See what the folks at PQube games brought to Pax this year!
At PAX East this year, I was able to schedule hands on time with PQube, a company that covers all kinds of gaming genres. The games that they brought to show off at PAX East this year fit that description perfectly and I was able to sit down and play two of them, Curse of the Sea Rats and Super Bullet Break. Let’s get right to it, as there’s a lot to cover.
The first game I was able to play was Curse of the Sea Rats. A witch has transformed your crew into rodents and you have to hunt her down to get turned back to normal. Getting back to normal is easier said than done, as you’ll have to traverse locations to find items and powers to maneuver through locales. At first glance the game looks and feels a lot like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night in terms of ambiance and that both are Metroidvania type games.
Each crewmember has different abilities and attacks you can use. For example, one rodent might have stronger attacks and another one might move faster. There are boss fights that can be pretty tough as the developer and myself were having trouble with the first boss. You can play solo or with friends via couch co-op and if your teammate dies, you can hit them, similar to Cuphead, and they’ll be back ready to go for round two. You’ll be able to study boss patterns and use their fighting styles to your advantage. As you progress in the game, you’ll come across different abilities to help you travel like the ability to double jump for example. You’ll also be able to level up your skills and by the looks of things, you will need to be at a high level to get through Curse of the Sea Rats.
The other game I was able to play during my hands on time with Super Bullet Break. You take on the role of a gamer playing games on her computer and trying to keep the online gaming scene from a rogue AI takeover. The game has that role-playing game feel to it where you have a deck of “bullets,” the different characters you have at your disposal to fight with.
As you progress in the game, you’ll be able to interact with all kinds of different spaces on the map. One stop might allow you to heal your hit points whereas another stop is a shop where you can buy a new bullet. There will also be boss spaces along the way that will be pretty tough if you don’t have the right bullets in your deck. During the demo, I was told be the developer that you should play a little quickly as there will be times where there are quite a few enemies to deal with. If you play with tempo/quickly, you’ll be able to react to pretty much any situation. I will advise against getting cocky as I did and tried to fight a battle that was too much for me and I was no match for the fight. You’ll have to think smart to get all the way through this challenging game. That being said, the different characters, or “bullets” are pretty cute and getting them all will push you to keep trying. I’m looking forward to seeing more from PQube in the future so keep an eye out on these games and more!
