Demon Turf: Queens Edition Reviews

One of the best 3D platformers of the current age. Highly recommended and looking forward to the sequel!

You want a platformer with imprecise controls that can randomly make you fail alongside the camera that give you the impression of difficulty and fights that base all on knockback and are not really that difficult? Then this is the game for you. And I come from many, more difficult and more enjoyable platformers that are still difficult even when giving the player precision even at high speed, be them paper styled like this one or not. I suppose I will go back searching for games with real challenging battles, were damage really count. And btw if someone wants a 3d platformer that has some slight and minor imprecision problems with some hitboxes from enemy hits but still has some really fun and engaging fights and share the same imprecision problem of the walljumps but with more fluid movements, play Blue Fire, it's so fun and still fluid that the problems won't matter and there's SO MUCH to explore in every corner of the areas of that game. HOWEVER I must say that Demon Tides seems much more promising from the trailer so I look forward to it Edit: I gave this game another try, just to find worse things unfortunately. The knockback that is what the "combat" of this game is about is more random the more you go forward, and the camera worsen the more mechanics are added to the game... while new gadgets should make everything more interesting while covering eventual game flaws with its fluidity, at least that's what happens in the other games. And most of all the mods bought with cakes... it's a miracle if they work as intended, it's like those animes where they sell someone a wonderful-looking gadget with even a video showcasing it and maybe it does in a very downgraded and almost useless way, literally a scam for the majority of them. At least Neon Splash tells you that the mods are just a little change in the gameplay of some moves, more than a real advantage, and they do how their description says, even without the need of a showcase. P.s.: Demon Turf - Neon Splash seems to be already a great step forward towards more platforming precision though, it's still not that precise, but much better, so this gives me even more hope for Demon Tides, at least for the platforming side

If you can get it on sale buy it and play through the first two worlds and you'll have a blast. Once you clear the first half of world three the levels start to troll you. You see the crazy thing about this game is they extend your move set after each boss fight. in 90% of games that would be great but in this one they make the use of that ability compulsory from then on, and they're all more likely to get you killed. You have the hookshot ability that will make you overshoot or undershoot where you need to go. That's if you manage to fire it off in time and don't fall to your death before then. Not forgetting some awful drag an object to the goal challenges (in a time limit). The next ability turns you into a fast moving wheel which can easily slide off the road and kill you (all roads will be suspended over death pits). Get the glide ability and you'll have to glide from point to point but if you time it wrong you'll fall to your death. Then you can relive Superman 64 (anyone remeber that one) and fly through rings before the times run out. This game reminds me of Super Mario Sunshine in all the wrong ways. Its so sad because they did so much right. I like the base moveset, the earlier levels are designed really well. They have an arrow to guide you to the next collectable and you can place your own checkpoints (although you should have some default ones throught the level). There were also the odd challenge sections where you lost some of your abilities and had to come up with different ways of doing what were simple things.

A great 3D platformer, with tight controls and unique artstyle. Mostly plays great on Steam Deck, only the last world had performance dips.

If you're going to buy this game for anything, buy it for the two free DLCs (Neon Splash and Tower). The base game is a perfectly serviceable platformer and is fun for what it is, but it has some rough edges that make it a bit frustrating at time (mainly due to the awkward combat system and underutilized abilities). The two DLCs take a reworked approach to the controls that honestly fixes all of the biggest faults with the original game. The movement is fluid and gives you a ton of control over how you want to get through a level. The game and its DLCs aren't particularly strict on precision, but have a ton of movement options that allow you to really shmoove through their levels. The Tower DLC in particular was something that I wasn't actually expecting to enjoy as much as I did. The DLC is different from the main game and Neon Splash in that it's a sorta roguelike challenge in that your goal is to ascend a 50-floor tower with the risk of falling down several floors or worse, dying and having to start all over. As you climb, you gain various movement abilities (as well as a few safeguards to protect you from dying), and you keep those even if you die. So if you do have to start back from floor 1, those abilities will make it far easy to speedrun your way back up. Even as someone who normally dislikes the "frustration platformer" genre, the movement in this game was more than enough to keep it enjoyable all the way through.

Demon Turf is a 3-D platformer and feels like a first for the developers. It is pretty fun but also not necessarily that memorable. I chalk up this lack of memorability to 3 factors. Bad first world syndrome: When coming with a theme for the first world in a platformer, desert is probably the worst choice you can make. Once you get past the first world you see some more interesting locales. I know some people think world 2 is bad but I liked the diversity that is in the beach level such as going up a volcano or exploring a sewage treatment plant. I would argue world 4: Plateau Peak is much worse as it's just so needlessly large to show off the new bird power-up you got. In other words, the world design is like a bell curve: bad first and and final worlds, really good 2nd and 3rd worlds. Additionally, needing to revisit worlds to unlock the final boss is tedious and unnecessary. I understand why showing us the aftermath of our actions could be good from a story-telling perspective, but it's not like you get to see or hear Beebs react to what she has done with the turfs. Confusing hub world: I barely explored it except for finding things like the badge shop or the dye shop. It was just so confusing with very few noteworthy landmarks or signs. Bad power-ups: The first and fourth power ups are awful. The first is a grappling hook that: only works on certain grapple points, and is the only way of beating the first boss which turns said boss into an autoscroller (not a good idea). The fourth power up isn't so bad but it's outshine by the wheel. The wheel power that you get at the end of world 2 is peak. It feels like you're able to just turn into a car whenever you want and go fast, like it's a 3-D sonic game. Overall I wish I had more positives to say. The game I think is good but it has more glaring issues that you really need to squeeze past before you can enjoy it.

I played through Neon Splash and thought it was quite fun, haven't put time into the original standalone version of the game yet, as I know it is less refined than Neon Splash. With Neon Splash being as good as it is, I am very excited to see them take the lessons they have clearly learned to Demon Tides. Definitely worth playing, not an amazing game yet, but a good game that can be great if they put it all together with Demon Tides.