EGX 2017 — Saturday 23rd
[This is a continuation of the previous post — read that one first! Or don’t! Be who you wanna be!]
Although it was certainly busier than the previous day, I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot more — perhaps because I was completely comfortable now, perhaps because the floor felt more energetic with a weekend crowd, perhaps my exhaustion levels were surpassed by desperate adrenaline… I beelined for the Leftfield Collection, an assortment of outlandish indie games far more condensed than those in Rezzed.
2000 to 1: A Space Odyssey is a tongue-in-cheek murder mystery set in space. Armed only with a camera, surveilled by the omnipresent (possibly guilty) station AI MAL, it’s somewhat like a dark Tacoma but the frequent sardonic humor keeps the two games worlds apart. The worlds of Etherborn, however, are muted in soft pastel palettes yet resonate beautifully with its accompanying quiet soundtrack. It’s a puzzle-platformer that changes the center of gravity as the slight, glowing figure ascends the Tree of Life. Already boasting many accolades to its name, I can’t recommend Etherborn enough as a brief meditative interlude.
There were some great mobile games that I was lucky to spy and try: Smash Tanks!, Inops and Ava Airborne. Using augmented-reality, Smash Tanks! takes the empty surface in the viewfinder and forges it into a dauntless battleground of toy tanks. Play it like a more destructive, louder version of pool — drag tanks back, release to ping forward, wreak havoc on enemies and create hours of fun. Just like pool.
Inops was a gloomy but gorgeous 2D side-scroller where you pilot a cluster of dark blobs, avoiding traps by splicing and splitting at the right moment. But while Inops explores midnight blue jungles, Ava Airborne soars to the seaside. Leaping off a cliff in a flying apparatus (e.g. bumblebee suit), tapping the Apple TV remote causes Ava to climb — but she will run out of momentum. Navigate the balloons, hula hoops, lasers, mines, trampolines and more to stay airborne, flying to new high scores. I loved it, and I thought it was great to showcase games that catered to accessibility for all ages, like Puny Astronaut’s Skye. For Xbox One and PS4, the player resolves inhabitants’ quests and explores the magical world of the titular dragon: it’s hard to deny the carefree charm of the premise.
To answer the Twin Peaks void in one’s life, Falling Sky may just be the ticket to front row seats at the next set of cryptic happenings in suburban America. Very cinematic in its techniques, it adds realism with motion capture, dresses environments in extraordinary detail, and paints it all in a sepia haze. Daniel and Tommy’s family home is dated — oddly opposing a subsequent Google Maps section, thus breaching a definitive time period for their story and hinting at the surrealist undertones.
The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game might break blocks but it hasn’t broken the mold — then again, the Lego games tend to be pretty fun so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It might be something to do with my playing five inches from a screen, but the sharp (child-friendly) edges and bright primary colors were terrific to watch bounce around. Similarly, the expanse of Monster Hunter: World looks stunning on the PS4. No loading screens and a multiplayer drop in feature creates a new, singular experience that roars with spirit and dynamism. Yet the more things change, the more they stay the same: you’ve got a humungous weapon for an even more humungous beast, and it’s gonna feel awesome to knock them down a peg or two.
Much like the other AAA heavyweights, the queues for Nintendo were horrendous all weekend — but as the artificial lights dimmed on my final day at EGX, I chanced a demo of Super Mario Odyssey. And it was so weird, but so great. Gameplay changes with a drop of the hat, Cappy, and it truly rewards the player for creative curiosity — you’ll stumble across quirky secrets with new abilities, meaning the world is literally Mario’s oyster. Motion controls were a mite bit fiddly but it will be a super game to pick up and play, on a commute, in commercial breaks or while away an evening collecting Moons.
EGX 2017. I played a lot of games and I met fantastic, cool, lovely people while I did so. Thank you so much to the organizers, the volunteer staff and the developers. And you deserve a thank you too! If I briefly rewind a few years, attending an event like this would never have crossed my mind. So all my gratitude goes out to everyone who’s read, commented, shared the stuff I went and wrote. Peace, and perhaps I’ll see you next year.
