Best Steam Next Fest Demos (February 2022)

Can I just say that it’s really stellar that Valve has decided to make the Steam Next Fest a recurring event? Steam gets a lot of new games on a daily basis, and it’s next to impossible to sort through all of them (especially since Steam still has a bit of a shovelware problem). It’s a great idea to regularly spotlight the standouts in Steam’s indie scene, especially since the last few Next Fests gave me quite a few new entries on my wishlist. Heck, the most recent Next Fest had Inscryption, and we all saw how well that did. 

The Next Fest is back once again from February 21st to February 28th. For the duration of this week, over 700 games have made free demos available to all Steam users, along with gameplay streams from the games’ developers. I plan to go through each and every one of these demos with a fine-toothed comb on my own time, but if you’re not insane like I am, here are a handful of the best Steam Next Fest demos you might want to check out yourself.

Best Steam Next Fest Demos (February 2022)

• Kao the Kangaroo
• My Friendly Neighborhood
• Tinykin
• Turbo Overkill
• Food Truck Simulator
• Neon White
• The Wandering Village
• Little Orpheus

Kao the Kangaroo

The incredible passion with which the developers of Kao the Kangaroo have revived their series is nothing short of awe-inspiring. What was originally just some random 3D platformer from the PS2 era became a surprise hit upon its porting to Steam, drawing in a new fanbase of platformer lovers (though its $1.99 price tag probably helped).

Now that they’ve got a footing once again, the devs are looking to really bring Kao into the modern age with a full graphical reimagining, all while staying true to the precepts established in the golden age of 3D platformers. Punch stuff, collect stuff, run away from stuff, and do it all in beautiful and colorful new 3D locales. 

My Friendly Neighborhood

Some say that using our favorite childhood mascots as fodder for horror games is getting a bit played out, and to a certain extent, I agree with that. The difference between the many jumpscare simulators out there and My Friendly Neighborhood, though, is that the latter is an action-horror game. When everyone’s favorite Saturday morning puppets go rogue, it’s up to the local handyman to scope out the studio and put a stop to their dark shenanigans.

My Friendly Neighborhood is an open-ended shooter adventure with an emphasis on puzzles and inventory management, not unlike Resident Evil 7. Of course, unlike the monsters of Resident Evil, you can’t kill a puppet, which means they could always be waiting around the corner for you…

Tinykin

If 90s family movies have taught me anything, the two places you never want to be are stranded on an alien planet and shrunken down in your own living room. Unfortunately for space-explorer Milo, he’s trapped in both situations at once. Tinykin places you in a series of cities established by insects within a super-sized suburban home.

By enlisting the aid of the Tinykin, friendly one-eyed micro-critters, you can solve environmental puzzles and explore the world around you in search of a means to return to proper size. It’s kind of like Pikmin, but with a much faster pace. Also, you can skateboard around on a little soap nub, which is awesome.

Turbo Overkill

I’m going to make an educated guess here that the primary design precept in Turbo Overkill’s creation was “how can we make this as cool as possible?” I’m relatively certain of this because the first few seconds of the trailer reveal that the protagonist, Johnny Turbo, has chainsaws in his legs. Oh yes, this is gonna be a fun time.

Turbo Overkill is a hyper-kinetic first-person arena shooter that is chock full of gimmicks just as awesome as the aforementioned chainsaw legs which, incidentally, you can do booster dashes with. You can run on walls, launch rockets from your arms, use a grappling hook, and swipe cybernetic augments from defeated bosses. All of this is against a neon cyberpunk backdrop inspired in equal parts by Doom and Blade Runner. If you want a fast-paced shooter, Turbo Overkill is all that and more.

Food Truck Simulator

Okay, real talk? How has nobody thought of this yet? Out of everything you could make a simulator game out of, food trucking seems like one of the most obvious candidates, but as far as I can see, Food Truck Simulator is the first to try it. Well, strange quirks aside, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Open up your own food truck, make and sell your favorite food, and strive to be the best in the city.

This isn’t just a spreadsheet with some buttons on it, though; you gotta follow the recipes to make the food, serve the customers at their tables, and even drive the truck from stop to stop. You can customize your truck to your tastes, though you also have to clean and care for it. No one is gonna eat from a food truck covered in bird poop stains, I’ll tell you that for free.

Neon White

It never ceases to astound me how many different genres of game people have found ways to add card mechanics to. I always thought cards were just for, y’know, card games, but boy have I been proven wrong multiple times over. The latest game to prove me wrong is Neon White, a speedrunning-focused roguelike shooter that makes use of cards rather than traditional weapons.

As a demonic assassin contracted by Heaven, you’re out to slay other demons, with every demon killed yielding a special card. Cards have dual purposes: you can use them in the same way you’d use a gun, firing off a variety of different blasts, or burn them to gain temporary access to incredible parkour abilities. It’s all about using the best combination of cards to clear levels as quickly as possible, something that speedrunning communities will undoubtedly love.

The Wandering Village

People often forget that the Earth is a living thing and that we, as humans, are just hitching a ride on it for our own convenience and protection. Maybe we’d be more sympathetic to our home if it had legs and a face? When the planet is flooded with toxic spores, the only safe haven for humanity is on the back of Onbu, a titanic creature with an entire landmass on its shoulders.

You need to build up your society to keep your people healthy and happy, but you also need to take care of Onbu and ensure it stays strong enough to carry you through harsh environments. You may have opportunities for progress, but that progress could prove harmful to your host in the long run.