See what Nintendo Brought to Boston!
It has been a good run for Nintendo the last year or so and this year looks like it’s going to be the same if Pax East is going to be any indication. I was able to test drive three games that drew my interest from the get go so lets jump right into what the Big N shipped up to Boston with them!
You can’t go wrong by starting the Penny Arcade Expo with a stop at the Nintendo booth and they were all decked out showing off Yoshi’s Crafted world, a charming arts and crafts project starring everyone’s favorite dinosaur! Yoshi is back in wool form looking for red coins, flowers, and hearts making his way between the foreground and background, a la Kirby Triple Deluxe for the 3DS. You’ll be able to shoot eggs at enemies in the foreground and background as well as maneuver between them. You’ll also be able to ride Poochy, the fun-loving pup, through the levels, and use him to your advantage by having him burrow through certain material and jump over certain things. After you complete a stage, you can go through it again in reverse to find the Poochy pups and if you do it in a certain time-limit, you’ll get another flower to add to your score! Fans of Yoshi’s Island for the Super Nintendo will want to grab this one because it plays similarly to the SNES version and pays homage it to with some aspects like the question clouds, red coins, and of course, Poochy!
Up next is a game I have been waiting a long time to come to Switch and that’s Cuphead. Cuphead was one of those games that you never thought was going to come to Switch and when it was announced, you thought they were kidding. Anyway, You could play as Cuphead, Mugman, or a co-op team in the demo and it feels fantastic on the Switch. I gave the tutorial a quick once over as I had never played it before but after that, it felt like I had been playing it since the initial release. The controls were tight and smooth that people who felt timid could parry like the best of them. The Switch Pro controller and Cuphead felt like a match made in heaven as the layout for attacks feels perfect! I know it has been out for Microsoft but I was very impressed with the Switch version and Cuphead was one of my games of Pax East!
Finally, it was time for some Mortal Kombat 11 on the Switch but I was only able to play it on handheld mode, which isn’t a negative. You could only play against the computer during matches but the game looks great on the Switch. The controls feel tight but I’ll be interested to feel them on the Pro controller, as that’s my controller of choice for the Switch. I wasn’t a fan of Sub-Zero as it looked like he didn’t have his classic Ice attack but that could have been the variation of him I was playing as. Scorpion and Jonny Cage felt the easiest to control, as their move schemes were simple to execute on handheld mode. Kung Lao, my favorite MK character wasn’t available to play as in the demo since the whole roster wasn’t available to choose from. Fans won’t have to wait long for Mortal Kombat 11 and it’s good to see the franchise back on Nintendo consoles.
Pax East 2019 was a good showing for Nintendo as they brought some heavy hitters with them as well as having Smash Bros and Splatoon 2 events going on over the course of the convention! E3 should be even better so it’s shaping up to be a really good time to be a Nintendo fan!