Metal Slug Tactics Demo https://store.steampowered.com/app/1590760/Metal_Slug_Tactics/

>>978786 lol

>>978809 Are they Trolling or serious?

>>978814 Hard to tell with the steam forums.

>>978777 Is it going on already?

>>978832 Yeah. Going through and picking out some games to try the demos of later, myself. NextFest is how I found out about Witch Spring and that was a damn good game, so ever since then I go through and pick out a few demos to try, will post little mini-reivews here as I do them.

>>978843 >will post little mini-reivews here as I do them Probably going to do the same later, already grabbed a random few alongside Metal Slug. Also for anyone who cares about trying demos, make sure to check if it is a timed demo so you can actually play the games you download. I've missed out on a bunch of games because I didn't play them soon enough last time.

>>978809 >>978814 >>978816 It's obvious bait

I need more weird puzzles games like Void Stranger hope there is something there

>>978777 Found this interesting piece of work with that looks like the love child Rumiko Takahashi's and Akira Toriyama's works. https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=b3vVNKBTKRw https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575810/Wander_Stars/

There are too many games this year for me to bother trying to sift though them to find the diamonds.

<SCARMONDE It's a FF1 styled RPG where you make a custom party and then dive into the game's dungeon and kill shit while trying to reach the bottom in search of some great treasure. Music is good, gameplay is what you'd expect, story is enough to be there. Really does feel like a random SNES game. I'd say to keep an eye on this one if this is you're kind of thing. As a note for character creation, don't do what I do. Sage and Cleric are both healers, and the red sprites are mage classes with the green sprites being physical classes. Game doesn't seem too ball-busting hard but at least try to make a balanced party instead of doing whatever the fuck I did.

>>978908 >Really does feel like a random SNES game I'm always impressed when retro throwbacks authentically feel like they're from the era they're imitating. Webm related. If you didn't notice the copyright notice at the start you'd probably think this was an actual Spectrum game circa 1985.

Tried Artisan TD. Typical tower defense game. You could build walls to maze and place towers. Ground tiles had special effects like damaging or healing enemies, buffing towers, or slowing enemies. Another bit was the inclusion of flying enemies that ignored walls alongside special swarm enemies that ignored walls and disabled them as they passed over towers. Certain enemies had things like armor or dodge that required specific towers to take on but nothing too fancy. The final stage had elite towers but they were just a vastly superior version of the base tower and limited to only one. That same level included defending farms for bonus cash at the end of each wave that was mildly neat. I was kind of annoyed that there was no camera movement though, but other than that I didn't have any issues with it.

<ILLUSION CARNIVAL Horror game with a papercraft aesthetic to things that takes place in some kind of pocket dimension your character and others have been dragged to where a corruption is taking things over. From the way things are going the final game looks like it'll have multiple endings depending on who you side with as the story progresses and who you choose to trust. Game does this whole "thinly veiled illusion" thing throughout alongside typical glitch corruption kind of things. It has a cute aesthetic and a cute cast, but the creator does concern me with some of the posting in the steam discussions talking about pronoun shit. Guess I'll just have to wait for the full release to see if any of that bleeds into the writing, as I never would've figured that out without looking there and it doesn't show in the writing at all, unless you count the fast-talking nonsense + Katy the Penguin of Doom type humor one character does which typically has origins on tumblr or other places... who is also a trap... actually no I should've been able to tell from that alone but, eh, he's cute so I let it slide and it reminded me of older internet days. I'd say give it a try if you like that kind of cutesy horror with some small action elements and are willing to ignore the possible political alignment of one of the devs. >INB4 that one sperg comes in here and starts ranting about not buying any games at all or other absolutisms.

>>979010 Sage for doublepost, but image 2 is the trap. I even gave the file a funny name but I forgot to untick strip filenames. So, have a different screenshot with the filename instead.

>>979000 I'd try some tower defense if it had some better artistic choices most are too generic generic or just straight up bad

>>979020 Yeah it is pretty basic. Not terrible or bad, but nothing too special or memorable.

FINALLY A GAME MADE FOR ME!!!! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2571410/500_CALIBER_CONTRACTZ?snr=1_614_615_nextfest_100715

>>979057 >Using old school video editors Now thats what i like to see

>>979062 custom website as well https://www.brycebucher.net/

Tactical Breach Wizards. It looked like a tactics style game with SWAT Wizards which is something I thought was a cool idea. It is instead more of a puzzle game with some tactics elements in it. Story and dialogue was a bit silly as you would expect from a game about Wizard Special Forces, but overall this was engaging and fun. Graphics were pretty basic, but animations and such were pretty good. I didn't have any technical issues either. Missions are quick, but had little bonus objectives to shoot for so it gave you a reason to replay later when your soldiers are leveled up. I liked this one so I hope it turns out well.

>>978809 I actually kind of agree with him, but not for the same reasons. Look at this screenshot of the old Metal Slug character select screen. Each one wasn't a generic character but had some personality and exaggeration to their characters. Marco remained basically the same but Fio was the most egregiously changed. She turned from kind of a funny looking stoner type of tomboy to some generic Korean MMO style bitch. When you refuse to let your characters have some exaggerated features, you get soulless Chinese slop like basically any design in League of Legends, Genshin Impact, or Valorant.

>>979082 I think i would be fine if the colouring and overall vibe was similar i just had deja vu of talking about this here before

>>979082 I'm more pissed off with the fact that they turned it into a fucking roguelite. I played the demo for 3 hours and lost interest.

Reminder it's your duty whenever you download a demo and it winds up having "body type" crap to either report it as a localization bug (even if the game is made in English) or ask how you make a female character.

>>979144 I see so many games on here and wonder why they wasted it on a roguelite.

>>979154 Laziness They took this long and it's a fucking roguelite, I can't even express just how disappointed I am.

>>979151 Or ask why you can't remove the shirt on "body type 2".

>>979162 >>979154 Have neither of you nigger played XCOM / or X-COM, or the mods, or the clones?

>>979165 It's nothing like XCOM anon Actually play the demo

>>979172 I don't see much difference from nuCOM personally, besides the random maps and the near absence of a strategic layer.

>>979175 >see Motherfucker actually play it, you can't even shoot enemies unless you're in a straight line. It's nothing like fucking XCOM or NuCOM.

>>979176 The roguelike part is the same you're being an obtuse fucker because they used the word despite it being valid for both..

<Old School Rally In a rare turn of events seems like there's one indie dev that knows how to do a decent rally racing game, even if it's a carbon copy of CMR1 in most aspects

>>979179 >Still hasn't played the game

>>979082 I've never liked this look from the old games. they all look like Tim Burton rejects. the new look is better (I usually prefer old style pixel art, but not in this case)

>>979205 >still hasn't made any argument as to how it's actually different >"but muh cross pattern limited fire range"

>>979209 Play the game retard

>>979211 Already have.

>>978908 Great looking game PITY IT USES THE SAME ASSET PACK MY GAME DOES Fuck it all, my game is half-done and now I find out there's a similar game using the same graphics and some sounds as my game. FUCK

>>979213 Fug, sorry to hear that anon. Honestly, I expect that game to kind of go under the radar considering it's literally off-brand FF1. People probably aren't going to notice. Does a number on one's pride though, I bet.

>>979212 Then you've never played XCOM

>>979213 Whatever you say anon.

>>979217 So you're just retarded, that explains it!

>>979218 Whatever makes you feel good about your lack of ability to explain your arguments anon.

Anyone that is actually decent at F-Zero tried this one? https://store.steampowered.com/app/2160360/Aero_GPX/ Not finding much of anything that's interesting, most of what I'm seeing is shit that might be vaguely interesting but nothing that really makes me wanna play immediately besides a couple that have been named in the thread already. Also found a shitpost tier game with copyright infringement in the trailer. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2208680/Seorita_El_Chupacabra/

>>979213 Is itt one of those paid assets or some you got in the internet for free?

>>979228 Paid asset pack for RPGMaker MZ. I hadn't seen anyone using it and it didn't have any reviews when I bought it so I took a chance and it's pretty good. Now my game will look like an also-ran though... >>979225 Aero GPX looks pretty good anon, thanks.

>>979232 I think execution is the most important maybe even using the same assets you can still make it stand out? I mean people can tolerate same generic effects from unity in 124154564 games

>Payloaders Strike Almost child friendly shooter that has auto-aim turned on by default. The story is alright, and I like the art style and sound design. However, the main antagonist looks like an off-brand Jet Set Radio character, and the art style between graffiti, her model, and her profile are completely different and non-complimentary, and, since this is a spic game, the voicework is all over the place. As far as gameplay goes, the game sometimes crashes when you try to restart a level, and the weapon swapping instant reload feature doesn't always work. All of the levels have high ceilings so you can use the nail gun and jump, but I think the game could use wall-running and/or a grappling hook. Shooting isn't as visually responsive as it should be, and the recharging reload gimmick can be hit-or-miss because the game can have a rather slow pace. >Intravenous 2 An improvement over the original in almost every way, but the developer is still tackling the problem of massive AI camping and chained body discovery. While it's realistic that enemies would surround a room, they eventually give up and forget you were there in the first place until they find a broken window or light, a body, or blood. For a stealth game priding itself on realism, I think there should be levels of alertness that enemies can't drop below after finding the player and/or bodies. As with the first game, it's very easy to go on a rampage and skip stealth completely. The newly added Nitro 700, which has also been ported to the first game, makes this even easier. >>978908 >JRPG in the the FF1-3 style I'm sold, but the enemy sprites are too large and noisy for the era. >>979057 Its aesthetic concept reminds me of Slayers X but without the over the top irony. >>979082 The character select screen should have been made by the same artists as the animation. That looks like a 2017 Chinese mobile game ad. I'm sure someone will accuse it of being AI generated.

Well this looks like it'll be it for that time >Mirage Feathers Afterburner + Space Harrier with lolis, looks rather fun, not the only game of that genre I'm keeping an eye on. >Red Snow Arena shooter meets snowboarding games, it's about as crazy as it seems it would be, not entirely my thing but I'm sure someone around here would very much enjoy it. >Kitsune Tails SMW with NES Megaman (ish) graphics, might occupy a weekend or two. >THRESHOLD Some guy made an horror game with something that has characters which look like low LOD Nathan Drake, dunno how good it is just couldn't stop laughing when I found it. >Sacre Bleu I'm a sucker for games that use a lot of bullet time as an integral game mechanic and this feels like one of the better ones, pretty much high speed action oriented Mark of the Ninja. >Akimbot Haven't tried yet, but this looks like it could be cool being an R&C clone and all. >BLADE CHIMERA Team ladybug, worst case it's underwhelming, best case it's peak metroidvania >Yars Rising Fucking finally, what they should've done since the earlier failed reboot that was the rail shooter. >Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus This feels and looks great, I'm saving playing more of it for when it's out. >>979249 >Its aesthetic concept reminds me of Slayers X but without the over the top irony. But that's the best part of Slayers X.

>>979258 Kitsune Tails looks good, but that English VA is horrid and apparently the only voice track.

Tactics Greed. A sort of rts where you play as a commander unit and lead troops around small battles. You have some abilities like healing, lightning, and bombs alongside an auto attack when you get close enough to enemies. Units included archers, knights, swordsmen, and larger units like ballista. Each unit had different attacks/combat preferences and some had abilities like leaping to enemies. Everything in this is pretty basic in that it definitely could use more polish, but what is there is functional and kinda fun. Animations are silly with units dancing when waiting in healing areas and units bounce around when blown up/etc which made it entertaining to watch. Music was also goofy in a good way. Onto the negatives, I wish I had more control of my units though as they tend to wander off alone and die before you can get them close enough for healing. They will retreat when injured but some units are pretty fragile. It also has some deck building deal going on with unit/power selection because of course it does, but there were also battles with fixed units. Being able to zoom out a bit more would have been nice too, but I assume they wanted you to stay on the perspective of your commander. Overall, not anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. With some work, it could be a pretty entertaining game.

Super Fantasy Kingdom. Roguelike city builder game. Each day you fight off monsters with heroes you recruit/upgrade while managing expanding and upgrading your kingdom. You can also build roads, upgrade your main hero, and unlock new build locations that persist between runs. Everything else resets on the death of your main hero. You also have to feed your heroes with food and you get bonuses for getting them their preferred food (if I remember right). Combat is done automatically, but you can position your heroes around if you have the gold. There are also random events and such that happen on their own or ones you can seek out like having stronger enemies show up for a night. Only major complaint I have was to do with not having enough workers due to house prices doubling every time one is built. No technical issues or bugs that I noticed either, and it ran well. Overall pretty good.

Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age. 2 vs 2 party fighting game. Imagine your typical fighter game but with another lane above and below you that you can use to move up and down the screen. I like the idea behind this one, as I've only seen one other game from many, many years ago that I can barely remember do something similar with the multiple lanes approach and 4 active fighters. Unfortunately I am a filthy fugging casual when it comes to fighting games so I cant say how the actual combat rates, just that I liked how chaotic the fights can get in the 10ish games I did. Sadly the game is limited to vs and online vs with a spectator option. Story mode and arcade mode were not included. Still the game ran well, and looked quite nice. I didn't notice any huge issues beyond getting my ass kicked (which was expected). I'll have to keep an eye on it to see how the singleplayer/co-op content goes in the full game since this could be pretty fun if I pull my friend into it.

>>979416 Lol the nigger who made this also made El Paso Elsewhere. Basically he is self inserting as the protagonists. Not that there's an issue with it, but I find it funny. He looks like a black version of the chud character

Rocklings. Lego Rock Raiders inspired game minus the combat. Not much to say beyond that. Just a comfy mining game. I'd still prefer it have more of a challenge though. There were random gen levels and a single demo level. In the demo the goal was to escape via a mario pipe that required navigating through a winding cave, and in the random gen the goal was to find scattered parts to build a rocket. There were a few basic structures alongside 3 vehicles you can get. The only condition you had to manage was dirt (dirty miners moved slow) so you just had to scatter showers around the map for them to clean up. Music felt a bit repetitive after a bit so I muted it. Graphics were simple but nothing outright bad. Overall fine for fags who like those kinds of games, but I feel like it needed something more to keep me interested.

Iron Meat. A run and gun game. You fight off hordes of meat infested soldiers and vehicles. You have two weapons to carry and they can be powered up when you pick up new upgrades. Though you lose whatever weapon you are currently carrying when you get hit. For the demo I played on normal and had a decent time. I lost about 4 lives each stage, but I had quite a few to start with so I finished it without issues. Visually it is quite good looking. Lots of action going on in the background as well which was nice to see. You could also choose your character and customize them like Perfect Dark where you change the head/body and arms. Music also fit pretty well. My only complaint was the lack of a lock orientation button to strafe. You could lock yourself in place to aim, but not strafe fire which I've gotten used to in other games like this. In summary, a bit short but fun.

>>979492 This game looks fun, and pretty comfy.

>>979258 It still has irony, but it's not completely over the top. I sometimes felt a little sick when playing Slayers X. >>979288 That's to be expected. The developer's previous game, Bernie Tales, is a pro-Bernie SMW clone.

>>979686 With almost twice the demos this go-around, has there been a system yet for scoping out the time-limited demos first?

>>979459 >That forehead to chin ratio

>>979459 He also said WASPs are evil bastards who need to be shot on sight, and it kills me you can just say that on a major media event lmao The chud character is based on the El Paso shooter It's all connected

>>979780 >He also said WASPs are evil bastards who need to be shot on sight, Nig if true.

>>979780 >WASPs Oh shit yeah I heard that too. I wasn't paying attention and I thought it was some quirky indie bug killing FPS or something.

Quick Round as I am feeling lazy. Metal Slug Tactics. It is what the name implies. Not as cover focused and more about movement with limited cover options and elevation to mix it up. Which for a game like metal slug that seems fitting. Difficultly wise it needs some work/balancing, but assuming they get a good dose of feedback it might be pretty good later. Spritework seems worse compared to the older games and the sounds/voices seem off to me. I gotta go replay the old games now to see if I am being crazy. Granvir. Indie Mechwarrior/Mech Assault. Simple looking graphics but lots of customization and shit to play around with. Though the balance isn't too great. You work through a map over slowly escalating enemies while upgrading your mech along the way. It has a lot of rough/jank parts and the performance was not great at random times either. Still had fun with it though, so I hope the dev can polish it up. >>979756 That would be nice. Nothing I know of though.

>>979904 > the sounds/voices seem off to me What they're reusing from the originals is a bit too "clean" and what they're adding doesn't mesh that well, not to mention they're using sounds that don't match the original games for similar action. >>979715 >I sometimes felt a little sick when playing Slayers X. I mean the game is basically the copyright friendly version of the Slipknot vs Limp Bizkit fanbase feud with a PG13 filter as an old school shooter, it being too far in a few places was expected.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1789030/Maid_Cafe_on_Electric_Street/ Pretty pixel maid geimu. You quit your job and everyone claps. >>979459 This summer; black chud is Your Beast.

Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. Roguelike deckbuilder. You build a deck for blackjack and try to go for as long as you can keep your HP up. You deal damage/take damage based on the difference in card amounts and if you bust then you eat the entire difference. Later you get fancier cards with special effects that can really fuck things up. Seemed fine for what it was, but not something I'm really into. Tilt. Indie bastard child of Blast Chamber and Portal. Manipulate gravity and gravity cubes to solve puzzles and advance to new rooms. Puzzles in the demo were interesting enough for me to want to see more. Performance was not so great, but it wasn't unplayable. Voice acting was eh, but nothing that took me out of it. It could use some work (way too many store bought/third party assets), but the dev clearly has some neat ideas for puzzles so hopefully they can polish it up. >>979954 Glad I'm not crazy.

IBit Castle Remake. A really basic TD game. Similar to plants vs zombies. Really not much to say about this one. Especially with how short the demo was. Goblin Maid. Fantasy Cleanup detail. If you ever wanted to play a goblin maid, here you go. Avoid traps and clean up the levels after the battles fucked everything up. Cute looking slimes too, but stay away from the front of the mimic. That said, not a fan of these games in general so I got bored.

>>980161 I fugged the name. The webm was right though, it was called Goblin Cleanup.

>>980161 >That said, not a fan of these games in general so I got bored. They are "fun with friends" bait. Only interesting for like 10 minutes without someone to fuck with while you're playing it.

>>980164 Sounds about right. Level/gameplay design and shit definitely seems made to fuck with anyone helping you. That behavior seems in the spirit of goblins too so I guess it fits.

Lunars. Furry Mario Party with a bit of the aesthetics of Little Big Planet, and up to 8 players instead of 4. 10 minigames to play and 1 board. Minigames were alright. The board had enough little gimmicks and such to be interesting and the Blitz mode where everyone moves at once is a neat idea to speed up rounds. As for the negatives, it feels lacking. Lots of little things that bothered me because I kept comparing it in my head to Mario Party. I can't help but compare the two and that isn't entirely fair to smaller devs making their own take on it. Temper your expectations is what I am trying to say. One Inch Tactics. Turn based strategy game involving mechs. You get a bunch of anime women of various stats and deck them out with mechs to fight on honeycomb tile based maps. Elevation can impede direct fire weapons and some things like bridges can be destroyed. Recon is also important for detecting enemies and actually being able to use your weapons longer range. Playing this reminds me of that one turn based Gundam game I played a long time ago. Music was fine and sounds were alright. Animations/effects are about as basic as can be though which is disappointing. The simple graphics work fine with the tabletop aesthetic they are going for, but the lack of effort with the animations/effects really neuters the feeling of attacks. UI could also do with some tweaks, but it wasn't unplayable. Looking into the dev more, I saw mentions of an earlier game series they did called Power Dolls that seemed pretty cool. I'll have to check it out since I've never heard of it. But back to this game, pretty good assortment of shit to play around with and I enjoyed my time with it. I also tried several other games, but they were such dogshit that they are not worth mentioning beyond this. >>979904 Minor update I noticed. The Granvir dev has been patching the game with all the demo feedback and has been actively responding to it. I really like seeing devs who are so quick to jump on fixing issues. It still needs a better introduction to the mechanics though. Once you get past the initial confusion, it really is not that bad. I find myself enjoying it more the longer I play around with it.

May I request anon try a demo? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154960/Ardenfall/ I've heard it described as a mix of classic fantasy sim dungeon crawler TES and modern theme park TES. It looks supremely janky and I'm wondering if it's any good. I don't have a Steam account

>>979756 >He watched Flip Flappers GOOD

Drill Core. Dwarves trying to mine while fighting off bugs in a vertical mineshaft TD segment. You manage where and what they mine and try to keep them safe during the day. At night you fight waves of bugs. find enough coal to power the drill to advance deep enough to win. It has roguelike upgrades and persistent upgrades that stay after you lose. Looks and sounds great too. I really enjoyed this one. The one bit that really annoyed me though was that workers don't regen hp at all which combined with how slowly you train replacements, you can lose all your workers because the guards hp got slowly chipped away and they all died at once leaving the rest defenseless. Maybe healing is some kind of random upgrade, though if it is then that is pretty gay. Only way is Down. Little Kitty Big City but the you are trying get down safely instead of climbing up to your home. You have to guide a cat down a construction site without falling to your death. The cats movement is a big part of navigating safely. Reminds me of trying to navigate my character precisely in something like the later GTA/red dead games where they have those fancy motions you have to go through. Overall fine for what it is, but I don't have the patience for it. Also the song that plays every time you die though can fuck off for being so annoying. >>980337 I'm finishing up the last of the games I downloaded then I am done with demos for a while. Someone else will have to play it.

SoulLash 2. Dwarf fortress adventure mode pretty much sums this game up. Seems pretty neat if you like that sort of do whatever sandbox rpg game that is all on a generated world. Expect to die a lot initially. Feels a bit too empty at times, but other than that I didn't have many issues. Beacon of Neyda. Side scroller exploration/tower defense. Expand your base and build/upgrade defenses, when it is safe to do so, go explore and find new loot. Spritework is pretty to look at, but the combat consists of just hold X to shoot. Though you do get grenades and different ammo. Another game where I found myself getting bored. It didn't seem terrible, but I was just not into it.

>>978908 I tried Scarmonde out and it was really fun. I'll most likely play the full game once it's out. Thief is ridiculous though because it can just steal recovery items in every battle so you never run out of HP or MP. Makes a great combo with Sage because you can just nuke entire enounters without ever running dry. I think I rested at the inn twice in the entire demo, and that was only after bosses. Music is good as you said, but I also like the dialogue. It has a very melancholy feel to it, kind of reminds me of Dark Souls dialogue. I like it.

Megacopter. One of those old isometric helicopter style games. You get a chopper with unique abilities that are fueled by the blood of your enemies. Said chopper is also the body(?) for some evil looking goddess. Anyway, you fly around and blow up the invading liggers who have various infantry and vehicles. After missions you can do upgrades and shit too. Visually seems pretty nice. Sounds alright too. No issues with this one. Cataclismo. Castle Building TD game with some RTS bits. If you ever wanted more Stronghold style games, I would check it out. Building castles is pretty chill and I burned quite a bit of time doing that. I have some minor complaints about how supports are handled, but beyond that I had a lot of fun with it. No technical issues either, and it ran well. Visuals are fairly simple but not terrible.

>>979065 Tried this one. Gameplay was nice, but I found the writing pretty annoying. It's got that self-aware quirky tone that occurs when the writer is afraid to be sincere. The post-ironic safety net. I get that the premise is inherently silly, but it's possible to make something silly and comedic without constantly turning to wink at the audience.

>>981277 Yeah I hear you dubsman. Only reason it didn't bother me much was because the premise was already silly enough that I really didn't care or expect too much at that point. Though now that you mention it, it definitely would be better if it didn't go so overboard.

I wanna get back into actually playing some damn vidya and wished to buy something on sale on Steam. I have only three main caveats: 1) The game must be multi-player focused, justifying a purchase rather than a pirate, and not any of that Game as a service bullshit 2) The game must be a beefy single player experience that actually justifies a purchase, i.e. hours of content, multiple side modes, healthy modding scene and most importantly an hassle to otherwise get through "alternative" means 3) Priced less than 15$ at base game, 20$ tops if includes non cosmetic, non p2w DLC Got anything worth checking out? Bundles of multiple games and DLC are fine so long as the individual titles respect these constraints

>>985081 V rising is the only thing that comes to mind, but I haven't played it myself.

>>985082 There's valheim too, but I don't know if that can be pirated or not.