Demo Play Thursday - BAKERU On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game BAKERU, from the developers Good-Feel.

There had been a lot of positive buzz about this game and i was keen to play it. it had been compared to the PS1 and N64 platformers and that's an era i grew up in, playing games like Croc. 

It's clear that this is a purpose made demo. i wouldn't be surprised if this was used by video game outlets for their preview coverage. there are 5 different things that we can do in this demo and we did them all in this video. 

I started with the video that gave the basic story and what we're going to do. it's fun, but there's no gameplay there. the second part was the "Easy" Tokushima stage. this serves as a tutorial of the game controls and some basic concepts. what caught my attention was how good it all looked. the music was fun, and not a stereotype of Japanese music, and the controls felt responsive. it's difficult to say if this is how the tutorial will work in the final game, but what we have in this demo is maybe a little too basic. many games offer small video clips of gifs to help show some concepts in action. that's not the case here.

The next stage i tried was in Osaka and this was a giant robot vs. giant robot in a city sized ring fighting stage. the combat was fun, it continued to look and play great, but the balance felt a little off. i was beating the enemy robot comfortably and then unexpectedly it got good and made it a harder fight than it had been previously. Next is a shoot'em up stage but not in the traditional side scroller style, whether that's vertical or horizontal. this time it was in the style of Space Harrier! i didn't feel that this was that successful as it was surprisingly difficult to judge where the enemy was in a 3D space. but it was still cool to play and like the rest of the game it was a great looking experience. 

The final stage i tried was the "Normal" Aichi stage. this was very different from the Tokushima stage as whilst that was in an open environment, the Aichi stage took place in a city environment. i could also feel the change in difficulty, too. i'm a little concerned that stage difficulty might be something that we ourselves can't change and that some stages will just be harder than others. in a game that felt like it was trying to be as accessible as possible, it would be a weird choice to gate keep the game's story due to the players ability. 

This demo for BAKERU is great. choosing to showcase 5 different elements of the game is smart, but it's also smart that it clearly shows that there are still others not yet seen. i would've liked a little more story, but that's not the point of this demo. after playing this demo, i can say that BAKERU is well worth wish listing. it's impressive that this late into the Switch's life cycle a new game can come along and be this good. 

Demo Play Thursday - Princess Peach: Showtime! On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game Princess Peach: Showtime!, developed by Good-Feel and Nintendo.

This demo starts immediately, and so does this video, with an introduction cut scene that helps get the game to where everything takes place. once finished, your able to move around and talk to everyone. once you do, then the game starts. In this demo we get 2 stages, 1 acts as the tutorial and lets us use the Swordfighter costume and the other introduces a different game style and the Patisserie costume.

It's surprising how poor the game's tutorial is. it doesn't "hold your hand" nor take you step by step how everything is done. instead, the characters in the background are often saying things to hint as to what you should be doing. For greater help, sometimes on the bottom right of the screen a "Controls" prompt appears and pressing X will pause the game and give you more indepth information about how things work. As this is a demo, i kinda expected that to be on as default, especially for the first stage of the game. The controls aren't complicated, but there are other interactions in the game world that might be missed. But even this section isn't perfect. it told me about a dodge and counterattack system in the game but not how it works or the timing for it. Princess Peach: Showtime! is similar to  Mario vs. Donkey Kong, https://youtu.be/aHf200xu5EM, in being surprisingly less accessible than expected.

But i would recommend the demo because i enjoyed my time with Princess Peach: Showtime! to the point that i actually wish-listed it and wouldn't mind getting it. at first glance, everything seems so simple. that includes the art, the graphics, the controls, and even the story. But as i played, it was easy to notice a lot of the finer details in the art, to appreciate the bold colorful graphics, to play in two completely different costumes each with completely different controls and play styles, and to understand that there are many more costumes and stages to play. I got the impression after playing this demo that Princess Peach: Showtime! is a beatable game, one that's neither too difficult or too easy, and one that has enough variety to keep me interested from start to finish.

As for the story, we don't really get much of a hint how it'll go. what's in the demo is simple and perhaps that'll be the case throughout. it's possible gameplay and mechanics will help make up for an average story, if it is indeed average. It reminds me of the Cat Quest series. i have platinumed both games, had a fun time with the different mechanics, characters, and places we visit. but i wouldn't say their stories are the best ever. but playing them, like playing this demo of Princess Peach: Showtime!, was enjoyable.

Oh, when you finish the demo there is a gameplay trailer. A downside to the demo is that whilst we often see it saving, there's no mention if our save is carried over to the main game.