MonsterVine Goes to PAX East 2019 – Day 3

Day 3 baby! I’ve had maybe six hours of total sleep this weekend and I’m still fighting my way through those dangerous PAX crowds. Besides getting to see the suite of Devolver titles, we also got to see some very fast games (Dangerous Driving) and some lovably silly games (Freedom Finger).

Hell is Other Demons
I only got to play through a round or two of this but it’s all I needed. Hell Is Other Demons is an arcade game in a similar vein to Devil Daggers where you’re facing off against hordes of unrelenting enemies. The game has a nice crunchy look to it when you cause enemies to explode into a mess of pieces and the game has a satisfying sense of mobility as you chain dashes and double jumps to maneuver around the arena. While I only got to try the endless mode, I was told that the game does also include a campaign. Tight controls and a slick aesthetic help sell the entire product and is something I can definitely see myself sinking a lot of time into to compete for high-scores.

Speed Brawl
Speed Brawl, while already out, was showcasing its upcoming Versus mode while at PAX East; however we only got a chance to check out its campaign mode. Likening itself to “Sonic the Hedgehog meets Streets of Rage”, Speed Brawl is a game that definitely lives up to that comparison. In it you play as a contestant on a game-show where you race to pummel hordes of insectoid aliens. The emphasis on speed here is very clear as the more, and faster, you move around the level the more powerful your attacks become; hence the focus on keeping your speed up. It’s easy to keep these speedy combos going with some tight combat controls as you bash enemies around with a variety of flashy moves. The only issue I came out of this game with was that since the game is so focused on speed, and every level has a timer attached to completing it, I found it kind of frustrating sometimes when enemies out of my sight would sometimes just stay there instead of engaging me. So I’d be wondering why a room wasn’t being listed as cleared and have to run over to the enemy to finish the job. It’s a bit of a minor quibble, but it did pull me out of the zone a few times.

Dangerous Driving
Burnout’s back in everything but name baby. Dangerous Driving is a spiritual successor to the Burnout series by Three Fields Entertainment who were previously at Criterion so the pedigree is definitely there. All the elements you would want are here for a new Burnout game: that satisfaction when wrecking opponents, the sense of speed, and a variety of modes including pursuit. Upon jumping into the game I was quickly reminded why this formula just works, as I barreled towards the nearest racer and proceeded to slam into their back spinning them out and causing them to crash into an oncoming truck. I was then treated to a splendid crash sequence that made me hungry to do it again.

A new addition that drastically changes up the formula is the inclusion of persistent wrecks. This means any crashes that happen on a track will stay there for the remainder of the race meaning the crazier it gets, the more aware you need to be about where crashes occurred so you know to look out for them. It adds an extra layer to an already hectic game. Additionally, the game also includes some Spotify integration which is always welcomed.

I will say, that while fun, the game definitely looked like a budget game. The UI is very dated along with the graphics, the drifts aren’t as tight as you’d maybe like them to be, and the crash cinematic transitions can be a bit jarring. Regardless, the game was still a blast to play and I’m looking forward to digging into it more when it releases.

Freedom Finger
Freedom Finger is an upcoming over-the–top shoot’em up by Wide Right Interactive that is as silly as the name implies. In it you control a spaceship that’s in the shape of a giant hand giving the bird and you shoot by basically performing “finger guns” as you fight back against Chinese terrorists in space. It’s all very stupid in the best possible way. I got to play a single quick mission of this game and was surprised at how smooth it all was. As with a lot of games I played at PAX this weekend, tight controls was a common thread among them and Freedom Finger was there standing among the tightest. No game is complete without a gimmick however and Freedom Finger has a hell of a gimmick. Being that you’re controlling a giant hand, you can use that hand to punch objects or enemies. Having an enemy coming right at you only to get punched in the face is as endlessly satisfying as you can imagine.

As fun as doing that was though, what was even better was being able to actually grab enemies. Doing so allows you to hold onto them to use as a human shield or to toss back at their friends. On top of that, depending on the enemy you grabbed, you can also fire their weapon as your own temporarily. It’s an interesting twist on the genre where you’d normally pick-up new firing types in a level, instead the enemies here are your weapon pick-ups and there’s a constant supply of them. I quickly found my favorite in this ship that fired a stream of bullets in a sort of DNA strand pattern that I used to just decimate my enemies. Eventually you get into this rhythm of shooting, punching, grabbing an enemy, using their weapon, and tossing them back at their friends while laughing at the chaos you’re causing. It’s all a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to sticking it to those space terrorists in the full release.

Windjammers 2
Windjammers coming back with a modern platform port back in 2017 was a miracle. The fact that we have a sequel coming this year just proves that good things actually do happen. Windjammers 2 is less of a proper sequel and more of a modern retooling of the original. There’s nothing drastically different when comparing the two games besides the absolutely gorgeous new 2D art style; this game is clearly here not to reinvent the series, but to cement it as a showcase multiplayer game for any of your game nights. I cannot emphasize how tight and polished this game feels to play. Every movement feels deliberate and there’s never a moment where you feel you aren’t in total control. Dashing to intercept a frisbee your opponent launched at you with their special, popping it up and then launching it right back at them with your own special straight into the high point area is deliciously satisfying. I played a lot of games this weekend, many of them I want to play more of when they eventually release. Windjamemrs 2 however is the only one that had me craving more of the game and if I didn’t have another appointment to go to I probably would have gone back into that line to play it again.

Streets of Rage 4
It’s been a hot minute since we last saw a Streets of Rage game; 1994 on the Sega Genesis in case you forgot, with Streets of Rage 3 so you could argue we’ve been long overdue for a sequel. Streets of Rage 4 takes place a decade after the previous title and as you can expect, things have gotten kind of shitty in the city. Returning characters Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding are so far the only ones confirmed and there isn’t much else revealed about the plot itself. The combat system is still pretty much the same with the new addition of some slight changes to how the specials work. Axel can do a flaming uppercut that does high damage, but costs health to use which adds a neat dynamic to your fights: spend your health now to clear out some groups of enemies, or save it for later. The change here however is that you can now recover bits of health by performing rapid attacks on enemies right after using the special. Of course, your weaker special that has no health cost is still there for you to use. Both characters also have a massive area-of-effect special that runs off an item you can pick up. It’s all super flashy and turns the game into a visual feast.

What’s perhaps the coolest change is how some of the weapon pick-ups work. Find a crowbar and you can now toss it at an enemy, and if it connects it’ll fly right back towards you. If you’re quick enough to catch it then you’ve got some great combo potential right there. Unfortunately this game still features the stubborn obsession the genre has with refusing to modernize its mechanics. You still slowly stomp your way across the screen, there’s no sort of dodge mechanic or even any sort of mobility, and most notably the complete lack of a combo system that would really spice up the combat. Despite my grievances, I still had fun clobbering thugs with my friend and drooling over the gorgeous art-style.

My Friend Pedro
My Friend Pedro is a game I’d been keeping an eye on since its initial reveal and I got to hop onto a demo station for a hot minute to give it a whirl. Unfortunately what I played left me wanting with a game that ran sluggishly both in terms of movement and frame-rate, with something I initially thought was a stylistic choice in the trailer is actually just a purposeful part of the game. You move so slowly, which is normally fine, but not what I really wanted from this sort of game. It just doesn’t feel very good to move around and that sort of hindrance kind of ruins any potential fun there might be hidden behind that.

Heave Ho
Heave Ho was easily the highlight of the show for me today. In it you control a small blob creature with two arms that move with the left stick and two hands that can grab onto objects with the two triggers. You play with three others and the goal is to work together to climb and swing your way to the goal at the end. There are competive modes, but our demo focused on cooperative with us having to make sure we’re swinging each other around to avoid spikes or falling to certain death; of course just because we were working together doesn’t mean I didn’t drop my friends on purpose a few times for fun. Devolver had the game set-up on a giant screen with a couch to sit on and the crowd of onlookers behind, cheering you on which was honestly the perfect way to showcase the game. It’s basically the perfect type of game to use on a game night with friends if you want to laugh and scream at each other.

RAGE 2
I’ve been waiting a good while to try this game and I finally got to at Bethesda’s Game Day party. I’d been eagerly waiting to give RAGE 2 a try and boy did it not disappoint. The game feels as fast and tight as it looked in its initial trailers and every aspect of the game has gotten a drastic overhaul from the original. The car combat in particular is much better as I battled against a caravan, slamming smaller vehicles off cliffs and fighting off the larger tanker truck. The powers in particular add a nice dynamic as I launched enemies into the air, hit them with a rocket blast, then dashed away to continue my carnage spree. My demo ended with a battle against this massive creature that was attached to some sort of cybernetic armor. After chipping away at it and breaking it free of the armor it went wild, attacking anything and everyone around it until I was finally able to take it down in a stupendously gory finish. As much as PAX is a show meant to check out the smaller stuff, it was a bit of nice change of pace to play through a bigger budget title. Sometimes you just want a big stupid shooty game after all the indie titles you played through man.

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There’s just one more day left of the show and there’s a small chance I might get some sleep before then. Unlikely, but the chance is there so fingers crossed.