DEMO DIVE #1 - May 2026
- Hubert Spala
- May 3
- 4 min read
What a beautiful start of May! Bees are bumbling around. Sun finally remembered to blast some blessed heat. Day is long and juicy. And so many demos dropped recently that I can barely pick what to play and try between pushing more hours into some excellent titles I acquired recently! But of course, I could not skip on a traditional Sunday post, sharing some impressions from the demos that stuck with me, and so, here we are. A rather eclectic mix today, a small variety selection – hopefully something will catch your attention! Let’s roll.
NEAR MINT
I learned about this game last week and I am already in love with it. It is a deck builder roguelike, and if these two words made you roll your eyes a bit, I get it. One of those genres that feels like we are getting a hundred every month! But hear me out – NEAR MINT has an idea to share. See, in most deck builders you pick a card, you play a card and try to generate powerful combos. Here however every card is actually three cards of sorts, and you assemble your own card from the pieces – the three pieces include mana cost, value and action. And so, a deck can be many things and you can play each card you own in a multiple way. Mixing and match costs and values with actions is a superbly clever twist on the system.
Especially once you add variety of modifiers and thresholds to the torn card bits. Values that grow bigger with current block, dice rolled values, actions that require other actions in the chain to trigger powerful bonuses. Costs that modify depending on what kind of action you attach to them. This formula of forming a card from 3 pieces clearly opened new depths of design space and the demo already shows it has some serious bite into making a rather creative gameplay gumbo.
And heck – the game looks fantastic! It’s grimdark fantasy, with a unique vibe to it. Feels dirty, grimy, devoured by rot and despair. Characters and enemies’ looks great, the cards are clear and very stylish, everything feels on its best way to a truly unique presentation. In short, NEAR MINT feels like a banger in the making.
FRUITBEARER
What a strange little game. I am not sure yet if I love it or not, the demo wasn’t expansive enough to convince me either way but… I see the potential. Fruit drop game with merging isn’t exactly a new concept but marrying it to a classic roguelike deck builder structure is an interesting take. Being able to infuse your fruits with a variety of passive and active effects felt great – a real way to craft your own strategy with a basket of fruits, leaning into multiple ways of scoring the necessary juice to win your encounters. There was just enough agency at play here to feel good, intentional. Like I am in control of my actions here. I am pretty sure there is a very good set of systems hiding here, a way to make excellent combos, and that is all that I could ever ask from a game like this.
And heck, I did have fun playing this - the few enemies demo showed were all in one way or the other rather creative, somehow tickling my brain to compare them to monsters we encounter in... UNDERTALE, of all things. Mostly because of the game core system not letting enemies have just simple damaging moves, but relaying on some trickery around your fruits and cards to be a pesky obstacle to mess with your scoring. It's neat!
The dark fantasy premise is also a peculiar take when married to this genre! Grimdark fruits in magical medieval realm of ghouls and monsters is, for sure, unique. The art style, though… Well let’s say it’s crude. I am not just sure if it is crude on purpose, to emphasise the theme and the uniqueness, or it is just not polished to begin with. I must give it some credit – it sticks out! I will remember this game when it comes out, to be sure.
PEGS X STICKERS
Yet another BALATRO-like! Again, I am not against people stretching a formula to its limits. Experimenting with the baseline core system to see how far they can push it. PEGS X STICKERS is, at the very least, very well crafted. It feels buttery smooth on every corner, from sharp and clean visuals to energetic little animations for every single bit and bob on display. It has that veneer of high polish, a game crafted with excellent attention to detail and a graphic designer professional meticulously polishing its every corner. This might sound like a very superficial praise, but it matters – especially in games of this ilk – as it needs to create this zone-out feeling, this state of mental flow where music, presentation and vibe keep you glued to the screen.
This one achieved that and then some! And the game is fun, too. It’s not exactly a brand-new idea. I’ve seen pachinko turned into BALATRO at least a couple of times, but there are some fresh ideas here. With much increased control of your ball drop, vanishing pegs on impact, rotating pegs to uplift the ball up and multiple synergies to chase while also keeping your economy afloat. The game isn’t easy either, the score keeps growing on a rather ruthless pace, and in later rounds you really need to nail both your dropping and bouncing as well as have some numbers engine rolling with your pegs to hope to win a run. It is hardly revolutionary, but it is still a very well-made example of the formula and for any fan of watching numbers going up, this should be a lovely shoe-in!
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