gaming Demos that sold you on a game (or made you avoid it)

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,237]

Demos! An apparent video game tradition that is becoming less and less of a thing in the industry. There have been countless demos for games, meant to give us a taste of what the full product has in store, sometimes this works on selling the game, other times, not so much. What are some of these for you? What demos actually convinced you to buy a game? Or if you want to answer this, what demos convinced you to stay far away? 

[Limeblossom 482]

KoA: Reckoning demo was interesting. Bhought the game and still playing it .

[Megas 27,052]

The MGS2 Demo was actually the only reason I ever picked up an entirely different game, Zone of the Enders(which came with said demo). So glad I did because I ended up loving it

Edited December 3, 2015 by Thrillho

[Celtore 2,769]

A demo for the second Freddi Fish game (the haunted schoolhouse) made me a massive fan of pretty much all of the Humongous Entertainment games. I eventually came to beat pretty much all the games they released.

 

Also as a side note, the Stanley Parable certainly would have sold me on the game if I hadn't bought it already.

[Odyssey 5,713]

The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity demo on the 3DS has convinced me that I should stay far away from purchasing it. I think I should be also glad that I never got it in the end, since it got negative reviews, haha.

[cmarston1 5,951]

Well I played the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity demo, and I didn't buy the game.

But the Smash Brothers 3DS demo really helped me out when waiting for it to be released.

[RainbowBobSquareDash 76]

SpongeBob SquarePants UnderPants Slam!

It was a Xbox live arcade exclusive and I tried the demo in 2010 and I still play it to this day! It features Creature From The Krusty Krab music. It was made in 2007 by Blitz Arcade & THQ. It was on the marketplace from 2007-2012. Its still a good game

Edited December 3, 2015 by RainbowBobSquareDash

[1Bit 1,531]

Probably quite an unheard of one, but I remember playing the TimeShift demo quite a long time ago that was an incredible demo, especially considering how young I was. I still have fond memories playing that game over and over, even in its demo form

 

EDIT : this thread is glorious, going back and looking at TimeShift again brings back so many happy memories. I'm going to head back and play that game for a while

Edited December 3, 2015 by 1Bit

[Chocobo 39]

The Dead Rising 2 demo was a very good time. I had to get the game after playing it and was not disapointed and was impressed that the area in the demo was made just for the demo because it wasn't in the main game.

Also it isnt out yet but thanks to the FFXV demo i will be getting that when it comes out

Edited December 3, 2015 by Chocobo

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,237]

Seeing these posts makes me smile, nice to see that demos have assisted in helping people find great games or avoid ones that might not be such. 

 

Here is one from me:

 

Dynasty Warriors 4

 

I had a PS2 demo disc way back when that contained a demo for this game on it, among others. Never played a Dynasty Warriors game before this in my life so I did not know what to expect, but this particular demo made me love the game and I played it countless times while saving up for the game. Needless to say, I was not disappointed, as the full game has boatloads of content compared to the demo and I still enjoy the game to this day, 12 years later. ^__^

[Anneal 2,194]

Seeing these posts makes me smile, nice to see that demos have assisted in helping people find great games or avoid ones that might not be such. 

 

Here is one from me:

 

Dynasty Warriors 4

 

I had a PS2 demo disc way back when that contained a demo for this game on it, among others. Never played a Dynasty Warriors game before this in my life so I did not know what to expect, but this particular demo made me love the game and I played it countless times while saving up for the game. Needless to say, I was not disappointed, as the full game has boatloads of content compared to the demo and I still enjoy the game to this day, 12 years later. ^__^

I've been playing it since 3, and honestly Dynasty Warriors has its purely awesome parts and purely terrible ones. 2 and 3 had horrible dialogue and crude hack-and-slash controls, even for their time, and ended up being unintentionally hilarious (COW-COW MUST DIE!).

 

There's improvement in 5, but the large in-between from 5, 6, and 7 is just...ugh. A whole lot of spinoffs were made at that time, some of which BS the storyline to appeal to fans with flat "badass" characters (thankfully some were only sold in Japan).

 

7 was mixed in response. Better graphics and storyline, but non-fans found it sort of boring and freedom was stifled by linear gameplay. 8 is seen in a more positive light with a more complex system in the game and fairly deep campaign lines (and secret conditions to unlock "hypothetical endings"). Not to mention there's actually deep characterization in the game so they aren't just flat fighters.