The main game. In my experience, it's really hard for a game to make a bad first impression and then win me over, but that's exactly what this game managed to pull off. 3D platformers are maybe my favorite genre, and as a result I've played my share of indie collect-a-thons in my day; I'm pretty used to them starting off promising and then sorta fizzling out. By the end the first world, I kinda got the sense that's what Demon Turf was gonna be. By the end of the second world, I found myself reconsidering. By the end of the third world, I was kinda in love. Demon Turf is the rare instance of a game that just kept getting better the more I played it. I'm really not usually the 100% completion type, especially not when that involves any kind of speedrunning or beating par times (something Demon Turf is big on), but believe me when I tell you I got every dang achievement in this game and would have been happy to keep going
In terms of what it actually is, the main campaign has sorta a Mario Galaxy-esque set-up, with most levels trending towards linear platforming challenges but also occasionally taking a more open-ended approach. The biggest hook outside of the art style (a kind of Paper Mario approach, 3D worlds with 2D character models) is that the levels don't have set checkpoints. Instead, you have a set amount of flags per level that you can choose to set down just about anywhere to create your own checkpoints. I think it's a brilliant idea; not only does it create this tension of choosing whether to place a flag after a particularly challenging segment or keep pushing to see if you can get even further before you burn that safety net, but it also removes the concept of "points of no returns" because every flag, including the one at the start of each level, also becomes a warp point you can use to backtrack to earlier points in the level in case you missed an optional collective and want to go back for it
It's also maybe the most robust, feature-rich indie 3D platformer I've played, by a decent margin. There is a lot to do here and it's all at least
pretty good, which is rare in my experience. There's the 4 main worlds, and those each have a harder "B side" version of their levels that unlock once you beat that world's boss. There's also a set of about 20 challenge levels hidden away in a corner of the hub world, and a dozen or so neat "arcade levels" you unlock by finding collectibles in the hub that largely riff on classic 3D Mario levels, such as one that's
Tick-Tock Clock but there's a rising tide of lava, and another that's
one of Sunshine's secret levels but in advanced darkness. There's also a soccer-golf minigame and even a photo scavenger hunt side quest
On Steam you can also download user-made levels and that's pretty neat; I haven't delved too deeply into that, but someone made a really good replica of Bob-omb Battlefield and included all the stars, translated into the game's own mechanics
My main complaints are
- I think the more open-ended levels/segments are generally markedly weaker than the more linear ones, and I say that as someone who otherwise typically prefers the 64/Sunshine style of gameplay to the Galaxy/3D World style
- The power-ups you unlock can be kinda cumbersome. You can only have one equipped at once (there just ain't enough buttons on a controller otherwise) and can either cycle through them in a set order or use an unwieldy weapon wheel to change between them, both of which can be awkward to do on the fly mid-platforming
- I just don't think the combat is very fun, and I don't think this game needed combat or boss battles at all. You can't directly damage enemies and so instead need to use a "shove" move to push them into spikes or off ledges; this can be frustrating but still wouldn't be that bad, except levels frequently stop all the action until you clear an area of enemies, which brings the pacing way down
Fortunately pretty much every one of these issues would be addressed in....
