Indie developer Fabraz is back with a new entry in the Demon Turf series called Demon Turf: Neon Splash. PC gamers and Nintendo Switch owners are the first to take a dive back into the crazy cutesy demon-filled world… But this time it’s neon-lit.
What If?
Imagine a world in which developers listen to their fanbase. A world in which criticism is taken seriously and used to make better games. Also, a world where developers don’t lose their time adjusting the smallest detail and losing focus on what really matters… the actual gameplay. Such a world must surely be fantasy. But what if I told you the time is nigh… Almost 4 months ago, Fabraz released Demon Turf on the world. The platformer was praised for its core gameplay but also criticized for certain game mechanics. Taking anything into account Fabraz made a spin-off using all the good parts and cutting out the less optimal parts titled Demon Turf: Neon Splash.
Behind the painting
Demon Turf: Neon Splash is an hommage to many great 3D platformers but the Mario 64 vibe is probably most visible. To make it even more clear… Beebz, a girl demon, and her friends find themselves falling into a painting after which they seem to be stuck in a neon-filled world. At the end of each level, you need to jump into a new painting to find a way out of this world. After going through about 10 levels you’ll have finished this game making this a rather short but fun experience. The low price for this standalone “expansion/remix” merits the limited game time and actually entices me to yearn for more.
Precise platforming
Demon Turf: Neon Splash is a platformer with some Mario 64 vibes. It uses some heavy cel-shading techniques and a huge palette of neon colors to give the world a unique taste. The game is all platforming action in a much more linear way than the original game it was based on. Jumping, double jumping, gliding, wall jumps, … you name it, it’s probably in this game. The mechanics are all here to have a lot of options to conquer the original levels. The game is no walk in the park and will require you to get good at mastering all the different actions. One nudge too far could mean imminent death. It took me a whopping 17 minutes to get through the first level. Luckily I got better with practice.
Each level has time goals, lollipops to collect and a vinyl record to find. The time goals are no joke and cater to the speedrunning community. It feels possible to reach gold but it takes true dedication to make every input count towards shaving off those seconds. Collecting the lollipops to use to upgrade your abilities, will require some casual gameplay making replaying the levels a bunch of times necessary. Luckily everything collected carries over. Finding the vinyl record opens up the remix version of the level. These remix levels are exponentially harder than the original and will require true mastery of the game in order to get through them. To me, these seem almost sadistically hard but I’m sure there are fans out there who will adore them and probably ace them in record times.
Some rougher edges
The game looks like a hipster version of the N64 era. “Très Ironic Polygon” is maybe the best way to describe it. The textures are all over the place, high and low resolution is mixed making the world look abstract but still charming. All this can’t quite obscure the fact corners were cut and most of the rough edges are left in the game. Since this is pure indie made I won’t hold that against this game at all. As mentioned, it even adds to a sort of eclectic charm. What I did find annoying were some camera problems. I experienced a few too many missteps caused by a camera angle not doing what it was supposed to do. On some occasions, I couldn’t get out of the air spin move because I could get to a place I shouldn’t be able to get to.
Conclusion
Demon Turf: Neon Splash is a short but sweet game. When embracing imperfections, this holds up as a great 3D platformer. Give this one a try next time you yearn for some sweet Mario 64 action and maybe you’ll find Demon Turf: Neon Splash is your next fix.
