Walking around the multitudinous booths and the general insanity of PAX, I spied a bizarre little game starring an afro puffed robot.  As a fan of robots and Dr. J style afros, I knew I had to check it out. On a side note, I think my spell check is racist. It refuses to recognize afro as a word. But if we can somehow find a way to get past culturally insensitive spell checking software, there is a game to talk about.

(more…)

It’s no secret that I like pirates. I might not know how to sail a ship in real life, and I didn’t even enjoy those second two movies about certain pirates that hang out in the Caribbean, but the high sees make for an interesting setting for fantasy media.

At PAX, I came across the booth for Dust Devil Studios and their new tower defense game, Zombie Pirates. I talked a little with some of the guys that worked on the game and was originally going to write up my hands-on impressions. Long story short, I was given the hook up so I could give it a full review instead.

(more…)

"There's missiles... EVERYWHERE!!"

When I first stepped into PAX, I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of games that were playable. I decided to make my rounds and see what was there before waiting in any lines for demos. Then I saw that Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury was playable. I immediately abandoned my initial plan and darted over to D3′s booth to check it out.

Within about 2 seconds, I reached the Game Over screen.

(more…)

Retro/Grade is out to do something new with not one, but two genres. It tells the tale of Rick Rocket, “Space Pilot Guy” who just blew up the big baddie at the end of the game. However, the massive explosion has caused a rift in space/time and now he is traveling backwards through his previous battles.

On the surface, Retro/Grade looks like a  Shmup (shoot-em-up) in the style of Gradius or R-Type, but it quickly becomes apparent that you are playing a rhythm game with the flavor of a flashy shooter.

(more…)

Longtime WingDamagarians know that I am a huge fan of the NBA Jam series. So when I heard that the upcoming NBA Jam game was going to be playable at PAX, I made my way over to the EA booth. Even before I could see the booth, I could hear people yelling in a mixture of excitement, anger, and joy, as they dunked on each other and caught on fire. It sounded like a Friday night at the arcade back in the day.

After chatting with some of the members of the dev team and getting some sweet hands-on time with the game, I can safely say that NBA Jam is back and better than ever.

(more…)

Although I’ve been a fan of teh Penny Arcadez for years, I’ve never made it to their annual gaming convention. As if that wasn’t enough, this was to be my first convention as a member of the gaming press. I had a Media Badge and everything. I had all sorts of interviews set up with PR reps and developers. What if they didn’t like me? Or worse, what if they didn’t like my suit?

(more…)

When I stepped up to the Sonic Colors station at the SEGA booth, I expected to leave with the same distaste of modern Sonic that many (including myself) have nursed for years. To my surprise, I left the Sonic Colors station wanting to play more (which I did after waiting in line a second time).

What’s odd is that few of the ideas are new. What made my time with Sonic Colors so enjoyable was how much better executed these ideas were. I’ve heard the comparison made that Sonic Colors is like playing the daytime stages in Sonic Unleashed. I can understand what these people are trying to say, but the big difference is that what I’ve played of Colors was actually fun.

(more…)

Golden Sun is one of those series’ that, while I enjoyed what I played of it, I completely forgot it existed; that is until Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was announced for the DS at 2009′s E3. Then I quickly forgot about it again until I finally got my hands on the title at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

There were two demo’s available on the show floor. One concentrated on the adventure elements while the other focused on the battle system. I played the battle system demo to completion, so I will start there.

(more…)

On a very special eighty-second episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we delve into all the junk we played at PAX.

We played a lot of games, and there is a lot of show. We even have WeJo live from our living room. There are too many games to even list here (because I’m still really tired from the con), so download the episode and hear for yourself!

Download

RSS

iTunes (Subscribe and Rate the show!)

As per annual tradition, the WingDamage crew will be tackling the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) yet again. Our biggest goal for the site will be to get as much hands-on time with as many unreleased games as our modestly sized team can muster.

If we can manage to acquire a decent internet connection during the trip, we may have some coverage during the con. Otherwise, expect hands-on impressions to pour in as early as Monday.

Either way, we will be updating our twitter feeds all throughout the con. For a complete twitter list of the attending WingDamage staff, head past the break.

(more…)