Play Expo – Manchester 2013

On the 12th October 2013, I was kindly invited back to cover Replay Event’s Play Expo, which ran for the whole weekend at Event City in Manchester. After two previous events in Manchester and Blackpool (Formally Replay Expo), I was pleased to return for a third event.

One of the main reasons I attend these events on behalf of my website Shinesparkers, is to see the various related offerings by Nintendo. Once again, Nintendo brought their Nintendo Unleashed tour to Event City to allow fans the opportunity to play lots of unreleased titles before release. Last year, Nintendo brought along Wii U and a selection of great games such as New Super Mario Bros U, Zombi U and Rayman Legends. This year was no different, with appearances of Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Mario Kart 8. Also on display was Sega’s Sonic Lost World and the newly released Pokemon X & Y.

I approached Super Mario 3D World with a bit of skepticism, believing that it was simply a quick cash in, built on an enhanced version of the Super Mario 3D Land game for 3DS with a new suit gimmick. Thankfully, the Super Mario 3D World build I played is much more than this, offering a range of fun, unique and beautiful local multiplayer experience. The cat suit is well implemented, allowing you to crawl up walls and up the flag pole at the end of each level. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an easy route without the cat suit, but I feel this was probably due to the fast pace of each level, with some team mates dashing through the level as quickly as they could.

My favourite level has to be the one where all players sit on a dinosaur’s back (Apologies, I don’t know its name!) and ride down a river in an attempt to pass through rings and collect stars for points, while avoiding obstacles and large drops. The great thing about this, is that you need to get everyone communicating together to move left, right and jump in order to successfully pass through the level. This lead to some hilarious results, with everyone shouting various directions. The game is certainly not Super Mario 3D Land, but a much welcomed addition to the Wii U, something that I feel a lot of people are going to want to pick up this holiday.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is a return to the classic, two dimensional, top down games that the series had moved away from, resurrected on the 3DS. The game is a sequel to the popular SNES title The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and sees a new Link take on the perils of Hyrule and explore the evil that lurks within the alternate dimension known as the Dark World. In the build I played, there was two timed demos that attendees could check out, the first was a dungeon where you need to guide Link to the top to defeat a boss, and the Hyrule overworld, where you had to navigate your way through the woods and up a mountain to the temple previously mentioned.

In the short time I played this title, I was incredibly impressed. A Link Between worlds certainly feels like a return to A Link to the Past, with familiar creatures and environments present throughout, with the addition of brand new features, one of which being the ability to “merge” into walls and platforms as a painting, allowing you to reach new areas and avoid enemies in your efforts to progress through a dungeon.

In the demo, I had a bow & arrow and a hammer which I used to progress through the dungeon as high as I could get until I reached the boss. I had to be cautious however, because each use of these weapons made the magic meter on the side of the screen, deplete. The amount of time you could merge was also dependent on how much magic you had left in the meter. A Link Between Worlds is certainly a fun experience and a must have title for 3DS. It was by far, my favourite Nintendo game at the event.

Mario Kart 8 was a surprise addition to the Nintendo Unleashed line-up, not mentioned in the press release. As a huge Mario Kart fan, I took the earliest opportunity I could to play the game. The build I played allowed attendees to play the game two at a time, with twelve racers in total and a choice of three levels. Sadly I didn’t get the opportunity to play the levels I wanted to play as that was chosen by the Nintendo team prior to playing. One of the levels I did play however, was Boo House, which I can only describe as a combination of Luigi’s Mansion (MK DS) and Bowsers Castle (MK Wii), with an underwater area.

I had the choice of playing the demo with the Gamepad or the Wii wheel. I much preferred the Gamepad and found the Wii wheel controls to be more tedious and not as responsive. The game seems to be a combination of Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 (3DS) with beautiful HD graphics. The game also brings back bikes and gliders, which are a nice addition. For the demo however, only karts were available, which have also had an update, with anti-gravity pads attached to the bottom allowing you to race up walls and on ceilings. Sadly, Mario Kart 8 won’t be available until next year, which is a huge shame, because at the time of writing, the Wii U could do with games like this to sell consoles in time for the holiday season.

Attendees at the Nintendo booth were given stamps for playing on various games. Collecting two stamps would allow you to spin the swag wheel, where you could win things such as Pokemon hats, Zelda stickers and Pikmin keyrings. Some lucky folk even won eShop vouchers! While Nintendo’s booth was much smaller than last year, it still offered a great variety of games to play. The team knew what they were talking about and gave some great advice and guidance, which was most welcome.

Ubisoft was also at Play Expo showing off their upcoming Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag title on Playstation 4. I was able to go hands on with the PS4 controller, which was remarkably comfortable. The game itself was visually stunning and it was fun to control the ship and board other ships to take down enemies.

Namco Bandai brought their upcoming Dark Souls 2 title to Play Expo, which resulted in a lot of death, pain and frustration due to the infamous difficulty the series is known for. A representative was there pitching the various editions of the game, and gave away posters, and a t-shirt to anyone who could defeat the Mirror knight. Apparently, over 130 people the previous day had attempted to beat it, but only three managed it. Hopefully you’ll fair better than I did when the game launches in March 2014.

Oculus Rift was also present at the event, showcasing the future of gaming with their virtual reality headsets. This was by far the most popular booth at the event, with a queue lasting around ninety minutes, just to get on and play for around five. However, for me personally, it was well worth the wait. I tried out a title called Hawken, which allowed me to control a mech around an environment, allowing me to shoot and fly around a deserted city.

By physically moving my head around, I could see the cockpit and weapons, even the back of the machine I was sitting in. When flying into the air and falling to the ground, it gave a strange sensation, almost as if you were riding a roller coaster. I cannot express in words just how much I loved Oculus Rift, I was completely immersed, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I honestly believe this is something that gamers should be experiencing in addition to motion control and how the majority of us play games today.

Play Expo also featured traders, arcade machines, pinball machines, cosplay and a wide variety of retro games on many different platforms. I was able to check out the majority of it over the weekend, and was impressed by the amount and the variety of things to do, regardless of age or gender.

My only negatives would be the queuing to get into the venue again, there was a lot of confusion as to which line was which, which resulted in many people getting in the wrong line. Thankfully the next day, everyone was put into one line and everyone got in fairly quickly, which makes me wonder why this wasn’t achievable on day one..

But with respect, this didn’t ruin the great stuff that was happening within Event City. Play Expo was certainly a great event, and me and my friends all had an enjoyable weekend of gaming. A big thank you to Replay Events for inviting me to check out their event. Be sure to check out their next event, which will be taking place in Blackpool. Tickets are available now through their website!