Next Fest 25|3 Day 0

Another Next Fest, another wall of micro-reviews from yours truly! As always starting with a handful of mostly worthwhile demos, and will be exploring lots more over the next few days. If you ever want some extra thoughts on a game do ask, I always love to discuss stuff!

Highlights: Sisyphus Is a Bug, DEG

Sisyphus is a Bug

Sisyphus Is a Bug on Steam

As punishment for dirtying Olympus’s marble halls, Sisyphus, the dung beetle, must push his ball of dung up and down Mount Olympus every day, for the rest of his life. That is, unless he can complete the seemingly impossible task of reaching Olympus before the sun sets

STEAM

An extremely fun mix of rule discovery and platforming. You're a dung beetle tasked with pushing your ball all the way to Olympus, but to do that you'll need to figure out this game's movement tech works. It's relatively short and I'm not sure how much more the devs can stretch the concept for the full game, but it is most certainly enjoyable

Finch & Archie

Finch & Archie on Steam

An episodic co-op noir murder mystery. Play as one half of a crime-fighting duo: the detective Jack Finch and his police dog, Archie. Use your deduction skills and sense of smell to find evidence, interrogate suspects, and catch the culprit in a gritty story set in the Great Depression.

STEAM

A co-op detective game, where one player plays as the detective, and the other as his trusty dog partner. You solve your side of each mystery in parallel, sending clues to one another to help things progress. The catch is that you can only use single-syllable words, which can lead to some hilarious (mis)communication. The game isn't particularly complex and is slightly janky, but if you lean into the mechanics it really makes you feel like a detective

Cold Calling

Cold Calling on Steam

Operate a telephone switchboard, meet caricatured historical figures, and avert a nuclear war in this alternate history Cold War comedy. Use tactile point-and-click controls to drag wires and install wacky gadgets as you juggle waves of calls.

STEAM

A game about quickly controlling phone signals on a switchboard so that they go to the right destination, set in a satirical cold war. It felt a bit slow, and the optional objectives felt like they clashed with the core gameplay sometimes, but it did constantly introduce new mechanics to keep things fresh, with plenty more room to grow. It's overall well made, polished, and has a strong sense of absurdity it leans into

DEG

DEG on Steam

A pure puzzle Metroidvania game where you use logical reasoning to complete various puzzles.

STEAM

This game describes itself as a logic metroidvania, and it's not incorrect. It starts with a simple grid puzzle and quickly expands into a whole tree of branching paths you can take, and occasionally you will reach a puzzle you don't know how to solve, requiring you to explore elsewhere before returning to get it done. It's straightforward but not trivial, a bit lengthy for a demo, but a really good time if you enjoy grid puzzles

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis on Steam

“Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis” is a rhythm adventure game about a psychotic hikikomori girl - also an avid anonymous poster - who corrupts the world with her severe brain rot from listening to too many denpa songs. Yunyun all over this ♡♡♡♡ world with your degen otaku-posting.

STEAM

While at its core this is a 4-lane rhythm game, it is doused in a thick gravy of denpa music, anime visuals, and a protagonist who is just a wee bit insane. While the whole experience felt extremely alien to what I'm used to, it was also very cohesive and enjoyable - after multiple attempts that it took to balance the audio sliders properly

RESEED

RESEED on Steam

What if you were playing a platformer, but couldn’t see the traps? In RESEED, your mission is to rescue the last living seeds from a corrupted planet, relying only on memory and skill to survive each invisible challenge.

STEAM

A platformer centered around memorizing the obstacles. At the start you see all of them for a few seconds, and then you'll sent out to an empty level to record your moves, that will be replayed with all the obstacles back in the map. While it does have a little bit of trial and error, it's a lot more about memory and confidence in your own moves than smashing your head against the wall until you beat a level

Constance

Constance on Steam

Constance is a 2D hand-drawn action adventure featuring a paintbrush-wielding artist, striving to escape from a colorful but decaying inner-world, created by her declining mental health.

STEAM

A metroidvania with an artistic theme and some cool ideas. Don't want to have to run back to where you died to get back your currency? Well then you can choose to persevere, at the cost of making all enemies (and bosses) stronger. The game ties the gameplay and world together quite well, even though the demo does not provide much in terms of lore explanations. Seems worth keeping an eye on though!

Together: Moon Escape

Together: Moon Escape on Steam

Trapped on the Moon, two astronauts must work together to escape! Solve clever co-op puzzles, share laughs, and survive a hilarious lunar adventure with your partner.

STEAM

One of the co-op games of all time. It's pretty generic across the board, the "puzzles" consist mostly of obfuscating what does what and how, so you stumble through trial and error until you figure out all the puzzle elements, and then can solve the puzzle basically immediately. It's performance was a bit unstable too, so while not bad (some of the writing was enjoyable) it's only as good as the friend you bring along for the ride

Tempo Punk

Tempo Punk on Steam

A high-octane rhythm FPS where the music is your weapon. Fight through a cyberpunk metropolis, facing biomechanical bosses to a pulsing electronic score or your own imported tracks.

STEAM

Another rhythm-movement-shooter enters the fray! It reminds me a lot of the original GunJam demo but with BPM gunplay, which is a quite high compliment. However, it also is a bit opaque and simplistic with its various mechanics, and especially the gun upgrades. It is on a good track, but needs a bit more meat before release