A Mega Man X clone with bullet hell elements. The first level can be a bit bland sometimes, at least on normal mode, but even then, there are moments where its potential is realized and it maybe even goes a bit overboard for normal mode.

Another Mega Man X clone that can be a bit bland sometimes--and it only includes one level, so there isn't much to give you an idea if the full game will be worth it--but again, the potential is there and it has some neat ideas, like how you can grab and throw enemies' bombs.

This is basically an easier clone of Donkey Kong Country Returns (maybe even a bit too easy). It also pointlessly splits abilities between different characters to give them an excuse to exist. Seriously, there's no reason dashing and double-jumping couldn't be rolled into a single character. Also, ground-pounding is mapped to RT, which is kinda awkward; I get why it can't just be a second jump-button push, but why couldn't they map it to down on the D-pad like what Yoshi's Island does? It's not like the demo ever goes full 3D like Super Mario 64; it remains a sidescroller throughout.

This game borrows SO heavily from Mega Man X that it even has a supposed-to-lose boss at the end of the first level where you get rescued by another character! Honestly, supposed-to-lose battles are a bit of a pet peeve of mine, and I have mixed thoughts on the rest of the demo, too: the top-left stage is fine but its boss has some attacks that are hard to react to, while the top-right boss is fine but its stage has enemy attacks and hazards that are hard to react to. I will give it props for having an actual justification for two playable characters, unlike Marsupilami 2: the first one controls more like traditional Mega Man (can shoot rapidly by tapping and can charge by holding), while the second can fire in seven cardinal directions (not straight down) but is forced to have a lower rate of fire than what the first character can achieve.

The first level is a bit empty and the jet controls take a bit of getting-used-to, but it picks up the pace afterward with some decent level design. I was a bit annoyed that the demo also has lockdown enemy waves, though.

Hybrid platformer/mouse maze, and easily one of the most content-rich demos I played this Next Fest, with 80 levels! And it gets decently challenging before level 20! Unfortunately, levels are grouped by stage gimmicks rather than difficulty, so the difficulty curve is all over the place, but at the same time, the demo has a stage select that lets you play any stage at any time. I even accidentally skipped the first level for a bit because I thought it was the tutorial you play right beforehand. The only major problem is, despite some of the tight timing you're required to do in certain levels, the sword's transition to a platform when you hold left-click has an awful delay, which resulted in numerous cases where I'd either fall through or get bisected by it and be unable to jump, thus getting killed by what I was trying to avoid and having to start the level over.

A very well made Celeste clone that even has slightly unique mechanics, letting you dash a second time if you use your first dash between your first jump and your double jump. It also mixes in regular touch-to-earn collectibles along with the Celeste-style "you have to bring it to a certain point to earn it" collectibles, and not only are they color-coded so you know which are which, but there are also marked zones where you won't die, but the Celeste-style collectible's position will reset if you touch them. Only issue I had was that it was kinda too hard to hit the blue spheres in the second bonus level sometimes. Still, I highly recommend this demo.

A simple platformer where you control two characters at once and have to get them together. A surprising amount of levels are disappointingly symmetrical, and all levels only barely give you enough time to beat them, but overall, it's okay for a free demo.

Out of all my demo recommendations, this is the one I'm the most conflicted about. Sure, the levels are well-designed and challenging to the point where I almost wishlisted the game (something I only do for the best few of my recommendations), but the bosses go on for far too long given how difficult they are and the fact that you die in one hit. If their phases were broken up by a checkpoint or two, they wouldn't be too bad as well, but as is, you have to slog through their entire first (and sometimes second) phase every time you make a single mistake on their final phase. Plus, I'm pretty sure the white box mini-boss in the tower eventually moves too fast to react to, meaning you have to guess which attack it'll do and get lucky enough times to kill it. The dev promised that there would be an update to nerf the bosses, but said update is yet to materialize, so if you try it out and give up on one of the bosses, I don't blame you. I myself almost gave up on Morose (the demo's last boss) because its final phase shoots a flame pillar downward and then slides over to the pit on the side for longer than your double-jump lets you hover; turns out, this hazard is the only one in the entire demo that goes a bit transparent to indicate temporary harmlessness, and it's introduced very abruptly at the tail end of a long and difficult boss fight. In all honesty, the only reason I didn't give up at this part is because I used my newfound modding knowledge to change the boss's starting HP and phase--effectively giving me the checkpoint it should've had in the first place--which allowed me the breathing room needed to figure out what was going wrong with that flame pillar attack.

Monochrome graphics can work, but in this game, it makes the basic spike sprites not stand out well against the basic platform sprites and basic background sprites. It's not so bad that you can't spot them if you know what to watch out for, but you have to be actively watching out for them. Also, some levels limit your vision too much and you have to rely on the shine of the crystal items to know where you can jump safely, but other than that, it's an okay little platformer.

Its ice physics are hard to get used to, and there was one spot where the interactable rope you need to swing on blended in with the background ropes beside it, but despite not having any enemies or moving hazards at all, this demo still has some pretty fun platforming. It only has, like, one music track, though, but it avoids repetition by…having parts that don't play any music at all.

A rare shmup that has checkpoints and infinite continues so you don't have to choose between no consequences or starting the whole game over! No bombs though; just a shield that lasts maybe not quite long enough, and some checkpoints can be a bit too far apart if you play on harder difficulties (normal mode was fine with checkpoints).

Top-down run & gun where the right stick aims your cat allies' shots separately from where you're shooting, though it's kinda hard to take advantage of it and they can only shoot in the four cardinal directions, and the demo doesn't really take full advantage of that mechanic anyway. The dialogue is only in Japanese, but you don't need to know Japanese to figure out how to play: light the lanterns to unlock the exit, then find said exit. You have something that's kinda like a map screen, but it only shows the location of lanterns rather than actually mapping out the level to show how to get there, but that's not a huge issue. Bosses also die a bit too quickly, but that's better than them being damage sponges.

I have strong reservations about the developers naming their studio after my absolute most hated game design decision, but despite the demo having some cheap hits every now and then, enemies are always spamming health pickups when they die, so you'll never really get much of a chance to put the game's checkpoint placement to the test. Also, some of the weapons you get from beating bosses aren't very useful. The variety of enemies and shot patterns help make up for its shortcomings, though.

This bullet hell is HEAVILY reminiscent of games like Raiden Trad, and the demo only has a grand total of one level, but it's a pretty decent level.

Once again, the demo only has a single level, so I can't say whether or not the full game has a decent continue system (though given the fact it's an NES ROM, things aren't looking too favorable in the continue department), but once again, the single level in question is well made with decent enemy variety and fun shooting mechanics.

This is an okay (if cheap-feeling) Starfox 64 clone. The only issues I had were in the city level: the rockets and floating hand robots are damage sponges, and the giantess boss's weak points are surprisingly hard to hit despite how big they appear.

Top down zeldaclone but you aim your sword with the right stick and your sword attacks automatically with a gratuitous quarter-second delay. It also has hack-'n'-slash-style lockdown enemy waves IN THE OVERWORLD, and the demo is time-limited, so if there's a jump you can't make on your first try, just leave it behind and go somewhere else.

A simplistic hack 'n' slash with your standard lockdown enemy waves along with some simple platforming to help break up the monotony. The game saves your progress at checkpoints and lets you exit/retry levels from said checkpoints, though you do get a ranking penalty for doing so. Despite this penalty, the demo ends halfway through the second level and FORCES you to exit prematurely, which is…annoying. I also thought it was awkward that RB is for both melee AND ranged attacks, with the game making you push LB to switch between them, rather than doing the much less convoluted and more intuitive method of moving melee attacks to the X button, which is otherwise only used for talking to NPCs!

An okay boss rush game with a decent variety of boss attacks, but the blatantly-machine-translated script is hard to understand sometimes.

A simple rhythm game where you move across paths to the beat, sometimes having to double-back if you need to land on the same panel more than once. I thought it would be more puzzle-focused than it is, but the only two times I was stumped were because the game doesn't make things clear:

1) The wording of the yellow panel tutorial is awkward, so I ended up having to rewatch the trailer to figure out that you need to wait on them for a beat before you can progress without immediately failing.

2) Challenge level 2 has a horizontal path that goes in front of the goal, and I though this meant it moved past the goal to the panel on the other side (it wouldn't be the first time some paths are longer than others or cross through other paths), but no: it actually dead-ends at the goal despite not visually doing so, meaning if you try to cross it before clearing all the panels, you just lose outright without any feedback on what you did wrong, just like when you move off of the yellow panels too early.

Also, the ear-piercing segment that you have to do when you run out of continues is quite finicky and unresponsive. Also also, the game has limited continues unless you play on an easier difficulty.

I know I said no more puzzle games last time, but part of me always wants to give them another chance, and thankfully, this one manages to have a couple tricky puzzles while also only ever requiring knowledge that the game has taught you beforehand; no moon logic or other unintuitive stuff. That's on top of the fact it has relatively unique mechanics, too (or at least I can't think of another game that does this).

Game was okayish good. Might be childhood nostalgia but JA2 felt better. Game also included some odd elements like Nazis and zombies which felt out of place. Took quite a long time to beat. Some of the sections seemed to have too many filler fights. Perhaps should had skipped them with auto battle option but oh well.