A Steam Next Fest Goodie Bag, Part 2
If you have a love for indies, Steam Next Fest is like Christmas come early. It’s a time when many small developers and upcoming games will have more eyes on their games than ever. With the latest iteration of its week-long festival of demos just wrapped up, I'm bringing you the best of what I played!
In Part 1 (check it out here), we discussed the city-builder After Inc: Revival, the idle game Click and Conquer, and the gothic metroidvania Gravethorn. Now we're back with Part 2 of our look at my favorite stuff, I hope you enjoy it too!
Hirogami
I’m fully aware that Hirogami is being developed by one of Bandai Namco’s other development studios, Bandai Namco Singapore. It’s also being published by Kakehashi Games, who are well known for publishing many indie titles in Japan, such as Hollow Knight and Dead Cells. Some may not consider it an indie game due to its large-studio backing, but I'm making that choice seeing as how Bandai Namco Singapore hasn’t made a standalone title of itsown before, having only done support work for other titles. Regardless, I’m wishing the studio my best with Hirogami since this seems like a smaller title that could potentially fly under the radar for some people, when I don’t think it should. It really feels as if it might just be a sleeper hit.
Hirogami is a 3D action platformer where every single thing in the world is origami. It’s a similar concept to Yoshi’s Woolly World or Kirby’s Epic Yarn in that sense, and it’s a phenomenal idea for a game’s aesthetic and art design. I’m almost surprised we haven’t seen something like this before as a fully realized game, especially since it’s pulled off so well here. It’s a beautiful art style to look at, but the concept of origami extends to the gameplay as well.
The main protagonist, Hiro, has a mystical fan that they wave around to deal damage to enemies and perform other tasks, such as rebuilding objects in the world. Combat isn’t too complex, about what you’d expect from most 3D platformers, where you merely hit a button a few times to get rid of enemies. Hiro can also unfold himself, becoming a flat piece of paper to glide through the air or slide under tight spaces. In the demo, for instance, the player must go into this unfolded paper state and float over an air duct to reach a ledge on the other side of a gap. You'll collect paper as a currency to unlock new areas, and it seems as if you'll be required to have a certain amount of paper collected to progress to new areas. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before in terms of this genre, of course, but I think Hirogami’s novelty of being entirely origami lends a lot of potential to level design while also making it feel more fresh than you’d expect.
Later in the demo, Hiro regains another foldable form, an Armadillo. It’s where we get some semblance of plot with mentions of “The Blight” and Hiro having lost many of the animal forms he could previously fold into. You’re also told that Hiro’s fan can only damage enemies that are “living beings”, giving the implication that many of the enemies you’ve fought thus far are unnatural in some way or merely dead.
The Armadillo form can deal with these enemies, though, by using a roll to bash its way through. The roll mechanic can break through crates and quickly tumble down inclines, or even allow Hiro to be shot out of cannons to reach new areas. From the point you unlock the Armadillo form, the rest of the demo level felt like it was built around this form, before the design shifted into making the player alternate between base Hiro and the Armadillo by the end of it. It seems like Hiro will unlock many more animal forms as the game goes on, each with their own set of abilities for traversal, combat, or puzzle-solving.
I was really digging my time with the Hiogami demo, and I was actually genuinely disappointed that the demo was so short. I must admit that while I imagine many will adore Hirogami, I’m a tad worried about the game's level design in the full release. The visuals and music combine to evoke a stunning and delightful aesthetic, don’t get me wrong. However, I don’t quite get that same sense from the gameplay the demo has to offer. Everything here has been done before in one way or another, and while that’s fine, I’m hoping the full game can use the aesthetic and origami concept in some truly creative ways to create unique levels and experiences in the genre. I’d be a bit disappointed if Hirogami were merely a “3D platformer but with origami” when it has so much potential to be more than that.
Despite that concern, I am positive that Hirogami will be a good game. Even if they don’t use the origami aesthetic in the design enough, it’ll at the very least grant the illusion of being fresh due to the art design. I just worry about the gameplay not being unique enough, especially in the wake of the genre-perfecting Astro Bot winning 2024’s Game of the Year award. I would absolutely recommend you keep Hirogami on your radar, though, if you enjoy 3D platformers. Hirogami will be released on September 3, 2025, for both PC and PlayStation 5. Interestingly, it has Xbox controller support through Steam, but will not be released on Xbox consoles.
Mina the Hollower
Yacht Club Games has done it again after their success with Shovel Knight. My intuition kept telling me that this game was going to be worthy of praise when I first watched its announcement at Summer Games Fest, so it was very validating to confirm as much once I got my hands on the demo. These retro-inspired games are not usually my thing, but even I can see that Mina the Hollower has heaps of appeal and potential. From the moment you start this game up, it utterly oozes retro charm. The NES-style music is an absolute joy to hear, and that retro sound design extends to the game itself as well.
I want to note something that really made me smile early on: the game has a manual! A digital manual is built into the menus, designed to appear like a set of pages. It’s a rather extensive manual at that, with detailed information about the game’s various mechanics. I hope that if Mina the Hollower ever gets a physical release that they can somehow find a way to make a physical version of this manual. It’s really unfortunate that we don’t get those thick instruction booklets in our physical game releases anymore, though I suppose it does save trees, so yay for that.)
The game itself is fantastic. While Shovel Knight took many cues from retro 2D side-scrollers and platformers, Mina the Hollower takes plenty from the retro Legend of Zelda games. You’ll choose your weapon almost immediately into the game’s introduction, then after the brief opening sequence, you’re thrown straight into the fray of the game proper. Mina’s attack patterns depend on the weapon you choose, some being faster and close-up, with others providing more space between Mina and her targets. Mina can restore her health via Estus Flask-like potions that refill over time as you deal damage to your enemies. Mina also has a burrow hub area that acts as a tiny base for her, where the player can equip items or swap weapons while also refilling their potions. Mina also collects Bones as a currency, which she then uses to increase a stat of choice when she levels up, but she can lose these if she dies and can’t retrieve them.
I didn’t even mention how wonderful the retro pixel art is. Combined with the sound design seeming as if it came straight from the NES, Mina the Hollower feels like an authentic game from that era. This is not my usual type of game, but I’ve been playing games long enough now that I get a gut feeling about certain titles and how good they’ll be. You never truly know, but I have that feeling about Mina the Hollower; it will be special and a lot of people will love it. I also believe the game pretty much speaks for itself, even with just what is presented in the demo. I’m so glad to see Yacht Club Games doing something other than Shovel Knight, too; I felt they harped on that IP for a bit too long, and Mina the Hollower shows what else they’re capable of creating.
If you love Shovel Knight, the retro games of The Legend of Zelda series, or retro titles in general, this one is something you should probably wishlist. Mina the Hollower is being developed and published by Yacht Club Games. It’ll be released on Halloween this year, on October 31, 2025, for every major platform available.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
Do you ever play a game demo or beta and go, “Yeah, this is going to be rad”? I felt that almost immediately from Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. It’s been a long while since we’ve received a proper 2D side-scrolling Ninja Gaiden title, not to mention one with such beautiful sprite work. Who better to work on such a game than the developers of Blasphemous at The Game Kitchen? They’ve always done awesome work, and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is no different. The music is what you’d expect and want, so beautifully retro and flamingly vibrant in all the right ways. And although the demo is really difficult, it should be difficult, in my humble opinion. People who enjoy retro Ninja Gaiden will be in for a real treat here.
The game does feature Ryu Hayabusa briefly within the tutorial sequence, but he is quickly written out of the story to make way for the actual protagonist. The game will actually feature two protagonists in the full version, Kenji and Kumori, who will play differently from one another. From what I’ve gathered, Kenji is a trainee under Ryu, while Kumori is a member of the Black Spider Clan who will end up joining forces with Kenji. I’m not sure if this game will be connected at all to Ninja Gaiden 4 or the original retro Ninja Gaiden titles, but I suppose we’ll see.
For what it’s worth and for those interested in speculating, I will point out that Ryu wears his outfit from the 3D trilogy of games during the brief tutorial cameo. However, the Steam page description writes, “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound successfully unites the classic lore and gameplay of the Tecmo-developed Ninja Gaiden series from the 8-bit era with the depth and intensity of the modern 3D entries.” So maybe this game will be the missing link to clear up the canon between the 2D and 3D games somehow?
Regardless, fans of retro Ninja Gaiden will find the gameplay of Ragebound to be very familiar. You’ll stick to walls to climb and progress, deliver quick slashes with your sword to deal with enemies, while avoiding really punishing and devastating hits that are thrown at you. Ragebound does have checkpoints, of course, but if the demo is any evidence, they’re not generous with them, so managing your health will be quite important throughout the various levels. I was particularly struck by how beautiful the pixel art is here, since many of Kenji’s actions flowed together in a very natural way despite being pixel art.
So rejoice, retro gamers! I think you’ll have yet another game to look forward to with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. I’m not quite sure who else will exactly resonate with Ragebound in terms of an audience, as I don’t really buy the idea that 100% of Ninja Gaiden’s 3D trilogy fans will find themselves vibing with this. I think many will be caught off guard by the difficulty. If you played those old 2D Ninja Gaiden games, you’ll know what I mean. I don’t think it’ll be quite as difficult, but it’s very clear to me what The Game Kitchen is going for here. This is for the best, of course; difficult is what this game should be. I’m merely warning you, if you’re more of a casual retro or side-scroller fan, since Ragebound seems intent on capturing the spirit of the Ninja Gaiden games of old. From what I've seen, it does so to an excellent degree.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is being developed by The Game Kitchen, but will be published by Dotemu. The game launches on all platforms on July 31, 2025. I’ll also mention that the game will be receiving a physical release via Silver Lining Interactive on September 12, 2025.
We've got one more helping of Next Fest goodness coming your way, so JUMP back in tomorrow for Part 3, when we'll have our thoughts on three more games we loved. See you then!