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(Also quick note, we aren’t sponsored by or currently in partnerships with any of these games as of the writing of this article)
ArcRunner
Cyberpunk Action Roguelike
Link to game
ArcRunner has surprisingly fluid movement and combat for a game that doesn’t actually have a release date yet. I can only assume that this demo is essentially a near-final vertical slice of what the entire game will feel like when it’s done because it’s incredibly satisfying. There’s also online co-op which I didn’t get the chance to try, but in my mind co-op brings speedrunning to a whole other level. Super excited to see more from this one.
Mika and The Witch’s Mountain
Adventure
Link to game
MTWM is a super cute adventure game that reminded me of A Hat in Time with a dash of Wind Waker. The cutscenes are gorgeous, and are skippable! The demo consists of some pretty basic “go here, collect this, bring it there” but the broom movement is quite fun once you get the hang of it. I even noticed that if you mounted your broom, boosted, dismounted and repeated, you could go a decent bit faster. I assume this might only apply to some of the early game brooms, so who knows what a full game route might look like - either way this is one definitely going on my wishlist!
Shady Knight
First Person Hack & Slash / Platformer
Link to game
Shady Knight is actually a demo that I played during one of the Next Fest’s last year and it felt good even then. This time around, there’s probably a little over twice as much content, and the game still feels GREAT. Shady Knight is one of those games that excels at rewarding you with massive amounts of dopamine when you get good at its combat and movement, pushing you into a flow state like some other titles you might be familiar with such as DOOM Eternal, Ghostrunner, or Neon White.
Instead of sharing my own (terrible) gameplay here, I recommend you check out the current verified world record for the Feb ‘23 demo
MEATGRINDER
Post-Apocalyptic Parkour FPS
Link to game
Soo…. have you ever played Clustertruck? Take that, double the chaos, add in DOOM quick weapon switching, a grappling hook, and a crap load of enemies and you’ve got MEATGRINDER. This one is a ton of fun to run, although there’s a pretty nasty bug right now where the game will softlock you if you go too fast during a certain area. As long as that gets patched by release, (I’ve reported it as a bug already) then this will be prime speedrunning content.
As a bonus, here's a strat I came up with to beat the boss in 15 seconds!
Rusted Moss
Metroidvania / 2D Platformer
Link to game
I’m not the most experienced when it comes to Metroidvania’s, I’m not sure why - but they usually just don’t stick with me for some reason. That said, Rusted Moss definitely stuck with me. The gun that we get to use in the demo feels super satisfying, the visual style is interesting, and the combat is a decent challenge without being too grindy. However, these things alone probably wouldn’t have made me want to include it in this list. What does is the grappling hook you receive after beating the first boss, which then brings some sweet movement based challenges and puzzles that bring the game to another level entirely.
Bramble: The Mountain King
Adventure / Horror Platformer
Link to game
This game LOOKS absolutely gorgeous, and it starts off all cute and wholesome
but it quickly takes a VERY dark turn when the horror elements are introduced.
I feel like the merit of speedrunning this one will only be for a select few due to the relatively slow pace and (unfortunately) unskippable cutscenes. However, I do get some Little Nightmares vibes and I can definitely see some interesting possibilities in routing the platforming sections and some of the enemy encounters. I don’t think this is one I’ll actually run myself, but I am 100% going to watch a run once it comes out.
And that’s a wrap! I ended up playing a lot of demos in the last couple days, but I didn’t even scratch the surface of the several hundred that have been released. Was there a demo you found that’s great for speedrunning but wasn’t mentioned here? Let’s discuss in this forum thread I created!