Each year at the
Here’s a list of five titles that stood out at last week’s event:
Replaced – Not all games need eye-bleeding graphics to impress players. Sometimes what a title needs is a compelling vision and charm, and
In the demo, REACH finds itself on the outskirts of the city and it has to battle a postapocalyptic-looking gang called the Termite Tanks to survive. It must also survive the robots sent out by Dr Warren’s employer, the
The brooding pixel art makes Replaced pop in a sea of titles at the event. It’s retro, reminiscent of a more detailed 2-D title called Flashback from the 16-bit era. The movements feel rotoscoped and deliberate, and adds to the game’s moodiness.
Despite its retro feel, Replaced has modern components. In combat, it borrows heavily from Batman: Arkham Asylum with REACH punching foes and parrying when players see an exclamation point above their heads. At times, some attacks such as gunshots can’t be blocked so the AI will have to dodge. Over the course of combat, players will see their gun meter fill up, and when there’s enough firepower, REACH can fire at an enemy for an instant kill.
Aside from that, players will encounter simple puzzles such as getting a box to a wall to leap up over it. Players will also encounter stealth elements, where players will have to hide behind cover to avoid a robotic sniper on rails.
Replaced has a solid foundation with beautiful visuals. If it can nail down the level design and story, it can be one of the gems of the year, when it’s released
Screenbound – Crescent
That sends players into a realm, in which they walk around in the first-person through a 3-dimensional world, but that environment also shows up on the Qboy screen as a 2D environment. Screenbound is a game that combines 2D and 3D gameplay to give players a novel experience.
Playing the game is almost like firing up the Nintendo 3DS. Players have to split their attention to the 3D world around them and check the 2D screen hanging toward the bottom center. At the demo, I had hands-on time with a Mario-esque platforming adventure and producer
Screenbound is magic in the way it blends 2D and 3D gameplay. Players will wander the environment in 3D, but in the 2D Qboy screen, they’ll discover hidden doors and ladders. It’s the key to advancing through each level. In the 3D realm, they can see a gap that looks impassable, but if they look at the 2D screen, they can find a door that isn’t visible in the 3D environment. That translates to 2D ladders that let them scale columns or grab on to balloons that don’t appear to be there.
The game feels like the last trial of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When Indy is faced with jumping across a chasm, he has to believe and take that leap of faith that what he sees in the notebook is real. Screenbound feels like that moment, but players will have to suss out those moments and just believe in what the screen is telling them.
The same goes for Zelda-inspired adventure, but it employs more puzzle elements. Players will have to use a Hook Shot device to grab onto nodes that may or may not be there. Enemies will phase in and out of 2D and 3D.
The magic of Screenbound lies on how it melds the 2D and 3D gameplay together. It’s the invisible moments when those two dimensions collide that elevate this title and makes it a project to keep an eye on.
Invincible VS – A few developers behind the modern Killer Instinct teamed up to create this upcoming fighting game based on Robert Kirkman’s comic book universe. Quarter Up carries over a lot of the combo-centric combat from the Rare title and carries this over to this hyper-violent fighter. It uses a link system where players hit light, medium, and heavy attacks in a certain order to deploy a flurry of strikes. Players can also throw in a special attack via a dedicated button.
Simplicity and fast-paced action are the core concepts of this 3 vs. 3 tag-style game. Players craft their own team of three fighters and deploy them against a rival. In addition to the attack buttons on the face of the Xbox controller, players will use the left trigger and shoulder buttons to tag in an ally or use them for a support attack. The right trigger and right shoulder buttons are used for boost and a dash, respectively.
The scheme, which uses single-button presses to deploy impressive moves, appears easy to learn on the surface, but Quarter Up layered complexity through the tag mechanic and defensive options to create depth. It also supports arcade stick controls, with players manually using quarter circle and dragon punch gestures for finer controls. It’s harder to pull off combos like that, but the developer said it balances that out by giving arcade stick players slightly more damage to their attacks.
Visually, the game captures the series’ look and feel. Fighters’ costumes degrade with each blow, and a special move can knock a foe to another part of the stage a la X-Men: Children of the Atom and Injustice. It’s cool to see, but it happens once per match. Each character also has an ultimate attack when their meters are full, but it requires them to be on the ground.
It’s a fighting game that aims to be beginner-friendly while also offering the depth that the community craves. Invincible VS is set to launch
Hit-Em-Up Highrise – Although the cast of this rogue-like beat-’em-up looks familiar, they aren’t exactly the same. Media Indie Exchange drew inspiration from films such as The Last Dragon and Demolition Man to create characters for this project inspired by games such as Smash TV.
Players are in a TV show, where they have to escape prison. They’ll battle through several floors and gain power-ups after conquering each one. They also gain money for each run, which they can store in the prison Yakitori bank.
The gameplay is solid and reminiscent of titles such as Final Fight or Streets of Rage. Each character has a distinct set of moves and stats, so that the four available each play differently. The key to this title will be how the power-ups accentuate each character’s moveset and stats, and how players can create diverse builds for each fighter as they battle to escape the prison tower and hordes of foes.
Mongil: Star Dive – Netmarble’s upcoming action role-playing game joins other character-collecting games such as Genshin Impact that have grown in popularity over the past few years. In this title, players create a three-member party and adventure around a world, interacting with instances, in which players have to defeat boss or defend a tower.
The draw of the game, and the feature that will keep players jumping into the adventure, is the ability to add to their roster and the monster taming that lets players add creatures to their collection. The player’s main monster, Nyanner, can devour other creatures and add the Monsterlings.
Both of these elements come into play with boss fights and other activities. Players have to create teams that exploit a boss’ weakness in order to defeat them, and that means building up characters that have the right elemental affinities.
It’s another title coming soon. It will launch
