The MonsterVine crew makes their way to Seattle for another PAX showcase, and it’s an important one as we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of PAX!
What the Car?
Similarly to how its predecessor, What the Golf, was a golf game that wasn’t really a golf game, What the Car is a racing game that’s not really a racing game! Written almost like an SNL writers’ room for sketches, What the Car has you playing as a car with legs, as you race to the finish line with a different, usually pun related, gimmick for each level. Just as with Golf, the fun of What the Car is going into each stage wondering what hilarious new joke is awaiting you, and how the developers managed to think of so many. One moment your car is riding on an office chair, smashing its way through a bear-filled office building, the next you’ve got rockets strapped to your car and need to chase some bears who are running off with the finish line. Levels are super short, which helps keep the madcap flow of the game fresh, and is the perfect kind of game to knock out a few levels on a lunch break or something. What the Car does release September 9th, so anyone eager to get their hands on that won’t have to wait too long.
Whim of the Gods
I’m not big on city sim or 4X games because they always feel like there’s this insurmountable wall you need to climb through hours of YouTube video tutorials before you’re comfortable with the game, and lots of them assume you’re going to put in this effort. Whim of the Gods is no different, but what I really enjoyed was that it was a co-op city sim, not competitive. Set in a Mayan inspired world, you’ll work together (or solo) with a friend to make sure your city flourishes all while preparing yourselves against threats of monsters or the looming volcano that’s due to erupt. As someone not great at this genre, being able to play with a friend, and not against, is a very enticing idea as I can easily ask for help or what I might be doing wrong and they can simply scroll over to my side of the map and walk me through what I need to improve on. With a vague “coming soon” release date, we do know the game will be released in Early Access so a full release is probably a ways off from then.
Pizza Bandit
I got an email for Pizza Bandit that pitched it as “Gears of War meets Overcooked” and I was immediately on board. You play as a former bounty hunter who’s trying to live a quiet life of running a pizza shop; the only issue is the shop is failing and now you need to return to bounty hunting to help keep it afloat. My demo had me and a co-op partner enter the lobby area where we got to customize our bounty hunter (I went all-in on the chef attire) before selecting between two mission types: sushi making and pizza. Once we dropped into the mission, the Gears comparisons (minus the cover system) were immediately apparent as hordes of time traveling monsters came scrambling our way and we began gunning them all down; it all felt very reminiscent of the shooters from that era that Gears helped inspire. As my buddy and I wandered down alleyways, blasting any monsters that came our way, we eventually made it to our destination: a sushi restaurant.
After a quick tutorial that ran us through how to make three types of sushi rolls (tuna, egg, and cucumber), the conveyor belt turned on and orders started pouring in. There was a helpful window on the top of the screen that showed you what roll each customer was requesting and we scurried around the kitchen to fulfill the requests as timely as possible, chopping up tuna and frying eggs all while trying not to get in each other’s way. To add a little spice to the mix, monsters eventually started pouring into the restaurant and we had to carefully balance one person cooking while the other defended them. We were, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful at this since by the time we got in a good rhythm the customers were screaming at us and the monster horde was too big to hold back, but we failed having a lot of fun which is honestly all that really matters. The full game can support up to four players and I can’t imagine the chaos that’ll ensue with everyone screaming at each other to stay on top of their cooking stations all while hordes of monsters assault them. There’s no solid release date for Pizza Bandit yet, but we were told they’re aiming for an “early 2025” timeline with it releasing on early access.
Love Eternal
Pitched as a horror platformer, I had to stop by and check this game out. Developed by brlka and published by Ysbryd Games, Love Eternal puts you in the shoes of Maya, a young girl whose family disappears during dinner one night and you end up in this nightmare realm trying to find them. You soon discover that you have gravity swapping abilities, which you’ll use to navigate the tricky terrain of the area as you leap and reverse gravity mid jump to avoid spikes and other dangers. Controls were snappy and I soon found myself in an almost speedrunner flow as I tried to find the most efficient way to tackle a room. I appreciated how it straddled a pretty fine line of challenge, as the room solutions are pretty intuitive, the hard part is cleanly performing all the actions needed in a single maneuver; thankfully there’s a save point on almost every other screen so you’re never having to backtrack far after a death. There’s no solid release date besides “2025”, but I’m eager to see how the horror elements play out more in the full thing.
Slitterhead
Everyone’s been curious about what Keiichiro Toyama, creator of Silent Hill and Gravity Rush, was going to do next after the closure of Project Siren and we finally got our hands on their upcoming game Slitterhead. Pitched as an action game with horror elements, my demo lived up to that as I was dropped in the game as a “hyoki”, a spirit with the power to possess humans and has only one goal: to kill the monstrous slitterheads. Slitterheads appear as these disgusting creatures hiding within human bodies, but your character can’t fight them through normal means. Instead, you need to possess a human yourself and use their blood to form weapons that you can harm the slitterhead with. It’s all a bit morbid, especially a particular moment when you need to quickly descend a tall building, and the hyoki proposes the idea of simply jumping off the tower and swapping bodies at the last second. Sure, the human it was possessing will splatter, but the hyoki will be fine.
After a few slow tutorial sequences showing me how to kill smaller slitterheads, I finally got to fight a massive, tentacled one and this is where the game’s action flow kicked in. The moment you possess a human, they’ll gain a temporary buff that will slowly fade away; so the idea is that when you’re in a fight you want to be ping-ponging between humans as you attack the slitterheads so that you’re always maximizing that possession buff. It’s an interesting mechanic that turned what I thought was going to be a slow, deliberate combat system into a slightly faster paced one. I eventually acquired a “rarity”, a human with an affinity for being possessed by the hyoki, who had flashier skills and weapons than the normal humans I’d been possessing lacked and was able to swiftly finish off the monster. Slitterhead’s initial trailer had my curiosity, but after getting to get a proper hands-on experience with the game I can safely say that it’s got my interest. We don’t have to wait too long either, with its release coming this November. Click here to read our full hands-on with Slitterhead.
Monster Hunter Wilds
My favorite time of the year is when it’s time to get excited about a new entry in the Monster Hunter series, and I’ve been eager to see what the next mainline entry looks like after the improvements we’ve seen from World and Rise. Monster Hunter Wilds seems to be taking influence from both games, with its look heavily borrowing from World and an evolution of the rideable mount seen in Rise. During my demo, I opted to play the single player build as I was curious about the more story focused nature Wild’s teasers have been implying the game has. Monster Hunter has always had a general sort of “plot”, but it mainly amounted to you going to a place that needs a monster killed. The same seems to be the case here, but there’s a bigger focus on adding a cinematic flair to things as my demo opened with a lengthy (for the series) cutscene that was fully voiced along with your protagonist. This then led into a scripted sequence where we needed to save a girl being chased by the wormlike monster Balahara, and it’s here where you’re quickly introduced to Wilds mount, the Seikret. A more raptor-like creature compared to Rise’s dog-like Palamutes, the Seikret is a nimble creature that lets you turn on a dime. Additionally, you can also fire your slingshot from it.
After getting accustomed to the Seikret, I gave chase against the worms and used my slingshot to fight them off while engaging in more scripted moments like causing a section of rocks to collapse, allowing me to climb up the rubble that my Seikret kind of auto climbed for me. It was a very fast, very cinematic introduction to the game in a way that was slightly jarring from the series’ usual slow starts. After that sequence was finished, it was time to finally start a proper hunt against a gorilla/toad-looking brute called a Chatacabra. I got to pick my weapon (I opted for the gunlance) and here’s where the traditional Monster Hunter formula started to emerge as I gave chase against the Chatacabra and fought against it. Interestingly, at a certain point I was tasked to fire an SOS flare, normally done to alert online players that your game is open for joining, but this time a group of NPCs joined my hunt. I’m not sure if this was just a scripted moment, or if it was a silent confirmation of being able to bring a full party of NPCs on a hunt with you, but if it’s the latter that’s a very exciting change for players who can’t always be online. Soon after summoning help, we brought down the monster and got to carving it up in classic Monster Hunter fashion. The demo left me with some questions, particularly how heavy handed are the scripted sequences going to get and the questionable performance, but we’ve got a ways to go before its full release and I’m excited to dive into the full thing. Click here to read our full hands-on with Monster Hunter Wilds.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero
Nostalgia manifest. That’s what Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is. The moment I selected Goku, the dormant muscle memory reignited and it was like I was a kid again playing Budukai as I was dodging around the crumbling city arena trading ki blasts with Vegeta. When Bandai came out and said the environment destruction was too much to allow split-screen co-op, this was the first time I understood because the amount of effects on display here can start to get overwhelming at times. I’d fire a Kamehameha at my opponent and send them rocketing through multiple skyscrapers as smoke and explosion effects pollute my screen, and all of this is gorgeously rendered in perhaps the best art style this series has ever seen. Controls were tight and simple to learn, and the roster size is just as wonderfully gargantuan as you’d hope with (at least in this build) everyone you’d want to play as represented here along with a few surprise inclusions. Due out in a month, this demo left me hungry to finally get my hands on the full game. Click here to read our full hands-on with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero.
