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MCM Expo – Games Expo Summary Part 1

MCMExpo_ShowFloorThe MCM Expo was a huge success last weekend with around 46,500 people attending over the Halloween weekend. I was fortunate enough to gain access to the show on the Friday and managed to play 13 different games from the games expo. That wasn’t even all of them either, as you can see from the games expo list I posted earlier. There was plenty of comics, films (and celebrities) and merchandise to keep you occupied the whole time you were there at the expo. Even the DeLorean from Back to the Future turned up.

All credit to the organisers for laying on such a wide variety of games to play, including some real gems. The next MCM Expo is planned for May 2011, but no word yet if it will feature such a strong games expo. I hope it will, as we need more games shows in this country.

Here are my impressions of the first 6 games I played.

Explodemon

This was my first time playing Explodemon from Curve Studios. The games design director – Jonathan Biddle – was on hand to watch me blunder though the game and provide some helpful hints. Explodemon has been in development for about 5 years now. What started as someone’s pet project has now flourished into a full blown PlayStation network title. Richard has posted about Explodemon at MCM as Curve Studios had a quite a bit of attention from us.

I had a lot of fun playing Explodemon. When your character’s main attack is “EXPLODE” what’s not to like ;-) Jonathan also talked me though the different approaches to playing Explodemon. Whilst you can be super cautious and not take risks and blow things up from a safe distance the benefits are minimal. I mean, come on that’s boring! The more adventurous amongst you can play it in a different way. Timing your explosions to the very last second and chaining explosions together kill the aliens quicker and reap you greater rewards (i.e. level ups etc). It’s also hugely satisfying to blast your way around a section in no time, leaving a trail of destruction. Think Mario but with explosions!

At the moment Explodemon is due for release on Dec 2010 on the PlayStation network. If anything changes we will let you know.

Blade Kitten

Didn’t like this at all. You take on the role of Kit Ballard who is part cat, part girl and quite nimble. Control wise there are no problems at all with a wide array of acrobatic moves at your disposal. The main problem lies with the graphics and level layouts. There are awful. I gave up playing after getting stuck under a bridge in one of the levels. The game gives the illusion of depth to the levels with lots of background detail and enemies lucking within. But there is no depth. It is a linear, side scrolling platformer/hack n’ slash em up with no flair. Disappointing.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

This was as awesome to play as it looks in the trailer. It is one of the cutest, well designed games I’ve played in a long time. I had a big smile on my face for the entire time I was playing. Kirby was very easy to control using the Wiimote (held sideways), with no tutorial required to get you up and running.

There are some really lovely gameplay touches within the game like pulling together the background so you can cross a big gap. The game designers have let their imaginations run riot to produce this little gem of a game. The trailer below shows off a lot of the really cool stuff:

The only downside is that Kirby’s Epic Yarn isn’t due for release until the 25th March 2011 24th Feb 2011 in Europe, and it’s already out in North America. That’s ages away Nintendo! Sad Panda.

GoldenEye 007

I got to play a 4-player deathmatch in one of the facility levels. Alas Slappers Only! were not the weapons of choice. The more conventional fair of automatic rifles was perferred. First impressions: Looks remarkably like the N64 original. The graphics are quite poor. The TV screens weren’t huge at the expo, so I’d fully expect it to look truely awful on a really big TV. However, it does play well. You use the classic Wii controller rather than the Wiimote, which fits in perfectly with the game. Brings back memories of playing the original GoldenEye. Controls are nicely responsive and the weapons are fun to use. I would say that, like the first GoldenEye, the game really excels during multiplayer matches. It played better than I thought it would.

Super Scribblenauts:

SuperScribbleNauts_Extinction Super Scribblenauts builds on the fun and unique Scribblenauts. The games vocabulary has now been expanded to include many adjectives allowing you to create all sorts of stuff. Like flying dinosaurs and big fire-breathing purple pregnant octopuses (octopus idea from the Super Scribblenauts Wikipedia page). The physics engine has been improved and Maxwell is much easier to control now. Also the game is just funny to play. Take a look at the try again message I got after I’d failed a level. Yes, it is correct I did just try to kill all the dinosaurs with my ray gun. My lazy evil plan foiled. Bah. I’d recommend getting hold of Super Scribbblenauts as I can guarantee not only will it test your powers of imagination but it will bring a smile to your face too.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Ubisoft UK had laid on 8 PlayStation 3 consoles at the expo for some serious multiplayer action. People got to experience the unique multiplayer game that I’ve been enjoying in the recent beta test. As I covered in the recent Eurogamer Expo post about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood you get to play both the assassin and the target. The better you are the more targets you are assigned. You really feel a profound sense of disappointment when you’ve spent ages stealthily stalking tracking your target only for some other assassin to walk casually by and kill them right in front of you. Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Ubisoft UK also decided to spice up the awesome gameplay even more by commissioning 4 people to dress up as characters from Assassin’s Creed and wander around the show floor. What I witnessed was people playing Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood whilst being tracked by real life versions of the characters. There were quite a few players with some worried looks on their faces ;-) Also the doctor outfit looks very disturbing in real life. Eminently spooky! The same 4 people also performed stage fights before the developer Q&A sessions during the weekend.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is released on the 19th Nov 2010 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You can also check out the awesome Darkness In Rome trailer and a gameplay trailer.

In my second post I’ll cover the remaining games that I played during the Expo:

  • Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds
  • Medal of Honor
  • Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage
  • Deathsmiles
  • Warriors: Legends of Troy
  • Dead Space 2
  • Gran Turismo 5