Developer: Fabraz
Publisher: Playtonic Friends
Genre: 3D Platformer
Platform: PlayStation 5
Ah, the noble platformer: such an unassuming name for one of the most venerated genres in video gaming. It seems to me, dear reader, that in this age of the indie renaissance that independently-made platformers have especially flourished, with such titles as Shovel Knight, A Hat in Time, Yooka-Laylee (I’ll die on that hill, it’s not as bad as everyone made it out to be) and now Demon Turf from developer Fabraz. One of Fabraz’s previous titles, Slime-san, was also a platformer, but while Slime-san was two dimensional in perspective Demon Turf moves things into 3D… with an artistic twist that makes it immediately recognizable.
The Basics: Demon Turf is a 3D-platformer where all the characters appear as if paper puppets against the game’s environments. It stars Beebz, a young demon hell-bent on overthrowing the various gang bosses of the underwold and eventually claiming her rightful place as the Demon Queen. In order to actually challenge the bosses, she needs to collect demonic batteries from seven zones per world, and in order to challenge the reigning Demon King himself she needs fifty batteries out of fifty-six total in the game. Once a zone is completed the first time, “return trip” versions of each level in that zone are unlocked, which remix things to make them slightly harder and allow the player to collect a second battery from them. Since there are only 28 levels in the game’s “first round”, this means that facing the Demon King and completing the game requires beating a majority of the basic levels in the game. Even beyond that fairly sizeable undertaking there’s lots to do, with four different sets of challenge levels and a photographic scavenger hunt as well as collectibles to find, putting the time to fully complete the game in its entirety at about thirty hours.

At first, the sheer amount of things to collect and levels to complete can be a bit daunting (humorously, Beebz even acknowledges this on the menu screen which tracks completion progress) but the gameplay is fun enough that it’s easy to push past. Beebz has a fairly extensive set of moves at her disposal, revolving around chaining together a few base inputs in different orders. You can do a triple hop, double jump in mid-air, use a spin after said double jump to give yourself a little extra distance and slow your fall, do a long jump by spinning and then using your air jump, etc. etc. As you get further into the game you unlock a few extra skills too, such as a grappling hook and hoop snake form which lets you roll around at high speeds. Responsive controls and solid level design that occasionally allows for some freedom in exactly how you get past makes tying it all together feel great. On top of that, one of the many things to collect are trophy times for each level which involve some light speedrunning, so when you’re going for those and really zooming through a stage makes it all feel even more fluid.
If the tight platforming isn’t enough for you, Demon Turf also has an amazing sense of personality. From the word-go, Beebz’s animations do a great job of showing off her personality, with possibly the best example being the slightly bow-legged, delinquent-ish walk she has when not running, and in her conversations with others she shows off a sardonic charm that never feels too mean. The NPCs she talks to, for their part, are fun and varied, ranging from a sentient lollipop who really should put on some pants to an artistic octopus to a human (poorly) disguised as a demon trying to fit in. There’s a lot of little details throughout both the levels and the hubs that really help make the world you’re platforming through fun and cute, and while some of them are a little hard to spot if you’re not looking the photo hunt gives you a reason to look for them, which I thought was a clever way for the developers to sort of show off their work (though I do wish Beebz’s camera could store more than 16 pictures at a time). Even the menu screens have some fun flavor, with most of the options being given cute descriptions and characters popping in to make commentary. To top it all off, the soundtrack is full of amazing, catchy hip-hop and electronica tunes by Fat Bard and M.R. Miller that will get stuck in your head long after you close out of the game.

There are, however, a few notes I would be remiss not to make. For starters, though the platforming may be phenomenal, there’s a combat aspect to the game which is much more lacking. Beebz’s main attack is a ranged punch in the form of either rapid jabs or a stronger, charged hit. Both can knock enemies back but do no actual damage, so combat sections are built around trying to knock enemies out of arenas or into hazards – whether that be spikes or the bottomless pits which the underworld is filled with. The actual force of the punches is a little hard to get a handle on, and even when a combat encounter does go smoothly it still feels like it’s impeding the otherwise impeccable flow of the game, a speedbump in an otherwise immaculately maintained stretch of highway. I would recommend turning off hit reaction in the settings to minimize the clunk of the combat – it’ll still be flawed, but less so, and not disorienting the way it is with it on.
Speaking of disorientation, though, nearly every level has at least one instance where hitting a button or beating some enemies or whatever else opens a new way forward, at which time the camera will briefly snap to look at whatever just changed. Not only is this extremely annoying even when you know to expect it, it can slow down speedruns by making you have to stop for a second or risk missing a jump and there’s no option to turn it off (at least as far as I could find). The development team might be able to add such an option in a patch, but as things stand currently it kinda sucks. Finally, some of the worlds have color palettes that aren’t exactly easy on the eyes, especially if you’re playing for an extended period of time.

Still, the relative rarity of these aspects of the game isn’t enough to drag down the parts that are good, and on the whole Demon Turf is an excellent platformer which I found to be surprisingly accessible. I’ve mentioned in-game speedrun times and other challenges a couple times, and while some of them can be a bit difficult they’re never prohibitively so – I barely had to try to beat most of the times, so while I’m sure there are already some absurd records using buckwild strategies out there, you don’t have to be on that level to reach 100% completion. In short, Demon Turf is an absolute must-play for platformer enthusiasts, whether expert or amateur, indie-lover or otherwise.
Demon Turf
Demon Turf is excellent mechanically and has plenty of flair to help it stand out from the crowd.
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