DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For Culdcept The First, Pixel Washer, Hack '95, & About Fishing

I promised at least two entries of this feature, and after missing last week, I'm happy to announce that this is officially becoming a weekly series from me! That's right, rather than waiting for every Steam Next Fest to roll around and then stretching my posts across months, well after it concludes, I'm going to take a note from Mento for once and commit to an easily digestible weekly feature. As an apology for a largely unproductive start to Summer, I'll also arrange one-off features and the start of closed readings of games starting next week. Is that a formal promise that my adventure game and Final Fantasy write-ups are back? God, I hope so, but for now, trust me when I say I'm really pushing myself to get the most out of the article feature on Giant Bomb, and I hope those of you with Premium will join me in putting it through its paces.

So, why do a special feature about game demos rather than full game releases? Well, thanks in large part to its Next Fest event, Steam has gotten significantly better at surfacing game demos on its storefront, with a dedicated page that lets you sort them using tags, and you can now locate new and popular ones with relative ease. Some of Steam's competitors, like GOG, have even taken note and placed greater emphasis on game demos as well. It's odd to say, as it seemed like public Betas and Alphas were taking their shine away, but public demos, especially for single-player titles, have made a bit of a comeback! And while it's still a bit disingenuous to judge a game by its demo, the track record I have found these days of a game recovering from a rough or poorly received demo isn't all that high outside the friendslop genre, competitive online shooters, or fighting games.

The ground rules for this feature are fairly simple. I'll be looking at notable game demos on Steam or GOG, summarizing what each demo is and what it includes, before passing a final judgment on who I think should check out the demo in question. I am considering expanding into PS5 and Switch 2 games in the future when notable demos release on those platforms, but for now, my efforts will focus on PC games. In the future, each article I publish will look at three demos, with this one having four because my first entry is a slight cheat. If you have any recommendations or demos you'd like to see me cover in the future, feel free to drop a comment, as I am more than happy to oblige suggestions from the community.

Today's Demos:

• Culdcept The First

• Pixel Washer

• Hack '95

• About Fishing

Culdcept The First

What is it?

I'll be perfectly honest: this is a placeholder entry I added after mistakenly thinking this demo was something it wasn't. If you have been following Jeff Gerstmann or Brad Shoemaker long enough, you have heard Culdcept brought up in nostalgic waxings about cult classics or forgotten RPGs that broke the genre mold. And you know what? They're right, because Culdcept is cool! Of the retro board game or card-based RPGs you could play on a fifth- or fourth-generation console, it's miles better than the misery train that is Dokapon Kingdom, more fun to play than Lost Kingdoms, while being notably less ambitious than Baten Kaitos. Culdcept is a bit different from those examples because your character moves on a game board, with acquirable lots much like Monopoly. However, instead of real estate, you place collectible cards on those lots to defend them from attackers. The combat plays much like Magic: The Gathering, as the monster cards, which are your attackers and defenders, are associated with one of four possible colors (i.e., Red/Fire, Green/Earth, Yellow/Wind, and Blue/Water), and matching cards with a lot's color makes them better at fighting or defending. Like Monopoly, you can develop your lots if you land on them, and if you land on an enemy lot you can attack it to take it over. You gain bonuses if you acquire more than one lot in a section with the same color, and the game is over once a player has either bankrupted their opponents or they have reached a total mana value set for a map.

What's in the demo?

The demo is the first map in the Sega Saturn game. Yup, Culdcept The First is a short-for-shot port of the original Sega Saturn version of OG Culdcept. The cutscenes haven't been touched up, and the UI/UX is the same as it was on the Sega Saturn. Now, this is the part of the article where I admit I got tunnel vision and didn't realize this was just the Sega Saturn game; at first, I thought this was a remaster or remake, which the series has seen its fair share of in the past. NOPE! This is just a port of the game that started it all, but now for Windows 11! There are some options here and there to help you experience Culdcept without feeling too much culture shock, but this is just the Sega Saturn game on Steam. There is an upcoming entry in the Culdcept franchise called Culdcept BEGINS, which features original art and a whole new storyline. Which, in hindsight, I may have mistaken Culdcept The First for at first blush, but HOT DAMN, what timeline are we on where 2026 is going to give us not one, but TWO Culdcept games?! If there's one thing that I did not like, it's that Culdcept The First doesn't display or output in full screen and always has a bland border around it, which displays your deck during combat or an option menu while you're on the game board. I know this was done because you only really want to stretch fifth generation pixel art so much before it looks like ass, but it's those borders that really kill me. I definitely appreciated the ability to rewind any moment in a single player match, as it solves the classic problem of you thinking you had a foolproof plan in taking a city and then lady luck decided to fuck you over. When that happens, it can take forever for you to recover from a significant setback. So, that quality-of-life addition is a godsend.

Culdcept is, at least at first, an incredibly intimidating game. You have the Monopoly board set up, along with a deck of 50 cards and a few JRPG standbys thrown in. However, and this is one of the reasons the series has an ardent following, it does a more-than-admirable job of guiding you through its mechanics throughout its single-player campaign. That's not to say the AI can't or won't screw you over; it will do that. Nonetheless, the key with Culdcept has always been to optimize your deck for each map and then develop proficiency in the game's intermediate mechanics, such as Idols, Boost Effects, and deck synergies. The game's cult status also means there are literal online tomes of knowledge on how to make unstoppable decks that will wreck every opponent that the game can throw at you, as it isn't the most balanced game on the block. Unfortunately, Culdcept is as fickle as most card-based RPGs from this era can be, where the swings in luck can jettison your motivation and mood in a heartbeat, and that's especially the case when you lose a major property on a map you've repeatedly invested in. That heartbreak is simply unavoidable in all permutations of Culdcept, so be warned. Nonetheless, now that the original game runs without too many hitches on modern Windows operating systems, there's never been a better time to figure out if Culdcept is your cup of tea.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Maybe? Culdcept is such a weird game. It has a cult following, and it's one of those franchises where you can't help but understand why that's the case. Its odd mix of mechanics and harsh RNG prevents it from ever having a shot at mainstream acceptability. Still, it's creative and mechanically interesting enough that you can't fault it for what it's trying to do. So, it's one of those sicko games for sickos where you "get it," and why sickos will come out of the woodwork to talk about it in seven- to nine-paragraph essays on the internet. I do think Culdcept BEGINS is a more compelling proposition for me, since I have already played OG Culdcept and don't necessarily need it in my Steam library. Nonetheless, if Culdcept The First were ever on sale, I'd consider picking it up for old times' sake. And for those of you who have a soft spot for Lost Kingdoms or Baten Kaitos, you owe it to yourself to check out the game that started this gangster card-RPG nonsense in the first place!

Pixel Washer

What is it?

Pixel Washer is a pixel-based take on PowerWash Simulator and its sequel, PowerWash Simulator 2. You control an anthropomorphic pig that runs a powerwashing and carpet-cleaning business, and go from one location to the next, alleviating residences and businesses of every speck of dirt or grime in them. And that's the first major differentiator between Pixel Washer and PowerWash Simulator; Pixel Washer doesn't round surfaces you're cleaning. You need to wash or bubble away every pixel in this game, though this game does provide a highlight dirt ability like the PowerWash games. Another big difference is that Pixel Washer grades you at the end of missions to see how much money you make, and your payout will vary depending on how much water you spent during the mission; your monetary reward is not set in stone or fixed the way it is in the PowerWash games. The more effective your water management is, the bigger the payout. You can dash to reach locations quicker and use a radar that displays unclean surfaces or objects as small red dots. Most environments also have coins for you to collect, which can compensate for poor water or soap management during a mission.

What's in the demo?

The demo includes six missions that I can only assume are the game's tutorial levels in the full release. The levels teach players different mechanics, with the difficulty slowly but not dramatically ratcheting up as you reach the final level, which employs a fairly clever and involved puzzle mechanic. The demo limits you to two power-washing options: the standard power washer and an alternative bubble gun. Each of these cleaning utilities has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the game even lists surfaces and objects they work best on. The bubbles from the bubble gun come out slowly but can float to far-off objects that would otherwise require a stronger, longer stream of water from the normal gun. Curiously, while you do gain financial rewards for completing missions and can collect a myriad of shiny coins on each map, the demo doesn't have any upgrades for you to purchase. That feels like a misstep, if you ask me, because there's really no better feeling in PowerWash Simulator than buying a new attachment for an old gun, or getting a new one entirely, and seeing and feeling how much better it is than what you were previously using in real time.

Nonetheless, it's the levels themself that end up being the major differentiator between Pixel Washer and PowerWash Simulator. With you needing to be careful about your water usage and it having more immediate, clearer upgrades for you to acquire, there's a more discernible sense of structure in Pixel Washer compared to the PowerWash Simulator games. That's maybe a relief for those who find the PowerWash games too aimless or lacking stakes, but as someone who has gravitated to both PowerWash games because they are cozy games with a bit more grit, Pixel Washer's modification to the formula is a bit off-putting. Also off-putting is the fact that there's no rounding and you instead need to make sure you clean off every pixel on targets, no matter how small or big. Yes, you can highlight missing dirt pixels. Still, the need to clean everything reads again like a misunderstanding of what makes the PowerWash games so hypnotic and addicting. The final level in the demo is another example of Pixel Washer being a bit more regimented. In this level, you need to solve a matching puzzle to have cards on the floor match in pairs (à la Concentration) before your power washing on the cards sticks. If you power-wash two cards and they don't match, the grime returns; if they do match, they stay face up and remain thoroughly clean. It's an interesting puzzle, but it also shows how this game is eventually going to get much more complicated than the cozy structure of PowerWash Simulator, with increasing stakes and gimmicks that raise the difficulty. I don't know if I want that in my power-washing games, or at least the ones I play in my personal time.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Probably not, and it bums me out to say that. It's not that this game doesn't have "the juice." No, instead, the problem is that I don't like this game's flavor of "game juice." Adding a more traditional mission structure and upgrade tree with a genuine difficulty curve sounds great on paper for critics of PowerWash Simulator. I put the game on my 2025 GOTY list, but every single 8.0/10 or 7.5 review of PowerWash Simulator 2 raised points I can't deny. The fact you can't always angle your nozzles perfectly is frustrating, the furniture stuff was pointless, and playing the game alone shoots the average mission completion time through the roof. But all of that didn't matter to me because sometimes I do want to sit back and vibe with a video game. You can't really do that with Pixel Washer because it has enough game design orthodoxy that you have to maintain your attention on and in it, so you can't play it while listening to a podcast, as you might with PowerWash Simulator 1 or 2. And for me, that's a bit of a deal breaker, but it's also enough of a differentiator between it and what it is pulling from to lead me to say it safely dodges the "plagiarism" label. Likewise, for anyone who booted up PowerWash Simulator and was bored to tears by its lack of traditional mission structure, Pixel Washer might be enough of a change of pace to work for you.

Hack '95

What is it?

Hack '95 is a card-based hacking game that pays massive tribute to the 90s-era World Wide Web. During interstitial story sequences while you chat with other NPCs using an Instant Messenger equivalent and peruse through webpages for clues on who your friends and foes are, you'll pick up hacking missions and tasks to complete for financial rewards. Those rewards are then spent on deck and hand upgrades, as the core of the game revolves around card combat. In the world of Hack '95, hacking takes the form of you using decks of cards that perform hacking-related actions like sending corrupted files or blasting another computer with viruses or pop-up ads to obliterate their defenses or antiviruses. New cards can be bought in-between battles by transitioning to an online marketplace, and there's a storefront that also sells computer upgrades, which can improve your starting health, your hand slots, and even basic damage and healing buffs. When you attempt a hacking mission, you'll have to navigate a map with branching paths towards an endpoint which features a boss battle against a harder AI opponent. Then, while at that point, you'll need to explore files, programs, and Windows 95-inspired OS actions to collect items to complete a mission.

What's in the demo?

The demo features the first two full hacking attempts and an earlier tutorial, and it ends with what I assume is the game's first boss fight, which is unbeatable in this demo. The aesthetics and vibes of the game are top-notch, and the few times the game doles out FMV cutscenes or GeoCities-inspired webpages put the biggest smile on my face. Hack '95 also has a linear story in which you take on the role of a hacker and are pulled into a web of conspiracies reminiscent of Hackers (1995), from which the game draws heavy inspiration. But what kills my interest in this game is the card combat. It's too goddamn slow! Most cards take two to three turns to inflict damage, with the first turn being spent "activating" the card and the second turn being when the card does its attack. On top of that, with no option to speed up animations, the game has a soul-crushing amount of dead time. Every single attack plays the same three-to-five-second animation, with the same droning modem sound effect, and it all adds up to one of the most sluggish and plodding feeling card games I have ever seen. Worse, because the demo isn't capable of letting you engage with its upgrades completely, some of your rewards feel entirely off the table. Anything that takes three turns to play is useless in the demo, and other abilities like the Restoring App take eons to finish.

The early game feels incredibly unfair, with matches pretty much decided in the first two hands, much like tournament-grade Yu-Gi-Oh! Also, the game's starting deck sucks. I lost a handful of the early missions because it wasn't until the middle of turn three that I got a good card, and that highlights how your playing deck only being ten cards is such a drag. That's right, your hand IS ONLY TEN CARDS DEEP! You unlock some really interesting mid- and high-cost cards as you progress in the demo, and you end up struggling to use them because the game doesn't allow for enough wiggle room to experiment. Likewise, the monetary rewards for missions and even side quests don't feel like enough, given how long an entire hacking attempt can take and the fact that most computer upgrades require at least two missions to nab. Obviously, this is a demo, but there comes a point in the second story mission when the opponent CPUs get their storage upgrades. If you don't have that upgrade, it becomes demonstrably harder to complete any future mission because the AI can beat you via attrition. And considering the upgrades are advancements with no clearly communicated build goal, it's a bummer to hit roadblocks and have to reattempt an entire mission from scratch.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Maybe, but I'm more on the side of "no" than "yes." As I said, the game's core combat being card-based isn't necessarily something I'm against. That said, it's way too slow, plodding, and generally unforgiving for what it is in its current form. Runs take far longer than what you normally see in a traditional rogue-like deckbuilder, which I admit Hack '95 is NOT trying to be. Nonetheless, when you do lose a match and have to restart, it's way more demotivating than jumping into a new run in Monster Train or Slay the Spire because getting to Hack '95's fun endpoints just takes so much more time. I love everything else in the game, and the 90s-era websites and embellishments definitely got me nostalgic. The game's graphical stylings and aesthetic choices are incredibly inspired and strong, with era-appropriate sound effects as well. Nonetheless, I don't think my sicko obsession with 90s multimedia and FMV is enough to carry me through the card combat sequences unless some major balance work happens in time for the full release. If you are a card pervert or a multimedia fan like me, the demo is worth a shot, but it's a hard sell beyond that even if I think it looks incredible.

About Fishing

What is it?

And now for what I consider the best demo of June Next Fest 2026! About Fishing is the latest game from developer The Water Museum, the team that brought you Artic Eggs and IBIS AM. Like their previous works, About Fishing is graphically highly evocative of fifth- and sixth-generation console graphics with David Lynchian flourishes sprinkled here and there. About Fishing is a mix of Sega Bass Fishing, Twin Peaks, and Silent Hill, with you taking on the role of a young girl/woman; we'll get to that in a minute, as you try to catch fish while investigating supernatural occurrences and an unsolved murder that has been haunting her hometown for years. You gain clues about that murder by completing tasks for people in your small, largely rural town, which usually revolves around using a fishing pole. That fishing pole is controlled with the mouse or controller. This is an odd case where I found the mouse-and-keyboard controls superior to those on a controller. When using a mouse, you left-click to bring up a cursor to select how far you want to cast, then flick the mouse to cast your line. Then you hold down the left mouse button to reel in your hook or lure and jig or sway it in hopes of attracting a fish. The camera follows your hook or lure in the water, making it easier to see if you are near any fish. When you do hook a fish, hold left-click to reel in your catch, letting go to create slack so you don't snap your line or jerk the fish off. You don't need to worry about your lures getting lost in the water or caught around logs and weeds, though. And again, this is a game from The Water Museum, so the story has a dark undercurrent where things are obviously not what they seem.

What's in the demo?

So, it sounds like About Fishing has a lot of moving parts, right? Well, not really. The game's surreal setting and premise, which is you attempting to investigate a couple of unsolved murders and disappearances, is structured fairly straightforwardly. The game's demo presents the entire prologue, in which the female lead is still a child, and the first act afterward, in which the female lead is now an adult and their grandfather is in jail. Each act presents you with a task oriented around uncovering a mystery, whether it be investigating the origin of a sound or a far-off corner in a lake, and the manner in which you go about that is using fish you have caught tied to a hook. The game employs an inventory slot system similar to Resident Evil, where you can place whole living fish that you can then use almost like items or Pokemon to swim in rivers and lakes in search of secrets. However, these exploratory efforts require weights, longer fishing lines, and larger or faster fish, which in turn require better bait and lures. So, the game is always pushing you down an upgrade path or a gameplay feedback loop, which is a monumental step in the right direction for The Water Museum in terms of game design. I didn't hate playing Artic Eggs, but I also got the gist of the game and was grateful it clocked in under three hours, as I don't think there was much more The Water Museum could have stretched from it beyond that.

That's not the case with About Fishing, as its core fishing mechanic, though it does require some practice, is reasonably satisfying to play. It does feel like the game could benefit from the fish having more noticeable stamina limits, as some of the later fish in the demo take a while to reel in, as the demo doesn't give you quite enough resources or upgrades to keep pace with everything you can catch. Also, the camera can be janky at points, and the game's minimalism can be irksome. Unlike Sega Bass Fishing, you do inevitably end up putting lures and baits directly in front of the eyes of fish, not have them bite, and the game doesn't relay any information in real time as to why that's the case. Instead, you need to pick up on brief, sometimes vague in-game blurbs and excerpts that can leave you confused or wondering what your next steps are. The game is also deliberately vague about what you're meant to do during the murder mystery missions or detective segments. I don't want to divulge too much, but there's a segment in the prologue where you control a fish and encounter a face underwater, and that's the terminus of the prologue. However, in my case, I ended up swimming around this face, unsure what to do, because the game is so incredibly Spartan in its expectations. It also doesn't help that your guide, the female lead's grandfather, only speaks in riddles. I did eventually "get it" and was absolutely enthralled with the results, but there was an awkward amount of "dead time" when the game essentially left me hanging, and I genuinely didn't know what to do or where to go.

But luckily the vibes are immaculate! The demo showcases how much About Fishing oozes style, whether it be the scanned and stretched JPG faces, the CRT-esque hue of the environments, the low-poly and low-framerate animations and movements of the characters, or even the game's font choice; everything in About Fishing perfectly captures a very specific generation and era of console and PC video game design I can't help but fawn about nostalgically. The game obviously has an underlying mystery with plenty of Twin Peaks-inspired embellishments to boot, but it aimed for my heart and hit it center mass. And the mystery itself is interesting and compelling enough that I want to see how things play out. Arctic Eggs is a game with an agenda, and you picked up on that fairly quickly, but that doesn't seem to be the case with About Fishing. How goofy are things going to get with the more dramatic elements? Are we going full Deadly Premonition with the final acts, or is About Fishing going to be more on par with the 2017 Twin Peaks revival? I presently have no clue, and I also can't wait to find out.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

ABSOLUTELY! I enjoyed Artic Eggs, and About Fishing seems like The Water Museum is taking everything they learned from Artic Eggs and applying it into a real full video game. I have a few quibbles about how esoteric the game is in leading you down the paths it wants you to follow, and the few side missions there are are all incredibly frustrating. But those are petty cavils at worst and points of reflection for the developers and programmers before the final release at best. What starts as a surreal fishing session with your grandfather over a basket of curly fries becomes a full-on murder investigation. There aren't a ton of NPCs for you to interact with, but they all have wacky David Lynch sensibilities to them, whether it be a woman trying to find their lost goldfish in a bird's nest or the always-smiling convenience store salesperson. Oh, and did I mention that the jail where your grandfather is held is located in the basement of an abandoned church? The world of About Fishing is a romp, and it also helps that the world that populates it is equally delightful to explore. If you haven't checked out the About Fishing demo yet, I can't recommend it enough. Even if the fishing mechanic frustrates you at first, keep at it; you do get better at it with practice, and the rewards for your patience, even in the demo, are massive!