Weekend Gaming 1/28/13 Demo Edition: Dead Space 3, Fire Emblem & Epic Mickey 3DS

For this edition of Weekend gaming I took a break from my current Persona 4 Golden addiction to check out some recently released demos. I downloaded three titles to see if some hands on time would sway my interest in the games one way or another. Did the demos do their job? Read on and see.

Dead Space 3 Demo (Xbox 360)

First up in this little demo experiment was Dead Space 3 on the Xbox 360. I had a lot of enthusiasm going into this demo as the original Dead Space is one of my favorite Xbox games of all time. The demo wasted no time in reminding just why that is as it opened with a bang.
Terrific sound & ambiance, a terrifying environment with knee deep snow & howling winds and some classic Dead Space scares - everything I could ask for in a Dead Space game. Before I even finished the demo I found myself on Amazon.com debating on throwing down a pre-order for the game.
The demo also showed off some new elements to the series such as weapon crafting and co-op both which have perked my interest.
Demo Effectiveness: Highly effective. If not for a self imposed moratorium on new game purchases on I'd be all over this one. Playing through the demo is making it very hard to resist.

Fire Emblem (Nintendo 3DS)
Next up is a demo of a hotly anticipated title that I was excited to find on Nintendo's eShop. While I am not a Fire Emblem fan, I am a huge Advance Wars and I was curious to see how the series might evolve on the 3DS.
Ive said numerous times before that I prefer bullets and guns to swords and magic, but I have to say this demo really got to me. The characters seemed interesting, the game looked great and I became intrigued by an RPG on top of Advance Wars-like gameplay.
After playing through the demo my interest in Fire Emblem went from moderate to very high. So much so that I think I'm going to give this one another playthrough... Or two...
Demo Effectiveness: Highly effective. This demo knocked my socks off. Production values are through the roof and I think this could become a new obsession for me. A must pick up for me... Eventually...

Epic Mickey Power of Illusion (Nintendo 3DS)
Last demo up for this little experiment is Epic Mickey Power of Illusion on the 3DS. What brought me to this game is the studio behind it, Dreamrift which is made up of some of the creative talent behind Henry Hatsworth, my favorite DS game.
There are vague hints of Hatsworth in the design of Epic Mickey. The backgrounds as well as some of the sounds and animation remind me of the high quality Henry brought to the table. Unfortunately, the demo for Power of Illusion came up short on everything else as far as I was concerned.

The gameplay failed to grab me as it felt slow and sluggish. Touchscreen elements were marred by the 3DS's horrendous second screen. I'm so used to tapping away on my iPhone that I find using touch on the 3DS to be painful. The transition between the platforming gameplay and the touchscreen elements also felt really slow and just killed the game's momentum for me.
Sadly, I fund myself struggling to play through the demo. Really bummed about it.
Demo Effectiveness: Not at all effective. I went in with high hopes, but came away from the demo disappointed.

That wraps up this demo edition of weekend gaming. Before I sign off tough, I think it's important to mention some thing. Remember in the beginning when I said that Dead Space was one of my favorite Xbox 360 games of all time? Well before that game came out I tried out its demo and absolutely hated it. Hard not to think of that with any demo I play these days.

Edit: I had listed Epic Mickey originally as 'Castle of Illusion' because I can't get that out of my head. The Game however is actually titled 'Power of Illusion'. My bad

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