Next Fest 26|3 Day 1
Micro-reviews for Day 1 of October Next Fest 2026, exploring polymorphite, Inkturn, Rhythm Hotel, Anonymized, Rhythm Roll, Perplexicube, and Magnavale: Eternal Soul
As always, the start of Next Fest has me first go over demos I knew about in advance, so there is a strong bias to rhythm/puzzle/dragons. There are still good things within, but there will be a wider spread of genres in days to come
Highlights: Magnavale: Eternal Soul, polymorphite, Anonymized
polymorphite
A rhythm dodging game where one hand controls the beats with a keyboard, and the other controls your character with a mouse. Result can be a bit hectic at first, but it provides a lot of flexibility to the charters to have fun with the songs. Also, the difficulty has a good spread for whatever your skill level might be, and there are a lot of extra systems to min-max if that suits your fancy
Playtime: 1h+
Inkturn
Inkturn explores a simple concept of a black squid moving only on white tiles, leaving black tiles behind itself, and a white squid that does the opposite. There is good puzzle potential here as you have to not only think about how to get to your current goal, but also how the path you take will affect your future possible paths. Sadly, the demo is very short, so hard to say how well this is going to be explored
Playtime: ~10min
Rhythm Hotel
A game like Rhythm Heaven, where a quirky cast of mostly historical figures gets up to shenanigans you have to press to the beat of. Very chill with some neat details, but also I'm really not a fan of the visual style for some reason. Game itself is solid though, just missing a megamix
Playtime: 20min+
Anonymized
A tricky puzzle game where your movement input affects your color, which in turn affects where you can move to or even what the level layout is. The demo is manageable, but can get pretty brain-melty already so I'm slightly scared for what the full game will bring, in a good way
Playtime: 30-60min
Rhythm Roll
An arcade runner (roller?) where the obstacles are roughly in sync with the music. I say roughly because while they are on beat, they feel a bit random rather than mirroring the flow of the songs. But you can generate your own levels from any song, and it works decently enough
Playtime: 15-20min+
Perplexicube
A puzzle game about having multiple cubes starting from the same position, where you control them one at a time and then have to use recordings of your past moves to get to new places. Plenty of games like this, but this one does provide a good spin of the 'genre' with some unique interactions and unexpected solutions
Playtime: 20-30min
Magnavale: Eternal Soul
Ever wanted Castlevania to be about dragons? Well wait no more as this is essentially exactly that. Wide range of demons to absorb abilities from to unlock new regions of the castle with new enemies, bosses, and environments. Very large and high quality, even if I have some personal qualms with some design choices. All things considered it does pull off the "retro feel without retro jank" exceedingly well
