Real Talk By: Ms. Throwback and KJ

GDEX 2018 brought the fire with Virtual Reality and in-depth interviews with Columbus Ohio’s upcoming video game development teams.  Play Legit was there at the forefront to get all your gaming news in order. We saw some of our favorites evolving and some brand new titles we are excited to announce. Indie brands are trending hard toward console gaming access and we heard a lot of promise for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox as we enjoyed our time sampling some of our favorites.

No Mercy would return.  A Two Player Brawler from Multivarious Games featured at previous GDEX events.  The enhanced build gave us two characters to control.  The final release will have even more, each with their own unique abilities.  PC, Mac, and Linux are the platforms to receive this title.  Expect a well thought Story line and an unique art style to boot.

Break Stuff VR was another fun title. This virtual reality simulation started out as something completely different.  The developer explained to us how he had this entire vision for his title that was turned upside down by the fact that people just wanted to…break things. For this reason he listened to the people and gave them what they wanted. The player can beat car fenders, engine bays, piñatas, break glass, and crack open wooden boxes. There are several challenges you can choose in-game, my favorite was when you’re placed in a fairground environment. The player is surrounded by items ranging from light bulbs, disco balls, and clown heads. In the background are targets, breakable balloons, moving objects, and stacked items for you to knock over or break. Completing a challenge sets off an event in-game which gains you more time on the clock to, BREAK MORE STUFF!!! WHAT ELSE? It certainly a stress reliever and the basis for a game that could really go any direction.

Mage Quit is a multiplayer game for up to 10 players. The premise is that you start out a wizard with only one power, building on those powers as the stages progress. Essentially building your character, making your wizard powerful in different ways.  The players choose powers between each round, whoever was the weakest player during the previous picks their power first. Everyone is then placed inside a living arena. This a combination of smash brothers and the most loved party games from Mario Party. It is a chaotic mashup that is addictive and hard to put down. The view for players is too down. Unlike Smash Brothers the wizards need time to build up their powers after using them. This means that the players have to be more strategic in how they approach things. This certainly isn’t a button mashing free for all. There is a skill level here that’s hard to find in brawling games. I played 16 rounds at GDEX this year and I could have gone back for me. The camaraderie that happened when playing with everyone in the same room, reminded me of and old school gaming party. This is one to put on the list for sure.

Our Favorite Game of the Event comes from Publisher HitCents and Developer Matt Bitner; A Robot Named Fight. This title feels like a nice blend of Super Metroid with some Doom added for good measure.  It is available to unlock really useful items, aiding you in battle. Take the fight to truly ghoulish looking creatures.  Hitcents even had a contest that day.  If anyone could complete the game’s “Boss Rush” mode they would receive a SNES Classic system. Not sure if this challenge was conquered, im leaning towards a no.  A mode that put this one over for us at GDEX was it’s four player Deathmatch feature.  Using all the cool weapons against three other live players was too satisfying to ignore.  A Robot Named Fight Received Play Legit’s Solid Gold Best in Show Award. Shout out to everyone involved.  Grab the game now on Steam and Switch.

The expo had a stronger lineup of titles and surrounding activities.  Speaker Presentations from Top Industry Pros, Charity Raffles, Tournaments, Cosplay, and lounging.  It’s only going to grow and we expect the activities to expand further.  Get Ready Now for 2019’s expo.  We guarantee it’s going be a sizzler.  Expect more coverage from this year’s event, and (as always) Support Indie Gaming!