As a kid I always wanted to attend Comic Con, but San Diego seemed so far to travel…alas, this year a childhood dream came true. I was fortunate to attend New York Comic Con, otherwise known as “cosplay central” (I guess it should be more like cosplay east…) garners much attention from geeks, fanboys, and gamers in its fourth year of existence. While the two comic “mega-powers,” Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics call Manhattan home, NY Comic Con is still much smaller than its bigger brother in San Diego; however, the most surprising (and exciting) aspect of this year’s Comic Con is the increased presence of gaming companies -- showcasing future industry-changing, and in some instances, huge blockbuster titles that will make waves well beyond 2009. As an avid gamer, it was great to see how these companies added value to the historically consumer-based event filled with anime, comics, graphic novels and toys.
Consuming about one-half of the Jacob Javits Center, NY Comic Con 2009 did not disappoint with a number of noteworthy impending releases, announcements, and of course… beta testing! Ahh, yes, a gamers dream. Throughout every beta game I played echoed a little voice in my head asking friends, “Hey have you played (insert prominent 2009 release title here) yet? I have…” But of course, I couldn’t wait to get back home to gloat, so I did what any social media geek would do; I supplied my followers with Twitter updates!
DoubleEntendre: At the Namco booth checking out Naruto and We Ski & Snowboard for the Wii.
TheHitmanSpeaks: @DoubleEntendre I hate you.
Mission completed…
The first title we got our paws on was We Ski & Snowboard for the Wii. The Shawn White-esque sequel to Family Ski features graphics similar to that of Wii Sports, and a control scheme that Wii fanatics will adore – surprisingly, it includes highly skilled maneuvering that may surpass its video game snowboarding compadre.
On our way to our next booth, I was Ric Flair chopped and placed into a sleeper hold -- when I woke up after the 1-2-3 count, I was awarded a picture with WWE’s own Jerry “The King” Lawler, one of the highlights of my Comic Con trip of course. Alright, maybe I wasn’t involved in any sort of physical altercation, but the picture did take place…which is a great lead-in to the THQ booth. THQ featured its upcoming release, WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, where you may “relive, rewrite, or redefine” WWE history. Overall, the title was a combination of the old Nintendo 64 wrestling control schemes, combined with THQs newer Smackdown vs Raw graphics, and presentation to engage old and new wrestling fans alike. For you non-gamers, it is a definite pick-up-and-play game, that features wrestlers that many would know including The Rock, Andre the Giant and of course the original Hulkamaniac himself, Hulk Hogan.
Around 12:00 pm hoards of people began to swarm the event including Storm Troopers, Castle Crashers, Super Mario, Batman, and of course your wide assortment of light saber and key blade wielders. Many of these fans found, what I like to call, the “green screen craze” one of their favorite set-ups. This encompassed fans posing in front of the popular green screen and subsequently superimposing themselves onto a picture featuring some of their favorite superheroes (both Marvel and Activision featured this create-a-pic option), but my eyes were fixated on a few other booths, which I had yet to tackle and needed a closer look. First up:
Atari, Ghostbusters:The Video Game: Let me remind you, first and foremost, that Ghostbusters (the movie) was released in theaters 25 years ago…yes 25 years ago, so if you saw it in theaters, you are getting up there. I, for one was not able to capture the first mission of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson in the theaters, but I am a huge fan. Atari is bringing us a version of this timeless classic in June developed by Terminal Reality (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) and Red Fly Studio’s casual gaming alternative for the Wii. This game features the voices of the original Ghostbusters, and surprisingly is written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis…so we know the storyline will be, as PWix would say, “tiiighht.”
Activision, Prototype: I happened to get to this demo at an opportune time, as lines for this title seemed to grow throughout the day. Developers at Radical Entertainment were on hand to guide gamers through the first level of the demo, but as developer, Jon Lim quickly caught on – little tutorial was needed over here. Our main character, Alex Mercer, begins the game with amnesia – waking up and witnessing “infected” citizens and government militants trying to subdue civilians swarming a modern day New York. Our “hero,” not knowing what has happened, or how he has acquired his new special shape-shifting abilities, does what any of us would do…go on a rampage and destroy any and everything in sight. Cars, trees and buildings are all at the mercy of Alex’s wrath in the seemingly free-flowing 3D rendering of NYC. This games sounds like the coup de gras for third person competitors in 2009.
There were so many notable people, displays and booths at the NY Comic Con. Some other notable occurrences were X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Southpeak Games’ X-Blade, Japanese craze Yatterman, NBA player, Brook Lopez’s love of Comic’s, Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon’s appearance, and Peter Mayhew’s autograph signing (everyone knows him as Chewbacca, from Star Wars).
But of course, there is always next year.