As you all may have gleaned from our Twitter account and the sudden shifting of the world last week, Comiket 88 has come and gone, concluding the largest Comic Market to date. The exact numbers are hazy, but it's safe to say that records were broken, but, thankfully, not safety laws. Our loyal and determined staff were able to stay both whole and healthy during the event, and came back with a mighty bounty of games. Some are for our own enjoyment, but a lot of them we're looking at as possible assets to add to Playism.
Now, before we all get crazy excited, let's remember that Playism is both an English AND Japanese distribution platform. If a game looks like it'll be straight marmalade for Japan but pure Marmite for America, then it may only come to a single side of the website. However, there are some really fantastic games that we are actively eyeballing and thinking "I wonder what English speakers would think of this?" Here are a few titles that the staff have picked out.
Astro Maiden Apostle. Turn based RPG with a focus on mouse work instead of keyboard. Gorgeous artwork, really well balanced and rides a great threshold. It's got a familiar enough situation that you aren't going to feel totally lost, but there's enough old mechanics and familiar elements that you can dive right in.
Exception Reboot: Sometimes minimalism is still about delivering a ton of stuff. Even though everything in this cube-bullet-hell is identical, it stands out and delivers in a huge way. A massive amount of firepower, you can create a crazy chain that puts on an explosive light show. Bonus: the Unity engine keeps track of the number of particles on the screen, so you can tell exactly where you were when your computer starts crying!
Yohjo Simulator. You are a ten year old Japanese girl with unlimited power and invulnerability in a cityscape. You need to...well, you don't actually have a goal in mind. You can bow to people, but if you bow too close, you end up headbutting them and throwing them into buildings and across the city. This may sound insane. It is, and you will love it.
Girl Fight!: Have you ever watched two girls duke it out with amazing combos and power moves and thought "man, I wonder what their coaches did to prep them?" Wonder no more! With the power of Girl Fight, you get to make a team of three hand-picked fighters, train them, hone their skills and then battle against other fight teams. A novel take on the dating/life simulator, I'm not certain if you can eventually date one of your fighters.
HEXARAID: A top down shooter that is ridiculously hectic. If you've ever played Geometry Wars, it takes the simple concept and ramps it up to 11. You have to withstand an onslaught for a set amount of time, at which point you are instantly transported to the next stage. There's barely time to breathe, and it's less about "doing well" and more about "surviving." Looks fantastic, plays really smoothly. I could easily see this being a game that you mean to only dump a few minutes into and then immediately lose an hour.
Negi Colle Miku: And what trip through Comic Market would be complete without a great tribute to Hatsune Miku? Rather than your traditional singing or dancing game, this 3D brawler pits our heroine against hornets and slimes that she must smash with an over sized spring onion. It's cute, it looks nice, and it's surprisingly fun. Controller support is provided and is an absolute must.
Trust me, there were many more, but we can only get through so many in a week! Anything catch your attention in a strong way? If there was a game you heard about from Comiket you think we may have missed, or just one of these titles you're really excited about, let us know!
