Cary and Jeff’s PAX Adventures (Day 2)

On Day 2 of PAX, I had meetings with Sega, Twisted Pixel, Wizards of the Coast, and others. I discovered that the best part of Nintendo’s booth wasn’t even in their booth at all! And check out Seattle’s most germiest tourist attraction as well as the best hot dog stand in the world! Click to read about all this and more!

My first meeting on the second day of PAX was with a representative from Zen Studios, makers of Pinball FX2 on Xbox Live and Zen Pinball on PSN. They were mostly showing off the upcoming Ms. ‘Splosion Man Pinball FX2 table at Microsoft’s booth. I got to play another one of their future projects, but unfortunately I can’t talk about it right now, even though I wish I could because it’s really exciting!

Sega’s booth had a spooky horror theme to it, as they were showing off games like House of the Dead Overkill, Rise of Nightmares, and Aliens Infestation. But the game I got to play was Sonic Generations. I had played the first level earlier at E3, based on Green Hill Zone. But at PAX, I played a new level, based on the city truck chase level from Sonic Adventure 2. The 2-D classic Sonic version of this level was really creative, as the truck would ram you from the background, causing rafters to fall, which provided Sonic with platforms to jump on. The 3-D modern truck chase level was crazy, as that truck chased you everywhere! Even down buildings!

One of my favorite smaller developers is Twisted Pixel. They make downloadable Xbox LIVE games such as ‘Splosion Man, and my favorite: The Maw. They’re also located in Austin, TX, which is where I went to college, so it’s cool that they’re Texans like myself. But the game they were showing off at PAX is their first retail title, and it’s a Kinect game called The Gunstringer. It kind of reminded me of the shooting parts of another of their games: Captain Smiley, except with Kinect controls.

The Gunstringer has a Western cowboy motif, and you control a gunman that kind of looks like a Day of the Dead skeleton. But he’s actually a puppet. You see, you control him like a marionette with the Kinect motion controls. Use you left hand to move the cowboy puppet left and right, like you’re holding the strings above him. You can even flick your left hand up to jump. With your right hand, you control his gun. Move around your hand to lock onto six targets, then flick your hand up to fire at them! Sometimes the controls change up, like when the Gunstringer pulls out two guns and you have to aim with both hands, or sometimes you won’t use any guns at all as you punch your way through baddies and desperados.

But the best part of The Gunstringer is the game’s style. Possibly in homage to classics like Dynamite Headdy, the game is designed to look like a puppet stage show. Characters and props look like they are made of other things, like the cows that look like they’re crafted from milk bottles, or a train holding a cargo of Lincoln Logs. Sometimes you can even see the audience of real life people as you play, and every now and then you’ll spot a giant hand in the background placing down objects and obstacles you’ll have to pass later. The Gunstringer also narrates everything he does, which also comes in handy doubling as a tutorial mode as you play! While the controls were harder than what they looked, The Gunstringer is probably the first Kinect game I’d be really interested in playing. Best of all, it comes out really soon!

Right behind Twisted Pixel’s booth was The Behemoth, makers of Castle Crashers and their upcoming game: Battle Block Theater. Unfortunately I didn’t get to try it because their booth was always so crowded. Even their little gift shop they had set up was always packed!

Another smaller developer had a game that caught my eye called Retro City Rampage for XBLA and WiiWare. It’s like a 2-D GTA styled game with retro visuals and style. I’ll definitely have to check it out when it is released.

My next meeting was with Perfect World. They showed off two free-to-play online PC games coming soon. One was Blacklight: Retribution, which reminded me of other first person online shooters like Halo and Call of Duty. So if you enjoy those, you might want to check out Blacklight. The other game that Perfect World was showing was more my speed. It’s called Rusty Hearts, and plays like an old school side scrolling beat ‘em up like Final Fight or TMNT. And it has a neat anime art style, too. Both games look really good visually, especially considering they’re free to play online games.

My last official meeting of the day was with Wizards of the Coast, makers of the popular card game Magic: The Gathering. My brothers recently got into Magic, so I wanted to make sure and meet with them at PAX.

Wizards of the Coast was showing off a new upcoming deck series for Magic, as well as video games based off of the card game and Dungeons and Dragons.

Early on the second day I did check out Nintendo’s booth, which was always crowded. They were showing off upcoming titles like StarFox 64 3-D, Super Mario 3-D Land, Mario Kart 7, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The demos they showed were the same ones I played at E3, so I didn’t mess with them. Except for Skyward Sword, as I didn’t get a chance to play it at E3. I was excited when they gave me a Zelda lanyard after playing it at PAX, until I realized it was the same one I got with my badge at E3!

If you would like to read my impressions of those games and more, you can check out my E3 articles here.

But the best part of Nintendo’s booth at PAX wasn’t even in their booth at all! In past PAX shows, they would have a handheld lounge area where people could sit and relax in bean bags and play DS games with each other. But this year, Nintendo sponsored the handheld lounge instead and they really did a bang-up job with it. They used the lounge to show off games like the upcoming Kirby Mass Attack on DS. Players could try out the game while sitting on pink bean bags and munching on cotton candy. I played a little of the game, but it was hard to figure out since they were showing the Japanese version. But I’ll definitely get the US version when it comes out in September right after my birthday!

Nintendo also used the handheld lounge to showcase Kirby: Return to Dreamland on Wii. They also had a section with black and white beanbags to showcase Pokedex 3-D. On another floor, they had yellow beanbags and showcased Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 on DS and Fortune Street on Wii.

But the best part of the handheld lounge was all the free goodies they were giving out! I got a Pokemon bag and Pokedex 3-D shirt, as well as a shirt and buttons from Dragon Quest Monsters. But my favorite was the Kirby shirt I got! I didn’t eat any of the cotton candy, though. One interesting fact about Cary Woodham: I don’t like sweets and candy very much. Yeah, I’m weirder than you thought I was, huh?

My brother Jeff and I left PAX a little early on the second day so we could check out some of the sights of Seattle. The first thing we did was go to Pike’s Market and checked out the Gum Wall. We went there last year and Jeff wanted to put some gum on it this time! It’s a wall that people have stuck ABC gum to for years and now it’s covered with the stuff! It’s one of the most germ filled attractions in the world. Just look at it!

Another thing Jeff wanted to do that we did last year was get a hot dog from a REALLY good hot dog stand in Seattle called Dog Japan. They make gourmet styled hot dogs with ingredients that you’d normally find in Japanese food. They’re REALLY good! We ate there twice on this trip! One time I got an item on the menu called the Samurai Dog, simply because of the Phoenix Wright games! Food Network should feature this stand someday.

Don’t they look really yummy?

And that’s what we did on Day 2 of PAX. Click here for the final day!

And if you missed Day 1, click here!

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