Future Wrap-Up: PAX East 2015 Edition

It’s been a couple weeks off for the Retro Wrap-Up, but for good reasons. The first week, I was at PAX East in Boston taking in the sites and getting coverage for you guys. The next week, I was busy fighting off the inevitable PAX Plague that seems to strike everyone as punishment for having fun. But, I’m back and this week I’m going to focus on recapping that busy weekend.

Unfortunately, there were no formal interviews this time around, but I did cover thirteen-ish games–I still don’t know if Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition counts as one game or two–in some form or another. I got a chance to try out both highly-anticipated major titles and some obscure, yet amazing indie games. While there was some disappointment at the long lines preventing me from getting a chance with certain games, like Splatoon, I was happy to see some of the games we covered last year, such as YIIK and A.N.N.E., growing in popularity.

To keep in the spirit of the event, the oprainfall Retro Commercial Research Team–in other words, me–will show off trailers of games covered at PAX East 2015. A couple games, Code Name S.T.E.A.M. and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD in particular, have already been released, some are coming soon, and others are still a ways off.

And a special thank you to all the developers, publishers, industry reps, Internet personalities, and otherwise cool people I met during the show.

Hands-on Impressions

6 Neat Indie Games from PAX East 2015

Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet (Alasdair Beckett-King/Application Systems)
Catlateral Damage (Chris Chung)
Ninja Pizza Girl (Disparity Games)
Induction (Bryan Gale)
The Hole Story (Girls Make Games)
Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio)

Here are the highlights from the past week.

REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

ORIGINAL CONTENT

NEWS

There are a couple things to point out. First, we have a new series called Raindrops, where you get to learn more about the oprainfall contributors as they answer a set of questions about themselves. There are two up so far: the first one is from Jacob and the second from Phil. Keep your eye out for others in the coming weeks.

The second thing is that we have a new poll going on. In the spirit of the season, it’s time for Operation Madness once again. This year’s tournament is for swords. Voting for Round 1 has begun so check it out and make your picks.

Be sure to check out our Operation Recap on our YouTube channel for an alternate take on this week’s news.

And speaking of our YouTube channel, I missed introducing it last week, but we have a new video series call Series Introduction, which talks about a game series that people may not be aware of in hopes of passing on some information. The first episode is on the Atelier series. Check it out and leave a comment letting us know what you think.

And, as always, if you have any ideas or suggestions for retro commercials, let us know either through Facebook, Twitter, or just leave a good old-fashioned comment below.