I hadn't anticipated breaking a sweat at PAX West—aside from the 17,000 steps I logged daily. Yet, there I found myself, weaving, dodging, and throwing punches at demons in Exercise Your Demons, a new game set to launch on Meta Quest.
The game leverages AR technology, and based on my experience, it does so very well. The mechanics are straightforward: waves of enemies approach, and my task is to punch metal balls that illuminate, signaling when to strike them. This sends the balls hurtling toward the demons. Once a ball hits an enemy, I must execute a series of punches at designated targets to knock them out.
The challenge arises from the number of enemies I face simultaneously. At times, I battled just a few foes, while at other moments, I found myself overwhelmed by a large horde on the screen. Timing is crucial; I must ensure that I hit the metal balls in the correct order and at the precise moment they light up. Some enemies are smaller, requiring a different sequence for hitting the illuminated balls compared to the larger foes, which makes these smaller creatures a bit more challenging to defeat.
Dodging is also essential. While there were a few times where I felt I dodged but it didn’t pick up the movement, most times I was able to successfully maneuver out of the way from the attack.
The developers have announced that the game will feature interactions with various characters, blending elements of exercise with something akin to Persona. Although this particular aspect was not showcased in the demo, I am curious to discover how they will integrate these two distinct genres.
Any game that gets me to exercise more is always something that piques my interest. I can’t wait to see what the full game looks like.
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