Steam Next Fest 2025.2

Wishlisted games are Marked

Also, I recently switched to Linux on my desktop so any demos that I played on there will have text in green.

Previous Year(s)

2025.1 https://rentry.org/bjsnf2025-1

From this previous next fest I only bought https://store.steampowered.com/app/3263480/Divine_Orders/ and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tentative List

5/5 (Left me wanting more)

Link Thoughts
This Peak Weebshit Was Made For Me! DRR...DRR... https://store.steampowered.com/app/3758120/hololive_Holos_Hanafuda_Demo/ 26 minutes As someone who's been playing Hanafuda since Zoo Corporation's Koi-Koi Japan in 2015 and has been a fan of Hololive since before their EN branch debut this game was basically extracted from my subconscious weeb mind. That said: the demo has a dumb stupid 20-minute timer on it and I noticed the translation is a little spotty (either that or the wrong voice lines were used). More interestingly, the game has both Koi-Koi (classic Hanafuda) rules as well as "Holo Awase" rules which involve pairing generations of talents (members are depicted on the cards) and combining them to get special abilities, all while using a scoring system more akin to Riichi mahjong.
SOVL https://store.steampowered.com/app/1274700/You_Alone_Can_Defeat_Evil/ 96 minutes Reminiscent of Darthlupi's The Cleaner and other 2000's GameMaker games, this one is great. It's hard to explain exactly why it works so well but I spent 90 minutes grinding demon blood and making a new character, pasting in all the tattoos/codes, then speedrunning through the tutorial just for fun (having all the abilities unlocked at the start lets you skip a lot of the more annoying sections so I will definitely be saving these codes for the full release). And yes you CAN delete your Soul and you CAN paste the codes from the Steam store screenshot but they don't seem to do anything. The devs are also teasing something "special" regarding the online multiplayer, and considering one of the abilities I unlocked as well as the tattoo system I can definitely see a lot of potential there.

4/5 (Great)

Link Thoughts
BĂ–oombHead https://store.steampowered.com/app/2721890/oo/ 7 minutes From the maker of ElecHead comes another puzzle platformer but this time you play as a cute caterpillar whose body sections turn into bombs. I don't really have any complaints other than the music being a little weak. The art is and animation are good and there's a nice filter on the entire thing. I do wonder how much more complex a full game could be but considering the author's previous work (which has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews as of writing this) I think it'll be fine. I'll keep an eye on it but doubt I'll actually purchase it, hence no Wishlist mark.
Sokoban DRPG https://store.steampowered.com/app/2381760/He_Who_Watches_Demo/ 64 minutes I really like first person dungeon crawlers. I also enjoy the occasional puzzle game. This is both. Not much to say since it's a box pushing game, but I really like the level design of having hubs that lead into levels because the early levels will teach you things you can use in the hub to get to the later levels. Also I only had to use the Hint system once but the fact that it gives you a "mini" version of the puzzle you're on so you can learn the mechanic to solve it is great.

3/5 (Good but maybe flawed)

Link Thoughts
My Trolley Summer Romance https://store.steampowered.com/app/3219410/The_Trolley_Solution/ 63 minutes I went into this game expecting not to like it and Parent Trap being the second stage made me really hate the developer. That said, the game goes beyond just regular trolley problems with different trolley-related minigames and can be quite funny at times (even the very predictable joke with the very long buildup). Whether it's worth a purchase will depend on price and how much one is into trolleys; but either way I recommend checking the demo out.
Upwell https://store.steampowered.com/app/3667990/Dwarf_Legacy_Demo/ 70 minutes It's alright, the graphics leave some to be desired, the single song looping gets old after a while (especially if you're trying to complete one of the quest runs over and over), and the quests (which can be quite difficult) are basically necessary because otherwise you can't get any upgrades. I do like the quest system itself repurposing levels with different ways to play though, even if the level design isn't particularly complex if the full game keeps the same quality I think it could be quite good.
Furry Steamworld Dig https://store.steampowered.com/app/2251400/Everdeep_Aurora/ 34 minutes This is a bit of an odd one. Aesthetically it looks like a very advanced Gameboy Color game, which I like (in particular the palette swapping depending on area), but unfortunately it also controls like one (WASD + Arrows Keys fucking really?), for example: to quit the game you change the 'Quit' option in the options menu to 'Apply to Quit' and then click 'Apply'??? I enjoyed exploring the mansion but despite getting 3 drill upgrades you only really have to drill like 10 blocks throughout the entire demo which makes the upgrades useless since they upgrade how many times you can drill without having to recharge (something which you have to pay for; which makes me wonder if it's possible to softlock in the full game). The drilling also doesn't feel very good, it's more like you're attacking the block than anything else, so you have to spam the drill button while pressing in the direction of the block rather than holding the button down. With some polishing (may I remind you: WASD+Arrow Keys) I could see the full game being a fun romp.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1877260/Trash_Heart/ 63 minutes Another 2000's GameMaker game, but it's very rough around the edges. The level design is decent, the music is great, the art's not too bad (although environments can feel a little repetitive), and the controls on keyboard suck ass. The UX in general is pretty bad: equipping new weapons/mods requires entering the Esc key menu which is also where Settings and Quit are and I don't think in-game menus and supra-game menus should share the same button/screen; the weapons and mods list could do a way better job of presenting information to the player (one of the mods in particular should say how much damage it increases); and it's hard to tell what button to press to confirm/go back (when talking to NPCs it's the Up/Down arrow but when getting a mod it's the Spacebar? Sure...) which resulted in my menuing being a lot of pressing Escape twice to back out from the weapon menu to then re-open the menu to check mods.

2/5 (Mid)

Link Thoughts
Bugland the Scuffed https://store.steampowered.com/app/3305790/Primland_The_Magus_Demo/ 29 minutes I really want to like this game. The art is nice, the music is actually pretty great (the Attract Mode in particular) and it has a sexy smelly tribal/goblin shopkeeper shoving her bare ass in your face when you buy upgrades at the right edge of stage 2. Oh and it also has a neat grid where you place objects to unlock abilities (not sure how complex that will become later or if it's just a linear straightforward unlock disguised as complex). That said, it is limited to 30 fps, the English translation only translated like 2 lines of dialogue from the main character, the environments are rather sparse, and the movement doesn't feel very fluid. I was met with a game stopping bug on stage 2 so I will come back to the rest of the stages later.
Competent Mobile TD https://store.steampowered.com/app/3394180/Bumper_Blitz_TD_Demo/ 41 minutes It's fine. It's competent enough. Graphically it looks good although it's very obvious by the UI/UX that it's either meant to be a mobile game or designed by a mobile game studio. The levels seem very limiting regarding where you can place towers so some levels feel very much like a puzzle game with an intended solution by the dev. Also, you can completely break and softlock the bonus stage 2 using the shield tower. It's just not very interesting.

1/5 (Bad)

Link Thoughts
Unamused Dash https://store.steampowered.com/app/3077570/MOMO_Crash/ 6 minutes Terrible demo. To start with, the store page mentions "KAWAII x Upbeat" songs but we get... William Tell and Pomp and Circumstance??? Well, fine, maybe the full version will have actual denpa/j-core/happy hardcore or whatever, but even then the gameplay itself is way too simplistic. Z to hit blue notes, X to hit red, hold Z for cats. Maybe the point is that it can be played one-handed so you can jerk off to the thighs but you'd have to be an insane gooner to do so. Muse Dash and Unbeatable can also be played with 2 keys but the 2D plane and mechanics allow for using the buttons to dodge certain notes rather than hitting them, using both buttons at the same time for multi-lane notes, holds/mashing etc. The animation is actually pretty great, but I don't know if the concept has legs.
I Wanna Be the Vampire https://store.steampowered.com/app/3583530/Vampires_Best_Friend/ 24 minutes I really really hate this game. Why can you only fly up-left or up-right? Who thought it was a good idea to have the flight be time-based rather than number of flaps? Why is the time different per room? Why is the first area a bunch of moving bumpers that fuck you up so hard as soon as you brush them? Honestly might as well have made them into spikes because that would've been less frustrating than bouncing around like a dumbass waiting for the flight time to be over or just giving up and mashing space. Not to mention getting stuck on angled ceilings which you would think shouldn't be an issue considering they're 50% of the level design. If you like hard frustrating games that require lots of trial and error then this one is for you but it's not for me.

Looking forward to:

Need to review:

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Pub: 31 May 2025 15:38 UTC
Edit: 04 Jun 2025 05:21 UTC
Views: 157