So for the last day of the show, we’ll wrap up the meetings I attended and take a look at my favorite costumed show goers at PAX Prime 2014!

The Behemoth

I was really glad to be able to set up a meeting with The Behemoth because one, they usually don’t do press meetings at PAX.  And two, they had a new game on display that I wanted to play.  The Behemoth is most famous for games like Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers, and Battleblock Theater, all of which have been big hits around our house.  The new game that they had on display is very early in development, and simply known now as just Game 4.

So what kind of game is “Game 4?”  Well it’s actually a turn-based strategy game, using a classic hexagonal grid board.  But the draw of this title is that everything is very simplified.  You only choose where to go on each turn, and then the characters will automatically attack.  So it’s very simple and approachable, even for me, who usually doesn’t like these kinds of games.  It’s the weapons that you equip that decide how you attack and defend. Swords aren’t as effective against helmets, but maces are great for bashing them in.  If you have a shield, you can block archers’ arrows, and you can attack enemies with throwing weapons from two spaces away.  You’ll be able to capture and recruit monsters and other critters to help you fight, and there are multiplayer modes as well.  Game 4 has The Behemoth’s traditional wacky art style and humorous premise and storyline.  In this game, a giant Space Bear is injured and makes Space Bear Blood rain all over a planet, somehow warping time and space and causing all sorts of havoc.  That’s probably why one of the enemies you can recruit on your team are walking cupcakes, as seen in the picture below.  Game 4 will be available for Xbox One, but we don’t know when.  However, knowing The Behemoth, it may be a while.  Hopefully they’ll manage to port it to other systems, too, like they’ve eventually done with their other titles. I also loved how they displayed the game in an arcade cabinet.  The Y button was a giant Y shaped lever you pulled down!

Reverb

This publisher had a quartet of titles shown at PAX.  One was Shadowgate, which I didn’t play because I never really liked the NES game anyway.  Next was Edge of Space, which combined elements of Terraria and Minecraft in a space setting like Faster than Light.  But I mostly played Fenix Rage, a super challenging 2-D platformer meant to please fans of ridiculously hard games like Super Meat Boy.  But the best part of Fenix Rage is the awesome soundtrack.  And finally was Trash TV.  In this platform puzzler, you play as a TV whose owner has lost your remote, making you obsolete.  So your owner throws you away.  Brought back to life somehow, you must escape the trash heap and find your remote so you’re not obsolete anymore.  As a walking TV, you’ll pick up and throw boxes, and find all types of guns and weapons to solve difficult puzzles and obstacles.

Dragon Fin Soup

Grimm Bros. is just a small development team made up of just a few people, but they’re releasing an ambitious game.  It’s a Rogue-like RPG similar to titles like the Mystery Dungeon series, with classic 16-bit visuals and sensibilities.  You play in a twisted fairy tale world, and the main character is Red Robin.  But she’s not your regular Little Red Riding Hood.  She’s a rough and tough bounty hunter, and also a raging alcoholic.  So yeah, this game is better for older players.  She also has a pet dog named Big Bad.  There is a Story Mode, and also a Survival Mode to test your mettle in randomly generated dungeons.  While I felt the game was a bit too difficult for my tastes, I found the characters quirky and surprisingly charming for being so dark.  Dragon Fin Soup will be available for PC and consoles like the PS4, PS3, and Vita later this year or early next.  Depends on when they’re done.

The Counting Kingdom

And finally I got to check out another educational game at the PAX 10 Booth.  The Counting Kingdom is available for Steam on PC and later on tablet devices.  In the game, you must defend your castle from monsters, similar to Plants vs. Zombies.  Monsters approach on the right, and if they reach your castle wall, you lose.  The monsters have numbers on them, and to make them disappear you must touch them and make sure they add up to the number on one of your ‘spells.’  You can get potions to add and subtract numbers on the monsters so you can clear them off with your available number spell pages.  Hopefully I’ll be able to review this one when it comes out on iPad, because I think it would be a great way for kids to practice their addition and subtraction skills.

Costumes

At PAX you see a lot of people dressed up as their favorite video game characters.  I think it would be fun to dress up, too, but I’m probably a little too old for that.  Anyway, here are some of my favorite costumes I managed to snap pictures of.  Who will win the contest for best costume?  Read on to find out!

I’ve seen these Plants vs. Zombies guys at every show I’ve been to!

I could see Deadpool being a Pokemon fan, couldn’t you?  Maybe?

These two ladies were dressed as Tetris blocks.  Very cute idea.

Yes!  Someone dressed as Shovel Knight!  Awesome!

But that’s not my favorite costume of the show.  My favorite one is this:

It’s Joel from Mystery Science Theater 3000!  My all-time favorite TV show!  That’s why he wins the contest!  I wish I could build a Tom Servo replica like that!

Conclusions

And that’s all for now!  Hope you enjoyed my PAX articles.  Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section.  Thanks for reading!  –Cary

Tags: Misc