Demon Turf – Review

It seems that funky 3D platformers are getting a new lease on life. We recently reviewed the very entertaining Pumpkin Jack on PS5, which proved to be a short but sweet treat for those craving some old-school platforming action. Now, we get another demon-infused platformer by the name of Demon Turf. This new game by Fabraz takes a Paper Mario approach to its visual style by combining 2D sprites with a 3D world. Hellbent on taking on the Demon King himself, we put our platforming skills to the test.

Story

The story in Demon Turf is quite simple. You’ll be playing as Beebz, who is being pestered by the Demon King in her dreams. As she has had enough of him, she decides to take him on in battle. Sadly, before she’s able to do that, she’ll have to take over the different turfs of the demon world. The story is quite simplistic, but it is appealing nonetheless. We enjoyed the witty dialogues that you are presented with throughout the game.

Graphics

Demon Turf has a very interesting visual style. The character and enemy sprites in the game are all 2D models. These are animated in a comic book-like fashion, and most of them look quite good. Some may look a bit unfinished and messy compared to the more important characters in this unique platformer. The environments create a nice contrast, as every area in the game is done with 3D models. We do have to mention that the graphical quality of the 3D models feels a bit dated and comes nowhere close to a next-gen release. That being said, it all blends together perfectly creating a very nice-looking whole. We loved the different themes for the different turfs and some models did make us smirk a tiny bit.

Sound

The sound design of Demon Turf is absolutely great. The voice acting is fun and feels just right for a proper ’90s cartoon, and the upbeat soundtrack feels fitting. The sound effects that accompany things are also great and they fit the action onscreen perfectly. We do regret that some key dialogues are not voiced, as a fully voiced experience would have been absolutely amazing for this title.

Gameplay

Demon Turf is an old-school 3D action platformer where you go through short stages to collect batteries, to eventually conquer several turfs before you are able to fight the Demon King. The game proves to be pretty straightforward, as you’ll always have to make it to the end of the relatively short levels, in order to collect the battery of that stage, and perhaps some extra items along the way. Explorers may find currency to unlock new skills or customization options for Beebz. As you progress through the game, new abilities are made available to you, where you may add an extra jump to your double jump ability, or a grappling hook that allows you to latch onto platforms or even rip off an enemy’s armor.

As stated above, the game is a very straightforward experience, and we loved the somewhat simple concept behind the game. The levels are fun to play through, and the game is conveniently designed for short gaming sessions. Demon Turf also has a unique checkpoint system within the levels themselves, where you can place a fixed number of checkpoints yourself. You’ll have to decide where to best place these, as when you have used them all, you will not be able to place any additional ones for that level anymore (unless you completely restart said level). This is a fun way of giving the player control over where they think it is best to have a respawn point. To top things off, the levels are also built with speedrunners in mind, which creates a lot of replay value.

Everything works as expected but not everything feels as polished as one may wish. You’ll quickly notice that there are many awkward camera angles and that the controls are not always extremely responsive. The latter was very noticeable during the first boss battle when having to use the grappling hook, which more than often just didn’t respond to our commands (even though the prompt was clearly there). All in all, these somewhat clunky encounters are far and few between, but they can make a few segments of the game very annoying.

Conclusion

Demon Turf is the Paper Mario of platformers and it is an interesting trip down memory lane. The game presents you with an old-school experience while feeling polished enough for our modern-day standards. Even though the game may not present you with that many original mechanics, the art style used does give it a unique appearance, and in combination with the soundscape, it makes for a very fun experience. We were quite entertained by this one, and we will probably continue trying to beat our records on many of the game’s different levels.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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