One of the best parts of PAX West any year isn’t necessarily seeing the big titles that dominate the headlines, but rather checking in on the smaller projects that we think might catch our audience’s eye.
Indie games are the bedrock from which so many games take inspiration, with heavy hitters like Stardew Valley and even games like Vampire Survivors helping to define whole genres. I personally like checking out the smaller booths at the show, and since we all need a break from MMOs every now and again, I definitely wanted to highlight some of my favorites from this year's show.
Here are some of the highlights from PAX West and some indie titles you should keep an eye on in the coming months.
Jay And Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch
I’ll admit - I’m not a huge Clerks or Jay and Silent Bob fan, but I’m not sure there was another booth at the show where I saw such unbridled joy out of the people rushing to play the demo. I vividly remember talking to developer Justin Woodward about his game and seeing two grown men rush to the unoccupied demo, yelling “Dude! Jay and Silent Bob!”
There is clearly an audience here, and the developers at Interabang Entertainment are onto something with their 90s-era-inspired NES brawler. The artwork is incredible to look at, with the same quality that reminds me of the old Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair games I loved as a kid. The character models are so well done, and the animation really helps them come alive on screen.
While you technically control both Jay and Silent Bob, you are only fighting with one or the other at any given time. As a result, the other can’t be damaged - which is nice since if one gets knocked down from low health, you can revive the other, either with a giant blow of smoke from a bong or a well-placed fart gas cloud.
Chronic Blunt Punch's combat exudes style. Each controls differently, with Jay pulling out a bong to smash to the ground as an AOE finisher, pulling off dragon punches that would have Ryu and Ken taking notes and is a bit quicker to control. Silent Bob, on the other hand, is more of a brawler, with his meaty punches feeling like they could shatter any hipster looking for their next IPA.
The humor from the popular franchise is also on full display, and the enemies the duo must face are oftentimes over-the-top takes on real life, such as the kids who are so addicted to their phones they can’t even be bothered to look up while fighting you, dapper hipsters whose incredibly well-kept beards can do the fighting on their own, to rollerblading street hockey players (which, I’ll admit, I was back in the early 90s).
You can also call on allies in special moves, such as Dante from Clerks, to come and provide an assist. Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch also feels refreshing in a way in that it doesn’t shy away from the crass toilet humor and biting social critique that the franchise has been known for. While fighting in an electronics store against phone-addled teenagers, signs are posted everywhere for the latest devices, such as Samhung accessories, a poster for Ass Effect, and a stand to demo the next best console, the 3690X.
I can also confirm that even in its development stages, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch handles well on hand-held PCs. With the demo being so popular, I played my hands-on with Justin’s own ASUS ROG Ally, and the side scrolling beat-em up popped on the bright screen.
It’s definitely one to look forward to if you’re fueled by nostalgia for older-style beat-em ups like I am. Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch will launch sometime soon on PC and consoles.
ChainStaff
Developed by Mommy’s Best Games, ChainStaff is definitely one of the games I’m keeping my eye on as it progresses. The artwork is hand drawn and reminds me a bit of older 80s and 90s-style Dungeons & Dragons player guides, while also somewhat reminding me of the original Golden Axe.
Another game reminiscent of older NES-style gameplay, ChainStaff is a platformer with something of a twist. The eponymous ChainStaff opens up so many gameplay opportunities, from swinging between platforms, chucking to spear something at a distance, or to simply use as a melee weapon when needing to get up close and personal.
The ChainStaff is so versatile - it can also be used as a shield to block oncoming attacks, or, in the case of the giant serpent boss at the end of the demo, it can be used as a jack to keep the mouth from slamming shut on you as you attempt to batter the enemy’s weakpoints.
It also feels a bit like Contra, in that the ChainStaff can also act like a gun, taking out enemies as you run and shoot. I felt a bit like a kid again, failing over and over again in some of the platforming spots as I was never really good at these games, but having full all the while.
And interesting twist is that you’re helping special forces along the way, so you’ll meet guards at certain intervals that will cheer you on, or you might stumble into a moment where you need to save a guard from certain doom. This aspect is interesting because you can save the soldiers, or even kill them yourselves as a pure evil playthrough, which will turn those otherwise helpful soldiers into enemies themselves. It’s an interesting addition, and whichever way you decide to play will also affect your upgrade path when it comes time to level up.
ChainStaff is due out on PC next year.
OMUT
It’s hard to quite express what I thought of OMUT when I finished playing the side-scrolling horror shooter published by Megabit. Developed by Madame Cyclone, the side-scrolling (there’s a theme here) horror shooter is striking to look at, and even more to play.
It’s fast, frenetic bullet hell is hard for someone with little to no coordination like myself to play, and I honestly though I would end up horrifically frustrated by my lack of skill. Thankfully, senior marketing manager Aimee Michie-Sanjari assured me that I was doing no worse than literally everyone else, and the only person to have been able to beat the bosses (till that point) was one of the PR reps working the game.
OMUT’s art style evokes horror movies, and its dark humor tries to add some levity to a world that looks as though any wrong turn will end up facing with our hero facing some abject terror at any moment.
The first boss I encountered saw me die countless times (like, seriously, I lost count). Not only do I need to shoot the floating blob that is the boss with my gun, I have to also think about dodging his attacks, all while making sure he doesn’t touch the ground (otherwise I die). It’s the most high-stakes balloon Keepy Uppy I’ve ever played.
After battering my head against this boss, Aimee mentions that we can try other bosses, likely sensing that I will never have the skill to defeat this boss. The next boss saw my character needing to dodge through his attacks to counterattack with my gun. Thankfully, this boss can touch the ground, so I needn’t worry about that, but one imperfect button press again sees me die over and over again.
OMUT is unforgiving, and you need to utilize all your skills to bring about a perfect run. From keeping the boss from touching the ground, perfectly timing a parry (yes, you can do that with some bosses), to the perfectly timed dodge, it’s a game that will frustrate many and enrapture others. I’m somewhere in the middle - awed by the skill it’ll take to pull off that perfect playthrough, though not completely put off by the prospect of trying again and again to stop playing.
The Knightling
And now, onto something completely different.
The Knightling is an upcoming open-world RPG that puts you in the role of, well, the Knightling, a child who the rest of the town thinks is cosplaying a Knight, but in truth, is the only real hero they have.
The Knightling’s eponymous main character is charming and endearing, and I found myself wanting to help the little guy keep the town my demo took place in safe after the brave Sir Lionstone mysteriously goes missing. Armed with an overly large shield, the Knightling can use it to block incoming attacks, deal out his own damage, and literally sled across the world. That was the most fun.
What made The Knighling stand out for me was it reminded me of myself when I was all but eight or nine, trying to act like all my heroes and save my family from danger. I wanted to pull on a shield and wield a sword (I had a really good sword stick growing up that somehow I kept from getting broken until I was a teenager, actually), and those core memories of wandering the Air Force base I grew up on unlocked while I roamed the realm and completed quests for the townpeople.
One quest had me try to figure out why a giant bison-esque creature wouldn’t go into the safety of his newly built barn, only to see me need to dispatch some dastardly enemies who were scaring the poor creature. Another had me hunt down the lair of those creatures using paint dropped on one to create a trail to follow, all to keep the village safe while Sir Lionstone was away.
It’s an open-world RPG, so it might struggle to stand out among the crowd, but it’s one I’ll be keeping my eye on as we move towards launch on all platforms in the near future.
Demon Spore
Another Null Games published indie title (like ChainStaff before it), Demon Spore is a roguelike set in a scientific facility where literally everything has gone wrong. You and a few friends need to scrounge together supplies and try to escape the facility before the Demon Spore overwhelms you, trapping you forever.
It’s a simple premise, and a blast to play - especially if you have those other friends with you. Playing with the developers and our trusty PR rep, I got to experience each frenetic moment alongside them as the facility was continually overrun by creatures.
Armed with anything from melee weapons to fire extinguishers, the roguelite takes on a twin-stick shooter feel as we battled our way up each floor, trying desperately to escape the encroaching Demon Spore. Inbetween levels you can see your progress, as well as the Spore’s, to help evade it as long as possible.
In our play session, I found myself really clinging to the fire extinguisher, its misty foam able to freeze demons for my partners to swoop in and destroy with their guns. Eventually we all were equipped with guns, but with limited ammo, it was back to the fire extinguisher for me in no time.
I’m terrible at twin-stick shooters, and Demon Spore was no different. You can pick up allies if they are defeated by the swarm, but eventually it can get to be insurmountable - especially if you’re on a level where the Spore is trying to break through. Our party died with a whimper, all because I could not keep myself up, despite my best efforts. Yet I’m eager to check it out again with friends.
Unfortunately, there’s no online co-op, as since nearly everything in a level is interactable and moveable at the slightest touch, making sure that is all handled smoothly in an online environment is tricky. But with some friends at a party, game night, or just alone in the dark of your bedroom, Demon Spore is a good time.
Lou’s Lagoon
Another game published by Megabit, Lou’s Lagoon is an upcoming cozy game by the developers at Tiny Roar. You find yourself traveling the Limbo Archipelago searching for your Uncle Lou. You’ve been handed his delivery service in his absence, and you’re tasked with helping it grow as you explore the islands that make up the archipelago.
Lou’s Lagoon certainly has a cozy vibe to it, though that could be exacerbated because I had literally just played OMUT when I tried this one out. Anything after OMUT is a cozy vibe.
I was drawn in by the art style, it’s cartoonish visuals feeling like I was watching a Saturday morning cartoon play out on screen. Equipped with my Swirler 2000, I was able to start scavenging the beach my seaplane landed on for materials to rebuild Lou’s Delivery Service’s building, my seaplane, and much more.
The Swirler makes harvesting items pretty easy - you literally just point and click and the Swirler 2000 takes care of the rest. The Swirler can break down items into scrap, timber, even fruit and other items from the nearby trees. There’s even honey you can harvest from an adorable looking Bee-ver (yes, a Bee-colored Beaver).
There really isn’t any combat here - you won’t be tasked with killing animals or fighting anything. As game designer Kemal Amet told me during the demo, the studio has pledged to design a game where you do no harm to the animals within it.
Moving about the island is pretty effortless as well, since the traversal mechanics are pretty friendly: no fall damage and an unlimited sprint. Everything about Lou’s Lagoon feels designed to just let you sit back, relax, and enjoy.
My favorite part had to be flying the seaplane. It honestly felt like a weird mix between GTA 5’s flight mechanics and Pilotwings64, if that makes any sense? It’s hard to describe, but as I zoomed around the Archipelago, I was having a blast. There are race challenges you can do, which see you fly through a series of hoops while dodging the landscape, and these will vary by difficulty.
You can’t do any loop-de-loops or an Arwing-style U-Turn, but Tiny Roar’s co-founder Robert Koch tells me they are looking into adding those types of manuevers ahead of launch. Lou’s Lagoon is slated for a PC launch sometime next year.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind
If I was looking forward to any game heading into PAX West 2024 this year, it was this one. As a ‘90s kid who was the target age when Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers first graced my TV screen, this is a franchise I grew up adoring. The original run was basically my childhood, with me pretending I was the Green (and then eventually, the White) Ranger growing up, and we used to fight my mother in the yard on hot summer days as she sprayed us with a hose and pretended to be Rita Repulsa.
If there was ever a 90s franchise that needed an NES-style beat-em-up, it’s MMPR. Thankfully, industry vet Dan Amrich and the team at Digital Eclipse are here to right that wrong.
A 5-player game (since there are five Rangers to choose from - at least initially), the story is set in an alternate timeline from the show where Robo Rita, introduced with last year’s Netflix’s Once & Always special, has gone back in time and has helped that Rita overcome all the mistakes that she would have made. As a result, the Rangers have to not only fight off the armies of Rita Repulsa, a tall task already, but do so with Robo Rita helping to guide everything having learned from her mistakes.
In my demo, I teamed up with three other players to sweep the streets of Angel Grove clean of the Putty Patrol, and it actually started to make me wonder how this franchise could have been passed up for a side-scrolling beat-em-up all those years ago. I got flashes of sitting in the arcades at the Excalibur and the Luxor growing up here in Vegas, putting quarters into an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time machine, wondering if I would ever have played that game if a Power Rangers version had existed and was this good.
The combos are pretty simple - you punch, kick, and throw your way through each level. Each Ranger has the same moveset, though their animations follow how the characters themselves would have moved in the show. Trini takes on more of a stylized kung fu, while Zach has a spring in his step thanks to his hip-hop kido moves. Seeing each Ranger bust out their melee weapons to finish each combo is a nice touch, and I’m excited to see how handling the individual Zords will feel when I can finally play the full experience.
Amrich told me after my gameplay session that this will be the first time that players are able to take to the cockpit of the Megazord and fight Rita’s monsters in a first-person perspective, which sounds incredibly exciting as someone who grew up playing with Zords. Tommy Oliver will also make an appearance as the Green Ranger, and will be unlockable after beating the game, which is a nice touch for those of us who were giant Jason David Frank fans.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind will be releasing sometime before the end of the year, but Digital Eclipse doesn’t have a date announced just yet. Either way, I’ll be looking forward to this one as even after just twenty minutes with the game, I can tell it’s the Power Rangers game I’ve always wanted.
