Battleblock Theater Hands-On

Even at this stage in development BattleBlock Theater has a lot to offer; I did not get all of the time I desired (eternity would be nice) with this game because after I had my first go at all of the modes (available) The Behemoth's booth lost power. I feel like something this cooky is something that would only happen at their booth (and it did only happen at their booth).

Speaking of nutty things, the game's story is as nuts as the trailer makes it sound:


This is the official description of the game from The Behemoth's site:

Having shipwrecked on a mysterious island you find yourself both betrayed by your best friend Hatty and captured by the locals. All of this is happening while being forced into deadly performances. This however, is just the start of your problems.

All of forms that this game manifests itself in are mini-games. I did not get my hands on all of the modes that have been announced but here are the descriptions and what I thought of each one:

• There is a block painting mode where the player simply has to run over, touch, bump into blocks and turn them their teams color. Whichever team has the most blocks at the end of the round wins. I enjoyed this mode but in all three rounds played my team was decimated by the AI.
• The second mini-game is one in which you must collect golden coins from a golden whale and deposit them into a winged safe. My partner and I did exceptionally well in this mode but alas we did not finish because the booth lost power.
• The first mini-game mode that I played I did not understand until it was explained to me. You have to kill or get the other team killed by pushing them into hazards. This releases their soul (in the form of a balloon?!) which you then grab for points! You can hold onto that persons soul until they avenge themselves or you are killed by a hazard. This mode was bizarre and by the time I figured out what I was doing it was too late.

All of the stages have hazards in the form of: spikes, what looked like exhaust pipes that shot flames, water, crumbling blocks, etc. Each stage that I played was played in a 2 vs. 2 scenario (2 humans vs. 2 AI).

I was skeptical on this game before I got my hands on it and I am not yet 100 percent sold but this is The Behemoth we are talking about and I am sure they will get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to spending my 15 bucks (that it is likely to cost) later this year. Something about being pitted into "deadly performances" by cats sounds intriguing to me.

PAX Day One Wrap-Up (The Experience)

The day past has been an interesting one. It has gone by about as quickly as I expected it to and there were both sweet and sour moments to the day.

Let us start off sour so that we may end up sweet. The first disappointment of the day leads in to the second disappointment of the day and that is that the whole event feels very much like a first go of it. It feels as though the people who organized the show were disorganized in their organization. Regardless, the place was definitely stuffed to the gils.

The first disappointment was that I missed Wil Wheaton's keynote - not only that but I did not sit in on any panels at all. A tip for the show that goes without saying is that you should get there early for what panels you want to see. Missing Wil's keynote was heartbreaking but my group and I moved on into the Expo Hall which proved to be a great time.

I have every intention of writing up the games that I saw and had a chance to get my hands on but I did want to briefly mention them in passing here.

The first booth we stopped by was the Ska Studios booth so that we could check out The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile and Charlie Murder. James Silva (Ska Studios one man army) was talking about the game as we played and my friend and I were floored by how down to earth he was. It was my first of many great experiences and a good chance to get to know an Indie developer.

We then proceeded to stop by and see The Behemoth's new game, Battleblock Theater (which I do not think is all that memorable of a game title). It looks like good fun but more on that later.

What really stole the day for my friend and I was Raskulls by Halfbrick Studios - here all of the way from Australia. It is similar Dig Dug and Mr. Driller except it is competitive in nature: campaign is vs. the computer while multiplayer is PvP. It is a very fun and addictive game that I will have more to say about later.

We also had a look at Split Second, an awesome new racing game from Disney.

More to come tomorrow like actually catching a panel and a chance to meet (not just look at) Wil Wheaton. I also plan to get more hands on time with what I did today and more, like: Splinter Cell: Conviction, a new XBLA game that I can not remember the title of, etc.

Stay tuned.