ML @ New York Comic Con 2011.
New York Comic Con! Baby Boba Fett with a tiny red lightsaber! Unabashed anime love! Sexy Asian Mario with big boobs! Hispanic Captain America! Comic Con, where we nerds come to roost! I wandered the floor on Thursday and Friday drinking in the sights and sounds and playing video games.
I watched a demo of Max Payne 3, which mixes the archetypal washed up alcoholic cop story with John Woo gunfights. Picture Max flying through the air in slow motion, firing dual magnums at faceless henchmen in São Paulo with all of the flair you’d expect from Rockstar Games.
I played a quick demo of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword that included a flying section and a boss fight. Both sections were clearly meant to introduce the game mechanics. Link flies on the back of a giant bird this time and in the demo, he has to chase down another bird. Flying with the Wii remote was smooth and felt a lot like the simple flying sections in Twilight Princess. The boss fight was a basic sword fight complicated by the use of Wii Motion Plus. You have to strike the enemy at specific angles to hit him, which took some practice. The new art style is bright and colorful.
I spent the most time playing the tenth anniversary remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. The game was extremely familiar – it’s basically the original game with updated visuals and some new features from Reach. I just couldn’t resist getting my Halo on against 15 other people (and placing in the top five every time).
I also ran through one level in Super Mario 3D Land, which was a weird hybrid of side-scrolling and 3D Mario. I still can’t get the 3D effect on the 3DS to work for me. It was an enjoyable enough Con for someone whose interest in comics is limited to a few Alan Moore sure shots and Loeb and Sale’s Batman.
And before I sign off, free stuff roll call!
- 1 Max Payne 3 shirt from Rockstar Games
- 1 Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword shirt from Nintendo
- 1 beer from Animal Planet (by far the longest line I saw, except for maybe Mass Effect 3) for Finding Bigfoot
- 1 Xbox 360 lanyard from Microsoft
- 2 Rebel with a Cause buttons from Starz
Slim pickings, but what’s swag compared to uninhibited nerd love?
