And we are wrapping up this Showcases rich week with the final Demo Dive - well, final for this cycle! There are still countless demos for me to play through, too many to count, too many to play despite my best efforts. But alas, so are the full games awaiting my time and focus. Starting next week you can expect the reviews to keep coming once again, but for now, let's see what awesome games are awaiting us in the near future!
WALTZ AND JAM
We need more games like this. The last time I played a whimsical adventure in the style of classic Zelda games was with Death's Door. Decent game, to be sure, but not doing anything extraordinary. Where are the action platformers of yore? Waltz and Jam start strong and keep the positive feelings going from start to finish of the Demo. It has a fun, dark yet whimsical world. Beautiful and lively animations for every character, a delight to watch and witness. The music is spot on, the sounds complement everything to a T. At first, I was a little miffed by our main character - ghost Waltz - movement speed and the cardinal sin of any 3D platformer. The lack of direct shadow under our feet makes some jumping feel a little... harder to land than it should be.
Those gripes however got quickly overshadowed by the high quality of everything else on display. The first boss was fun and creative. Combat is easy, fluid and relies on well-designed enemies to be engaging. The puzzles aren't hard but still ask you to use your tools well. Level design is impeccable in what I was able to see, with excellent shortcuts and even rewarding a bit of exploration with occasional chest here and there. The setup for the adventure is very well laid out for the player and gives a good sense of what would be the scope of it.
In short - the demo was superb. I was not expecting how polished and engaging the game would be. It has attention to detail that most Triple-A games would be well advised to follow! The UI displays via in-game elements, gorgeous animations for all actions, and extremely intuitive use of provided tools and items... It's stellar and I am extremely hyped for the full release.
Ash & Adam's GOBSMACKED
Holy damn this is a riot! What a game, what a rush! It is one of those titles that makes me question over a cup of soothing tea why nobody tried something like that before. So. You're a goblin. A goblin's goblin, to say - manic, frantic, chaos-loving lanky little troublemaker. You giggle, cackle, and find great joy in the destruction and the use of sharp and pointy implements. Big booms are always hilarious to you! But you're not just any Goblin, oh no. You're a Gladiator! A skilled combatant in the junk arena who skillfully obliterates robots made of trash for the enjoyment of goblinkind.
The entire premise is packed into an exhilarating roguelike arena combat, where each level is a tight scene of carnage. Completing a level takes maybe a minute, if you're slow. That doesn't mean the game is easy - oh it starts like that, but most rogues give you the first couple stages to gear up and get used to the flow... But here each new arena escalates. In size. Traps. Enemies. And as fast and vicious as you can be, you're still just a Widdle Gobwin. Fragile, to put it lightly. Every hit is brutal and you can withstand only a couple of scratches before you go down. How to combat this? Via speed. Explosions. And low cunning! You can climb any surface, you can pick and toss trash-bots as weapons. You must use your resources well, utilize that Max Payne slow-mo when shooting to land perfect shots...
And most important of all - keep the crowds happy. By being fast, efficient, and spectacular in your onslaught, the crowd will shower you with gold, ammo, and bombs to make the run easier. You fuel their entertainment, they fuel your capacity for destruction. It's a game of breakneck speed and finesse and I love it to bits.
DOWNTOWN DEALERS
Now here's an interesting idea. City builder with roguelike deck-building mixed in. I think I saw something like that already, or rather, to be fair... NOT exactly like that, but it seems attempts to marry roguelike elements to more and more peculiar genres that on paper shouldn't mesh well are numerous! For what it is worth, DOWNTOWN DEALERS does it well. Very well, even. The secret sauce for me lies in its narrow focus. You are given a tiny plot of land, a few cards, merely a couple of buildings to work with, and a tangible, direct goal. As you manage your cards and resources you are being harrassed by your rival - a current corrupted official who tries to impede your plans of progress! It's a simple addition, but dynamic enough to make solving the challenge more than a static puzzle.
The game evolves well with the deckbuilding aspect, unlocking powerful cards... I mean, buildings, that can shore up the weaknesses of your character skills or current deck. This gives you some degree of control over what you're playing with, making sure that the resources you need to gather are at your disposal... With some foresight!
It has promise, to be sure. There are some minor technical issues, but completely forgivable in a demo, and it promises a solid amount of content with different characters, skills, and starting points. Even in the demo, different plots of land and rivals offer a good mixup of challenges to work with! I'll be looking forward to this one - it's great to have this sort of 'pocket city builder' in your library.
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