{"id":17419,"date":"2018-01-19T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T00:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=17419"},"modified":"2018-01-15T18:13:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T18:13:38","slug":"pax-south-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/19\/pax-south-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"PAX South 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX for short, is one of the largest video game conventions open to the public in the US.\u00a0 It started out in Seattle, then expanded to another show out East in Boston, and for the past four years, they\u2019ve also had a show in San Antonio with PAX South.\u00a0 Since that\u2019s only a few hours\u2019 drive from where I live, I decided to go again this year along with my dad.\u00a0 It felt like a smaller show this year, but I still had a lot of fun, so let\u2019s check out what I saw.<\/p>\n

First off, here\u2019s a bigger picture of the big sign greeting you before going in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of what I do at these shows is set up meetings with PR professionals and developers to check out their games.\u00a0 But keep in mind there is no way I can see everything at these shows.\u00a0 Luckily it was a smaller show and the only really \u2018big\u2019 company at this event was Capcom.\u00a0 They showed off Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition as well as new Resident Evil and Dead Rising games.\u00a0 They also had their big display for Monster Hunter World here.\u00a0 Even though I already took a picture of it at PAX West, it\u2019s cool enough to see again here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ysbyrd Games<\/strong><\/p>\n

They had two main games on display. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows was described as a linear Baldur\u2019s Gate with a deep storyline and prolific voice actors.\u00a0 The plot involves masks that give the wearer special powers, but if that person dies with the mask on, the mask disappears, too.\u00a0 These relics end up causing a civil war and it sounds like you\u2019ll be in the midst of it.\u00a0 The other game they had, YIIK: A\u00a0 Post-Modern RPG, looks more up my alley as it takes elements from 16-bit RPGs I loved back in the day.\u00a0 It also looks like it may please fans of RPGs like Undertale and Earthbound.\u00a0 One thing to note about all the games I checked out is that while they may have gotten their start on PC, they are all coming to consoles by the end of the year, if not before then.\u00a0 I was surprised how many games I checked out are coming to the Switch as well, which is a testament to the popularity of the console.<\/p>\n

At the convention center you can take an escalator to get a bird\u2019s eye view of the main show floor.\u00a0 I like to do that every year and take pictures, so here they are.<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s the view from the other side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sabotage<\/strong><\/p>\n

They were showing off a game called The Messenger about a ninja in an 8-bit world.\u00a0 Clearly inspired from titles like Ninja Gaiden, The Messenger also has exploration elements from games like Metroid.\u00a0 Later on, you\u2019ll be able to tromp around in 16-bit levels as well, and revisit old stages with new powers to find even more goodies.\u00a0 The game looked difficult, but the developers said it wasn\u2019t \u201cNES Hard.\u201d\u00a0 It has the potential to be as fun as Shovel Knight.<\/p>\n

We Are Fuzzy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their new game, Sleep Tight, has two parts.\u00a0 During the daytime, you must outfit your bedroom with pillow forts and other defense mechanisms and traps.\u00a0 Then at night it turns into a single player twin stick shooter as you fire silly weapons at monsters coming from the closets and other things that go bump in the night.\u00a0 It looked very charming.<\/p>\n

Goat Sink<\/strong><\/p>\n

They had two games.\u00a0 The first was an 8-bit looking air hockey game called ClusterPuck 99.\u00a0 The other game was a 2.5-D platformer called Shu.\u00a0 Both looked like a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

nWay<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the second day of the show I met with a developer in a hotel lobby to check out an upcoming mobile game called Chronoblade.\u00a0 It plays like a 2-D side scrolling beat \u2018em up similar to games like Golden Axe.\u00a0 It was made by the same folks who did a recent popular Power Rangers mobile game, and Chronoblade had excellent touch screen controls, neat characters, two-player battles, and bite-sized levels perfect for the format.\u00a0 It looks like a free-to-play game done right and I hope I can review it.<\/p>\n

Stack-Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stack-Up is a charity organization that sends games and consoles to the military.\u00a0 I always like to stop by their booth and give a little donation and participate in their push-up contest.\u00a0 I have to brag a bit and say that I got second place in that contest on the first day.\u00a0 Speaking of the military, the Air Force had a big mac truck and trailer there, and inside was a ride!\u00a0 So yeah, PAX South had games and rides!\u00a0 Here is a picture of that.<\/p>\n

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Super Cane Magic Zero<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the PAX Rising Booth, where they had a bunch of games all in one place, I met to play Super Cane Magic Zero.\u00a0 It\u2019s a top down 2-D action game with a unique cartoony art style.\u00a0 Four players can run around, picking up items and either throwing them or eating them.\u00a0 It was very frantic, but it also had a single player story mode as well.\u00a0 One interesting thing is that all the multiplayer games I played also included a single player mode, which is good.\u00a0 Who says single player games are dead?<\/p>\n

Sprint Vector<\/strong><\/p>\n

VR games still draw a crowd at PAX, and I played one of them this time, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Sprint Vector.\u00a0 It\u2019s a racing game where you make a futuristic avatar run, jump, and collect and use items.\u00a0 Kind of like Mario Kart.\u00a0 Controls were WAY too complicated, though.\u00a0 To run, you would swing your arms like you were running or holding ski poles, but you also had to press a button and release it on the way down.\u00a0 Why couldn\u2019t you just move without having to worry about buttons?\u00a0 The demo host said it was to register movement, but with expensive VR equipment, you can\u2019t tell me they couldn\u2019t do that otherwise?\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 To change direction, you could move your head or flick the analog sticks to turn quicker and sharper.\u00a0 I forget what you had to do to jump and use items.\u00a0 It was either way too complicated or I\u2019m just not used to VR controls.\u00a0 The game did look good visually, though.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lumosity Mobile<\/strong><\/p>\n

I played two cool games here.\u00a0 One was The Painter\u2019s Apprentice.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D platform action game where you use a paintbrush to attack enemies and change the color of your paint so it\u2019ll be effective against them.\u00a0 The backgrounds and levels are based on art history time periods, like Impressionism, Cubism, etc.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be out on PC soon and consoles later.\u00a0 Another was a mobile game called Tortuga Racing.\u00a0 It\u2019s a math-based racing game for kids that lets them practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.\u00a0 The cool thing is I got to talk to the developers and the one that composed the music for the games is also a school band director!\u00a0 He even knew the band and director I was in when I was in high school long ago and even guessed the instrument I played.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you know he was a REAL band director.\u00a0 Or as we used to say when I was in band, \u201cIt\u2019s a band thing.\u201d\u00a0 I hope I get to review these games so I can hear the music he composed for them!<\/p>\n

Fabraz<\/strong><\/p>\n

They developed a game I reviewed on the Switch called Slime-san, but they\u2019re also publishing games now, too.\u00a0 Like SpiritSpheres DX.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cross between tennis and air hockey with 8-bit graphics and while it has a multiplayer mode, there\u2019s also a single player story mode as well.<\/p>\n

At PAX they also have board games and merchandise you can buy.\u00a0 I\u2019m not much into board games so I didn\u2019t check those out very much, and most of the merchandise was way too expensive.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry but I\u2019m not paying 25-30 bucks for a T-shirt.\u00a0 But this booth had a cool inflatable dog on top, so I took a picture of that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did buy one thing, though, because it was relatively inexpensive and very cool.\u00a0 There is a company called Pixel Pals and they make little sprite models that also act as lamps!\u00a0 I got a Mega Man one and took a picture of their booth, too.<\/p>\n

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Fantasy Fight<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t meet with them, but one game that caught my eye was Fantasy Fight.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D fighter, but the characters looked interesting and they said the controls were simple to learn, so I liked that.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be out on PC soon and consoles later.\u00a0 Hope I can check it out and maybe review it then.<\/p>\n

Headup Games<\/strong><\/p>\n

But I think my favorite game at this year\u2019s PAX South came from Headup Games.\u00a0 One of their recent titles is Bridge Constructor.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t review it when it came out, as it didn\u2019t look interesting to me, but I probably should have.\u00a0 You make bridges so that cars can cross safely, like a Lemmings style puzzler.\u00a0 They did give me a copy of it at the show, so I will be reviewing it soon, though!\u00a0 Anyway, they\u2019re making a new version of it featuring characters and themes from Portal!\u00a0 I love Portal, so now I\u2019m suddenly interested in Bridge Constructor!\u00a0 You\u2019ll build bridges and use portals to avoid turrets and get your test vehicles safely across.\u00a0 All the while GlaDOS taunts you.\u00a0 Yes, they did get the lady who voices GlaDOS to be in this game.\u00a0 Ah, I should\u2019ve asked them if Wheatley\u2019s in it, too!\u00a0 Anyway, I think this game will be huge for Headup.\u00a0 It\u2019s out on PC now and will be on consoles later, and I hope I can review it!<\/p>\n

Cosplay Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n

At these conventions, people like to dress up as their favorite characters in a practice called cosplay.\u00a0 I took pictures of a few of them.\u00a0 There were a lot more, but I didn\u2019t recognize a lot of them or I couldn\u2019t take a pic of them at the time.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll close with what I did get.<\/p>\n

Is this Gex the Gecko?\u00a0 No, it\u2019s the Geico mascot having fun with showgoers.\u00a0 They usually have a booth at PAX, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a pretty Pauline and a super cool Builder Mario from Super Mario Odyssey.\u00a0 But this Mario has a beard, so maybe he\u2019s Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Cuphead and\u2026Mrs. Cuphead?\u00a0 Is there a female Cuphead in the game?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think there was, but I don\u2019t know now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally is a neat Zero costume from Mega Man X.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all I did at the show!\u00a0 Hope you enjoyed my article and pictures!\u00a0 Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions.\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX for short, is one of the largest video game conventions open to the public in the US.\u00a0 It started out in Seattle, then expanded to another show out East in Boston, and for the past four years, they\u2019ve also had a show in San Antonio with PAX South.\u00a0 Since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17421,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17419\/revisions\/17421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}