Metal Wolf Chaos

When the Vice President of the United States decides to stage a full-scale rebellion, what should the embattled Commander-in-Chief do? If you said to fight back in a ridiculously armed mech suit, then Metal Wolf Chaos XD is the game for you. Originally published by FromSoftware as an exclusive for the Xbox back in 2004, this game never made it to a Western audience and has been quite difficult to play outside of Japan due to its rarity. This is why I rushed over to see how much mayhem I could cause saving the good ol’ US of A. The demo was set in the Grand Canyon and tasked the player to shoot-up a series of objectives and release the occasional caged hostage (by shooting it up) until fighting an armored helicopter at the end. Although the design and gameplay were pretty straightforward, the most notable part of Metal Wolf was your arsenal. Being able to dual wield all of the guns allowed for a large amount of chaos on screen, and it was easy to switch your weapons on the fly. With just a tap of the X or B buttons, all of your guns would spout out of the mech’s back like a pair of wings, and you could cycle through each gun to find the right instrument of destruction for each hand. I was quite fond of the party shotgun which would shower death upon my enemies along with a burst of confetti. Metal Wolf Chaos XD is nothing groundbreaking. It’s simple, a little clunky and fun. Unfortunately, the game has been pushed back and will probably not see a release until the middle of 2019.

Gato Roboto

Announced mere minutes before PAX 2018 opened to the public, Gato Roboto is an homage to the NES classics Metroid and Master Blaster wrapped in a candy coating of cuteness. In Gato Roboto, you take the role of Kiki, the faithful kitty of an astronaut who has crashed landed on an unknown world and is trapped inside his downed spaceship. Looking for a way to free her master, Kiki sets off to explore the new planet and stumbles upon a mech suit similar to Samus’ in the Metroid franchise. While it was fun blasting things as a kitty in a mech, a good portion of the demo had me exploring outside of the robot as well. There were several parts where I had to jump out of the suit to explore kitten sized tunnels. Luckily, the controls felt rather tight which made exploring feel fun and less of a distraction from blowing up evil frogs. Another thing that stood out was the pixel art style and black and white color scheme. Minus the cute aesthetic, it gave me a serious vibe of playing Metroid 2 on my fat Gameboy as a kid. To be honest, it is hard to throw a rock in the video game market and not hit someone’s rendition of a Metroidvania game; however, Gato Roboto seems like it has its own character. It is definitely worth keeping an eye on and is slated to be released in the middle of next year.

Gris 

Spanish for gray, Gris can be best described as more of an experience than a game. Beautifully blending a haunting musical score with fantastic watercolor set pieces, Gris has been turning a lot of heads since being announced at Gamescom. Looking back at all the games that I tried at PAX this year, Gris was the one that left me staring at the end screen wanting more. In the game, you will help the young Gris overcome a traumatic experience as she explores a dull world that will slowly manipulate as she rediscovers its color. Reminiscent of Journey, Gris has no dialogue and a very minimal amount of text, relying heavily on your interactions with the environment to convey the character’s journey through sorrow. According to Senior Artist, Ari Cervello, a major goal for Gris is to have the player learn about the world’s lore and its mechanics through its level design much as how Gris will experience it as well. After trying the game for a bit, the light platforming and puzzles were intuitive, and it felt quite satisfying moving to the next sections of the demo due to the knowledge gained through my exploration of this world. Speaking of the world of Gris, very few games have interwoven art and music so masterfully. I am still thinking about my time there and am finding my words not doing the game justice. If you haven’t seen Gris yet, go watch the announcement trailer right now. I can understand how art piece games might not be for everyone, but Nomada Studio’s first venture is something special. Look forward to Gris’ release in December on PC and Nintendo Switch.