The 3D platformer has a problem that doesn’t get addressed too often in that it’s generally viewed as a genre for the younger crowd. This means that the difficulty level is tuned to easy, and by the time any real challenge shows up, the game is roughly 90% over. That’s not to say they’re boring or not fun or anything too negative, because they tend to be energetic and incredibly likable, but it does mean that for the bulk of the game you’re looking at obstacle courses designed to fit comfortably within the range of the main character’s abilities without stretching them too far.
From N64 Throwback to Modern-Day Presentation In Two Demon Steps
Demon Turfwas a 3D platformer in the N64/PS1 style, designed for players who’d seen their fair share ofSpyros,Banjo-Kazooies,Mario 64/Sunshine/Galaxy-s and others in the same vein. (NotCrash Bandicoot, though – that’s more 2.5D than open-world 3D and absolutely willing to turn its difficulty knob all the way up to “evil” at the drop of a hat.) Young demon-punk Beebz was determined to earn her upgrade to Demon Queen, putting a whole host of moves through their paces on her way to dominating the realm. After platforming her way to victory Beebz settled in to…basically be Beebz, but with the satisfaction of knowing she succeeded at taking on all comers. Now, though, she’s been invited by the ruler of Ragnar’s Rock to have a talk, but on the way there her ship sinks. After her friends cobble together a replacement boat, she’s now stuck at sea level looking up at a floating castle, and the only way to get there is to thoroughly explore the surrounding islands.
Review: Demon Turf
Even a rough spot or two can’t stop Demon Turf from facilitating demand for a well-crafted platformer sure to test even veterans of the genre.
The demo forDemon Tidesreleased recently and shows off a game that knows its players have been through their share of platforming adventures in the past, so after a tutorial level it mostly skips the long, slow buildup and goes straight for levels that take full advantage of Beebz’s moveset. A good platformer needs multiple ways to manage the air-time and Beebz has a ton of options, from the standard jump/double-jump, the running triple jump (jump while moving, land, jump higher, land, jump highest), wall grab, wall run, dash, air spin, and a near-endless array of combinations effecting momentum and velocity. Each move varies in height and distance, but the real trick is that many of them come with transformations.
Beebz is a demon, so she can transform from her humanish female form into a variety of shapes. The double jump, for example, changes her into a small critter that looks much more demon-ish than her standard form. The spin-jump, on the other hand, changes her into a critter looking like a top whose move covers a good bit of distance while dropping down only slightly. The snake form is less about platforming and more about speed, cutting through the large ocean world at maximum velocity and making the distance between islands much more reasonable, and is also handy when you need to get back to the start of a platforming challenge after falling back into the sea.
A good platformer needs multiple ways to manage the air-time and Demon Tides has a ton of options, from the standard jump/double-jump, the running triple jump, wall grab, wall run, dash, air spin, and a near-endless array of combinations effecting momentum and velocity.
Useful as the forms are, though, they do have drawbacks in regards to how some moves can’t chain together. The little double-jump demon form will get needed height but lacks Beebz’s ability to cling briefly to walls. Double-jump into a wall and it slides right down, which makes sense from a character perspective but also goes against decades of gaming habits that says double-jumping is always your friend. Still, there are a huge number of ways to chain one move into another, so there’s always an option available to get that extra height or distance even if it requires rewiring the brain a bit. Dash to jump is nice, but with a bit of practice snake to dash to Beebz to jump can get some serious momentum behind it if you’ve got the space to pull it off. Couple that with holding down the jump button so Beebz runs a few paces up the wall before clinging on and you can find a good number of creative shortcuts.
Big Moveset, Big Playground
Each “level” ofDemon Tidesis an island that’s part of the open-world map, approachable by sea from any direction, with a set number of chests and collectibles needed be found in order to 100% it. The game is designed to be a test of skill rather than hide and seek, so much so that there’s a dedicated face button that places a temporary arrow pointing to the nearest item of interest, and while there are a few that are found simply by looking behind an almost-obvious thing most will require a bit of platforming to pick up. Sure, you’re able to drop an arrow and see it’s pointing to a hole in the wall, but when that hole is twenty feet above the ground with no immediately obvious path into it, that’s a different thing entirely. The level design takes no time to go seriously vertical once past the intro, with moving platforms, bounce pads, grind rails and all the trappings to get you well above sea level.
Thankfully there are also generous checkpoints of two different kinds. As inDemon Turf, Beebz can drop her flag anywhere she likes as a respawn, but there are also ropes coiled in handy places that let her climb back up once she’s lowered them. For the levels in the demo at least, I found it no problem to work with the rope system rather than drop a checkpoint flag, but the available map is only the start and there’s plenty of time for the game to get more murderous. The demo only has a few enemies, easily dispatched with a dash, and the biggest threat is the insta-kill pink goo that’s covering some islands.
Demon Tides' demo is a surprisingly large chunk of adventure that’s going to make platformer fans happy. The deep moveset is complemented by an amulet system that tweaks Beebz’s abilities, whether that be adding a slight rise to the start of an air-spin or turning the first-person camera into a drone you can use to scout the level. If the regular levels aren’t challenging enough, there are two Mr. Mint bonus areas that will make you use every skill at your disposal to complete, both of which are necessary to 100% the demo. Even clearing out a level opens up a new challenge in the form of a time trial, requiring you to re-earn all the chests as quickly as possible if you want to take it on as a bonus objective. And if you just feel like kicking back in a tropical demon-paradise, a graffiti system lets you decorate the world and is shared with other users to rate up. The trip didn’t go as planned for Beebz and her crew, but it’s not like taking it too easy has ever been their thing.
Demon Tides
