The guys are back from Boston with stories to tell and games to celebrate. This week is all about PAX East 2012, with big games like Borderlands 2 and XCom: Enemy Unknown, as well as smaller nuggets like Awesomenauts and Guacamelee. Tons of games, tons of StreetPassing and tons of restaurant chatter await. Big thanks to Gearbox’s Scott Kester for his interview in the second half of the show.
Also, any iTunes reviewers are eligible to to win a $50 online gift certificate for PSN/Xbox Live/Steam/etc. bucks, among other prizes. To enter, simply email our feedback account with your iTunes account name, and we’ll randomly draw three winners next week. Past reviewers are also eligible. Best of luck!
So it seems that StreetPassing has finally caught on! While I’ve been racking up Play Coins long before it was cool,* this year’s PAX East seemed like a major turning point for the noteworthy 3DS feature. You couldn’t walk 10 feet without connecting with fellow gamers, and many were able to complete puzzles and dungeons that had been previously untouched. For many, the biggest bonuses were the Mario Kart 7 ghosts and Kid Icarus: Uprising weapon gems, as those are obviously two of the biggest games on the system. However, for those of us who played the forgotten eShop game Freakyforms, PAX East opened the floodgate of abominations and misshapen gaming mascots we’ve been craving. It was honestly quite thrilling to have a reason to boot up this almost-great game again, and you can check out my discoveries below. Truly wonderful work, fellow PAXers.
As with so many game conventions in recent years, PAX East 2012 was defined as much by its downloadable arcade titles and Independent Game Festival darlings as it was by towering booths for surefire hits. Lots of charming, pixelated graphics and lots of innovative takes on old favorites. But if you were looking for my personal game of the show (maybe), you wouldn’t be able to find it on the main show floor. I’m not even sure if there were any formal announcements, but if you were lucky enough to be in the right hallway at the right time, you would have stumbled upon the Move’s killer app, Johann Sebastian Joust.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the game has been shown to the public. This very social game, which requires you to protect your Move controller at all costs, has been generating buzz for some time now. We talked about the game on our show when it was demonstrated at GDC 2012, and it’s been in the works much longer than that. However, I can think of no better testing ground than PAX East, with thousands of admittedly awkward men and women interacting with each other through games. With its emphasis on mind games and physical contact, Johann Sebastian Joust is the ultimate icebreaker.
If you’ve ever had some hands-on time with the original Steel Battalion and its ridiculous 40-button controller, a Kinect-enhanced sequel might seem an odd fit. However, after getting some hands-on time with the lengthy demo, the new gesture controls seem entirely appropriate. Capcom (and developer From Software) have found the only controller more awkward than the Xbox behemoth: my own body.
I fumbled the simple fist bump at the end of the demo. All of my training was for naught!
That’s not to say that Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor isn’t a successful sequel. It’s arguably the most interesting game I’ve played using the Kinect since the peripheral launched, and at the very least, the game will be noted as noble experiment when it releases in June. There are lots of little details that I loved, especially when I was navigating within the cockpit. But there’s no getting around the huge learning curve facing anyone who associates the Kinect with Dance Central and Kinect Adventures.
The most noteworthy change is that the slightest of movements are typically all that you need to pilot your vertical tank. Almost every Kinect game that I have played has required me to hold my arms out for several seconds to select menu options. Here, you’ll be much more successful with quick, assured motions. For instance, to switch from the in-cockpit view to the windshield, you merely need to flick your wrists. It took me a little time to figure this out, and in the meantime, I was rapidly shifting my view. When you’re moving your arms, there are many different levers and buttons in the virtual space in front of you, and it’s very easy to flip several incorrect switches on your way to the right one. During my two missions, I’m sure I looked like Frankenstein’s monster with my outstretched arms, but I could imagine a season veteran moving much closer to that “Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report'” ideal promised when the Kinect was first announced.
The 90 minute wait was a bit absurd, but at least I have a tattoo to show for it.
Those skills may be necessary, as even the basic foot soldiers were threats. Many of them hide in windows or on ledges, waiting to launch crippling RPGs at you. Thankfully, Heavy Armor offers lots of tricks to help you hold your own. In one tight spot, I pulled down my shielded shutters, pulled down my periscope and fired on enemies from the safety of my steel cocoon. In another, a grenade was dropped into my cockpit, and I had just a few seconds to pick it up and toss it out the bottom hatch. Some of these moments are scripted and many of them are not, but they all give more personality to the world, the crew members and the game itself.
Again, there are lots of technical hurdles facing Steel Battalion: Heavy Metal when it launches, and the full $60 might prove too intimidating for most Kinect adopters. But even if the game isn’t a 40-button legend, From Software* should be proud of moving the technology in truly innovate ways. With so many Kinect games, it takes precious extra seconds to do anything, but Heavy Metal would never deny you the self-destruct when your tank is in shambles.
*I didn’t realize that From Software (Demon Souls, Armored Core) was developing this, but even more surprising to me is that none of the original team members are involved in either.
PAX East 2012 runs from April 6th to 8th, and we’ll be there to cover all of it. Join Kaz, Tom, Justin and friends as they collect Kid Icarus AR cards, eat their weight in gummies and maybe even play a game or two. Throughout the weekend, you can expect photo galleries both on our site and Facebook page, as well as short video clips recounting each day’s events. We’ll have our digital mics handy throughout the whole weekend, so you’ll never know who might join us. (We’ll also have a full podcast episode next week, stuffed with PAX interviews and impressions of whatever we managed to play on the plane/bus rides back home.) Also, pogs?
We can’t wait to share our adventures with you, so please stay tuned. Also, if happen to be a show attendee yourself, consider yourself invited to our official meet-up at The Whiskey Priest on Saturday, April 7th at 6 p.m. You can RSVP through this link or by emailing our feedback address.
UPDATE: Be sure to check out our PAX East photo album on our Facebook page. It will be updated daily. (We’ll also post our photo blog here early next week.)
Put on your official Rumble Goggles and behold the Kid Icarus AR card madness. This week, Tom and Kaz look on in horror as the resident “gazelle of the city” plots his route to PAX East’s Nintendo booth. But the Pack is not in Boston just yet! There are still lots of post-Mass-Effect-3 palate cleansers to discuss. Tom brings back the greased watermelon in Vanquish, Kaz has scarf jealousy in Journey and Justin stocks up on cans of beans in Lone Survivor. Plus, Shirley Temples, new consoles theoretically blocking used games, forcing children to play Pikmin, looking at sounds, the 3DS stand, hollowed-out buttocks and even more of both Kid Icarus: Uprising and Sine Mora.
It’s been a wild ride, but this week’s episode marks the end of the Pack’s Mass Effect trilogy discussion trilogy. The guys bring on friend-of-the-show Draque to pick apart that infamous ending, while also praising the series as a whole. The 50 minute spoiler-cast section begins at the 39 minute mark. Before the Reaper invasion, Justin falls in love with Kid Icarus: Uprising and all of its bizarre quirks, while Tom fights his way through Sine Mora‘s arcade mode. Plus, hyperventilating Danny DeVito, “con crud,” Angry Bird Space‘s stone planks, the immunity system, early impressions of Closure and grapefruit fists.
This morning, I had too many darn games. Several hours later, this remains true, but I tweeted about the Great Culling this afternoon and got a variety of responses, most of them confused. First and foremost, why dump so much of my collection when the individual games are definitely worth more than I got for them?* I’m not saying it easy, but I had enough video games to last me several lifetimes, and the vast majority of them would have probably gone un-played forever. I have many fond memories of the games with which I parted, and that’s all I need. However, I’ve been down this road before. I pawned off my 16-bit treasures during my undergrad days, and no amount of Virtual Console downloads is going to make up for that choice. Today, before I made that ultimate trade, I carefully chose the disc-based classics I wanted to keep in my sacred disc binders. Many of you wanted to know what I had left; you can find the answer below. (If you have any questions or Chibi Robo love, please let me know in the comments. Also, keep in mind that this doesn’t count any of my handheld games, cartridges, Steam downloads, etc.)
*All you need to know is that I’m happy with the money I received.
At first glance, Sumioni: Demon Arts seemed like it had what it took to become a cult favorite. It’s a side-scrolling platformer that stands out among the Vita’s early lineup. The Japanese ink wash painting art and characters are evocative of the painterly splendor of Okami, and with colorful, screen-filling bosses and the end of most levels. And perhaps most intriguing of all, it’s one of the first PlayStation Vita games in which the touchscreen is integral to the mechanics; as anyone who played Kirby: Canvas Curse years ago can attest, it’s often more fun to draw your own path than to walk on the one given to you. However, I’m sad to report that after an enjoyable first hour, Sumioni runs out of tricks. At this point, it can barely sustain my interest, much less hold a candle to Okami.
As an Oni demon (and his two “Inkgod”comrades), you are tasked with saving a kingdom from an evil presence, which you unfortunately learn from walls of scrolling text. Once you clear the tutorial stage, there are sixth paths you can take to victory. The branches you can choose are tied to your end-of-level grades, which means only the most efficient players will ever make it to the “good” endings. While I’m never a fan of playing through the same set of levels several times, the structure promises new sights and challenges each time you play. In practice however, the levels are so dull and short that I struggled to keep playing. The levels are only ever as tall as the Vita’s screen itself, meaning that you never have much room to draw your bridges and ramps, and in most instances, you won’t need to, because levels rarely extend beyond a couple screens. With a handheld game, developers usually aim for shorter play sessions, but Sumioni takes that to an extreme.
Even if can get over the brief levels, the enemies and obstacles just don’t complement the mechanics well. Random foot soldiers will blindly walk into the stationary flames you can draw, while bosses can fill the screen with projectiles that make it too difficult to find an attack window. Even summoning your Inkgod lion or phoenix is dull, as you’re just drawing the same hourglass every time. Okami‘s calligraphy worked because there was so much variety – bombs, vines, cherry blossoms, lily pads. Sumioni didn’t need to recreate that necessarily, but the game never develops beyond the opening tutorial. It’s a shame too, because there’s absolutely potential here. It’s a shame that Acquire pushed this out for the launch window, because Sumioni is a shell of a game in its current state.
The guys are back from Boston with stories to tell and games to celebrate. This week is all about PAX East 2012, with big games like Borderlands 2 and XCom: Enemy Unknown, as well as smaller nuggets like Awesomenauts and Guacamelee. Tons of games, tons of StreetPassing and tons of restaurant chatter await. Big thanks to Gearbox’s Scott Kester for his interview in the second half of the show.
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