EGX16 roundup

EGX returned to Birmingham’s NEC for the second year running for four days with games ranging from the latest blockbusters to the indie games from Rezzed/Leftfield Collection. One noticeable absence from this year’s EGX was Nintendo themselves with many speculating the reason for their absence. Regardless of that there were some games which caught our eye.

Yooka Laylee by Playtonic Games/Team17:

Playtonic who are mostly made up of ex-Rare staff brought Yooka Laylee to EGX16 and just by looking at it makes it feels almost like Banjo-Kazooie, but it has it’s own style which separates it from it’s spiritual predecessor. The main characters, Yooka the chameleon and Laylee the bat share a huge resemblance to Banjo and Kazooie respectively. The speech is similar to the garbled speech in Banjo & Kazooie and the music/sound effects have the same charm.

The demo level was a grassy setting with loads of buildings surrounding it along with waterfalls. The duo’s moves were explained to them by a geezer-like snake called Trowzer who gives them away for some quills which are the collectibles in this game and which can be used to gain new abilities later in the full game. You basically do missions from saving a skeleton from being cooked in a pot to riding on a mine cart collecting gems.

Combat in this game is pretty simple such as tail whip to hit enemies or roll to move up slopes and eating berries will give you temporary powers such as breathing ice and streams of water or fire.

While the game looked stunning, it did surrender from some hiccups in the frame-rate, but considering the game is still in development it’s not that surprising and surely will be fixed in the final product.

Yooka Laylee is pretty much a 90’s gamer’s ideal game for the current generation especially if they loved Mario 64 or Banjo & Kazooie. Yooka Laylee is expected for launch in 2017 and will be available on Wii U, PS4, XBOX ONE, PC. Mac and Linux.

Worcle Worlds by Lightwood Games:

I was able to play a upcoming 3DS game thanks to Chris and Katherine from Lightwood Games who were visiting EGX as well. Their latest game mixes Zuma with word scramble in which you have to shoot balls of letters between the words that are on the wheel to make words and to get combos by creating words simultaneously. Like with many of their games, Worcle Worlds is a port from Worcle which is on iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch)

The main mode they showed me was story mode in which is the easiest way to find out how to play the game in which the levels gradually get harder as you go on. There was also certain challenges in which levels have restrictions such as only making 4 letter words or having certain letters taken out.

They also showed me endless and multiplayer modes. I was told that Worcle Worlds will even have Download Play, a feature more common in the DS era than the 3DS era as well as online play.

They plan to have Worcle Worlds out by the end of 2016 at earliest for the 3DS, Wii U and other platforms.

Sonic Mania by Sonic Team:

Christian Whitehead (aka Taxman) is known for making the well- received updated ports of Sonic CD and Sonic 2. Now himself alongside Headcannon and PagodaWest Games are developing the next Sonic game in the series.

This latest Sonic title takes us back to the golden 2D era. When were two levels to choose from: Green Hill Zone and Studiopolis Zone, in which I chose the latter. Playing Sonic Mania definitely play more like a Sonic game than Sonic 4 (especially Episode 1) in that moving Sonic is more fluid than the sluggish control on Sonic 4. Studiopolis Zone itself shows how evolved Sonic Mania is from it’s 2D predecessors.

Watching other people play: Green Hill Zone at first feels like a clone of the original level in Sonic 1, but shows it’s twist mid-level combing elements from Sonic 2,Sonic 3 & K and Sonic CD. Also there is a remix of the first boss in this version. They were Special Stage rings, but unfortunately weren’t playable in the demo and hence hollowed out.

Sonic Mania is expected to be released in Spring 2017 for Steam, PS4 and XBOX ONE.

Other mentions:

Rezzed and Leftfield Collection made their returns with their huge selection of indie titles from Hopiko, Super Dungeon Bros to VA-11 HALL-A which itself is an anime themed cocktail bar game.

SONY were promoting their latest games and latest iterations of the PS4 being the Slim and Pro as well as the PS VR which is coming out this month. I tried out Gravity Rush 2 and DB Xenoverse 2 on the PS4 front and was impressed by them especially Gravity Rush 2.

The Retro Collection which has most or not every console on existence for people to experience games from yesteryear as well as arcade cabinets and even pinball machines. Gfinity were them promote the eSports circuit on games such as Overwatch and FIFA 17.

Tornado Energy drinks made their return as well handing out free cans of their products to thirsty gamers.

EGX17 will be on from September 21st to September 24th and Rezzed 17 will be on from March 30th to April 1st.

Check out EGX’s website for more info: https://www.egx.net/

Categories: Articles, Home

Tags: EGX16, indie games, leftfield, lightwood games, nintendo, NX, sega, Tornado energy, worcle worlds, Yooka Laylee

This post was written by Cyburn, posted on October 14, 2016 Friday at 4:27 pm