Hey, Steam Next fest is here, is anyone playing game demos?
Here’s a cool looking one that I kind of enjoyed:
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i love nextfests in theory, but since its so hard to know which demos will stick around and which are exclusive i end up downloading every demo that looks vaguely interesting and playing so many i burn out and can’t get through them all, i still have some demos from the last couple next fests on my computer (at least demos that didn’t have the license revoked after the nextfests ended) ;w;
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Yeah I feel you, but I feel like we have to try anyway. For me at least, they are super inspiring and fun to get through, even if they might not always great (or even if they suck… no offense to indie devs, it is a triumph to release anything.)
Here’s another one I’ve heard great things about:
I’ve played Denshattack! and Replaced so far. I learned of Denshattack! through a friend and Replaced was a Nextfest Discovery Queue pick. I plan to play a few more over the weekend, Scott Pilgrim EX and Mama’s Sleeping Angels are already on my list.
I’m already in love with Denshattack!, it’s exactly the type of game I enjoy. It’s going to fill that hole Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and Jet Set Radio has left in my life haha. The visual style, the gameplay, the MUSIC, it’s all incredible. Unfortunately it doesn’t have a specific date but they claim a 2026 release. It already feels very close to release. Regardless, I feel like everyone should at least check this one out.
I didn’t have as strong a reaction to Replaced, but it definitely piqued my interest. I just don’t think I could get a full read on it. It’s a mix between an adventure game, platformer, and beat ‘em up—they self describe as a “2.5D cinematic action platformer wrapped in an intense cyberpunk thriller narrative”. This also strikes into my favorite niches neatly. I think it was mainly the lack of tutorialization that missed me, I feel like I didn’t get to fully explore the mechanics they presented. The narrative also started a little rough, but quickly picked up. I definitely want to keep watch on this one. It does have an April 14, 2026 release date.
Thank you for reminding me about Denshattack! I really need to play it.
Re: Scott Pilgrim, I feel like Toronto is really making a comeback in media lately, especially if you saw Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.
The other two games look awesome! I think I’ll play them today.
Titanium Court Demo on Steam despite the soyjak banner photo, this game is awesome and excellent- someone said it was done by the programmer of Consume Me?
i will endeavor to try at least the ones recommend here, looks like denshattack and replaced were both already in my wishlist, looks like a few more from there are featured in this next fest, so i will try those too
I saw so many previews for Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie but I unfortunately missed it in theaters :/. I really want to see it whenever it becomes available for home consumption
ok, i have gotten through 6 demos, and now have 26 left that caught my eye today…
i played enough of cicadamata to know i neeeeed more, titanium court was pretty fun, replaced visually very pretty but the gameplay itself everything felt just a bit too sluggish and slow to me, and denshattack very good probably too hard for me
i want to recommend airframe ultra a combat hoverbike, racing thing, good vibes, and last salvage squad, giant cute robot girls blasting aliens and dodging around buildings, oh and also tukoni forest keepers, which seems to be a cute cozy game about making tea and tucking animals in all cozy
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okay, went through aloooot of demos today, still got 10 more to go through tomorrow, some of the ones i really liked today include, alabaster dawn, game by the same studio as crosscode, fun action fantasty rpg
bobo bay, just chao garden as its own game, very good
boost vector ex, a really fun mechanically racing game with a fantastic style and vibe
hark the ghoul, first person bug bloodborne, had lots of fun with it, i stopped playing it before finishing the demo because i otherwise i probably would have spent majority of the day on it
nox mortalis, a mildly survival crafty dungeon crawler with good graphics
wanderburg, survivors style game but rolling around in moving castles that get bigger as you progress
starship troopers ultimate bug war, fun fps, has fmv cutscenes which are fantastic
bombun, can’t quite actually recommend this one, i adored it visually and its vibes, and i get what its trying to go for, but its controls ended up just frustrating me too much, maybe others will be better at it than me
out of everything in there hark the ghoul is the one i recommend giving a try the most
ok, last batch of demos this time around
starting off with the one im most interested in today, the wide open sky is running out of catfish, a beautiful game that made me cry a little about turning clouds into fish and then taking pictures of those fish
rig riot, armored core meets roguelikes, very fun
paperhead, a fun horror boomer shooter with very satisfying gun sounds
ardenfall, and rpg im going to play some more of tomorrow, i only played enough to know i want it, so many demos
cyclopean II the dreamlands, a retro rpg dungeon crawler, was vibing with it, digging in some sand caused damage to mind from perceiving eldritch horrors, did it again, very good
out of everything ive played in this next fest, the standouts im looking forward to most are hark the ghoul, the wide open sky is full of catfish, rig riot, cicadamata, bobo bay, and the starship trooper one, in order of most excited for only for the first 2
Wow, so many awesome games listed! I won’t have time to play them all but thank you so much, I’ll at least look all of these over.
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i just realized i completely forgot to talk about one, last one, jenny the witch, witch with rocket broom that sees use as a hammer, third person shooter, platformer, action, thing, i could not play very much because for me for some reason controller bindings were all blank and using keyboard and mouse wasn’t working for me, but it seems like ill enjoy it a lot if the controller bindings get fixed for me