Game: Gal Metal
Booth: DMM Games
James: I didn’t actually play this game, I just got the producer, Tak Fujii to play it for me. To me it looks like Rock Band + Ouendan + Wii Music drums, but maybe more of the latter. Check out our interview / demo to see it in action. Maybe some people will like it?
Danny: I actually DID play this game. The visual presentation and the music are really fantastic. Even playing through the demo that was on the floor was really fun. It’s a non-stress music game that is simple to pick up and pretty satisfying. As a demo, it worked really well. As a full game, I’m not quite sure but I am remaining optimistic.
Sairus: I gave it a shot too (after a rocking live session with Tak Fuji and a giant cat). I’m a little more worried about this game than all of you seem to be purely down to how the staff at the booth had to correct people multiple times on how to hold the joycon’s. Apparently there’s a sweet spot with how you have to position them or the drum strikes don’t register correctly, which could make an otherwise fun game seem terribly unresponsive. Aside from that, from I played seemed pretty okay!
Ty: The game is pretty simple. There are only two inputs: right hand for snare, left for hi-hat/cymbal. Each bar, you have to execute a sequence that the game recognizes. There were two in the tutorial and two more that we knew about. I guess you just have to execute whichever ones sound good and try to keep your combo up? I guess it reminds me of Parappa more than anything.
The music is good and the comic-style cutscenes are great. The inputs are bad, though. Motion controls are still mostly a terrible blight on modern video games.
The music is good and the comic-style cutscenes are great. The inputs are bad, though. Motion controls are still mostly a terrible blight on modern video games.
Game: Combat: Search & Rescue
Booth: Rainy Frog
James: This like a voxel-cute version of Desert Strike, except on a 2D plane. The visual really charmed me, but there were some quirks to the controls I thought were weird. Very interesting premise though!
Game: Dot Horror Story
Booth: Rainy Frog
James: The devs were super pumped about bringing this to Japan because it’s basically an old school adventure game. You explore this old house, talking to people and weird things happen, but it’s all done in a cute big-headed pixel art way!
Game: Steamworld Dig 2
Booth: Flyhigh Works
James: This had just come out in the west as I played it on the showfloor, and as mentioned in our interview with the localisers should be coming out in Japan in October. Anyway, onto the game itself - freaking awesome! The original was a genuine surprise back when I played it on the 3DS (RIP), I put many hours into it although it was over quicker than I wanted. This sequel immediately felt more expansive and interesting. More animation, more variety in the graphics and environment, can’t wait to play more! I beat the boss in the demo quite easily, but that’s not the point, the point is - it has a boss this early in the game!
Danny: I really enjoyed the original. Most of the fun I had with it was all exploration based, but in the demo that was available, there was quite a bit more focus on combat than before. As opposed to the original, though, the combat feels a bit more thought out and seemed pretty solid. As James mentioned, the boss that was featured here was a lot of fun!
Sairus: I hadn’t played a Steamworld game before I tried this one and was really impressed! Particularly I really liked how cleverly they set up all the mechanics, even down to teaching you that backtracking is okay. One thing that did bug me though was a consequence of the demo was being played on a Pro Controller . At one point they tell you to press an upper circle button, which the Pro doesn’t have (it has a D-Pad on the left side). I thought they were asking me to press X, so I was very confused as to what they wanted me to.
I’d never considered how much of a pain the many Joycon/Controller setups on the Switch must be for devs!
I’d never considered how much of a pain the many Joycon/Controller setups on the Switch must be for devs!
Game: Implosion: Never Lose Hope
Booth: Flyhigh Works
James: This started off as a mobile game, but actually didn’t really feel like that to me. The controls were decent and it was visually OK, basically it plays like your standard robot slasher/shooter type game. Kill bad guys, collect stuff, hit switches, move onto the next area, not too shabby actually!
Sairus: I also played this game.
Game: Splasher
Booth: Flyhigh Works
James: Meat Boy + Splatoon, need I say more? Well OK then. Basically you can stick to walls that have ink, you do slow down in it (like Splatoon) but because you’re sticking to it, you can use it to climb to high places. The controls are pretty much exactly like Meat Boy, but with an additional water squirter weapon that let’s you remove link when needed, i.e when you need to clear the path to make a big jump. Neat idea, balls hard, I’d probably recommend this to Ty.
Danny: This game is more Meat Boy meets Mega Man with the ability to cling to ceilings and walls. It’s super fast, has responsive controls and is a complete blast to play. It’s also pretty damn challenging. There’s really a lot going on here between the quick gameplay, shooting, mild puzzle elements and enemies strewn about through the stages. Hopefully we’ll get a solid release date for Switch on Splasher soon!
Game: Samurai Defender
Booth: Flyhigh Works
James: This is a tower defence 3DS game ported to Switch, not really much else to say! Place spiky walls to stop hordes of bad guys entering your castle. They’d better make it cheap!
Game: Golf Story
Booth: Flyhigh Works
Danny: I didn’t have a ton of time with the demo, but I did get a chance to play. The demo just threw you right into the mix. Most of my experience consisted of just wandering around the golf resort and talking to various people who would challenge me with random quests - run around the plaza, hit golf balls into specific areas in a lake and putting practice. It was pretty simple and fun. One of my favorite random elements was the ability to throw golf balls at people anywhere as well as the ability to set up a golf ball and hit it anywhere.
Game: World To The West
Booth: Flyhigh Works
Sairus: I found this game pretty charming! The art is very nice, and really gave the feeling that the devs knew they were a pretty small studio, so they went with a simple, stylistic art style that they really polished. This game is actually already available on consoles and PC, but nice to see on Switch all the same. I find this was a pretty poor demo of the game though. Trailers will show this game’s main hook is playing as a variety of characters who all have unique quirks that allow them to fight and move through the world differently. The demo exclusively has you play as the Teslamancer who can use a lightning teleport, and without checking up online afterwards I would have assumed that was all the game had to offer.
Game: Clusterpuck 99
Booth: Coatsink / Boneloaf
James: Clusterpuck 99 has been on other platforms before, but it makes complete sense on Switch! The devs told me that they had this plus a bunch of other games lined up for localisation into Japanese, and I can see why this would work across cultures - it’s basically air hockey mixed with football! I played a 2 vs 2 team game, but up to 8 players are supported on one system and I think that’s where the fun lies, banter among friends! Also cool that the devs are adding Switch exclusive stages that better suit the system when it’s in tabletop mode.
Game: Shu
Booth: Coatsink / Boneloaf
James: This game reminded me a lot of the recent Rayman games, perhaps more like the mobile version (a runner game with beautiful 2D art). You basically run, jump, wall jump, and glide across the environments avoiding spiky things and enemies. It decent fun, but nothing too extraordinary.
Game: Extravaganza of Home Appliance Wars: Fantique
Booth: Esquandra
Sairus: This was a funny little game tucked away to the side of one of the main TGS halls and didn’t get a lot of traffic. It’s a simple enough platformer where you can walk or ride a vacuum cleaner sized table fan to get around. You can also attack by blasting a wide cone of air in front of you. It has a weird premise of trying earn yen by defeating random appliances and enemy shopkeepers, who also have weaponized home appliances. The game was weird, and has deliberately floaty controls when flying, which combine awkwardly with its bullet-hell light gameplay. Kinda cute, but ultimately forgettable.
Game: Lunaxxx
Booth: Pygmy Studio
Sairus: Ugh. Motion controls were a mistake. You play as a robot and a kid in a spacesuit trying to save animals. To accomplish this the robot lowers the kid into a ravine using a fishing rod. You tilt the left joycon side to side to move kid left and right as he descends. Once you’ve found some animals you rhythmically tap A on the right joycon to attract them. After you’ve caught them, you start shaking the right joycon to reel yourself up, while still tilting the left joycon to avoid obstacles on the way up.
If that sounds like a nightmare, then you’d be right. I hated every second of this game.
After the show I read up on it and was informed it’s supposed to be a co-op experience, which makes far more sense, but the guys at the booth never mentioned that to me!
After the show I read up on it and was informed it’s supposed to be a co-op experience, which makes far more sense, but the guys at the booth never mentioned that to me!
Game: Sonic Forces
Booth: SEGA
Sairus: There’s been some rumblings about how this game looks terrible, but I still have high hopes since they seem to be trying to emulate the excellent Sonic Generations. This demo really shook those hopes.
Demos were limited to 5 minutes and I didn’t want to line up twice, so I only played the Custom Character “Avatar” Mode. They had a preset character to play with and I really did not like how it handled at all. I play a lot of Sonic games, so there’s a certain expectation to how they play. I couldn’t get a handle on the extremely clunky controls the Avatar had. Maybe Modern and Classic Sonic handle better, but I didn’t even finish the demo level in those 5 minutes because I kept dying on a series of jumping sections. A cluttered visual presentation made it hard to see what was a platform or lethal pit, which didn’t help.
It seemed to hold up pretty well on the Switch all things considered though.
Game: LEGO Ninjago
Booth: SEGA / TT Fusion
Sairus: It was a LEGO game. Virtually all anti-aliasing seemed to be turned off for Switch so it looked pretty jagged. Some flying sections where you’re shooting down enemy ships while riding in your giant dragon mechs might look good on the PS4, but jaggedy, fast moving cityscapes combined with really significant slowdown in places made them pretty rough.
It’s kind of cute how it uses actual footage from the movie and splices new story elements in between them to justify the gameplay though. What was not cute is how none of the cutscenes were skippable.
Game: Gal Gun 2
Booth: Inti Creates
Sairus: I played the original GalGun back on Xbox… and not a lot has really changed. The premise is still the same: you have to go around a school on rails shooting remarkably large chested high schoolers with an orgasm gun while they all try to confess their love to you. You have to give them credit for just taking subtlety out back and murdering it.
Bonkers premise aside, the gameplay itself wasn’t terribly exciting. The booth itself was amazing though! You had two options to choose from: stand on a platform that is surrounded by game screens and constantly spinning around, or stand on a platform that was constantly blasting air up between your legs. I opted for the former, and enabled motion controls… which was a terrible idea. Very quickly a staff member came over and disabled them before I killed myself. Thanks, Inti Creates!
Game: Fight Knight
Booth: Dangen Ent
Ty: A successful kickstarter indie game that’s coming to Switch, too. It’s a grid-based dungeon exploring kinda game, except you interact with everything and everyone with non-stop brutal punches. Needless to say, I love it. If you like imitating Kenshiro or picking up the berserk pack in Doom, then this game is for you. Also, check out that godlike art style.
Ty: A successful kickstarter indie game that’s coming to Switch, too. It’s a grid-based dungeon exploring kinda game, except you interact with everything and everyone with non-stop brutal punches. Needless to say, I love it. If you like imitating Kenshiro or picking up the berserk pack in Doom, then this game is for you. Also, check out that godlike art style.
Game: The Takeover
Booth: Dangen Ent
Ty: Attack strings, grabs, and throws feel just like Final Fight. Also, very pretty! Most importantly, I broke a trash can and ate the hamburger that was inside. In the game, too.
Ty: Attack strings, grabs, and throws feel just like Final Fight. Also, very pretty! Most importantly, I broke a trash can and ate the hamburger that was inside. In the game, too.
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