Aeromachina: Test-Flight Demo Review

Every year when the Steam Nextfest rolls around, I scroll over to the filter and search for the “Flight” tag. Frequently I am disappointed, but rare is it that I am so surprised and delighted.

Aeromachina is an upcoming PS1 styled 3D metroidvania platformer developed by a 3 ship formation under the designation Meteor Magic Games. While the game itself may still be on approach, the developers have provided a generous demo for us to get to grips with their take on the genre.

The demo straps you into the mechanical boots of Bogey, a sentient android seemingly built of spare aircraft parts. After a quick briefing from their handlers, you are thrust into the demo, a diagnostic training mission to assess Bogey’s capabilities.

Movement

From the moment you touch start moving it’s clear that, like any classic platformer, the controls have been rigorously assessed and tested before being declared airworthy (even for this refined test flight). Movement is tuned to be smooth, fluid, free, and, fast as is befitting such an advanced airframe as Bogey. The wide range of abilities you unlock over the course of the demo can be keenly chained together to shoot high and fast across the terrain and the camera is right there with every soar and swoop, gliding behind Bogey amplifying the sense of speed and power.

Combat

Accompanying these refined platforming mechanics is the deceptively simple hack and slash combat. While it starts off seemingly plain, a simple 4 hit combo, it soon reveals that the challenge is less in memorising fighting game style attack combos, and more in manoeuvring both yourself and your enemies into the optimal position and timing the perfect attack. Just as a dogfight should, which is a breeze when combined with the game’s snappy and responsive controls. Judicious use oyour movement abilities to avoid and reposition, aiming your weapon’s knockback, and sprinkling in some of your unlockable abilities to juggle and interrupt enemies, turn the battlefield into a joyous playground for a clever and creative player to dominate.

Enemy composition also plays a part in shaping fights. The demo has 3 main enemy types, dashing melee attackers, pesky hovering chip damagers, and slow but devastating backliners. It’s clear that the developers have taken a tactical, deliberate, and intelligent approach to considering how these enemy types work together and with the level, and have used this analytical design to engineer combat encounters that feel challenging and tactical and unique each time. Just as in the Arkham games, you’ll approach each fight, your mind firing on all cylinders, picking your line and shaping your strategy. Level Design

To support the sky high movement and flowing tactical combat, the developers have crafted a completely wonderful environment for you pit your skills against. The lovingly and logically constructed map sprawls out as you progress, teasing new and exciting routes to take, all hiding new challenges, upgrades, and abilities. Every room has some sort of seemingly inaccessible platform or door, or an upgrade that’s just out of reach, teasing the player’s brain into considering their movement options in new and exciting ways. As the player’s toolkit expands, the map starts to introduce long stretches and deep drops to really let the player flex their mobility and sate their need for speed. The result is a completely wonderful 3D metroidvania platformer map that reinforces and celebrates its mechanics and invites players to achieve not just mechanical competency, but domination.

Style

The game also boasts strong aesthetic chops. I know I’m not the first person to compare the demo’s meandering military base to Metal Gear’s Shadow Moses from all those years ago. The PS1 era jagged polygons and stark military blacksite facade make the comparison unavoidable. The game’s HUD is a true treat as well, with the stark green readouts evoking the HUDs of real life fighters that would be familiar to any Ace Combat fan. The velocity and altitude readouts are even functional, allowing the players to put numbers to their breakneck pace. This sort of retrofuturistic high tech military aesthetic extends right through the demo, even showing the wireframe of Bogey’s model when obscured, turning an inspired quality of life feature into a memorable and thematic statement which reinforces the game’s identity.

Character Design

The character designs are also instantly identifiable, memorable, and charming. The artstyle prioritises strong vibrant colours and striking shapes and silhouettes reminiscent of the best mascot platformers of the era. I am particularly reminded of the designs from Sly Cooper or Mega Man Legends or Battle Network. Bright stunning colour palates coupled with clear and unforgettable designs.

The Details

The thing that makes me particularly excited for a full release though is that this demo has what separates a merely good game from a memorable one: A resolute identity displayed through the details. Firstly, Aviation. Bogey’s character design is full of them. The WWII era fur lined leather jacket, the military crash helmet with the hornet style fins, the main weapon being a propeller, hell, Bogey’s tail is a carrier arresting hook! The save points are windsocks, the HUD is straight out of an F-16, the gun is called “the Vulcan”. If you have any affection for Aviation, you will find some detail in this game to delight you just as much as it did me.

But besides that, and possibly more importantly, these developers have an unmistakable sense for “cool”. When you come to a landing at high speed, bogey slides to a stop with an accompanying tire screech sound. When realising the heavy tank enemies exploded and dealt damage to me when defeated, I engineered my next combat encounter to use this to take out several weaker enemies, At one part of the demo I was in a room with a glass floor. Having just unlocked the stomp ability, my course of action was inevitable. A lesser team may have just moved on, not taking any notice of the opportunity here, or not taking care to engineer it in the first place, but Meteor Magic understood the assignment and I sent Bogey crashing down to the level below in an awesome shower of glass.

These developers clearly love all aspects of aviation and are keen and devoted acolytes of the rule of cool, and they pour this love, care and passion into the game to bring it to life wish a strong, razor sharp identity.

Verdict

This game may wear the facade of a retro 3D metroidvania platformer but it has the soul of a white knuckle fighter jet canyon run. This demo has displayed some of the best 3D platforming out there in the indie space, frenetic, fast, free flowing combat, great character designs and a definite commitment to fresh, striking, and just plain cool identity. I know this is a demo so it only gives us a limited snapshot of what the full release could be but honestly, that only excites me more. I want to see these characters shine in a full release. I want to explore the mysteries of this world. I want to take on more platforming bosses and challenges that make you feel like a top gun fighter pilot, expertly and effortlessly, manoeuvring around obstacles and skimming certain death by a mechanical hair. I want to see the clear joy, talent, and deliberate intent that went into this snapshot spread over a larger canvas. And if this demo is anything to go by, then these devs can deliver.

This game makes me feel like a finely tuned, graceful and deadly anthropomorphic piece of military hardware just as promised. I look forward to the full release.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3744860/AEROMACHINA_TestFlight/ https://meteormagic.itch.io/aeromachina-test-flight

Today's game is Fallout 76. I went ahead and did one of the Ally missions in the game. They're like the companions from Fallout 4, except they squat at your base 24/7. The ally i did was an astronaut lady who fell to earth after being in space when the bombs drop. She had me go to this Manor to recover some codes for something. The whole place was infested with Mothman Cultists. Luckily i was able to pick them all off with a sniper rifle without getting swarmed.

On the way there, i found this Scrapper hanging out on a cliff with a clipboard. I was confused what they were doing up there and why they looked like some health and safety inspector. They said they were checking out the landscape and pointed me to the same manor i was heading towards. Never got an answer for the weird getup, but i like to imagine they're apocalypse OSHA.

After the codes, i had to go into this mall for a Receiver of some sort, which was full of scorched (who are like feral ghouls but can use weapons). I snuck through the entire thing without being seen to avoid conflict because all my crowd control weapons were broken.

Somehow i managed to get through this Scorched infested mall without so much as being seen. The silent crossbow made it easy too, but i was able to mostly sneak in, grab the receiver, and sneak out. the most harm to me came in me catching a waterborne disease while wading through a room full of water.

To end off my night i popped home, finished up that quest, collected my water, and fished for the next 10 minutes. A nice and relaxing way to end off my day.

Thought this might be worth a share here.

The developer of Junk Store (letting you play Epic Games and GOG titles on your Steam Deck) did a podcast with G. Bryant which he's shared on YouTube.

They cover things like:

• What is JunkStore?
• What inspired JunkStore
• What sets JunkStore apart from Heroic/Lutris?
• Original vision for JunkStore
• Goals for v2 of JunkStore
• What are your next goals for JunkStore?
• Recounting the JunkStore/Steam Store thing
• The NSL drama from Eben's perspective
• Eben's interesting living situation
• What everyone needs to know about JunkStore
• Conclusion

Here is the link to the interview on YouTube, which runs at 20:38

But there is also a longer, uncut interview which runs longer on Gardiner's blog for his suppporters:

In this nearly 50-minute interview, Eben Bruyns and I discuss the history and future of JunkStore, plus we chat about his interesting living situation, our favorite video games, his perspective on the Non-Steam Launchers drama from a few months ago, and how Steam accepted (then rejected) JunkStore on Steam.

The link to that longer version, again for his paying members, is here

Joysticks: Probably Still Drifty

Joy-Con joysticks use a potentiometer to read the voltage at a wiper that slides across a strip of resistive material. That material wears down over time, or plastic and dust can dirty the sensors.

Stick drift is a huge problem with other Switch models. One survey found that 40% of Switch owners had problems with their Joy-Cons drifting, and things didn’t get any better with the Lite or OLED editions. After a bunch of lawsuits, Nintendo’s president even admitted it and apologized, setting up a free repair program for customers in some parts of the world.

It doesn’t look like Borderlands 4 will make the jump in price up to $80. A visit to the Xbox Store shows that the base version of Borderlands 4 will cost $69.99.

There are other editions of the game that are more pricey, including a $99.99 Deluxe Edition and $129.99 Super Deluxe Edition.

What if Sherlock Holmes met Resident Evil? Well, here you go:

Curse: Eye of Isis.

No, it’s not actually Sherlock Holmes battling bioweapons, but you do play as a 19th-century detective investigating the theft of an Egyptian artifact at a British museum—only to stumble onto undead monsters that want you very, very dead.

You get to choose between two detectives: Dr. Darien Dane or his assistant, Victoria Sutton. They even have different scenarios, though, let’s be honest, you’ll be hunting for keys and weapons either way. Expect plenty of zombies. And mummies. Lots of mummies.

This one’s ancient by gaming standards—2003—so you’re dealing with the classic fixed camera angles and tank controls that defined survival horror back then.

Reviews were meh when it came out, but since nobody really makes games like this anymore, I’d wager a lot of people today would actually get a kick out of it. Sure, the controls are a little wonky, but it’s easy to pick up and play.

Definitely worth a spin!

Today's game is some more Starfield. I continued on with the main story and met up with another member of the main faction (Constellation). Before going to talk to the guy i went rummaging around for stuff i was allowed to swipe to use for crafting. I ended up stopping in one of these tunnels and seeing a gorgeous view of the neighboring planet. I ended up just kind of stopping for a bit and enjoying the view (while eating dinner). Almost makes me wish for a VR version of this game, but also with No Man's Sky that might be a bit redundant.

The main story took me to this cavern to get another relic like the one from the beginning of the game. I had to fight my way through a cave of Spacers though (like Space Raiders). The whole cave system had a massive drop at the end which gave me Dunwhich Bores vibes from Fallout 4. Part of me wonders now if this game has any Lovecraft references like Fallout does. It would be a missed opportunity with the whole space thing.

After collecting the Artifact, i decided to step away from the main story and chase after this side quest i got from a slate. It took me to this hide out taken over by Spacers, and it turned out to be owned by this vigilante called the mantis. To get through i had to do this letter puzzle like in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was really cool seeing something like this done in a Sci-fi game.

The quest gave me a spacesuit that i was going to share an image of, but it turned out to be nearly 20 mb in size no matter how i compressed it and lemmy wont upload something like that for me, and pixelfed limits everything over 15 mb. It was this sleek white armor though. It looks neat, not to my personal taste though.

The quest also gives you a cool spaceship to go along with it called the Razorlead. I think i'm still going to keep the abomination i made as my home ship, but having this to use is nice. There were some armor stands in the upper area where i dropped off the armor set since i wasn't going to use it. Figured it deserved at least a proper home. No stand for the suit itself unfortunately, just the helmet and the backpack.

Following up on this comment since I haven't seen a thread about it: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/14639216

I'm talking about games that you still like but you had no idea were criticized so much.

The perfect example for me is Sonic Unleashed.

I admit that the game has its bad things, but I would have never imagined that it was so hated at the time... Although, that could be extended to the entire Sonic franchise, since for many years I was not aware at all of that "Sonic was never good", "Sonic had a rough transition to 3D" nonsense.

Introduction

I was inspired by Perfect Dark's Steam Deck / Gaming News series and wanted to create a similar blog-post type series highlighting recently released lesser known traditional and experimental indie games.

Since this is my first post, I'm extending the definition of recently released to anything released in 2025 and I will primarily be focusing on games released on itch.io in 2025 that may have been overlooked.

I'm a big supporter of itch.io as a store front since they offer larger cuts to developers compared with other digital stores and all the games are DRM-Free. Many of the games are available for free or Pay What You Want and can be played in the browser without an account.

They also regularly have large 100+ game charity bundles, so it's quite easy to amass a large library of games there. There is currently a Bundle for Ukrainian Hospitals that is live, but that is primarily TTRPGs. If you have purchased multiple of these charity bundles in the past Random Bundle Game is a good resource for sorting through your collection.

One of the negatives of itch.io, however, is that the store is very difficult to navigate. If you go to the main page it will be mostly be filled with short horror games and visual novels (and depending on your settings, adult games). One might be mistaken for thinking that's all there is on the store, but with this post I hope to highlight games from a wider variety of genres.

If you're new to itch.io and experimental games and interested in reading more, I highly recommend this recent post by Nathalie Lawhead on A crash course introduction into experimental indie games: Arthouse Games as a force for good & the activism of video games as a primer.

Now without further ado, on to the games:

A Selection of Games Released on itch.io in 2025

Dragonsweeper | Jan. 15, 2025 (Free)

A roguelike minesweeper adventure

This one was a lot of fun. Like with regular Minesweeper, winning does seem to rely on luck, but there is still some strategy.

Type Help | Jan. 25, 2025 (Free)

A puzzle-mystery game inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story, Unheard and The Roottrees are Dead.

Investigate the files on an old computer that once belonged to a mysterious outside agent.

The files detail the gruesome story of Galley House, a case that was said to be unsolvable.

What really happened at Galley House? And what did the agent find out that lead to their death?

Delve through deeper and deeper layers of mystery as you piece together the grand puzzle.

And remember... There are no ghosts in Galley House!

I started playing this one, but haven't finished it yet. For an interactive fiction game I think it's pretty beginner friendly.

Wednesdays | March 26, 2025

Part video game, part graphic novel, Wednesdays seeks to raise awareness about child sexual abuse through a surprisingly hope-filled story.

It tells the story of Timothée who has been abused as a kid and is going through his memories by replaying a video game from his childhood.

The game does not include any graphic representation of sexual abuse, and even if its topic might sound grim, Wednesdays is above all about trust, hope and healing.

You can find a list of the content warnings on ARTE's website.

Wednesdays is created by Pierrec (Haven, Road 96: Prologue, Bury Me, My Love), Exaheva (Still Heroes), Christophe Galati (Save Me Mr Tako), Virginia B. Fernson (Lorsque Les Volcans Dorment), Nico Nowak (There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension), Diane Landais (A Normal Lost Phone, Alt Frequencies) and Florent Maurin (Bury Me My Love, Inua, The Wreck)

I'm not really in the right place for tackling a game with this serious of a theme, but from the list of creators, I trust that it is handled well.

The Beekeeper's Picnic | March 29, 2025

It is the 1920s, and in a sleepy Sussex village, beekeeper and former world's greatest detective Sherlock Holmes is trying to arrange a pleasant clifftop picnic for his lifelong companion Dr Watson. The only problem is that a series of mysteries keep getting in the way!

With games like Old Skies and Rosewater, we've been spoiled this year with high quality point and click adventure games made in Adventure Game Studio. I haven't gotten a chance to try this one yet, but it looks very charming.

DOMINO: DECLASSIFIED (March 1 - April 6, 2025)

DOMINO CLUB is a loose collective of digital artists coming together to participate in anonymous game jams, inspired by BELIEVEINTHE.NET'S 1JAM.

DOMINO CLUB is interested in: small tools, web tools, low-tech tools, ditherpunk, low-poly, sustainability, narrative-heavy experiences, digital spaces, dark matter, web 1.0, DIY, piracy, remix, being gay & doing crimes, goofing off, zines, skeletons, glitches, little guys, hole

This one is the latest collection of short games released by DOMINO CLUB. I haven't played any of this set of games yet, but there were some gems in some of their previous game jams. A warning that many of their games feature adult content.

Stealth Crossword | April 20, 2025 (Free)

The forced stealth mission in a game that really shouldn't have one

This one is silly but surprisingly enjoyable.

Cattle Crisis | May 2, 2025

Cattle Crisis is an arcade shoot 'em up game (Shmup). Pilot your fighter jet to defeat evil aliens and save our precious cows! Cattle Crisis is a short game and currently features one level.

Over the past year, I've become a big fan of PICO-8, which is a fantasy 8-bit video game console. Probably the most well-known game made in this engine is the original Celeste. I'm not that good at Shmups, but I enjoyed this one.

Make Ten Deluxe | May 11, 2025

Make Ten Deluxe is an expansion pack that builds on the original Make Ten, featuring 35+ variant modes. Some modes modify the rules slightly in ways that significantly change the flavor of the game, some modes are particularly puzzley situations for you to solve, and some modes are too strange and specific to describe.

Another PICO-8 game. I played the prototype game that came out last year and it was surprisingly addictive for how simple it is. I'm glad it was expanded to a larger game with more modes.

Dominoid | June 1, 2025 (Free)

DOMINOID is an arcade-styled puzzle game about stacking dominids! CLEAR pieces by forming RINGS with matching tiles. Create huge COMBOS by stacking dominids effectively. Collect BADGES for major accomplishments. Earn EXP by clearing dominids to go towards a LEVEL UP. Can you get all the way to LEVEL 10?

I haven't had much of a chance to get into this one yet, but I'm always open to new action-puzzle games.

W.C.A.T. - The Wing Commander AllTinker Overhaul Mod | June 12, 2025

This is a new mod for Wing Commander to make it easier to play on modern computers. I've been using Wing Loader, which I got running on Steam Deck, but haven't managed to find a good control scheme yet, so I might give this one a try.

Choice Beat, Issue 14 | June 14, 2025 (Free)

ChoiceBeat is the world's MOST POWERFUL zine dedicated to visual novels, interactive fiction, narrative games, and other forms of choice-heavy, text-heavy digital games. This issue features 30+ pages of news, articles, reviews, previews, and interviews including:

If you are a fan of visual novels and interactive fiction, I highly recommend checking out this zine series. There's a lot of great articles and I've been introduced to a lot of interesting games.

Thanks for Reading

If you've read this far, I hope you've found something interesting to try. Please feel free to shout out other itch.io games you've been enjoying in the comments that I missed.

Holy shit, how long has it been? Everybody assumed the devs ran with the money, they silently disappeared and stopped updating the game despite being in early access.