DagoBot is on the scene at PAX and this is the first report he fired off.
Greetings from the land of Starbucks and Shmups (aka ‘Bullet Hell’)! Our first day of PAX Prime 2011 was exquisite. The amount of all things gaming here is overwhelming. There is so much to see, play, listen and interact with. Here are a couple of indie gems we stumbled upon while shambling around the convention floor.
The Dishwasher Vampire Smile: This is a sequel to 2009’s, ‘The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai’. However, I didn’t know this since I don’t have XBOX Live Arcade. The stylized art looked fresh when I passed by so I thought I would give it spin. The gameplay was reminiscent of a ‘Super Smash Bros’ beat em up. Some of the basic weapons that I mele-ed with were: Cleavers, shift blades and even a cloud sword. I went in on this for about fifteen minutes and was addicted when I out the controller down. A true side scrolling marvel with over the top violence. http://www.vampiresmile.com/
Fruit Ninja kinect: Slicing food with with agile hand motions has never been so much fun. Or so much fun to watch. I never bought into the Kinect (I don’t own one)…Checking this out made me re-assess my critiques. Your arms are deadly weapons cutting through watermelons, pineapples & pomegranates. Be mindful, avoid ‘the bombs’ or else you get docked points with taunts of bomb loving. This game would be an absolute blast with 4 or 5 friends turning an average night into Shaolin food massacre mastery.
A Space Shooter: A rock solid shoot em up. The production value on this portable, low cost, vertical-scrolling is full of win. Over the top missiles and cannon shenanigans were littered through the ten minutes we tinkered with it. The touch controls were fluid and fun. It’s one of those games that knows what it is and doesn’t try to do too much. It left us wanting more. If you have a couple of bucks laying around and love the shooting game genre, try it out…you won’t be disappointed.
-Dagobot
PS. Silver Surfer NES 1990- one of the worst games ever.