The 13th-14th October saw Replay Events’ Play Expo, the UK’s newest gaming expo, hit Event City in Manchester and HCF’s videogame’s editor, Juanvasquez was once again let out of the basement, and let loose among the gaming public.
Upon arrival, there was already hundreds of people queuing, however there was two lines, with no indication of which was which, I asked 2012’s Most Helpful Security Guard, who was manning the doors, who was about as clued up as I was, so decided that the shortest line would be the best option. After a good 20 minute wait in the bitter cold, during which it was announced that there was at least a 30 minute delay, meaning doors wouldn’t be opening til at least 11.30, I managed to get in, and after accosting a rather dishevelled member of the expo staff, was finally escorted to the press office.
Finally, I managed to take to the floor. Split into four different Play events, CosPlay, RetroPlay, NowPlay and ProPlay, it was an awe-inspiring sight. By the entrance was the CosPlay section, with stalls selling Japanese goods, such as sweets, treats and toys, as well as a main stage where the costumes were judged. Most of the costumes were great (Lollipop Chainsaw has certainly made the past time more interesting!), extremely well thought out and put together, and some, well, left nothing to the imagination.
Next to the CosPlay area was the vast RePlay section, and the highlight of the show, boasting masses of home consoles from over the years, from the Atari VCS, right through to the PS3, with games spanning pretty much all genres, with their own dedicated sections. My personal favourites were Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion on the Megadrive, Super Mario World on the SNES, and Ridge Racer on PS1, as well as the Forbidden Planet section, which included a selection of games featuring some comic book heroes’ game outing from the last few years, such as Spiderman, Batman, The Incredible Hulk and Judge Dredd. The amount of consoles ready to play was amazing, with there being the more mainstream consoles such as the aforementioned Megadrive and SNES, as well as systems such as the PC Engine, Atari Jaguar, and the Japanese Nintendo Famicom. It really needs to be experienced to appreciate how wonderful it was to be able to go from one classic machine to another. It was immensely enjoyable, and has probably caused a spike in the sale of retro games since the weekend.
Next to the RePlay area was the arcade section, boasting many arcade cabinates from the last 30-40 years, as well as several pinball machines. It was just like being a kid on the seafront arcades again, only without needing pockets full of 10p coins. Surrounding these areas were various retailers selling all manner of games from years gone by, as well as certain gaming memorabilia. One stall that stood out more than any other however, was Retro Collect. Not only were they running gaming competitions, but they had a freebie table. Consisting of donated retro gaming paraphernalia, attendees were able to take whatever they liked, free of charge, within reason of course, with items ranging from manuals, game boxes and even games themselves.
Keeping things a little more contemporary was the NowPlay and ProPlay sections. ProPlay, run in conjunction with European Gaming Leauge saw hundreds of pro gamers from around the UK and beyond, take part in tournaments on the likes of FIFA and Gears of War 3 for cash prizes and the prestige of being one of the EGL’s top players. There was a host of publishers showing off their latest wares in the NowPlay area. With displays and plenty of demo pods from the likes of Konami, Capcom, EA and Nintendo, there was lots on offer. Konami, as well as having playable demos of current titles including Pro Evo 2013, they were also there showing off Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and Zone of the Enders HD. Yet Konami’s best display, was the Metal Gear 25th anniversary, featuring each Metal Gear released on home consoles. Capcom bought to the table a UK exclusive preview of the HD upgrade of Darkstalkers, and previews of the Devil May Cry reboot, which although looking pretty much the same in terms of gameplay, has some very nice visuals indeed. On top of that, there were several stations set up with Street Fighter X Tekken and SFIV.
EA were showing off the latest in the gaming behemoth’s production line, Need For Speed and Medal Of Honor Warfighter, and next to that, was several Xbox 360’s containing Halo 4. However, it was multiplayer only, and while it looked good, it really brought nothing new to the table. In the middle of all this was Nintendo’s booth, which was previewing the soon to be launched WiiU. This is something I’d been looking forward to for a long time. Naturally there was a bit of a queue, but while waiting in line, there were Nintendo staffers walking around with 3DS XL’s mounted to them, featuring Kid Icarus, as to pass the time in the queue that little easier. Although there was a surprising amount of people with their own DS’s. Once in the booth, I made a beeline for Batman Arkham City: Armoured Edition. The demo was extremely short however and served only to show what the controller mounted touch screen could do. Disappointingly, it served mainly to frustrate and render itself somewhat of an inconvenience. It commanded you do things that would normally take a single button push on the 360/PS3 versions, and the controller was extremely uncomfortable to use, feeling very unnatural. Credit where it’s due though, it did at least look great on the gamepad. There was also the excellent looking Rayman Legends, the WiiU exclusive sequel to the surprise hit of last year, Rayman Origins. And while it was pretty much more of the same, with added touch screen capabilities, if it aint broke… Last of all I got hands on with ZombiU, and much like Arkham City AE, soon wanted my hands off. Hopefully it was just the preview code, and not representative of the final product, but the game was utterly terrible to control. The awful controller did not suit the style of gameplay, it just seemed to slow things when having to use the touch screen, to carry out such menial tasks like looting corpses. Overall, the WiiU really disappointed, and with the next generation of console almost here, feels almost obsolete.
Despite feeling let down by the dissatisfying WiiU, Play Expo 2012 was an excellent event, which caters for all types of gamer and I can’t recommend enough, that you attend next year.
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