(mashedmarket)

My looord! I’ve been trying demos or fiddling with web games for probably six weeks straight. Next week, I’ll likely be able to get back to being thoughtful about games. Probably I’ll try to determine whether my demo-playing experiences can be culled for any insight as to what makes a given demo great. Below, you’ll find my thoughts on the final five demos I had yet to play.

Numero uno being Worms. It certainly lays on the charm. Those little guys are pretty darn cute, and their voicework is just HOPElessly adorable. Problem is, I don’t have the patience for them — the game’s relatively slow-moving. But I downloaded this one to get the whole experience more than anything else, so…mission accomplished.

“NaNaaa, na na na na na No-Na na na na NOna naaa.” God but I’ve missed Katamari Damacy. Still, Katamari Forever would have to be hiding a lot of tricks up its sleeve to get me thinking about purchasing something new right now. Then again, this cel-shaded art style looks bangin’. Was there a “Prince Bounce” in the last game? Doesn’t seem to be adding much if no. But wherever it is I’ve been rolling definitely made wayyy more sense as an actual PLACE than practically everything I remember in Damacy, which is a welcome change. Also, the water mechanic (wherein your katamari acts as a sponge) is promising. Maybe there’s more here than met my eye initially…

On to some TMNT. I’d forgotten how Krang lives in Andre the Giant’s weightlifting belt. Anyway. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled looks great, but the characters feel like balloon animals. Which probably wouldn’t be so bad if it were just the grunts. But my avatar — something about him suggests he could just up and blow away. Maybe it’s a Rafael problem? Nope; same feeling with Donatello. Definitely preferred my memories of this one.

Never considered myself a big boxing fan, but I have seen When We Were Kings probably like five times now. Haven’t played a single Fight Night title, though. The demo for Fight Night Round 4 has one fantastic introduction — there’s a voice-overed feature breakdown that I really appreciate. Also, game demos with required tutorials have a leg up in my book. I’m really diggin’ these controls; they remind me of Skate’s sim-y feel, but require less precision…the perfect combination, in my opinion. Alright. Time to dig in. And win the crap out of my first fight! Has this one dropped in price yet? If so, I’d definitely consider buying.

They probably didn’t need to mess with Ghostbusters, but what the hey, right? The Columbia Pictures trappings during start-up kind of freak me out a little bit. That copyright-infringing music really jazzes me up, anyway — I just can’t help it. My PKE Meter is pretty satisfying to use, but that green the screen gets bathed is isn’t a treat to look at. Hrm. Anyway. Not much to say about this one, folks. Glad there was a demo; I definitely had some fun with it. But this particular license being adapted as a video game just doesn’t appeal to me for some reason. It’s too loyal to the material, maybe? I wish Starbreeze had done it.

Whew. Finally through the stack that had piled up while I was occupied with house stuff. Still have plenty of painting to do, but not so much that it’d prohibit my downloading the new Fallout 3 DLC next week…