively clean the windows. My wife and I had a blast playing this demo.

3. Croak – Woodrunner Games

Another 2D platformer that tested my resolve, granted I made loads of mistakes. A game about a frog going on an adventure using their tongue as a sort of grappling hook is a great mechanic, and the emphasis on bouncing off surfaces to propel itself farther is great too. I enjoyed the entire presentation that the demo was going for. Croak has a lot of charm, and its platforming is S-tier.

2. The Mermaid Mask – SFB Games

From the maker of Crow Country comes a point-and-click adventure/mystery game about a dead captain and the partners that have to figure out who dun it. I love the look of the game; it reminds me a lot of the puzzle point-and-clicks from years past. I love the characters, their voices, and the humor. There is one puzzle, and if that is the standard for the puzzles in the game, then I am even more excited. It’s a really great demo

1. Vampire Crawlers – Poncle

If you enjoyed Vampire Curvivors, which I imagine that you did, reader, then you will enjoy the deckbuilder variant, Vampire Crawlers. The first-person crawling aspect really looks great, and the translation of the abilities in the old game into the deckbuilder just makes sense. There is a simple mechanic of playing cards in order to do more damage, which makes turns feel fast and powerful if you play along with the man-in mechanic. Vampire Crawlers was definitely my favorite demo at Nextfest.