Gurei On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Gurei, from developer Lobo Sagaz Studio.

When you start the demo it mentions that the game will auto save, but at no point does it actually say that the demo's save data will carry over to the final game. This demo doesn't say much at all about what it is. it wasn't until i died the first time that it became clear that at most there were 4 monsters to fight, and by dying later it was then revealed that even tho i couldn't face off against a boss, the game still counted it as defeated. this meant what ever boss you faced third, it'd actually be as tough as the 4th.

It's revealed that you can face off against any of the bosses in any order. i tried a few different combinations in this demo. each of the defeated bosses grants our character an ability or power. i personally found the shield to be very useful but by getting that first it makes the scythe and bow even more difficult to obtain.

The more bosses you defeat, the more chances of trying to beat the next boss you get. your health is also recharged before a boss fight. so there is a real element of strategy behind the order you try bosses. i found the snake to be a challenge so did that first. i thought the shield was useful against the bird so i did that boss second and the bird third.

Gurei looks great on Nintendo Switch. the controls felt fast and responsive, too. the only downside i felt in this demo was the loading times. typically in games when you can respawn and face off against the boss, the time between death and respawn is short. but here it's a long black screen. maybe they could've done something with the black screen to make it feel like it's taking less time. the example i came up with was our mask offering advice, back story, or general information.

Boss fighting games like this, Furi, or even Mega Man aren't typically games i enjoy playing. i enjoy their music and graphics for sure, but the gameplay style doesn't do it for me. that being said, Gurei didn't come across as a bad game. it's just the demo could've done more to sell it to me. i would've liked more information about the story, maybe a trailer showcasing examples of what happens later in the game.

Demo Play Thursday - Bubblegum Galaxy DEMO On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Bubblegum Galaxy, from developer Smarto Club and publisher Astrolabe Games.

At the time of playing this demo, it looks like it might've been removed from the eShop, or at the very least it wasn't easy to find. the game itself is also out now. But i did find that the eShop page for this game to be quite revealing as to what the game is. to me, it came across something like a Katamari game, and with the unique art style i was genuinely looking forward to trying this demo.

Even though the eShop page spoils a little of the story, it was still told well. i enjoyed how they used the game's tutorial to tell the start of the story. playing through the demo, i got the feeling that there maybe more of a serious story behind the nice art. you'll have to let me know in the comments if there was or not.

I didn't find the tutorial to be as comprehensive as i wanted it to be. it explained the basics well, telling us about them, letting us use them, then having a video highlighting it, but there were other aspects of the gameplay that i didn't fully understand and had to guess. even now, after i've finished the demo, i'm still not sure how the game's score multiplier works or how i think i managed to turn the color of one plate into another.

the social aspect of the game seemed fine. each of the characters we met were very different and each had their own customised booth. though the way one of them talked to us did seem to be a little racist. it would be interesting to see a little bit more of this social aspect of the game as in the demo, the focus seemed to be more on the tutorial. but what was there was interesting.

as a demo, i think Bubblegum Galaxy is one of the better one's i've tried. it was clear when we started that the save file doesn't carry over into the retail game. this simple message is soo rare and yet soo important. i would say that the demo was also clear what was in it by calling the section of planets we made the demo section. we got a good bit of story, characters, tutorials, as well as a story hook at the end with the introduction of the managers.