Steam Next Fest has arrived once again. Hundreds upon hundreds of demos for upcoming games are now at players' fingertips, and we're downloading and playing many demos ourselves based on personal excitement, curiosity, and positive word-of-mouth. With so many demos to consider, you may be struggling to decide which ones may be worth your time; that's where we come in. Some GI editors are sharing their favorite Next Fest demos so far and why we think they're worth a look. Keep checking back to this list, as we'll be updating it over the week until Steam Next Fest concludes on Monday, March 2. 

SoulQuest

Developer: SoulBlade Studio 

I adore stylish action games, but it’s not often I see this slick form of combat successfully translated in 2D. SoulQuest, an upcoming indie game by SoulBlade Studio, does a hell of a job of pulling this off. Players control Alys, a warrior on a quest to slay the Celtic gods holding her husband captive. Armed with her trusty blade, combat consists of nailing hyper-fast combos, popping skeletons and other mythical beasts airborne, and juggling them with flashy offense that feels smooth and satisfying. Although the level design is basic and the dialogue leaves a bit to be desired, the action feels very good so far, and I look forward to seeing how much more polished it can become before arriving sometime this year. – Marcus Stewart

Check out the demo here. 

Arkheron

Developer: Bonfire Studios 

Arkheron is a game I recently spent two and a half hours playing for a preview, and though its battle royale description didn’t inspire much excitement in me, I finished my gameplay ready for more. This PvP isometric action game pits 15 trios against each other and looks like Diablo, with dark fantasy dungeons to loot and creatures to destroy, but despite what its POV would have you believe, it actually plays a lot like a shooter. Because the camera rotates around your character as the focal point, aiming your on-screen reticle requires the accuracy and precision of a game like Valorant.

What I especially enjoyed in my preview was discovering new weapons and loot as my trio attempted to climb to the top of the tower through vicious PvP arena fights. Most of the gear, save for healing items and the like, is that of 10 Eternals, god-like beings that rotate in and out of the loot pool. Collect two of an Eternals’ item, and you gain a set bonus – collect all four, and you transform into them for some wild combative effects. There is a lot more that impressed me in Arkheron, and you can read my full thoughts here in my preview, but I say all this to recommend that you check it out on PC! As part of Steam Next Fest, developer Bonfire Studios has turned its servers on for 24/7 access to Arkheron from today through March 2. – Wesley LeBlanc

Check out the demo here

Titanium Court

Developer: AP Thomson

To call this a match-3 game would be insufficient, at best. The core mechanics of sliding tiles and erasing lines, then sending out automated troops from your keep to battle other enemy forts, should be easy enough to grasp in a round or two. It's the surreal style and tone surrounding Titanium Court that makes developer AP Thomson's game so intriguing, though. Between the ebbing High and Low Tides of war, you're led through a dreamlike narrative, where you flit between new conversations and rooms as the stage lifts and reassembles itself around you. The overt nods towards A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the titular faerie court and one of your assistants, Puck, keep things joyful, strange, and altogether mesmerizing. There's some magic at work here, and I'm eager to see it play out. - Eric Van Allen

Check out the demo here.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

Developer: Poncle

Vampire Survivors developer Poncle essentially upended Steam in 2022, becoming the namesake for an entire subgenre. It's fitting, then, that as Steam Next Fest is flooded with Survivor-likes, Poncle returns with a new spin on its own formula, trading hordes and timers for first-person dungeon-crawling action in Vampire Crawlers. Everything is wonderfully nostalgic, from the framed UI to the arrow controls for turning your facing. While the implements of Survivors are still here – Whips, Knives, and Holy Bibles alike – what matters more is sequencing, upgrading, and linking them together into devastating combos. Death returns you to a town for some cross-run upgrades, and then you're back to it. If the demo's any indication, I can see myself losing quite a few hours in commutes and late nights within these new dungeons. – Eric Van Allen

Check out the demo here.

Wild Blue Skies

Developer: Chuhai Labs

Wild Blue Skies falls squarely into the very specific but effective subgenre of games I like to call the “Fine, I’ll Do It Myselfs.” That’s to say it’s an indie-developed project heavily inspired by a beloved but dormant franchise – in this case, Star Fox. I have fond memories of Star Fox 64, specifically, and I enjoyed how Wild Blue Skies’ brief demo captured the on-rails shooting fun and cheesy vibes of the N64 classic. The cartoon-esque art direction looks good, flying and shooting feel smooth, and the comms chatter is delightfully dorky. It remains to be seen if Wild Blue Skies offers other twists to make it more than a faithful homage to Fox McCloud, but if you’re tired of waiting for Nintendo to deliver a new Star Fox, you should absolutely give this demo a look. – Marcus Stewart

Check out the demo here. 

Call of the Elder Gods

Developer: Out of the Blue Games

I really liked 2020’s Call of the Sea (check out my review), so I’m very much on board with this upcoming sequel, based on its entertaining demo. Set roughly 20 years later, players control Evangeline Drayton, a university student haunted by strange dreams of a mysterious artifact. Her plight is interwoven with the similarly supernatural struggles of Professor Harry Everhart, the husband of Call of the Sea protagonist, Norah. The meaty Steam demo lets players experience the game’s prologue and first chapter, which largely unfolds within a mysterious manor filled with fun puzzles to unravel. I quickly fell into a cozy zen of collecting clues and connecting dots, to the point I was disappointed when the “Thanks for playing!” graphic appeared to signal the demo’s conclusion. I’m looking forward to diving headfirst into another intriguing mystery in this universe. – Marcus Stewart

Check out the demo here. 

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies

Developer: ZA/UM

The splintering of ZA/UM after its critically acclaimed debut Disco Elysium has been the subject of many, many stories that would be too much to get into in a single blurb. Suffice to say, numerous games and studios have been born from the ashes of Disco Elysium, and so has Zero Parades, still made by ZA/UM. Centered on a spy brought out of soft retirement, only for her first mission to go absolutely haywire right from the start, it's a little more espionage thriller than pulp detective story. It works though, and the developers at current ZA/UM found a clever evolution of Elysium's tabletop-akin mechanics in its system of perks and stressors; the push-and-pull of exerting your abilities to force successful dice rolls, all the while accruing anxiety or fatigue that will force you to de-skill one of your perks once it maxes out, places the power structure of Zero Parades on a knife's edge of long-term risk versus immediate reward. The demo is worth playing, even just academically, to see where the new ZA/UM is heading. – Eric Van Allen

Check out the demo here.

Esoteric Ebb

Developer: Christoffer Bodegård

Another Disco Elysium-like, Esoteric Ebb takes many framing cues from ZA/UM's seminal work, but paints those colors within the lines of high fantasy, namely Dungeons & Dragons. As a Cleric sent to find out why a tea shop exploded several days before a major election, your inner monologue is dominated by the likes of Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom rather than Volition or Esprit De Corps. Perhaps too dominated, to be frank. In my early playtime, I seemed to be having very long diatribes in my head, as nearly every voice wanted to hop in and say something. Esoteric Ebb's writing is excellent, though, and I always enjoy a smart twist on a classic setting. This is a game where the likely endpoint of charisma-maxxing is becoming an apolitical people-pleaser, and that kind of sharp direction is enough to lock me in. – Eric Van Allen

Check out the demo here.

The Eternal Life of Goldman

Developer: Weappy Studio

Perhaps the most visually impressive demo I’ve played thus far is The Eternal Life of Goldman. This 2D platformer features stunning hand-drawn, classically rendered animation that needs to be seen in motion to be fully appreciated. Players control an elderly adventurer who bounces through fantastical platforming levels atop his cane à la Scrooge McDuck in the classic DuckTales game. His customizable cane can be outfitted with different parts, such as a hook handle that lets him swing off of rings and pull objects, or various shafts that determine how high he bounces. The controls feel great, and the challenging precision platforming gauntlets are fun tests, especially because it’s hard not to be distracted by the insane artistic details in every scene. With an entire archipelago filled with stunning locations to discover and an intriguing layer of meta-storytelling with a mother and her sick child narrating the adventure, The Eternal Life of Goldman had my curiosity when I first laid eyes on it last year; after playing its roughly 90-minute demo, it has firmly earned my attention. – Marcus Stewart

Check out the demo here. 

Cursed Words

Developer: Buried Things

Cursed Words is a roguelike word search game, and while I promise I know how to spell, my favorite runs have been the ones where I don't have to. Its structure is similar to Balatro's, where each letter costs a certain number of points and items (stamps and stickers, in this case) either add bonus score or multiply your final score. If you're good at word searches, you're off to a pretty good start, but some items and upgrades can drastically change your strategy to the point that finding long words becomes a secondary concern.

One item rewarded me for each tile of a certain color I didn't use, and another spawned in wild card tiles (indicated by question marks) whenever I met certain conditions. The beauty of the wild cards is that the game automatically fills in whatever letter fits the word you're trying to spell; in my best run, I got enough items that generated wild card tiles that I could just chain a bunch together (and throw in an "s" or "ed" at the end where possible), avoid red tiles, and get tons of points. It made a great first impression, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with lots of different strategies (or as I like to spell it, ST???EG??S). – Charles Harte

Check out the demo here.

GladiEATers

Developer: MilkBubblesGames

GladiEATers is a turn-based RPG with a simple twist – you have to cook your party members before each battle. In a world where food can come to life (thanks to the discovery of the CAL particle), chefs become gladiators, pitting their dishes against an opponent's. In-game, that means you actually have to successfully cook your battlers before each encounter, using simple, hard-to-master minigames to perform tasks like chopping vegetables or frying an egg. It's kind of like Cooking Mama meets Pokémon. The character art, specifically of the human characters, is also fantastic, with an impressive level of detail. As is the case with many Next Fest games, it probably needs some more time in the oven, but I'm excited to dig in once it's warm and ready. – Charles Harte

Check out the demo here.

Quarter Up has revealed the next fighter to join the Invincible VS roster. Up next is Powerplex, the electric-charged and mentally unhinged nemesis of Mark Grayson, who brings his warped sense of justice to the 3v3 tag team fighter. 

Powerplex lights up foes with his barrage of lightning-based offense, including an Ultimate attack that, like many moves in the game, is a big nod to one of his memorable battles against Invincible. In the animated series, Powerplex is voiced by Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul, but Quarter Up has not confirmed if Paul is reprising the role in Invincible VS. The in-game performance sounds identical (especially when Powerplex hits the “He can’t keep getting away with this!”), so it would be somewhat surprising if someone else took over the role. 

Powerplex joins a roster that includes Invincible himself, Omni-Man, Rex Splode, Atom Eve, Battle Beast, Bulletproof, Cecil, Thula, Monster Girl, Robot, Anissa, Lucan, and new character Ella Mental. He is the 14th confirmed fighter for a roster that will feature 18 characters at launch, so there are only four more spots left to fill before the game's April launch. 

We recently announced that Invincible VS is Game Informer’s next cover story! Subscribe today to read the digital edition of the magazine when it launches on March 3 and to receive the print edition in late March. You'll also be able to pick up the issue in bookstores and newsstands around that same window. 

Invincible VS launches on April 30 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. 

Bungie's extraction FPS, Marathon, is right around the corner, launching next week on March 5 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Ahead of its launch, the studio is holding a "Server Slam," essentially an open playtest for anyone to hop into and get a feel for the game. 

The slam begins in just a few hours, and ahead of it, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has shared 11 tips for beginners to keep in mind, as spotted by Forbes. 

Here's what they are, edited by Game Informer for clarity: 

1. Gear comes and goes – don't be too precious about it, but learn to use what you go and it will serve you.
2. Remember to bring enough ammo and consumables to survive a couple of fights. If you don't have much, then use a sponsored kit or play as Rook [one of the game's six Runner shells designed for solo players looking to scavenge the battlefield and stay out of trouble] and focus your runs on getting gear and creds or stocking up on resources.
3. If you're learning, don't rush your contract objectives; playing slowly can help you avoid getting overwhelmed.
4. Keep your ears open. You will often hear threats before you see them.
5. Try to take the fight you think you can win – you don't need to fight everything. Greed and ambition can lead to a quick downfall.
6. Don't sleep on battery weapons – in the right hands, they are strong, but remember that if you reload with them before they're empty, you will lose the battery.
7. A friend who plays Triage (another Runner shell that is basically a medic for your trio) is a keeper. Be kind to them.
8. If you want to win a fight, use what your opponent wants against them. Patience and cunning are powerful allies.
9. Stray Rooks are unpredictable and can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you treat them.
10. Don't get tilted – cooler heads make smarter decisions.
11. If all else fails, beg for mercy in proximity chat and hope someone listens. 

 

I'm sure we'll all learn plenty more as we head to the Tau Ceti planet that Marathon's maps are set on, but for now, Ziegler's tips seem like a great foundation of tricks to build on. 

The Marathon Server Slam begins today, February 26, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, and ends on Monday, March 2, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Read about the exclusive details you can earn by playing this weekend here. 

Marathon launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on Thursday, March 5. 

Are you hopping into the Marathon Server Slam today or this weekend? Let us know in the comments below!

Limited Run Games and Konami have revealed Marvel Maximum Collection, a game that bundles six classic Marvel 8- and 16-bit arcade games into one package.  The bundle includes several fan-favorites across arcade, Sega Genesis, NES, and Super Nintendo.

Marvel Maximum Collection includes the beloved X-Men Arcade Game, the two-player Spider-Man/Venom games, and even the infamously difficult Silver Surfer. Here’s the full list of games, as well as the various versions of each that will be available:

• X-Men: The Arcade Game (Arcade)
• Captain America and The Avengers (Arcade, Sega Genesis, NES)
• Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)
• Spider-Man/Venom: Separation Anxiety (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)
• Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear)
• Silver Surfer (NES)

Although some of these titles are co-op brawlers, Limited Run only confirms that X-Men: The Arcade Game supports 6-player online co-op with rollback netcode. Each game in the Marvel Maximum Collection will also include save states and the ability to rewind. The collection also features various display options to make the games look better on modern displays or to replicate the classic CRT look. A music player will let players enjoy the soundtracks from each title, and a digital archive features high-resolution scans of original box arts, instruction manuals, and original advertisements. 

Marvel Maximum Collection is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC via Steam. Unfortunately, Limited Run Games did not provide a release window, only stating the game is "coming soon." In the meantime, you can check out our review of the most recent Marvel arcade beat 'em up, Marvel Cosmic Invasion. 

Ninja Gaiden 4’s challenging adventure is being bolstered by new DLC next week. On March 4, a content update called The Two Masters will arrive and will add three new chapters to the main campaign. 

This DLC takes place after the conclusion of the base campaign. A brief trailer for The Two Masters shows Yakumo and Ryu battling new threats, with each ninja wielding a new weapon: a massive scythe called Solitaire for Yakumo and a pair of bladed gauntlets called Jakotsumon for Ryu. These weapons can be unlocked and used even if you're in the middle of finishing the original campaign. 

The Two Masters will introduce new stages, enemies, and trials along with the Abyssal Road, an endurance-based challenge mode. This challenge features 100 unique combat encounters from the base game and the DLC and introduces new enemy mechanics called Special Blood Essence and Frenzied. The new Trials and Abyssal Road can only be unlocked by completing the DLC's story missions at any diffculty. The Two Masters will also add quality-of-life improvements, balancing adjustments, bug fixes to elements such as combat responsiveness, and new weapon set customization options. 

Downloading The Two Masters will set you back $14.99 and is a free upgrade for owners of the Deluxe Edition. It will be available for all versions of Ninja Gaiden 4 across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In the meantime, be sure to check out our review of Ninja Gaiden 4 here. Subscribers can also read our Ninja Gaiden 4 cover story to learn more about the game's development history.