After sampling a delicious spread of Xbox-partnered indie games — including my game of the show — Nintendo’s hands-on event had a lot to live up to. But the showcase was packed with must-play games. It had everything from long-time favorites like Little Kitty, Big City to fresh gameplay experiences with World of Goo 2. Here are the highlights:
Animal Well
The last time I played this, I was unattended and amongst a curious crowd. However, even with the devs in attendance this time (leading to another kind of pressure), I got less direction than you’d think.
They explained the game had no tutorial and super clean UI on purpose. You just pick up and go – or at least, that’s the idea. But maybe they were good luck because I felt like I was zooming through the levels this playthrough. I saw new creatures, including waterfall-bathed capybaras and hazardous hedgehogs. But the star was my chinchilla friend – who I was told has no internal name – so I feel free to name him myself.
Poochy The Chinchilla works much like Poochy from the SNES Yoshi’s Island. No brain, just move. It comes towards me if I’m in its line of sight, and the freakishly tall creature acts as a handy platform and a safe haven from smaller, more harmful rodents. Sadly, every demo at Nintendo’s event has an imposed and strictly enforced fifteen-minute time limit. As the unseen clock in the distance counted down to minutes, I began blindly running through everything as quickly as possible. It’s not a great strategy, but I loved everything I saw.
Little Kitty, Big City
This encounter with the titular feline was as full of heart and mischief as its previous demo, but I got a chance to discover a new friend and area this time around. First, I’m led down a back alley to an imposing-looking gate that’s been left slightly ajar. Its junky exterior belies the treasure inside – a nap space! Just beyond the entrance blooms a tranquil zen garden with white rocks, sunbeams, and the works. Heading toward the beam, I’m prompted to get some Zs, which, after a hectic few days at GDC, I’m happy to take.
Not one to take the same path twice, I tried to leave by jumping over a trash can and stumbled into a chameleon in a top hat. The formally dressed lizard is a magician of sorts whose excellent camouflage shields it from all eyes – except mine apparently. The mystery of my special, invisibility-pricing vision becomes the central topic of discussion before my time is up.
On Your Tail
In a beautiful Mediterranean setting, with the sun glittering off the water, shady events are afoot. I hear that Mama Lucia’s restaurant has been burgled. It’s my first time jumping into the narrative investigation game, so I take a moment to admire the character model. All of these are wonderfully anthropomorphic animals stuffed with personality.
My investigation of the restaurant caper consists of me looking through a kind of magical gadget that lets me see the past to compare it to the present. When I find something out of sync, I get a card. So, add deck-building to the game’s list of genres. Collecting all the crime scene cards leads to the deduction stage. Here, I play cards one by one to try to figure out the sequence of events and solve the mystery.
World of Goo 2
Lighthearted, light strategy fun, World of Goo 2 was one of the biggest surprises for me during The Game Awards pre-show. Wary of the demo’s time limit, I take a seat on the couch next to another press member to take on the challenges as a team.
Our first major problem is that the goo seems to have fallen asleep. Getting the inky little building blocks to wake up requires searching the map for pools of black sludge and planning out how best to direct it toward the unsuspecting dreamers. The next issue we encounter is neither of us is particularly good at limiting our use of building resources. As a result, we came up just inches short of the goal in the last challenge before the auto-timer cut us off.
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