Steam Next Fest - June '25
We’re almost equidistant between Steam Next Fests! What started as a nifty way to see some indies get their time in the light has quickly turned into a week-long panic (positive) where I block out my calendar and play as many titles as I can in 7 days. So, before we reach the next Next Fest (Mon, October 13th), here’s a look at my favorite finds from June!
Formula Legends
It’s shocking that we aren’t seeing many motorsport video games despite how F1 has exploded in the US over recent years. We have our big name racers, the Forzas and Gran Turismos, not to mention the sim racing darlings, iRacings and Assetto Corsas. But what about something more arcade-y? Something that’s straightforward to pick up, with more mechanics than outright driving, but without the worry advanced simulated aerodynamics.
Formula legends bridges this gap. You have (honestly adorable) miniature formula cars, combined with tire grip, battery management, and pit stops. Its the perfect number of plates to keep spinning. An easy addition to weekly game nights for F1 fans and non-fans alike. Plus the name puns are a fun touch.
Lanesplit
Lay on the gas, dodge traffic, go fast and find some new numbers. There’s not much else, but it has good vibes.
BALL X PIT
I always love seeing this trend of taking classic games I’d expect from a Windows 98 machine, and leaning in with story, mechanics, and the like. BALL X PIT is classic breakout, with a lacquer of dark fantasy, city building, and roguelite elements. That alone should tell you if BXP is your shit or not. Either way, it’s great to see some new ground tread on what’s tried and tested.
Dead As Disco
Oof, okay, I love that more music-based games exist. Especially as we try to disentangle ourselves from not owning music (and thus having access to more mp3s). But…I’m a little surprised how I felt walking away from Dead As Disco. Its been over a decade since titles like Beat Hazard, Audiosurf, and, most notably, Kickbeat were released. Dead As Disco is gorgeous, and wears it’s badass action movie influence proudly (hello, again, Old Boy hallway [I’ve never seen Old Boy]) but the Arkham combat left me tired by the end of the first chorus. A game I’ll look up highlights of, I’m sure.
Dune Crawl
Dune Crawl was far and away the sleeper hit of all the demos I downloaded. I’ve heard some comparisons to Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, as Dune Crawl is also a 4-player co-op experience piloting a large vehicle. So, what sets Dune Crawl apart? Crab.
Dune Crawl did not impress me on first launch. Combat felt unimpactful, floaty, and rather brain-dead. I was always flush with ammo and enemies always punished my standard melee combo. But there was a fun air of mysterious desert culture that kept me and my parter playing - plus we got to ride an adorable giant beetle. Eventually we reached what we thought was the climax: saving the civilizations sacred giant crab deity that was brainwashed into attacking the townsfolk. Our simultaneous shock when, after un-brainwashing the giant crab, we were then instructed to climb the crustacean and pilot it around the desert for the remainder of our adventure.
We crawled around the desert, loading & firing the onboard crab cannons, and repairing & upgrading our crab as needed. Piloting our crab and manning the cannons was so fun that it overshadowed any issues we had with the early game and easily landed Dune Crawl on our wishlists and social media.
Henry Halfhead
You are Henry Halfhead! You possess (?) objects in the environment and use their functions to mess with other objects in the environment…? Listen, it’s a weird pitch, but if you were a fan of the slow but more interactive moments of any Hazelight game then you know the sauce I’m selling. Wear a big hat! Become objects and stack up a tower! Become a knife and open your birthday presents early! Finding how deep the interactivity rabbit hole goes is the charm.
Neon Inferno
It pains me to say side-scrollers are a genre I’m terrible at, because Neon Inferno is fantastically stylized. Stunning pixel art, the cyberpunk grim we all know and love, and surprisingly engaging 2.5D mechanics. My partner and I had a fun time looking around, shooting dudes, and promptly died. Would recommend! Especially if this genre’s your itch.
Platypus Reclayed
Woah, a Platypus remake? With new claymation!? Wait, when did the original Platypus come out? WHAT DO YOU MEAN NINETEE — Platypus is a no-frills shoot ‘em up (shmup) from 2004. If you’ve seen any shmup then you know exactly what you’re getting into. But what has always stood out was Platypus’ claymation style, with an art direction similar to Sega’s Fantasy Zone. I was impassioned to play through Platypus with my friends in middle school despite my difficulty with side-scrollers. It’s gorgeous, responsive, straightforward, and a fantastic jaunt for even a side-scrolling ignoramus.
I’m most excited to play in Platypus’ natural habitat: on the couch, with my partner, at the end of a long day. I’ll hold down that fire button until I fall asleep or run out of lives.
Dispatch
No duh this made it on my to-play list. You stack a studio with Telltale veterans, throw in some celebrity voices, and make it tongue-in-cheek superhero schlock, and you have my attention.
The demo was half Telltale standard narrative decision making, and half super hero management. As the name implies, you receive requests for super support - everything from cats in trees to stopping art thieves. The spin is your squad of misfit heroes are far from the front-cover material. Its up to you to keep tempers, skills, and tag-team bonuses in-mind when making decisions to send which heroes where.
The demo has great comedy, great characters, and a STUDDED voice cast (Aaron Paul headlining, but also internet-stars Alanah Pearce, Jacksepticeye, MoistCr1TiKaL, and multiple Critical Role darlings).
You don’t get too much context of the broader story, but its goofy, dramatic, and overall a fun time.
Speed Rivals
Slot cars!!! I picked the 86 because I use any excuse to bump eurobeat to a racing game. I played solo, but had a fun couple laps and hilarious spin-outs.
Battle Suit Aces
This Next Fest really felt like 80’s - 90’s anime reference crawled into the spotlight. And Battle Suit Aces showed this isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s got cards, tactics, robots, sci-fi, anime hearththrobs, and an aesthetic that’s a love letter to 40+ years of mecha.
The demo kept the tactics fairly light; enough opportunity to put together your own turbo bullshit combos, with just enough hinting at customization across (what feels like a) long story campaign. I lost multiple hours working through a very gracious demo, having fun bouncing between character relationships, sci-fi drama, and slapping down cards.
Tamashika
Fast-paced FPS freaks you know who you are. And if you don’t, you’re about to find out. Plays like a rhythm game, LDS Dream Emulator, and Ultrakill blunt rotation.
My Card Is Better Than Your Card!
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No one I knew ever had Pokemon cards, so I couldn’t practice what I learned from the excellent GBC game to dominate my 2nd grade class. Come 4th grade, I went to a birthday party with two focuses: the new TLZ Wind Waker, and Yu-Gi-Oh. This sparked an interest not just for me, but eventually the whole school - which later had to ban TCGs due to elementary schoolers stealing & fighting. But, before we lost our card privileges, we played this rule-heavy TCG on pure, childhood vibes. I’m talking 80-card decks built for the coolest artwork and whatever boosters (or tins!) we were lucky enough to get at Christmas.
This is the energy that My Card Is Better Than Your Card! captures. Rule-light, goof-heavy, art-customized cards that you display & play. “This card gives me 3 bugs, which I can use to boost my next card!” “Well my card summoned a fish that gives me bonus candy per turn!”. Hell yeah.
Crown Gambit
Some days I think video games chasing the souls-like dragon has done more harm than good. Then I get my pretentious head out of my ass and look at this fucking gorgeous artwork.
The premise? Religion, god-ordained weapons, and paladins stuck in the middle of a war for the throne.
The gameplay? Dark tactics. Too many enemies and too little health. You’ll need power, but the cup you sip from corrupts. That strength will corrupt you, your combat, and your actions.
Choices, consequences, and FUCKING LOOK AT THIS ART. Every scene, a poster. Every narrative, chills. Every paladin, corrupt with beauty.
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Crescent County
Crescent County was a welcome break after spending half my day stressing over Crown Gambit. Witches, broom motorcycles, and deliveries in a gorgeous countryside. Yes, it’s a little barren, but the bones are excellent (and the dev’s mention the demo island is not representative of their typical levels). Can’t wait to see more witch-pop style with plenty of excuses to use the in-game photo mode.
Mina The Hollower
YACHT CLUB. GAMEBOY COLOR BLOODBORNE. A CUTE MOUSE. ANTHROPOMORPHIC ANIMAL CAST. 120 HZ.
Looks gorgeous, plays like a hardcore Zelda Oracle game. If this runs on pocket emulators then we can add it to the arguments for making more public transit.
Wander Stars
If your game is so ‘anime inspired” then why don’t I see any text in #F3CE32???
Wander Stars may be a little rose-tinted with it’s stark 1980’s anime inspiration, but it leans in so well. The subtitles, the hair, the emotive faces, the fact that the whole game might as well be a tournament arc. Paper Castle Games has it locked in.
The gameplay is a fun spin on the classic RPG command window. Instead of simply selecting attack, you pair attack verbs with modifiers; you don’t just “PUNCH” you “SUPER PUNCH” or “ELECTRIC SUPER PUNCH”. There’s an added spin of the main character not wanting to go on a tyrannical killing spree, so you have the option of fighting each enemy to 0 hp, or sparing them. It adds some nice tactics to what would otherwise be a min/max damage fest.
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Everdeep Aurora
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Pixel art is ungodly powerful, and Everdeep Aurora is the exact reason why. The demo is mostly some jaunty 2d platforming, and trying on new hats. But I’d take a guess that the demo beguiles the work that’s been done here. There are some line drops that suggest Everdeep Aurora’s world is significantly deeper that what’s being let on…or it’ll be a fun cat platformer with hats! As late-stage capitalism consumers, we can’t lose!
Death Howl
And the pixel art hits keep. On. Rolling.
Death Howl is mostly black. Devoid of color, as the main character walks the land of death in an attempt to save their child. You fight through spirits with violent, animal-like cards that you play to attack, defend, and move. You aren’t powerful - you have a downright paltry amount of health - and the bigger attacks have you heaving your tired spirit body, screaming as you struggle with rock and knife to find your child’s spirit.
The pixel art visuals read muddy, imperfect in a way that suggests a physical art form rather than a sharp, digital one. And it fucking shines. Old 8 and 16-bit games are brought up to illustrate the space our mind fills between the pixels and our understanding. Death Howl is a progression of that concept. Everything is characterized with pixels - but standards be dammed, those orphan pixels bring character. That lack of symmetry, humanity. That encompassing black, the darkness waiting patiently for your eyes to never adjust.
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Star Birds
This was cute! Jackson’s first Tonka 4x resource management game, featuring avians. I didn’t get too far into the demo, but still had fun managing my birds to collect resources that other birds were depending on to then make resources needed by my capital ship.
Consume Me
Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical work about the struggles of being a teenager, and thus, is chock full of content warnings. See:
"Consume Me ... depicts dieting, disordered eating, and fatphobia. If you are someone who struggles with or has struggled with disordered eating, it's possible that Consume Me will be a stressful or even upsetting experience and we won't begrudge you for giving it a pass."
With all that said, Consume Me does a good job of walking the line between stressful (if not impossible) time management sim, and teenage girl simulator. What do you do when your list of chores cuts into your free time, your mother cuts into your mental health, everything cuts into your finances, and failure for anything is a slippery slope into spiraling out of control? Hence the content warning.
I will say, I found the game a little on the easy side. On one hand, I can appreciate those that say the main character’s struggle is diluted by the lack of difficulty. But I’d argue that no amount of hellish resource and time management for the player will spark a big-bang-like event, granting them the bare minimum empathy needed to understand the horrors of a scale, dieting, and fitting into a dress.
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UNBEATABLE
THE GAME WHERE MUSIC IS ILLEGAL AND YOU DO CRIMES.
UNBEATABLE might be my most anticipated game for this year. Style incarnate and I have so much good to say about it. Every screenshot looks like it could be a wallpaper. The music’s a bop. The characters, THEIR WRITING. The line “…you can’t stop them reading you, but don’t let them write new pages”? D-CELL has been cooking with gas for years, and we’re finally getting a taste.
I did have some issues. A visual and audio bug that persisted throughout my entire session. Plus a couple scenes that didn’t progress smoothly - or I simply couldn’t understand what was happening. There was a lot in the story that was implied, which, in my NextFest haze, made it a little hard to follow. But then I got to make a cool poster - did you know they have stylized versions of The Cool S for each character?
In all seriousness, I pray they take their time with polishing UNBEATABLE. The demo felt like a tiny, idiosyncratic fraction of the game, but its got fun and its got soul.
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