You might know Penny Arcade best for its popular webcomic, but they also happen to organize a couple of major events each year. Some months back, there was the Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East) and just this past weekend, I was able to attend the Penny Arcade Prime (PAX Prime) Expo. What can you expect from such an event? Let’s find out!
A Whirlwind of Video Games and More!
At Penny Arcade Expo, you get a trade show element where various companies show off their latest and upcoming games. You get many different discussion panels covering a range of topics related to gaming. You get the marketplace to buy some collectibles and other merchandise. And then there are gaming tournaments, tabletop games, cosplay, card games, and a whole lot of other stuff, not to mention a couple of concerts to boot. It’s a very busy weekend, but naturally, the “trade show” aspect isn’t as big as what you’d get at something like E3 or the Tokyo Game Show.
Attending a Couple of Panels
Here’s a quick video preview of the two panels I attended…
Personally, I think one of the strongest elements of PAX Prime 2010, outside of checking out the people dressed up as their favorite game characters, is the selection of panels. They gather several experts and other industry folks to cover topics. At any time, there are between three and six panels going on.
Stretching across three days and about ten hours each day, that makes up a lot of panels. One of my favorite panels was the Myth of the Gamer Girl. They candidly discussed the state of the industry, both from the development and the consumer points of view.
This is clearly related to the question we asked some time back: Where are the women in the video games industry?
Panelist Cassie Wallender is a product manager at MySpace and she made a very apt observation relating to groups like the Frag Dolls and the PMS Clan. It’s good that the women are rallying together, but this can perpetuate the segregation from the larger gaming community. As she put it, “Let’s make an all-girls club. Oh wait. Why are we so separate from the boys?”
Another panel I attended was the one run by OverClocked Remix. They are a video game music community best known for remixing all sorts of classic video game soundtracks. This goes well beyond the musical interests of Rock Band, since their remixes are composed to “re-imagine” our nostalgic favorites.
You may know their work, for instance, from the official soundtrack to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. All of their tracks are available for free through the OCRemix website, including some upcoming albums.
They’re working on remixes for Mega Man X, Final Fantasy V, Donkey Kong Country 2, and Donkey Kong Country 3. The website is due for a redesign in the next month or so as well.
Video Games Galore!
Like the E3 Expo in LA, there are no shortage of video games and demos. Check out the compilation video below of some of the titles we checked out…
Now that we’ve had a taste, let’s explore these games just a little bit more plus a few more games we thought you’d like to know about.
Kung-Fu Live and Mortal Kombat
One of the first titles that caught my eye was Kung-Fu Live. Not to be outdone by the Microsoft Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 will have its own motion-sensing innovations. This game makes use of the existing EyeToy attachment and watches the silhouette of the gamer in front of it. Going through a traditional side-scrolling beat-em-up mechanic, gamers punch and kick with their bodies and — get this — their likeness is reproduced in the game too. It looks ridiculous, but it also looks ridiculously fun.
I was able to watch a demo of the new Mortal Kombat game from WB Games at E3, but they had several hands-on testing stations set up at PAX. The original Mortal Kombat was very influential, so it’s good to see they’re going back to their roots.
Many of your favorite characters are back, including Sektor, Cyrax, Reptile, Johnny Cage, Mileena, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, and Nightwolf. And yes, the totally brutal fatalities are there in all their bloody glory. Interestingly enough, Mortal Kombat “kreator” Ed Boon was hovering around the booth for a while, watching people play his game.
And on the Digital Download Front
The great thing about gaming today is that so many great titles are available at remarkably affordable prices via digital download. There’s WiiWare, PSN, and XBLA, as well as services like Steam on PC. One title that caught my eye at PAX was Shank. It offers a great cartoony art style combined with that classic side-scrolling battle action. You can “shank” your enemies with the blade, but you pick up other weapons and climb walls too. Look for it on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network now.
Perhaps one of the most innovative titles comes by way of Hothead Games. It’s called Swarm and instead of controlling a single character, you control a “swarm” of up to 50 blue beings. The goal in this action-puzzler is to get at least one of these fellows to the end of each stage.
Along the way, it becomes necessary to sacrifice some of your swarm for the greater good, which makes for some very interesting puzzle situations. For instance, there is one area with poison gas in a valley. You then plug some of your swarm into an air intake device, plugging it up, and stopping the flow of poison gas. The beings in the intake die, but the rest of your swarm can continue.
Hothead is aiming for an early 2011 release on digital download venues. It has not yet announced which online stores, but the game was being demonstrated on a PlayStation 3. I suspect Xbox Live Arcade will get it too, but WiiWare may or may not happen.
A Fun Gaming Community
Unlike other industry events where you have to supply certain credentials, PAX is completely open to the public: you just have to buy a ticket. If you ever have the opportunity to attend Penny Arcade Expo, I suggest you do. There are a lot of games to play, a lot to learn from the panels, and a lot of fun to be had. That and you can see all the great cosplayers, including the zombies from Plants vs. Zombies, Casey from Ninja Turtles, and Servbot from Mega Man Legends.
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PAX Prime 2010 – Checking Out Console Games and Dropping In On Discussion Panels – Photo Gallery
