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Your Favorite Demos?

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So I somewhat got the idea for this thread from watching this episode of The Final Bosman, where he talks about the cleverness of the Bravely Default demo and his love for the MGS2 demo; how he probably spent far more time with that demo than with the final game itself!...

 

 

 

But this got me thinking about how much I used to love demo's!

I think it's fair to say this love arrived with the Dreamcast for me, and I'm sure many had a similar experience with the PS2.

 

Each month I would get the Official Dreamcast Magazine and of course the best thing about it was that disc full of upcoming gameplay demo's and trailers.

 

And in their own strange way somehow those demo's felt like games themselves. I could put them in and replay them, and spend time with each.

 

And even stranger I hardly ever bought the full game version of these games either, because maybe the game itself wasn't actually that great, or they were largely meant for multiplayer... but with the demo, just for that portion of the game it didn't matter and I still got a great amount of fun from it. Demo's such as...

 

Toy Commander

 

 

Watching that now I'm not even sure I can remember not even really working out the purpose of the level for ages, and just having fun flying/driving around exploring :)

 

Red Dog

 

 

Re-Volt

 

 

This time I did pick up the full game. But I don't think I ever had as much fun with it as just playing this level.

 

 

Other great demo's include:

 

Rayman 2 - despite the demo being completely devoid of music I still loved to play through it, not even sure if I got to the end of the level :p

 

Trickstyle - came on the very first Dreamcast demo disc and just featured a training arena for you to ride your hoverboard around in... possibly with a 3 minute time limit or something. And well that's all I would do :D

 

4 Wheel Thunder - I loved the CGI intro to this racing game so much, but was never compelled to buy the full game. I would explore the course featured for shortcuts and have fun driving around the arena course/multiplayer map too.

 

Others include Space Channel 5, Fur Fighters... so much good fun stuff on those demo discs!

 

What demo's have you enjoyed to the max? :)

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I have fond memories of Official Playstation Magazine demo discs, back then in late 90s I didn't have money to buy new games and my parents kept a strict 1-game-per-year-policy but I did buy those magazines sometimes and they came with pretty enjoyable demos. Some demos were of course better than others, I remember Metal Gear Solid VR Missions demo being quite large for example.

 

One great thing about demos was that they were often somewhat different from the final product, so they were more like beta versions (remember Resident Evil 2 demo that came with RE Director's Cut?), making them worth playing through once, even if you played the final product already :)

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Probably shouldn't be classed as a good demo but I enjoyed the Dead Rising demo a lot. Only problem for the full game was that I got everything I needed from the demo so didn't need to buy the actual game.

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Toy Commander

 

Pretty much came to post this and it was taken in the first post. ;)

 

The great thing were the special levels they did just for the demo disks, like the Christmas themed level.

 

Such a fun game, wish it gets a HD remake at some point just so I can play it again.

 

Used to play a demo disk that came with the SEGA Saturn and never got a chance to buy any of the games that were on it.

 

Played the heck out of the Sonic Adventure 2 demo that came with PSO2.

 

Bravely Defaults demo was handled pretty good.

 

The Metroid Prime Hunters demo was probably better than the final game. Played that a lot back in the day.

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Pretty much came to post this and it was taken in the first post. ;)

 

The great thing were the special levels they did just for the demo disks, like the Christmas themed level.

 

Such a fun game, wish it gets a HD remake at some point just so I can play it again.

 

Used to play a demo disk that came with the SEGA Saturn and never got a chance to buy any of the games that were on it.

 

Played the heck out of the Sonic Adventure 2 demo that came with PSO2.

 

Bravely Defaults demo was handled pretty good.

 

The Metroid Prime Hunters demo was probably better than the final game. Played that a lot back in the day.

Great minds! ;) It totally needs an HD remake! There are no games like that anymore... well, nor had there every been really, but we need more fun like that.

 

Speaking of DS demo's, the Wario Ware Touched demo was brilliant!

 

Not sure I had the Metroid Hunters one, but I feel like I should have.

 

1-game-per-year-policy
Ouch!!...

 

So you literally had a 'Game of the Year' :D What game did you choose each year?

Edited by Retro_Link

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Growing up with Nintendo, I didn't really experience many demos. The only thing I ever really had was some of those Action Replay discs that came free with CUBE magazine, one of which allowed me to play Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution on the Gamecube :hehe:

 

Other than that, I can only really recall playing a considerable amount of a PS1 demo with my friend which included Puma Street Soccer. Looking back on it now, I'm not sure why we played it so much but we had fun with it and was always kinda disappointed that he never got around to purchasing the full game :indeed: I have no doubt that it's probably terrible :heh:

 

As for something that would probably be an amazing demo for a game would be Champion Road from Super Mario 3D World :hehe: I've attempted it quite a few times now, though not quite conquered it yet, but I keep going back again and again, enjoying every second. It's challenging and highly satisfying when you breeze through sections that were initially troublesome but there's always that desire to make it all the way to the end.. and I WILL :bouncy:

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Ouch!!...

 

So you literally had a 'Game of the Year' :D What game did you choose each year?

 

Well, every christmas looked similar...

 

1997: Tomb Raider 2

1998: Tomb Raider 3

1999: Tomb Raider 4

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The Ghost Trick (DS) demo was cleverly done, as they made a level especially for the demo that didn't actually appear in the full game. It also convinced me to get the game, and I'm so pleased I did!

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700-0012-PM_1,,Sega-Saturn-Photo-1-Panzer-Dragoon-Saga-Demo-Disc-EUR.jpg

 

The entire first disc of the finished game came with the Official Sega Saturn Magazine.

 

 

 

Also:

 

Nights02.jpg

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PC Zone I think used to have its own track for the background of some games that either didn't have audio tracks yet or didn't have the license for them. It was an awesome little track. I remember playing the Tomb Raider II demo over and over and over again with this midi electronica backing.

 

There was also the original GTA, in which you started with a 300 second timer and just tried to do as much as you could before it was someone else's go.

 

More recently, during Uni years, I definitely had more fun with the Beautiful Katamari and Skate 2 demos than I did with the actual games. Both of them just became this turn taking competition with @jayseven and @Nami, the former being a 5 minute go on one of the early levels which lead us to figure out the best possible way to essentially get the max possible points. The latter happened to come with the bails competition which was just hilarious.

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I played the Just Cause 2 Steam demo about 500 times before I could buy the PC full version. Then when that wouldn't run on my laptop, I bought an Xbox 360 and another copy to pay that. That demo was so good.

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