ndie Mega Booth is always a delight when it makes an appearance, and now that it’s branched out to the likes of GDC and Indiecade, the roster of games in the showcase is able to stretch into territory of epic proportions both in size and diversity. On top of that, this has had to have been the best showing the booth has ever done so far; meaning I had a heavy heart over deciding which games made the cut for the best of show but the deed is done, so without further adieu—here’s the cream of the crop for Indie Mega Booth at PAX east 2014!
The age of the collectathon platformer hasn’t been revisited with such reverence since American McGee’s Alice Madness Returns; that’s all about to change with A Hat in Time from Gears from Breakfast—a game that strikes the balance of nostalgia and contemporary design for the classic 90’s genre. Since their successful Kickstarter back in May of 2013, musing titles like Banjo-Kazooie and Tonic Trouble, The progress of its development nearly a year later is nothing short of astounding.
The biggest factor for success that defined these classic Nintendo 64 platformers and other games like it will always be the sprawling worlds and the vibrant personality within their model and layout—A Hat in Time nails this down to a tee. As I wandered through the introductory stage, the subtle nuances of running along a shore-side brick villa, complete with distinctive landmarks and platforms glorified by the gorgeous backdrops birds-eye view camera angles of the ocean and the country village landscape it surrounding it brought the world of Hat Girl to life in minutes.
Adding something new to the familiar dynamics, the game features equipable items and role-playing mechanics that transform the combat into a lite action-RPG affair, and a tinge of depth, for example, at times an exchange of attacks will need to happen between the classic pouncing upon the bad guy’s skull tactic with the hack ‘n whack method as the enemy AI will specifically defend against one of them to throw players off balance. The controls and input response is a bit stiff, and became an issue here and there but the jumping mechanics and move set of Hat Girl did the job when I surveyed the level and as far as the initial sets of those all too important game-advancing baubles are concerned—the quirky depth in the objectives to earn them prove that A Hate in Time will be a worthy renaissance to genre when it lands later this year.
For those of you who listen to the show regularly, you guys must think I’m one of the biggest cat ladies around (Protip: you’d be mostly right in that assumption) so believe me when I say that this next game definitely struck a personal chord in one of the biggest hardships cat owners everywhere compromise out of sheer love for their feline children; the complete and utter lack of respect they have for your personal belongings and assorted bits of shit you own. This pet habit from hell inspired developer Chris Chung to attempt at simulating what he interprets goes on in the headspace of cats everywhere when left to their own devices in a room filled with your valuables in Catlateral Damage.
This titles makes no allusions to what it’s really all about—players will take on the first-person perspective of a mischievous puss as they attempt to knock over a hundred of their owner’s possessions throughout the room down to the ground before the time limit expires. The physics involved are extremely rudimentary in design and the sluggishness of how everything moves becomes ironic exercise of silliness every time your input causes the vandal cat to throw around some chunky slaps—the execution is genuinely gratifying because of the limited threshold of the physics in motion. In addition to the intestinally asinine laws of motion, Catlateral Damage has several bits of subtle humor and visual gags throughout its level that totally complete the super dumb game experience into a complete package that shouldn’t be missed, you’ll be able to catch a demo of the most current build from PAX directly off its website next week; it’s definitely worth a look.
If there was one trend I noticed most of the games in attendance for this particular IMB, it was definitely a theme of brilliant reinvention. It’s totally refreshing to see the practice that’s happen more and more, gradually reducing the distressing advent of the pretentious recycling of game design we’ve seen too much of as of late. Which is why it’s important when you spot one such example of that kind of game that’s made of all the right stuff to shepherd this new movement, and Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball is definitely a contender for the cause.
Comically spinning the traditional four-player death-match setup right on its head, gameplay will place four competitors into the roles of four neon shining Jetson-like androids programmed for nothing more than pummeling their fellow machines with assorted dodgeballs that inhabit the Tron-inspired arena.
The humble niches within combat is what really shines in Disco Dodgeball, spawning in different points of the ring, players desperately scramble to the nearest ball so that they can land a winning shot, and even when a ball is equipped and ready to pummel, the force of the shot is measured by how long the right-mouse button is held to determine the strength of the throw. These factors come into play heavily with the physics of ball and what patch of trajectory it’ll have, especially in certain corridors as the dodgeball behaves like a real life one, bouncing its shit every against the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room if the pitch of it was fierce enough.
Movement is comparably nothing short of off-the-rails roller-coaster ordeal as you frantically serpentine your path between players through an obnoxiously bright room of colors and lights, complete with appropriate track list of music to sell the whimsy of the violent disco-tech night club you’re partying in. The game just made it to Steam’s early access and I highly recommend it for those who need their next fast-paced deathmatch fix.
It’s a shame that Ser didn’t get to make it to PAX East this year, but it felt good that the guy could vicariously live through me as I my journey through the Indie Mega Booth led to the Playsim kiosk, and there, they were debuting a sharp yet crazy looking Doujin styled Shoot ‘em-up by the name of Astebreed. Considering my criticism of the genre being continuously saturated with analogously tepid affairs that are barely indistinguishable from one another, Astebreed was immediate breath of fresh air in a multitude of ways that make it more than just a SHMUP game for SHMUP fans.
As I flew across some auspiciously familiar backdrops, my cynicism quickly faded the moment I attacked the first enemy armada; the Pilot had variable attacks based on the manner of input of the same attack button and they could all be chained in a number of combinations that can be used against specific classes of foes that are particular weak to them. Like holding down the A button jettisoned my mechpilot into a flying tackle that made quick work of small enemy waves of ships but when rapidly tapped in succession can be used to take down durable enemies who withstand shots more than sword strikes or deflect certain enemy fire from ever hitting you so that evasion is so heavily prioritized. These quirks and several others help break Astebreed away from the common conventions of the Shoot ‘em-up design and allowed it to play more like an action game with its own set a rules that seamlessly communicate through level design and consistent difficulty.
The game is a beauty just to watch as the camera angles wildly transition to different perspectives like vertical shooter, horizontal shooter or even an on-rails one and shifts from one angle to the next produce an engrossing cinematic presentation of the action on screen without any negative interference to the gameplay at all. Expect it to hit Steam some time later this year.
The sequel to Nigoro’s cult hit La Mulana was present, and while this admittedly was the most underwhelming of the list, the strides and direction that the second game is still capitalizing on dishing out all of the charm of its Metroidvania cross Dark Souls difficulty hybrid play style with some significant improvements that could secure the series a boost within its fan base.
Another successful Kickstarter campaign from earlier this year, La Mulana 2 sets itself apart from its predecessor by taking the overall ideals and mechanics from the original and applying them with double the force in this go around and a slightly higher spike in the difficulty that’s sure to generate an odd familiar mix of joy and frustration for returning fans. Taking on the daughter of the original protagonist, Lumisa, the temple’s rooms and various exits and entrances are cleverer when it comes to discovering the secret to completing them, but on top of the more cerebral demand involved with the excavating new paths, the sinister trial-and-error traps have been significantly increased according to Naramura.
Not a second after sly dropped that hint, I was crush by a giant slab of unavoidable rock, and the incident only hardened my nerve to surpass it.
For the inner masochist that desires a game with a different shade of cruelty this side of Spelunky will find themselves back at home as they test themselves through all the challenges that happen between the fun.
It’s encouraging to know that the random prospects that come from one of indie game’s most storied and beloved pioneers, are still just as intriguing as Cave Story was during its prime, and the latest venture in production from Daisuke Amaya and company stars a reluctant frog employee who’s got to play clean up in one of the strangest Run ‘n Gun games I’ve play yet—in a good way of course.
Kero Blaster is a set in a 2D hub-world setup where you take on assignments to eliminate certain creatures in order to advance to the next objective, eventually unlocking new areas; what makes the process so interesting is it’s liberal Megaman meets Monster Hunter approach as players take control of which prey to chase first with the caveat of certain areas housing different weapons and power-ups that can be significantly more effective in bringing down specific monsters in other areas of the hub-world. This particular setup gives so much more meaning to the choice of direction and your confidence going into the travel, fusing different aspects of anxiety and a nuanced risk/reward system that gave more meaning to my play than simply just jumping and shooting.
Kero Blaster is still far from completion but it’s slated for 2014, and It was definitely a surprising play through that deserves a look-see from everyone the moment the opportunity presents itself.
Metroidvania is a special beast that’s still heralded as one of the most creative and deepest kind of game you can play as far as platforming sub-genres go and yet, it’s already skirted the edge of permeation on more than a few occasions. The fine folks at Discord games however decided to do more than just throw in their love-letter to the pedantic yet venerated genre by marrying it to the brutal condition of rogue dungeon crawling and resource management.
Getting down and dirty within the beginning stages of the game’s first mine played exactly the way I expected, and in this case, that’s a great thing.
Exploring the cold recesses of one soldier’s story-driven crusade to return home after receiving an ominous warning of danger, and doing so leads you through a giant world of mines, caverns, and catacombs that play an even deeper role as you stumble along.
Starting off with no map, Chasm makes no attempt to hold players hands, and throws you in thick of it from the very start. The initial pace is admittedly intimidating even for veteran players but each room traversed and conquered rewarded a sense of gratification that drove me to go one further. Each item and checkpoint becomes more and more precious the deeper you go with hazards and obstacles growing in frequency and challenge in every new room entered and even the comfort of farming or grinding levels and resources won’t save you as the game actively adjusts experience yields and item drop rates accordingly based on the scale of difference of mobs weaker than you.
Packing the sensation of exploration with a constant need for cognizance elevates Chasm beyond any initial impression that the concept of graphics may have implied as it’s poised to set a benchmark for the developer minority that continues to romanticize the development of genre in their endeavors going forward.
Dumb games are fun, and every year we get a certain handful of them that push their penchant for the absurd in the best way (I’m looking at you Goat Simulator) but there also exist a class of simple games that doesn’t need to be dumb in order to be intriguing or enchanting to their players. I like to call those Arcade games, and Max Gentleman is such a game that champions the classic arcade spirit all the way to the bottoms of our pockets for that next credit of play that’ll hook you in before you know it.
One of the ludicrous fighting games this side of Divekick, you’ll be given a choice of gentleman to square off with one another in a race to drink as many stein as you can swipe from the Bartender on duty in order to stack a pile of top hats in a timed contest of whoever has the most hats resting upon their poncy dome. The catch is the contest takes place in a bar that quickly gets surly and rowdy, with actual bar fights happening all around, and projectile beer mugs and objects flyting through the air, endangering the structural integrity of your tower of hats. Zipping around between one side of the counter to the other to try and remain one chug ahead of your fellow challenger while cycling through the various hats at different levels of height hopscotch their way out of a collision with all the flying nonsense gets more enjoyable by the minute as you’re already thinking about the next round.
Max Gentleman strikes all the right chords of accessibility and contests of skill that’ll position it to be a staple in anyone’s party game library the moment it’s finished and available to the public.
Puzzle games walk a fine line of being just good enough to push gamers into scratching their personal intellectual wall versus ramming into in frustration or even boring them away from ever visiting it to begin with; which is why Mushroom 11 is a weird in how carries itself when it comes to puzzles in the most brilliant of ways.
Tasked with guiding a self-replicating fungus-like amoeba of sorts, players will drag and click against the amoeba in order for to form certain shapes or forms that propel it through certain obstacles to progress through the polluted dystopian disease it calls a world. The small niches in how to control the pile of funk in Mushroom 11 is borderline cryptic as the regeneration and the shape or momentum involved by the giant green bacteria never happens the same way again regardless of repeated patterns of input from the mouse. This sort of thing can be spirit killing the further you travel but aside from the generous checkpoints, the sense of accomplishment that stems from you traversing whatever hazard that stood in your becomes immensely more gratifying the more distance you chart. Little quirks like tunnels that can flood your heroic germ collection down it like liquid in a drain to chain-link fences on a weighted pedestal that that can be used like bridge for the porous goo creature are just some of the many contextual points of interest that telegraph what it asks of you while leaving you at the mercy of the inconsistent physics behind Mushroom 11’s fungi’s growth and movement.
This is it, the game that earned the Golden Zonkey; Woah Dave! Is the latest production in development within the halls of Gaijin Studios, and its deceptive addictive gameplay positions it into being one best engrossing casual games anyone can pick up and play since Super Crate Box.
As the stage opens up to some goofy looking dude that you can only assume is Dave, players will being constantly under the siege of raining eggs and skulls from the sky as they stand upon various perilous platforms that hang above a lake of magma-hot lava. In order to keep Dave alive, I had to be quick on the button and fast on the jump as every egg that landed had only a certain amount of time left the moment it lands before it hatches into a deadly monster that instantly kills on contact. The only way to dispose of the monsters is to pelt them with either eggs or skulls (oh, and eggs can taken out too but only by skulls.) The madness behind all the quickening pace that gets faster over time as it tests your reflexes and endurance to keep up the fight. It’s not simply just a matter of avoiding monsters, as eggs become less and less reliable as throwing weapons since they hatch faster and faster with players getting surprised to death by a new-born monster exploding above their heads. The same goes for the skulls that beat the monster hatching to the punch by killing eggs as these boneheads inconsistently flash triggers with time limits that lead to an explosion—the game will never allow you to sit still and that’s what makes it an instant hit the moment the controller is picked up.
With additional competitive 2 player options filled with all parts cooperative and grieving, Woah Dave! Was one of the most unassuming games I approached at the both entirely, and easily became the best I walked away from by the time I was done, watch out for this eventual hit when it releases from the same guys that brought the Bit Trip Games; huh, imagine that right?