Demon Turf Review

Game: Demon Turf
Genre: Platformer, Action, Adventure
System: Steam (Windows) (also Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Fabraz | Playtonic Friends
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $22.49 | EU €19,79 | UK £17.99
Release Date: November 4th, 2021

Review code provided with many thanks to Press Engine 

Friends of the Bear 

Demon Turf is a 3D platform adventure with mild collectible elements. Published by Playtonic Friends, the folks behind classic hits like Banjo Kazooie and the recent Yooka-Laylee. Demon Turf certainly fits the mould of these games, but at the same time presenting a unique graphical design and gameplay to stand out. If you’re hungry for a new 3D platformer, then Demon Turf is a title well worth keeping on your radar. 

Gangs of the Demon Realm 

Demon Turf is set in the demon world where its inhabitants have banded together to form gangs and battle for domain over the Netherrealm. But alone, none of these gangs quite have the muscle to take on the Demon King. That is until a young demon Beebz, just shy of a thousand years old, decides the realm needs a new Queen. And so begins her quest to challenge each gang one by one before taking on the mighty Demon King. The plot has a humorous feel to it and a narrative and design that certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously. Beebz herself comes across as an angsty teenager with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. Snappy and overconfident but a suited protagonist to this demon style adventure. I enjoyed the little quips she occasionally makes while exploring the levels. And if you decide to stop to talk to a NPC, she usually has something snarky to say. All of the plot is presented in subtitles with the odd bit of voice acting thrown in. 

Grab the Batteries

You start off in the main hub world and enter a new gang territory, which will include 7 levels that you can tackle in any order. The goal of each level is to simply navigate your way to the end to collect a battery, but you no doubt will want to explore looking for collectibles. Controls are easy to start with but take a little getting used to. Beebz is able to do all the jumps, double jump, wall jump, glide and even a Mario style jump after performing three jumps in a row. By combining these moves together you can pull off a jump move that catapults you forward from a glide. It does require you to be specific and accurate with your button presses, but once it clicks it feels surprisingly comfortable to navigate the world. 

The overall difficulty of the game is moderate to mildly frustrating. There were sections where I did have to take a break from tricky platforming segments. Sometimes, the combination of jumps you’re supposed to use to reach a platform is not exactly clear. So make sure you plant those checkpoint flags when needed. I enjoyed how the levels were a relatively short length (around 15 minutes). It makes this an appealing title to dip in and out of even if you’re a little short on gaming time

Plant Your Flag

Take one hit and you die. A good thing the game has unlimited lives! If you do find the game is a bit too easy you are able to make things a little more retro. You can choose to restart the level from the start if you prefer things demonically difficult. Being a typical 3D platformer, expect to do plenty of jumping across many small moving platforms. The developers seemed to take note that it is not particularly fun falling off a platform and restarting the level from the same checkpoint or level start. So they allow the player to place a limited number of flags throughout the level, allowing you to create your own checkpoints. You don’t just use these if you fail, you can also warp back to them at any point during the level. You can explore the level at your leisure whilst eliminating tedious backtracking across tricky sections.

Most levels have three hidden cake collectibles, usually hidden in difficult places. But if you’re struggling to find them you can just tap a button and a handy cloudy looking arrow will literally point you in the right direction. It’s totally optional but certainly offers a quality of life feature for those that want to see everything, but not spend ages hunting. 

Beat the Boss

Collect 7 batteries and then it’s time to take on a boss. But just before the fight you unlock a new move like a hook shot, a glide move, an orb which slows down platforms you shoot it at and the ability to race around in a spinning wheel. The game does a nice job of introducing you to new controls and mechanics with mini tutorial sections which keep you invested in the level instead of stopping you in your tracks. The boss fights are well layered. These require some pattern recognition and looking for the right moment to strike. But they change throughout the battle, rather than relying on asking the player to repeat the same process over and over. If you are finding the experience a bit much, your little buddy does pop up to give you some mild hints to point you in the right direction. 

Talk to the Hand 

The game is not all jumping about. Often you need to pause to take out a few enemies. Combat in Demon Turf certainly starts off interesting. Beebz is able to charge up a large palm attack which pushes enemies back and usually quips for them to ‘talk to the hand.’ To actually defeat enemies you need to either push them off the platform or into some deadly spike traps. For the most part it works but there were many occasions where enemies just didn’t push into the desired direction. It was a pain to constantly realign attacks to push the enemy into a hazard. This isn’t easy when you’re trying to avoid all sorts or projectiles, some of which take you out in one hit. Things feel even more messy when you start bringing in the unlockable hook shot. This is regularly used to remove enemy shields and just feels a bit tedious. It feels it would have served you better if you could just defeat them with the palm itself but I respect the effort made here from the usual design you see in platformers. 

2D Sprites, 3D World 

There’s an unusual graphical style which mixes 3D environments and 2D sprites. When I initially played this game I was kinda getting DOOM vibes from its design. When I initially saw this I falsely assumed the mix of 2D characters and 3D platform would be a recipe for disaster. But I am glad to report I was dead wrong on this. Navigating the 3D world in Demon Turf is very comfortable indeed. A lot of levels scale vertically, having you slowly climb higher and higher to the degree where you develop a video game fear of heights. The demon realm has some nice level designs with a cyberpunk style city and a dark and sandy environment. The red filter certainly gives the demon hebbie jebbies. It was a little weird to see locations like a beach resort and Winter setting, but I guess even demon realms need some variety in design. Though not traditional, it’s a design I ended up really warming to. 

Extra Content

There is a plentiful amount of content to keep you busy on your demon adventures, particularly if you like to 100% a game. Once you have finished the main level in Demon Turf  you can actually revisit them after defeating the boss. You can acquire an additional battery, only with a different and more challenging layout. Revisiting these levels is essential to see the game to its conclusion, but you don’t need to totally 100% the game. Cakes and sweeties act as the games small collectibles. These can be exchanged for new cosmetics like colour for your hair, outfit or you can shove a little animal in your hair if you fancy. You can also use cake to exchange for small mod upgrades like an extra flag or jump. But you can only equip a limited number of these so choose carefully.

In the main hub area you can also take on extra mini golf games where you need to push a boulder into the goal. This didn’t end up being a lot of fun for me since you need to use the palm move and the darn hook shot. However, there is a unique side quest that tasks you with taking photos of specific areas in the levels. None of these side adventures are as entertaining as the main campaign itself though. Lastly, Demon Turf  has a lot of settings in the options which appear to appeal to the speed run crowd such as showing a timer and automatically skipping cutscenes. 

Conclusion – Demon Style 

Demon Turf is an entertaining demon filled adventure that I recommend to fans of 3D platformers. The game has a few niggles here and there. Combat felt loose and clunky, the platforming, while fun to control, had its moments of frustrations, particularly later in the game. Lastly, the side quests were just not very interesting. The developers clearly put a lot of love and effort into this release and it shows in volumes in the games design and brave attempt at trying something different from the usual platform formula. Not everything clicked with me but this is a trip into the demon realm I’m happy I took. For those that give it a chance, it’s hard not to find something to like in this demonic adventure. 

Final Verdict: I Like it