This year’s MCM event in London featured several game companies, all showing off their major new and upcoming releases. We didn’t get time to try everything out, but here’s a look at some of the games that stood out during the weekend.
At the NIS America Booth
– Rodea the Sky Soldier
At the NISA booth, we had the chance to try out the upcoming release from NIS America, Rodea the Sky Solider, before its European & American release later this year. Developed by Prope and designed by Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team, many saw Rodea as a ‘spiritual successor’ to NiGHTS into dreams considering the game’s focus on flying and the designer’s pedigree.
I started with the Wii U version, which had been one of the two versions of the game on display at the time (the other being the 3DS version). Along the game’s delayed development, it was ported to the Wii U before its Japanese release early this year, even though it was originally developed for the Wii. Unfortunately, it seems that this porting may have allowed for higher resolutions on the Wii U, it appears to still be using lower quality textures and models for what you would generally expect for a Wii U game.
The controls at first seemed a bit stiff, as you can only fly in a straight line, or move slightly in an arc, rather than being able to fly around freely, as you might expect. To naviagte the levels and obstacles takes a bit of getting used to, and I found myself having to stop moving in order to line up my path correctly before flying in a particular direction.
– Danganronpa: Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
One of the other games on show from NISA was the latest installment in the popular Danganronpa series, Danganronpa: Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls for the PS Vita. Unlike the last two games in the series, which were primarily visual novel based games, this spin off is mainly a third person shooter, where you play as Komaru, the sister of Matoko (the protagonist in Danganronpa 1 & 2).
The demo that was on show was in japanese, so I didn’t really get to understand much of the dialog or story events that happened, but the main gist of the game is that you’re in a city which has been overrun with robot Monokumas attacking everyone. Komaru has her ‘hacking gun’ (which looks a lot like a modified megaphone) that she can use to take aim and subdue the monokuma enemies.
At the Rice Digital / PQube booth
– Stein’s;Gate
With not long to go before Stein’s;Gate comes to PS3 and Vita in the UK, the Rice Digital booth had a dedicated section opposite their main store area, where you could try out the game before its release.
At the Deep Silver Booth
– Mighty No.9
Announced to be partering with Deep Silver back in April, Mighty Number 9 from Keiji Inafune, Comcept and Inti Creates made a somewhat suprising appearance as part of Deep Silver’s booth, nestled between Saint’s Row: Gat out of Hell and Farming Simulator.
The version of the game they had on show was quite similar to the beta demo that had been supplied to some backers of the original kickstarter campaign.