See what Team17 brought to Pax with them this year!
The last stop on Pax Day Two belonged to the folks at Team17. I was able to see two games during my booth tour, Raging Justice and Planet Alpha. In Raging Justice, you play one of three no nonsense cops trying to clean up the streets in this beat-em-up that pays homage to the classic arcade beat-em-ups of the 90’s.
There is a twist through as you can arrest perps when you stun then and if you do that, you can replenish health. The game will give you tasks to do such as arresting two criminals as well as completing the level in certain amount of time. It plays a lot like Streets of Rage or Turtles in Time where there is a lot of action going on and you need to be quick on your feet to take care of all of it. There are all kinds of weapons that you can use to attack the bad guys such as knives or baseball bats or you can settle for your bare knuckles!
Combos will be key for survival and just like in Turtles in Time, you have a special attack that should be used as a last resort because it drains health. The roundhouse kick is a great attack but it comes with a price as I mentioned and should only be used if you have no health remaining or if you know you can win quickly. The controls are pretty standard for the side-scrolling beat-em-up. As I mentioned, you’ll be able to perform combo attacks and those were working pretty well for me. I was jumping into the air and then throwing elbows and knocking enemies all over the place! You can solo or co-op and the way things were going, I think co-op would be the way to go!
There is another mode to play and it’s similar to a battle royale mode where you’re trying to survive. There will be wave upon wave of enemy and you will have to do your best to attack and survive! The only issue I did have about the controls was I found it difficult to use the weapons after you picked them up. I kept hitting the wrong button on the Nintendo Switch but I think that would pass with practice but the control scheme will hopefully be changeable. Raging Justice looked great on “off-TV” mode on the Switch as you could see what everything was supposed to be and I didn’t have any issue reading anything. Also the colors were sharp/crisp and it looked like I was playing it on the TV.
Another graphically pleasing game at Team17 was Planet Alpha, which looked gorgeous. This game was very interesting as you play as an astronaut as he makes his way across the planet. While moving through the planet, you have the ability to make it daytime or nighttime. However, what you’re really doing is rotating the planet so it’s daytime or nighttime. Certain things can only be done during the day and vice versa at night. It’s the challenge to see what needs to be done at what time of day to get through. Another problem you might come across is wildlife attacking at one part of the day and not the other.
Again, you will have to solve the puzzle of what’s going to happen at one time of time and not going to happen during the other. Fog during the day, clear sky at night but the monsters attack you. It will be interesting to see what other environmental hazards/interactions for the final build so you have to compete with jumping on flowers and running through fog! Planet Alpha graphically looks great and it will be a game to keep an eye on in the future!