DEMO DIVE #2 - April 2026
- Hubert Spala
- Apr 26
- 4 min read
April is nearing its end, and May is looming over the horizon. Summer vibes are here! But of course as time flies, so are new games being released, and with them the glorious deluge of demos to enjoy and try out some pearls before they hit us with their full splendour! And as is Sunday tradition, I am happy to report that I tried quite a few titles and am happy to share three that caught my attention. Let’s roll!
SOVEREIGN TOWER
Absolutely ingenious formula here. It’s such a mash-up, such a blend of genres and mechanics. I never seen anything like it before, and it was pure pleasure to play through entire demo. Okay, okay, so, what is it all about? You’re, by a stroke of fate, a new Sovereign to a mystical and mysterious Tower. You will attract a cast of colourful knights to form your round table of heroes. In your hands lies the future of the realms – send your noble warriors on quests, decide the fate of nations and the estates that make them. Be a man of the people? Or perhaps a great ally to the old noble houses? Perhaps you’d rather align yourself with the scholars and mystics of the realms far and wide?
It is your story and your actions will decide the outcome of the rich narrative. Every decisions has impact, and you barely have all the information on the table. You need to get to know your people, your knights. Learn their wants and weaknesses. Assign them correctly. Make wise calls that help the influence of your domain spread and words of your actions reach over the borders. And if something goes wrong? Fear naught, for a chained demon possess the ability to rewind time – and with knowledge of things that already passed, you’ll be better armed to face the challenges you fumbled before.
It’s beautifully crafted, clever, and rich in various little mechanics that make every action you take feel weighty and impactful. Fantastic stuff.
KALANORO
Okay so, let me be frank here – the demo is quite rough. There are unpolished edges all over this title, from clunky UI that kept breaking down on me to lack of sounds and certain visuals to match. It is clearly in a rather early stage and so it was a bold move for the devs to push it out into players hands to try it out. But…
I think it was worth it, because KALANORO feels extremely tight. While some bits might need more time in the oven to bake to a nice crisp, movement feels fantastic already. It’s snappy, bouncy, responsive and have that nice, kinetic flow to it. Bouncing around the stages, using my moves and extending hair to smash crates outside my reach felt natural and enjoyable. Even combat, while rather rudimentary, it fits the 3D platformer schema well. And heck, being a fluffy critter aiding artistic lemurs from your party bus is a great premise to do it in! It’s colourful, it has spirit, it shines with its character. A free-spirit adventure in Madagascar folklore, helping the local artistic scene fight of the evil grasp of capitalism!? Sign me up.
There are some other systems here to flesh out the core of its platforming. You cook and play music to your collected lemurs, offering some minor management gameplay. Not sure just yet what would be the purpose of it, but I am sure that taking care of your guests on your mobile base of a bus will aid you in your journey moving forward. It’s fun, it’s interesting… Excited to see a more polished final version!
TREES HATE YOU
In the not-so-ancient past there was a certain category of games made by people of intense cruelty and loathing towards all living things. Calling them “games”, in fact, is most generous as they were designed strictly to inflict as much suffering as possible. And I am not talking about a devilish level of difficulty or high degree of challenge. No, I am talking about unfair games made to punish you at every corner, often with no time to react and no possibility of guessing what comes next. People loved them! For the challenge of memorizing all the nasty tricks, for the fun factor of seeing what unhinged deathtrap lies behind every step.
And so, if you remember titles like TRAP ADVENTURE 2 or CAT MARIO, you might get lots of entertainment out of TREES HATE YOU if you want to relieve the dubious joys of playing a proper rage game. I cannot recommend it for everyone, that’s for sure. It’s a streamer game by default, a title to show and suffer through for amusement of others. Or a game to recommend a friend to see them struggle and have a little guffaw. But… it is nice to see such niche, nigh forgotten genre resurfacing again, and TREES HATE YOU is definitely pretty clever in its premise, its horrible traps and higher fidelity that proper 3D style brings to the table.
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