Hot damn, I love games that love being the game that they are, and Demon Turf is just that: a song sung for 3D Mario in particular and 3D platformers in general.

The movement? So good, a trimmed down version of Super Mario Odyssey. Camera? Not perfect, but when are they ever. It does its job, and outside of the mild annoyance of swooping down low for triggered events was never really a nuisance. So the core is good, great even. How's the rest?

Generous. Overflowing. Levels, remixed levels, race courses, challenge courses, weird golf, enemy arenas, photo hunt, time trials, a dedicated Getting Over It tower. The collectibles are perfect. Minor ones are for cosmetics, major ones for upgrades, and the ones needed for progression are simply earned by beating the stage. You can care exactly as much as you want about them.

It's also all unobtrusive, readily obtained. Looking for collectibles? They give you an arrow pointing to the closest one. Don't like the dialog? Almost entirely avoidable, with a fast skip when it's not. Don't want to traipse around the hubs? It's all accessible from the pause menu. All those side activities? Available right away, save for one that unlocks after the first world. Demon Turf loves what it is, and wants you to play it. It doesn't stop you every 30 seconds to show you how cute or clever it is, and I deeply appreciate that.

It's not perfect, though. The combat is just there. Not necessary, but I like that they were trying something new. The final ability is janky and slows you down when the others all serve to speed you up. There's some level design fatigue toward the end. The bosses are generally great, but the final one is a bit of a victory lap. Doesn't matter, because the real boss is the level leading up to him. Subway Surfing exists as a level, and I actively hated it. Some people don't like having to do the remix levels to beat the game, but honestly, I loved them. Why wouldn't I? More game, harder movement, genuinely different challenges.

It is, genuinely, the best 3D platformer I've played in years despite its faults. Clears A Hat in Time based solely on how seamless the entire experience is, and for not wanting to be my least favorite 3D Mario.

Let me get one thing straight: yes, this game have a lot of problems and i get why people don't like it, honestly my biggest problem with the game is the lack of a consistent art style. I love the 2d ecstatic i really do but it way to inconsistent sometimes it look good and other time like are the after turf version of peak plateau. There's the other problem like some levels dragin for way to long, the requirements for beating the game are not freeing enough (if that make sense...), people not liking the ending... I disagree but ya do ya and some extra modes being annoying as hell to complete (I'm talking to ya Arena and THOSE STUPID BALLS-). But can i ignore those issues and enjoy as the fast paste platformer it meant to be? Hell fucking yes! The only thing i hope for demon turf is that we get a sequel to that actually fixes a lot of the stuff i mention! This is just so fun to fuck around with and the stuff that it does right it does really right!

Got 5 hours in and honestly the game felt like it should have ended through most of that time, but learning that I wasnt even halfway done in terms of battery count I just stopped. What charm it had ran out on me quickly and I feel like it would have worked better if the levels were more speed-based challenges rather than larger collectathon worlds.

I don't know though this game really wasn't for me and I probably shouldnt have expected to have liked it as much as any 3D Mario or A Hat In Time.

I like almost all the parts of this game individually. The controls are practically immaculate, the character designs are charming, the level designs are neat, and the music is cool

But even with all the good parts put together, the bits that bug me stick in my craw enough that I can't really say I like the game. There's enough of a bounce out of the glide that it feels bad to use, the combat is absolutely dreadful, and all the good visual design gets negated by being smeared with disgusting fog that, honestly, hurt my eyes most of the time.

There's a really nice foundation here, but I can't really say that the main game does it for me. I hear the little expansion is better, and I may honestly get to it someday since I want a better version of it, but this one just fell flat for me.

This was an Amazing and Incredible game with a lot of issues. I was a huge fan of Fabraz's previous game, Slime-San, so I was super excited for this, but now on the other side, I have to say it simultaneously exceeded my expectations and disappointed me.

Positives:
- The pure platforming in this game is so good. The controls were a little tough to get used to, but once I did, the level design was great and it had some amazing pure platforming sections
- The amount of content is stellar for a 3d platformer
- Great Soundtrack
- Incredible Movement. Once you get used to it, it really is the second best and most free-form movement of any 3d platformer other than some mario games

Negatives:
- A lot of things were great in design but poor in execution. Two of the biggest examples were the boss fights and the unlockable abilities. The boss fights were unique and all seem really good on paper, but playing them they were actually unfun and poorly executed. The unlockable abilities, specifically the wheel, bird glide, and time stop, all seem cool and there's some cool level design around these but they feel awful to control and use.
- Combat is annoying and cumbersome. Too many forced combat sections and they just aren't fun
- People have praised the visuals but I really didn't like them. It's all just red and purple

Overall its like somebody took a 5-star game and a 3-star game and human-centipeded them together, hence why I rate it 4 stars

I really, really wish I liked this more than I do, and I'll cop to the fact that trying to 100% this absolutely made me like it less, but maaaan parts of this feel tragic. The movement (save for the way you exit a glide) feels absolutely perfect, the character designs are great, and the music is really cool and distinct. The whole thing feels like a labor of love, but the level design just isn't there for me at all, and the combat feels legitimately terrible in a way that tanks so much of the game. The ingredients are here for something special though, and I really do hope the devs keep going with this franchise, because I'd like to see it develop into the game I hoped this would be. My understanding is that Neon Splash is a step in that direction, so I still plan to check that out despite my issues here.

Also, the lighting in some levels legitimately hurt my eyes! There's a canyon level early on that's so red that I couldn't really see things properly for like half an hour. It's a shame that a game this aesthetically tight has spots like that.

a great but flawed platformer with a fantastic move set and a lot of content. first of all if you're turned off of the platforming from the start i really recommend turning the move deadzone bar in the settings to none. god knows why its on so high by default, it goes from feeling horrible to great once you turn it on 0 imo. the triple jump, wheel, wall jump, and super jumps are all extremely fun to use. the only thing that stuck out genuinely bad to me was the lack of options when exiting the gliding turf ability. you should be able to jump out of it to gain more height last minute, but instead you're sent falling and it doesn't feel good. most of the time in normal levels it wasn't a bother and i had enough height for it to not matter but in two of the glide-centric trials it is miserable performing some of the glides over large gaps. those trials are one of the many side modes in the game and for the most part they're really good. i didn't bother doing most of the photo hunts and i dont think you should have to do all 50 to get 100% completion, and despite actually liking the combat the arena challenge goes on for way too long and should only be 10 levels instead of 25, but everything else is really fun. the remixed versions of levels are fantastic too, most feel completely different from their original so it doesn't feel like padding. that being said i think the 50 battery requirement forcing you to do a large majority of those remixed levels just to reach the end of the main story was a bad idea, it should've only been 40 max. the five bosses were surprisingly good, with the first and last being the weakest. wish there were remixed versions of the four world bosses to be honest. and lastly as far as visuals go i really like the look of the main characters and the bosses, but otherwise the environments and npcs can look really ugly. hopefully they either patch some of the real big issues out or continue to improve on the game in a sequel, there's so much potential here and some of it is wasted with odd decisions that seem to have turned a lot of people off from the game.

The movement mechanics are the best thing about this game. It honestly might be the only part that’s genuinely well designed. The levels barely feel play tested, the collectathon progression is too strict, the art is inconsistent, the writing is A Hat in Time put through Google Translate three different times, and the checkpoint mechanic is really clever but undercut by a one-hit system which doesn’t compliment the level design at all. I don’t know how to describe any of this game except that it feels like a licensed game made by an indie team. I wish there was a version of this game with actual polish.

I think that the movement system in this game is very well done, the way that you have to think about what moves you will want to do and change the order in which you press the buttons is just great! Unfortunately I found the level design quite lacking and the look of the game far too samey to keep me interested, I've been playing this on and off for most of this year because i kept dropping off!

I'm glad I finished it and I don't think I regret playing it, but if I had never played it I don't think I'd be missing out. I'm disappointed I didn't get to play the standalone expansion Neon whatever it's called before buying the full game because that looks better and is cheaper lol

Yeah yeah, I was brought here by Nitro Rad too. Is the game good though?

Yeah, I guess, but that comes with a lot of asterisks.

The movement and moveset in general are excellent. I could nitpick a few details, like the side somersaults' uselessness due to the triple jump not being space-sensative like in Super Mario 64. Also, the grapple hook and timestop are pretty situational in use/ Regardless, this is a very good moveset that makes the player plan each jump in advance, unlike A Hat in Time.

The level design isn't the best, but I think it's mostly fine. The game beckons players to master the moveset and perform skips in pretty much every level. Combine this with a genius checkpoint system that allows the player to control their respawn position, and those seemingly ludicrous skips are much more achievable and fun to try. I also appreciate that you can get every collectible on the first run and you don't have to come back with the turf abilities (which you earn in each boss fight) or something. Point is, the level design is pretty basic, but the game does a really good job of distracting that fact.

But now its time to talk about the highlight of every 3D platformer! Combat! Oh boy! I dunno though, this really wasn't that bad. Probably like half the levels have required combat sections, and they're over really quick. Still, that's far from a compliment. What really pisses me off is that the final boss is kind of purely combat, which I think is dumb for a 3D Platformer.

Uhh... There's a story. Is there? Yeah, but it's pretty nothing. There's an attempt at some kind of arc with the protagonist Beebz's friend, but this leads to nothing. I like the concept of beating these bosses up and gaining clout overtime, but the game doesn't really expand on this in an interesting way.

Also, this game definitely lacks the level of polish of a game like A Hat in Time. The movement feels great, but the way Beebz interacts with the environment feels spotty at times. Most of the minor NPCs look really bad too. Lastly, I ran into a few glitches.

There's also the structure of the game. Now, there's 28 Levels, and each level has a post-boss version that changes things up a bit and utilizes the newly acquired turf ability. So, there's like 56 levels in total, and beating a level gets you a battery, right? Well, for the most part, the structure is simple. Beat all 7 levels in the world in whatever order you please, fight the boss, go to the next world.

However, to fight the final boss, you need 50 Batteries, so you have to beat 50 out of the 56 levels (Or maybe there's other ways to get batteries. I haven't delved that much into the side content). Keep in mind, half of these levels are reskins. As heavily altered as a reskin can be, they're still reskins. Imagine if to fight Bowser you needed 110/120 stars. Like, why not make me just get all at that point? I guess I'll take it though, because I only had 40 batteries after beating the 4th boss, so I had to play 10 more levels, which kind of ruined the pacing.

Despite all of those problems, Demon Turf can be really fun. It has some great ideas, but I think the devs were just a bit too ambitious. Maybe if the game was a bit better paced, the combat was gone, the story was minimized, the moveset tweaked a little, all the fluff was removed, and the visuals were more consistent I'd like this game more. Oh wait, the standalone expansion Demon Turf: Neon Splash did this and it costs $20 less than this game (Not a sponsor). The lesson is, you should probably get that instead. Still, if you like 3D platformers, this is a fine time.

Some solid platforming that's a mix of Mario 64 with power ups you can switch between. Game heavily encourages speedrunning with its timer on each level which gives them all great replay value.
The collectables are OK honestly. You don't need them to beat the game, just the 50 stars, I mean batteries. While the cakes are pretty essential for giving you bonus power ups, faster walking was my go-to and I honestly wish was just the default run speed. Lollipops don't give you much aside from colors and since every bonus level has 100 of them I got to a point where I found a color combo and pet I liked and stuck with it. They're cute additions for customization but it's nothing to write home about. I like taking pictures and selfies in the game but I couldn't care less for the missions on it.
Two of the power ups in this game are really fun to use. My favorite being the snake wheel, racing through a stage and dodging death traps is a satisfying thing to pull off without any stops. The bird power up was good for finding ways to speedrun through a stage, it's simple, kind of similar to the wing cap in Mario 64 but it's a hotkey now instead.
The Hookshot is OK, you've seen a hook shot in a game before, you know how it works.
My least favorite was the time stop, cool concept but I honestly found myself rarely using it unless completely necessary. I found it more satisfying to try to time my jumps just well enough to not need to do that.
One thing I enjoyed a lot about the game though is if there wasn't specifically a long gap between you and the segment asking you to use a power up, you could find another way around it if you were good enough. Good incentive to try new playstyles.
Overall if you're itching for a 3D platformer give this game a shot

This might be the most disappointing game I've ever played

I was really hoping this would be my next A Hat in Time, a game that I cannot stop coming back to because I love it so much. It's not. It's just okay, and only because it had some parts I really enjoyed. Probably 60% of the time I was playing this game, I just wanted to be done with it.

I honestly wonder if they put all the effort here into the basic movement and presentation. I am really not a fan of most of the level design here; the levels are either ridiculously easy or super finnicky, with a couple genuinely fun ones sprinkled in (the rising water and subway levels were both fantastic). A lot of the assets look out of place or bland, and anything that isn't a main character or a boss got absolutely shafted. Every NPC looks like a nightmare. This also might have the worst combat of any game I've ever played, so any forced combat sections (including the final boss) were like nails on a chalkboard. I was happy to learn the game is only 4 worlds plus a final boss, but very unhappy to learn that I had to complete 3 out of the 4 worlds (plus one more level) AGAIN to unlock said boss. I understand that the levels are different the second time around, but I just do not understand the 50 battery requirement when you only get 28 from the first plays. 2 of the abilities are kind of utilitarian instead of fun, unfortunately, and the slow time one just feels horrible to use. I just tried to brute force every section that needed it without it (it worked kind of).

On the positive side, the music in this game is godlike. It's maybe the only reason I kept playing. There's also some genuinely cool ideas here; the snake wheel ability is awesome and any level that utilizes it is a good level full stop. Any time there was a platforming section I actually had to think about, I was pleasantly surprised, and it happened enough times to be notable. I am kind of coming up dry on other positives.

In the end, this game might be more bad than it is good, but I'm gonna give it a 2.5/5 because I could play it while watching Jerma play House Flipper

I really want to like this game more than I do, being a big fan of 3D platformers that encourage creative movement and level skips. But it just doesn't hit for me. 3 worlds in and the levels just feel a bit too basic and easy, and the moveset while expansive just doesn't feel quite as fluid as I'd like. It might just be a me thing, this game seems to be very heavily inspired by Mario 64 which I also can't get into. Also a smaller thing but as a fan of monster and demon designs, most of the NPCs are pretty ugly and bland aside from the MC's friends. Also the combat is annoying and a total pace-breaker.

It's not bad, it works and I can see why someone would love it, but I just can't. And that sucks.

Demon turf combines the linear, varied platforming of the Mario Galaxy games with the free movement of Mario 64 into a truly impressive indie package. There is a lot to like here as the game is chocked full of content, and all of it being fun. Every level has a harder variant which genuinely shakes up the level design and obstacles rather then just slapping a filter and random clear condition on it. The combat is itself based on momentum and movement rather then failed recreations of action combos. The one flaw here is that the final move you unlock, the time slow down, is pretty lame and forces you to to restrict your movement to get past artificial barriers when all the previous upgrades increased your movement options. Though even this games time slow is far better then the ones featured in its peers like a hat in time.

Demon Turf has fun and solid platforming but is unfortunately weak in nearly every other area.

Notably, the combat is incredibly tedious and shallow, and the game forces it on you way too frequently. Level design also feels pretty middling at some points.

Overall though, the platforming and charm of the game carried it enough for me to get through it. Plus the extra minigames, those were mostly pretty fun too.