Walking sims are weird; some are extremely captivating such as Firewatch and Tacoma, and some are a slog that sometimes are worth it (Gone Home), and many times are not (Suicide of Rachel Foster, Dear Esther). But Ethan Carter was the first one I abandoned. The game tries to take pride in leaving you to your own devices, i.e. providing no direction, and while it is a fine approach, it starts to become frustrating really quick.

I was able to hit certain cutscenes locked behind puzzles, but the puzzles were so aimless that I was wondering what was expected of me. I eventually stumbled upon the mine maze and I felt I was just going around in circles, no idea what to do, no idea how to progress the game, and really not connecting with any semblance of a plot or place.

After 1h30m of aimless wandering, I decided it was enough. I might watch a playthrough on Youtube, but most likely not. What baffles me is that I've seen this game being recommended quite often, and I cannot for the life of me understand why. Maybe I'm the problem, not the game, but I'll wait until someone proves that

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I can't believe I slept on it for so long. Arkham Asylum is a freaking masterpiece that has aged like fine wine.

You're thrown in a world that is fully realized and cohesive. It's big enough that it feels real, not just a series of videogame levels, but it's still small enough that you'll know your in and out from each and every building by the time you beat the game.

The pacing and the plot are explosive - villains get introduced and dangerous situations arise with every heartbeat, and the downtime is usually accomplished by you traveling between locations. Gameplay switches frequently between a melee brawler, an open-world free roam (albeit on a small open-world) filled with secrets and shortcuts to explore and discover, and stealth/predator sections where the power fantasy is complete. By the time you're getting used with your kit, the game throws another tool to your arsenal and asks you to make full use of it before repeating the formula.

Villains are not just memorable as a pacing mechanism - they are also accompanied by great setpieces, be it in the form of combat encounters or puzzle sections. You'll be surprised at how many villains you'll have kicked the ass of by the time the credits roll. And all of this is packaged in a beautiful game that has this light cel-shading which hasn't aged a day in the last 15 years. This is what they mean when they say that art direction never gets old, graphics do. I particularly experienced a lot of issues with the sound mixing being all screwed up, which is a shame since the few moments it worked well, it worked really well, and really showcased how the atmospheric music can really make the moment, and how crazy and undone the voice acting for the villains really is.

Arkham Asylum really encompasses the best of action, platforming, exploration, stealth, and technical aspects in a plot that never loses steam and is graceful enough to be over before it gets old. It's perfect. There's nothing else I can say here. It's a work of art made by people who are deeply passionate about the character and its lore.

If I have to find fault with one thing, is the melee combat. I played the game on Normal and most of my deaths were in combat encounters. A lot of praise has been showered in how 'fluid' the combat is, but the issue is that you don't really have a lot of options while in combat - it's be aggressive (and probably be retaliated by some attack that you couldn't counter in time), or be reactive (countering everything in a chicken game where it's hard to build a meter), which gets even harder when enemies start wielding knives (which can't be countered) or probes (which you can't attack directly). While innovative and probably ahead of its time, it's the aspect I liked the least 15 years after the release, and that I hope was improved in the sequels

Never played the originals, or even the 2.5D sequel from a few years ago, but this one seems like a promising 3D platformer. My only concerns are that the ball form is kinda hard to control and that level 3 doesn't do a great job of letting you know ahead of time that the only way to cross the bridge in time is by using the ball form's extra speed, so I ended up having to redo that segment.

Kinda like Steamworld Dig where you have to dig for materials and head back to the surface to unload them while also avoiding the occasional spike or enemy. Not sure I'd buy a full version of this, but the demo is okay.

Level design is pretty simple, but again, not bad for the price of free. The motorcycle skeleton boss is pretty tedious if you try to avoid damage, but goes down pretty quick if you tank a hit or two to get multiple hits in yourself.

Oh hey look, another Celeste clone. If you leave a room too soon after collecting a Yin-Yang symbol, it doesn't actually count as being collected, and if you're too close to a teardrop when you dash, it won't actually give you another dash like it's supposed to, but everything else worked fine.

Solid fixed-camera 3D platformer, but there was one optional left-to-right segment with forward/backward-moving platforms where the camera was too low for you to judge their depth properly, making it much harder than it otherwise would have been. Levels are fairly linear, not unlike Super Mario 3D World, but it still has collectathon elements with the candies, and the demo doesn't give clues or unlock alternate starting positions for players who beat a level and want to go back for any candies they missed.

Between the lengthy cooldown your powers have and how long it takes for that one character's amulet to activate mechanisms, this game is REALLY slow at first. However, if you stick with it, the levels start being designed more around these elements so their sluggish nature isn't as big a problem.

A metroidvania that tries to have both real time shooting combat and Undertale-style turn-based combat. As you might expect, those genres don't exactly blend well with each other, so you'd need to be able to enjoy both gameplay styles separately to appreciate this game. I also had some control issues, but according to the game's announcements, many of those issues have been fixed.

The emphasis on speed definitely gives this game a different feel than the first game had. Jumping also felt shorter, and I think that's a combination of the camera being zoomed out more and the level design encouraging charged jumps, which ironically kills the intended fast pace since you have to hold the down button for a second to charge it. Levels still have three coins, but the HUD also displays a white square that I was never able to figure out what it was for; my best guess is that you get a stamp there for beating the level fast enough, but I'm not doing that. Also, apparently, one of the demo's two levels is gonna be exclusive to the demo and not in the full game, which is…a choice.

Decent controls and solid level design, but no stage select, so if you skip a collectible, you've missed it permanently. Also, the cyan hexagons that are supposed to let you keep jumping in midair can sometimes be finicky and not work when it looks like they should've.

This game shakes up the Celeste formula by also making you pick up boxes and throw them onto switches to open the path forward. Plus, the boss's chase sequence is broken up by fixed-position rooms where you actually have to go hit a switch or something while avoiding the boss's projectiles, though it's kinda cheap where the path opens up, but the game won't let you go forward, and then suddenly the boss zooms across the screen into that path (even though it just got shown retreating into that path), so you'll get hit and die if you're already there trying to progress.

The first GB Studio platformer I actually had some fun with, though it was still pretty easy, and it wouldn't surprise me if the full game just stalls out and spins its wheels after this.

The first boss was kinda cheap at times, and the demo ended right before the second boss, but the level design was pretty good, utilizing its color-switching mechanic and grapple ability well. I probably would've bought this game in the current winter sale if not for my backlog ballooning from free games over the past couple months.

A promising platformer, though I'm a bit concerned about its approach to puzzle elements since the hub area at the demo's end has a blocked off area that is NOT opened by pushing switches that correspond to the three numbers a few levels prior.

The graphics can make it kinda hard to tell what's where, and the jumping mechanic is a bit too physics-based, but if you can get past that, the demo isn't too bad.

A simple platformer (so simple that you always jump the same height no matter how long you hold the jump button), but it has a fair bit of challenge in it. I did have some trouble when trying to wall jump away from walls, though.

An okay platformer where you can also rotate the room 90 degrees. The only "puzzle" elements are the fact that everything is monochrome, so you'll sometimes have to look around for a bit to figure out where the safe spots will be after rotating the room.

Almost skipped this one because the mouse-over preview didn't show any actual platforming; I had to click it to open its store page and watch the full trailer to see that. This one lets you flip gravity, even in midair after jumping, but you have to collect an item to flip gravity again before landing. No enemies, but it does have moving spikes, which might make it too dynamic to be a pure Celeste clone, but the full game could still easily head down that road anyway. Also, the intro scene is kinda slow.

A decent first-person 3D platformer, though I'm not too keen on the standard running mechanic being replaced by bunny-hopping; it's kinda gimmicky and doesn't exactly improve the experience. Also, I'm pretty sure the game never tells you that you can double-jump, which changes things.

A Metroidvania with level design that can be a bit too simple at times, but it shows promise and the boss is okay. Plus, it has some good humor.

An okay 3D collectathon. Something neat it does that I haven't seen another game do is that you can simply walk away from NPCs mid conversation to cut the cutscene early, but if you talk to them again, it picks up right where you left off. Unfortunately, this means if there are enemies nearby that you didn't notice, you can get attacked mid-conversation and end up missing that line until you manually finish the cutscene and talk to the NPC again. Also, you don't actually get the ability to collect the Stamps until you bypass seven of them and speak to the postmaster.

Level design is kinda flat with the occasional cheap pitfall trap, but is otherwise not too bad. Enemies can be damage sponges, but the only time I remember having to fight one was the world 1 boss, so you can just jump over the rest. I didn't like how the optional level in world 1 was just a harder version of the world 1 boss, though, so I skipped that level. It was also kinda annoying having to backtrack to that one NPC each time you pick up a single mana globule for the first few levels, but the levels themselves are designed so that you never have to do too much backtracking as a result of this mechanic (such as how the NPC in question shows up again in later parts of each level).

A solid 3D platformer where you can only perform your 3d-Sonic-the-Hedgehog-style homing dash attack by pushing the correct button in rhythm. Only things I didn't like was that level 3 could sometimes be a bit confusing as to where you needed to go, and the boss makes you wait 8 seconds between each of its six phases, which is too much waiting. Hopefully, at least that last one will be fixed in an update.

Although many rooms make you kill all enemies to open the door to the next room, the game is still fast-paced and fluid since all enemies die in one hit and you attack by dashing (which can be done in multiple directions, not just horizontally). Disappointingly, it ends in a chase sequence instead of a boss, and the chase itself is kinda long and easy, but the demo is still pretty fun overall.

Tapping the jump button keeps you flying upward, but you have limited stamina and no stamina meter to show exactly how much is left, just your character flashing red when it gets low. Level design is decent, but some levels can go on for too long without a checkpoint. The boss is also a notable drop in difficulty.

A 10 Second Ninja clone. Moment-to-moment gameplay is responsive and fast paced, but end-of-level rankings could be streamlined a bit, and there's no full-level preview before starting a level.

Fast-paced momentum platformer where you can shoot away from the direction you're moving to boost your momentum further (no enemies to shoot at, IIRC). Sometimes, you end up moving too fast to have time to react to what's coming, but levels are short and respawns are quick, so it's not too big a problem. Each world introduces a new gimmick, so the full game could end up being kinda gimmicky.

Yet another decent platformer. Some minor things every now and then didn't quite work, but it's pretty good overall.

I can't help but feel that the full game will be another one of those where you'll have to beat the whole game with a limited set of lives/continues. The demo is fine, though, even having short challenge missions that do save your progress on a level-by-level basis.

An okay Shmup, though the camera-twisting can be a bit disorienting. Bosses are designed around being not-damage-spongy when you don't have any bombs, but this also means they go down pretty quick if you even use just one bomb.

Another continue-limited Touhou clone. There's always a couple of these that show up each Next Fest, but unlike the demo for CORA, I actually made it to the end of this one instead of losing all my lives/continues and getting sent back to the beginning, so this is the demo that gets my recommendation. Still, the knowledge that this same thing could happen in the full game is what prevents me from buying them.

This game is basically a boss rush of Touhou-style bosses, but it makes each boss phase its own level, each death only makes you redo that specific phase/level, and clearing the phase saves your progress so you don't have to beat the game (or even that boss) in one sitting. There's even a stage select so you can retry specific phases without starting the game over, and you even get a different-colored stamp if you beat a phase without using your equipped defensive item. Plus, it has quite a bit of content for a free demo. Heck, the different difficulties are actually meaningfully different with alternate shot patterns instead of just giving the bosses more HP or making them faster! Sure, the whole game is just boss phases instead of having any normal Shmup/Bullet-Hell levels, but ever since I realized how so many Shmups are stuck with that outdated 1980s mentality of limiting lives/continues and forcing a total restart if you lose them all, I'll always praise a Shmup that does the bare minimum of having proper save points.

Still, as much as I like this demo, there are some downsides. First, each world (or "day" as the game calls them) ends with a level that just makes you go through all the world's individual-phase levels in a row, defeating the entire reason why I like the game. Thankfully, though, those levels are optional, at least in the demo (in fact, you don't even have to beat all the individual-phase levels to unlock the next world). Next, the difficulty starts at easy, and although the banner at the bottom says to push L+B to change the difficulty, this doesn't work. I played through almost the entire demo on Easy before I finally figured out how you actually change the difficulty: hold LB and push RT! The game is well-made enough that I still replayed on increasingly higher difficulties and mostly enjoyed my time doing so, but I started noticing some cracks in the facade as I did: when replaying on Normal, I noticed that bosses would often have more health than they needed, so the bullet pattern would loop multiple times and start getting repetitive before they finally went down. On Hard, I noticed that the game freezing on death doesn't actually help you figure out what killed you like I initially thought because not only does the game keep going for a split second after death before freezing (so you can end up overlayed on a completely different bullet and get mislead on how you died), but the specific bullet that kills you DISAPPEARS! I like challenge, but being able to figure out where I went wrong on death is kinda crucial to make the challenge enjoyable. Finally, on Lunatic difficulty, I figured out the real reason the bullet hell genre is so notoriously difficult to get into: the small light on your character that indicates the location of your hitbox…doesn't indicate the size of your hitbox, which is actually way smaller than even that small circle. There isn't even a smaller circle within it to indicate your actual hitbox's size; you just kinda have to figure that out yourself while getting swarmed with bullets whose gaps are less than 1/6th the width of your already-small hitbox indicator. Between this and the issues I noticed in previous difficulties, there were three phases I just gave up on in Lunatic difficulty (1-6, 2-5, and 3-6).

That said, I still highly recommend playing this demo on Easy or Normal, at least.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is pretty good, except for that one part where I had to fight a bunch of sheep while surrounded by TVs; that part was repetitive and boring. I'm also not too keen on the fact that it's a roguelite, but it has a precursor that's a normal twinstick, and that game's demo is also pretty good (though its levels always loop before you can get enough gems to progress).

The small early levels made me think I could only move pipes one space at a time, but once I realized that wasn't the case, I had some fun.

The sequel to Cosmic Express that also improves on it since while it still has a new mechanic in each world along with a generally low difficulty, previous worlds' mechanics continue to be used in later worlds. Also, there were a few pretty tricky puzzles in the demo, so it's an improvement on that front as well.

This is one of those games where you have to navigate a level using a Chess knight's movements. I can definitely see the subgenre getting old if you've played a bunch of them already, but for this one in particular, I found it to have decently tricky puzzles without getting too obtuse too quickly.

This one has some tricky puzzles, but it can also be gimmicky at times, which doesn't bode well for the full game.

An Advance Wars clone where you can buy and customize special units in advance, then take one or two with you into missions (you can't buy more during missions like you can with regular units). If a special unit gets defeated, it's unavailable for a few missions.

Despite visual similarities to the GBA Fire Emblem games, this one does NOT have hit-chances, which automatically makes its gameplay better. It does have dice that can give you or the enemy +1 ATK/DEF, so there is still a bit of randomness, unfortunately. It also has this weird turn-order system where you can pick any one of your units to move, but after moving that one, one of the enemies gets to move, and then you pick one of your unmoved units, and the cycle keeps going until all of one side has moved, at which point the other side gets to move all the rest of its units one after the other; only then does the turn end and both sides get access to all their units again. Also, the grass biome has some tiles that looked walkable but were actually walls, which annoyed me.

A hybrid Hack 'n' Slash/Shmup, not unlike Nier, though I feel this demo is a bit heavier on the hack 'n' slash side of things (projectiles don't really show up outside the tutorial and the one boss fight). There's also a bit of platforming, but the jumping controls felt kinda off.

This one's not technically a twin-stick shooter since you have to go pick up your dice before you can throw it again to attack enemies, but it is a roguelite, which is always frustrating. Still, I had some fun with it, and if you like card games, it also includes a slight variation on Solitaire, completely optional and separate from the main game.

A Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker clone. The boss is annoying since there are moments where it'll abruptly become invulnerable so it can slowly hop to the center and do a scripted attack that takes too long, but the rest of the demo is okay.

Another short game for the holidays time, and one that's kind of fitting in theme, too. A bit late for Halloween sure, but there's more than a few references to Christmas here, so that's fun

Pumpkin Jack is a 3D platformer in the classic (mascot) style, although modernised a touch, and quite a bit shorter. Just six levels, with a boss at the end of each. You'll be pretty much jumping on platforms the whole way, smashing enemies sometimes, and occasionally performing the odd one-off mini-game or puzzle

Narrative is simple and forgettable; visuals and sound are pleasing but straightforward; nearly every aspect of this game is well-done, but also basically washes past you, kind of like a sweet treat - i know i just enjoyed it, yet i feel a bit.. unfulfilled

But if you go into it expecting the short fun, candy-coated ride that it is, you'll have a good time