It took me exactly a year of on and off playing this game to finally finish this. Demon Turf is certainly ambitious but felt more actively exhausting than anything. It's got the core of a classic collectathon with an obnoxious amount of collectibles (cool!) But is actually at the same time more of a linear obstacle course platformer. Both styles are constantly at odds and holding each other down. The collectables aren't exactly fun to find given you can spawn an arrow pointing you where anything is hidden at any point. Which is a complaint but I'm glad it's there because given the way levels are put together, it's entirely unreadable whether you're trying to explore or not. Unfocused at all times is the best way to describe Demon Turf. Level design suffers from being rather aimless, and the collectibles largely feel worthless for anything other than seeing 100% in your achievements list.
The movement is nuanced enough to have a variety of level design and decent challenge...But the "place your own checkpoints" idea robs the stages of a structured sense of progression. You're either hoarding them excessively or using them all too early. Levels can drag on and often don't really iterate on concepts, just throwing disconnected thoughts at the wall. Combat seems to be a sore point for most here, but I'm always an advocate for unconventional ideas. The premise of pushing enemies is fun and dynamic. I'm sick to death of standardized concepts shared with every game ever so I think it's kinda cool. In execution it feels bad largely because of really poor visual and sound design, and somewhat inconsistent physics. Also for some reason the camera slams itself into the ground every single time you activate something. Even if you spawn a platform directly underneath you, you get the same camera angle where it gets locked pointing upwards...
The eye-catching artwork seen in the box art is not present in-game. Instead the graphical style is dreadfully boring. No striking imagery, drab and repetitive color palette, the 2D character art leaves a lot to be desired and is pretty stiffly animated. Nothing memorable in the music department imo. Story goes nowhere. Very anti climactic. No level in the game is interesting or memorable enough to warrant them forcing you to replay almost all of them to get to the final boss. I was already doing it for completionist sake and it's just not fun to do. They're "remixed" so sometimes major changes have been done...But the levels themselves are devoid of strong ideas or memorable layouts to begin with, so playing them again with rearranged hazards doesn't really make any difference. Aerial movement is decent but your base floor run speed is painfully slow, even using a badge to speed it up it never feels great. Hookshot and Flight are never used in interesting ways. Very binary use hookshot/flight here type design. Wheel picks up nice speed but quickly becomes so fast you can't do any turns, and just like flight, always has dedicated use wheel moments. So your abilities are already not very well implemented...On top of not being able to wall jump or use your hookshot after a double jump which is needlessly limiting.
It's not entirely mindless like most platformers I find dull (though it has its fair share of nothing design at points too). This one fails on its own merits rather than being safe and derivative. Which makes me feel I should give bonus points for being the kind of game I WOULD like...But I was honestly never really having fun with it. The arcade bonus stages exemplify my problems with how this game feels even at its best. They rip iconic levels from various Mario games as a cool reference. I get to see a level from Mario Sunshine that's endlessly fun and grounded that I love to replay even 20 years later...Ruined by floaty and aimless mechanics, and unrealized obstacles in the port to demon turf. (with a sizeable art style and music hit to boot). The level becomes so -nothing- that they put a poison effect and a pointless combat section in as a bandaid fix. Tfw the mechanics are so weak you gotta make the player spam a button every few seconds to avoid dying to random poison. Puts into perspective how unexpectedly grounded the Mario games tend to be. In Mario you feel every jump, and when you land, you feel the ground. In demon turf I feel nothing, ever. It's at its best when it's a short, focused level, and it's rarely at its best. "Its best" being barely managing to hit "it's ok" status for a brief moment.
Supposedly the DLC is a lot better. Maybe I'll try it eventually, it's quite cheap and promises to not be an exhausting marathon...But I'm really not itching for more of any of this even if it is more focused. Below average game that's bloated to the point of being unbearable. Took me a full year to put in the 16 hours needed to finish it.
The movement is nuanced enough to have a variety of level design and decent challenge...But the "place your own checkpoints" idea robs the stages of a structured sense of progression. You're either hoarding them excessively or using them all too early. Levels can drag on and often don't really iterate on concepts, just throwing disconnected thoughts at the wall. Combat seems to be a sore point for most here, but I'm always an advocate for unconventional ideas. The premise of pushing enemies is fun and dynamic. I'm sick to death of standardized concepts shared with every game ever so I think it's kinda cool. In execution it feels bad largely because of really poor visual and sound design, and somewhat inconsistent physics. Also for some reason the camera slams itself into the ground every single time you activate something. Even if you spawn a platform directly underneath you, you get the same camera angle where it gets locked pointing upwards...
The eye-catching artwork seen in the box art is not present in-game. Instead the graphical style is dreadfully boring. No striking imagery, drab and repetitive color palette, the 2D character art leaves a lot to be desired and is pretty stiffly animated. Nothing memorable in the music department imo. Story goes nowhere. Very anti climactic. No level in the game is interesting or memorable enough to warrant them forcing you to replay almost all of them to get to the final boss. I was already doing it for completionist sake and it's just not fun to do. They're "remixed" so sometimes major changes have been done...But the levels themselves are devoid of strong ideas or memorable layouts to begin with, so playing them again with rearranged hazards doesn't really make any difference. Aerial movement is decent but your base floor run speed is painfully slow, even using a badge to speed it up it never feels great. Hookshot and Flight are never used in interesting ways. Very binary use hookshot/flight here type design. Wheel picks up nice speed but quickly becomes so fast you can't do any turns, and just like flight, always has dedicated use wheel moments. So your abilities are already not very well implemented...On top of not being able to wall jump or use your hookshot after a double jump which is needlessly limiting.
It's not entirely mindless like most platformers I find dull (though it has its fair share of nothing design at points too). This one fails on its own merits rather than being safe and derivative. Which makes me feel I should give bonus points for being the kind of game I WOULD like...But I was honestly never really having fun with it. The arcade bonus stages exemplify my problems with how this game feels even at its best. They rip iconic levels from various Mario games as a cool reference. I get to see a level from Mario Sunshine that's endlessly fun and grounded that I love to replay even 20 years later...Ruined by floaty and aimless mechanics, and unrealized obstacles in the port to demon turf. (with a sizeable art style and music hit to boot). The level becomes so -nothing- that they put a poison effect and a pointless combat section in as a bandaid fix. Tfw the mechanics are so weak you gotta make the player spam a button every few seconds to avoid dying to random poison. Puts into perspective how unexpectedly grounded the Mario games tend to be. In Mario you feel every jump, and when you land, you feel the ground. In demon turf I feel nothing, ever. It's at its best when it's a short, focused level, and it's rarely at its best. "Its best" being barely managing to hit "it's ok" status for a brief moment.
Supposedly the DLC is a lot better. Maybe I'll try it eventually, it's quite cheap and promises to not be an exhausting marathon...But I'm really not itching for more of any of this even if it is more focused. Below average game that's bloated to the point of being unbearable. Took me a full year to put in the 16 hours needed to finish it.