The main conference for PSX 2016 concluded on Saturday evening, and whilst I personally didn’t find a huge amount of announcements to be earth-shattering, there was still a lot to get excited about. So much, in fact, that trying to collect my thoughts amidst so much social media gossip was an impossible task, so on Sunday morning I relocated to a quiet café, pulled out my phone and contemplated the highlights over a small espresso.
PSX 2016 – Capcom’s fighters get a strong showing
After a brief bit of Uncharted, Capcom’s logo appeared on the big screen and revealed one of the worst-kept secrets of the show: more Marvel vs Capcom. Specifically, MvC Infinite. This trailer was purely cinematic and showed Ryu and Mega Man facing off against familiar comic-book heroes in 2v2 fashion – perhaps a hint of the final game’s format? Speaking of badly kept secrets, the official reveal of Akuma for Street Fighter V also made a showing, together with news that the 2017 season pass was available to preorder. I haven’t played as much SFV as I once did so I don’t know if I’ll be on board for a second season, but it might be worth keeping an eye on.
PSX 2016 – Garou returns and PSVR isn’t forgotten
More good news emerged with the announcements that Ultimate MvC3, Mother Russia Bleeds and Garou Mark of the Wolves would be available to download right now – since the news I’ve purchased Garou myself as it’s one of my most-played MAME games, so there might be a review appearing on this site shortly. The PlayStation VR segment then followed – Starblood Arena with its weird choice of Psychobilly Freakout for trailer music, and a short montage devoid of game names or logos accompanying footage. Nevertheless, it at least inspires hope that Sony won’t forget about VR as quickly as they forgot about the Vita.
PSX 2016 – more Wipeout, more LocoRoco, more Knack
The reveal of a Wipeout trailer initially had me wondering if we would get an original new title for PS4 or PSVR. Discovering that it appears to be a “best of” release with content from Wipeout HD, HD Fury and 2048 might have been initially disappointing, but those games were still great, and 2048 could be a lot of fun on a bigger screen. Other revived classics included releases of Crash, Patapon, LocoRoco and Parappa on PS4 – I can’t say I’ll pick them up again straight away, but revisiting LocoRoco is tempting. I was also the victim of my own foolishness when I sarcastically suggested that a Knack sequel would be revealed… and then during the show Knack 2 was revealed. Oh well.
PSX 2016 – Nier gets a date and more surprises emerge
A game I was actually keen to see more of was Nier Automata, and whilst I would have liked a more substantial trailer, we at least got a release date of 7.3.17 – that’s March 7th for US readers – and reassurance that a demo was still coming. The combination of Nier’s storytelling and Platinum gameplay is still an irresistible prospect, and you can be sure of more coverage here when it’s eventually released. However, I was as interested in surprise announcements as I was about familiar names, and Nex Machina was exactly that. A new game from Resogun developer Housemarque and arcade game legend Eugene Jarvis, this has tons of colour and action and was a highlight of the show for me. Another surprise – albeit one about a familiar name – was that Suda51’s Let It Die (formerly Lily Bergamo) was available to download. More than three years have passed since the 2013 reveal, and whilst the combination of roguelike gameplay and Suda-style action is interesting, the free-to-play hooks might be offputting for casual players.
PSX 2016 – lots to enjoy
There were a lot of other games I could spend time talking about here – more Resident Evil footage, a new Ace Combat, the revival of Windjammers – but I just wanted to discuss particular highlights for me. Knowing that Garou is available right now, Nier is still on the way and rumoured titles are now confirmed will give me and other fans a lot to enjoy. As ever, feel free to share your highlights and lowlights in the comments below.