Going into PAX Prime, I had only a vague idea of what Hothead Games’ Swarm was all about. Cute blue guys, something about hilarious deaths, and the mention of Pikmin. Alright, got it! That’s more than enough to grab my attention.

Hothead’s director of game technology Joel DeYoung and Ignition’s business development director Shane Bettenhausen gave us the rundown of this digital distribution title which draws inspiration from a few familiar concepts but executes them in an entirely different way than you’d expect.

Swarm is one of those semi-rare games that’s been in development on and off for years, which can either be awesome or horrible, depending on how you look at it. Joel made it sound as if this was a “we’ll get to it when we can give it everything we’ve got” title.

I love those types of games.

First off, those adorably dumb blue guys are called Swarmites. They are fearless creatures living on an impossibly dangerous world who just so happen to listen to your every command. How convenient! Unlike, say, Pikmin or Little King’s Story, you aren’t controlling a single unit here. Instead, you have direct control over 50 Swarmites.

Swarm is about getting your men to the next checkpoint while solving puzzles and avoiding traps along the way. As such, your swarm can expand, contract, use items, and even stack up like a living tower. That doesn’t sound terribly interesting — execution really is key with this game — but the way in which the Swarmites react to one another is rather neat.

For instance, when you press the jump button, the first of your creatures begin jumping while the rest have a delayed reaction. This ends up looking like “the wave,” except it’s somehow more organized than what you’d find at a sporting event.

Again, nothing mind-blowing, but it was one of many smaller touches that can end up making all of the difference in the long run.

The overall goal isn’t to keep the entire pack alive, necessarily — it’s to get at least one Swarmite to the next set of “blue balls.” I also heard Hothead refer to them as “blue things,” for what it’s worth. Conrad watched the presentation with me, and throughout it he kept insisting that there was a joke hidden in there somewhere.

We never took the time to find said joke, thankfully.

Anyway, when you bump into these blue thingamajigs, your swarm count shoots back up to 50. In the hands-off demonstration I was shown, it looked like the placement was pretty smart. My impression was that Swarm will be enjoyable — never soul-crushing — and for those who want the extra difficulty, the tools are there to make the experience harder.

When your troops die, you aren’t supposed to feel bad. Death is an inevitable reality, but because the Swarmites look identical and can be replenished, it’s also temporary, so to speak.

Hothead stressed the importance of leaderboards, although nothing concrete was put on display. In our pre-demo chat with Joel, he was quick to mention Geometry Wars 2 as the definitive example of how leaderboards should be tackled. I agree wholeheartedly.

As for where you can find this title, well, there were on-screen prompts for a certain black controller designed by Sony. Even still, we were assured that Swarm is a digital distribution game pending platform(s). Oddly enough, this is more or less the norm for in-development, download-only titles.

Keep an eye out for Swarm in “early 2011.” It looks incredibly promising.

“Ever play a game and within the first 15 minutes you just want to toss the controller down and declare “Game of the Year”? Just happened,” I wrote on Twitter last week.

Now, with an embargo lifted I can reveal I was referring to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Ninja Theory’s upcoming third-person action adventure, published by Namco Bandai for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. While I’m not really ready to declare it the best game released this year (it’s not even out yet; Twitter enables me to spout impulsive nonsense), I’ll say this: the opening sequence is an incredibly polished, highly exhilarating start to what promises to be an epic adventure.

Enslaved’s first chapter, “The Escape,” finds the game’s two key characters, Monkey and Trip, hurrying to escape from a flying slave ship fast-descending upon the city of New York. Once freed from his pod-cage, Monkey chases a mysterious young girl (soon revealed as Trip) through the ship which is crumbling around him. Monkey runs through the burning corridors of the aircraft, scurrying around and climbing broken pieces of the massive jet. Throw in some melee combat against aggressive machines and breathtaking outdoor platforming on the wings of the ship as it hurls itself towards the Big Apple, and you easily have one of gaming’s best opening hooks.

The intro is one of the seven introductory levels to Enslaved which I’m allowed to talk about, and what follows “The Escape” is surprising in its variety and scope. Given that it’s a holiday, this is all you’re going to get from me today — a full video playthrough of the game’s opening sequence. Expect more details and impressions later this week.

One of the highlights of PAX — and one I feel like no one is going to really talk about — was the presence of independent developers. Is that “newsworthy” or “hard-hitting”? Maybe, maybe not. It is, however, something I want to share with everyone who missed the convention.

I’m happy to report that by, oh, the halfway point of day one, the indie booths were pretty full. By day two of PAX, the area — which was scrunched in a corner and included stuff like SpyParty, Monaco, Dishwasher 2, Comic Jumper, and the PAX 10 — was effing packed.

These smaller developers depend on awesome promotional goodies, word-of-mouth success, and not being jerkfaces. It totally worked. Even the less-conveniently-located studios were able to continuously draw in a crowd. Seeing onlookers pitch these games to each other was a sight to behold; really, it was.

As someone who tries to give less-backed games the exposure they deserve, it made me proud to see others do the same. Your fellow gamers did a very good deed this past weekend.

[Image source]

It was super weird going from Kirby’s Epic Yarn to Donkey Kong Country Returns at Nintendo’s PAX Prime booth. While both titles can sort of be viewed as reboots of their respective franchises, the contrast in difficulty and approach is startling.

With Kirby’s Epic Yarn, you are getting simpler controls — think New Super Mario Bros. Wii — and what has to be the least-punishing difficulty in recent memory. With DKC Returns, you’re getting a swift kick to the backside. It was certainly the hardest (but never unfair) game I played at PAX.

That was the first mental notch I scratched out on my list of must-haves.

As a long-time fan of the series, I’m no longer worried about what Retro Studios is doing with Donkey Kong Country Returns. Alongside many of you, I was cautiously optimistic during the game’s unveiling at E3. You see, I play Donkey Kong Country 2 to completion on a near-monthly basis.

Yeah. I’m one of those.

For someone like me, there’s a lot that can go wrong with DKC Returns. Stuff that most players likely won’t even pick up on or care about; that’s perfectly fine. For us veterans, we have an idea — based off of the original three Super Nintendo games — what this series should be.

• It should be tough enough that first-try playthroughs of a level don’t automatically result in a win.
• You ought to feel challenged — both physically and mentally — as a result of the level design and placement of hidden items.
• The music should sell you on the world, and warm your heart.
• Bosses need to be plentiful, diverse, and pose a serious threat.
• Animal buddies. ‘Nuff said.

There’s more, but my brain is struggling after a week of non-stop excitement at the convention. Based on what I played and saw of DKC Returns, I think Retro Studios is on the right track here.

Talking with the Nintendo rep responsible for looking over this demonstration, I got the feeling that they — Nintendo and Retro — realize what made the SNES titles so beloved, and how to adapt those ideas into a Wii game for 2010. We genuinely reminisced about the golden days of platformers, and openly professed our love for the genre. Bless your heart for employing these fine people, Nintendo.

Then there’s the new stuff: being able to jump between the foreground and background, simultaneous two-person co-op play, mechanics like ground slams and Diddy Kong’s jetpack, etc. While all of those bullet points are things I want, it’d be silly to go after those and nothing else. We have the classic games to go back to at any time, after all.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about DKC Returns was the startling lack of kremlings. Perhaps it’s best that not everything remain the same, though. Perhaps not. Also, I can’t help but think Rare has those characters on lockdown in some dust-covered vault.

Whatever — November 21 is going to be a day for Wii owners to remember; I’m positive of this.

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai was a hyper-violent symphony of pain for those who attempted to take it on. At PAX Prime 2010, I had a chance to catch up with creator James Silva and talk about what players can expect to experience in the upcoming sequel, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile.

I’ve always known that Retro City Rampage was going to be funny. After playing it, I now know that it’s going to be fun; really, really fun.

The game’s simple controls and interface make the game incredibly easy to jump into. From there, you’ve got so much stuff to do, and it all happens so fast, with the pefect mixture of action and comedy. Picture a modern GTA game, but sped up by about x1.5, and with rocket launchers, flame throwers, milk bars, and violent pedestrians everywhere. Then populate it with characters from all your favorite games, movies, and TV shows from the 80’s and 90’s. That’s Retro City Rampage.

If you’re like me and you always wanted to like the GTA series, but couldn’t get past the wanna-be gangster movie vibe, then Retro City Rampage is for you. Even if you love GTA exactly the way it is, I think you’ll still love this game. How could you not? This is a new top-down GTA set in videogame-land. It’s such an obviously good idea, I’m surprised that no one has done it sooner.

Retro City Rampage is coming to WiiWare and undisclosed consoles later this year.

In my three years at Destructoid, I’ve had the privileged to do video coverage of quite a few events. I’ve been to three E3’s. I’ve been to Comic-Con. I’ve been to multiple other conventions, tournaments, and gaming-focused gatherings. In all this time, I’ve had never been rendered speechless.

That changed at PAX 10.

It’s hard to put into words exactly what happened here without giving it all away. In fact, even if you watch the video, you may still be left feeling lost and alone. I found that checking out the official Retro/Grade website helped to clear my addled mind, but only somewhat.

Maybe some games, and situations, weren’t meant to make sense.

I hope you haven’t forgotten about Ni no Kuni, the magical Level-5 RPG with animation handled by Studio Ghibli that has Colette all wet. If so, here’s your reminder that the game will hit Japanese shelves this December and that we foolish gaijin still don’t have a release date. Don’t play like that, dudes!

The two commercials above don’t show any gameplay footage, only torturous carrot-dangling. The first one says, “This winter’s ultimate fantasy, from a dream staff,” as pencil animations become awash in an ocean of colors. The second one talks about the game’s pre-order magic book that we are never going to see over here. Uggggggggh!

Remember, these ads are only for the DS version. The PS3 version won’t arrive until some time next year. Can you control your emissions?

Ni no Kuni: The Commercial [Andriasang]

We came. We played. We drank. We hurt.

After a weekend of proper PAX debauchery there’s no better way to wind down the last day than on bean bags, comfortably nerd-piled with people that frequently shower.  In the spirit of Destructoid Discusses, we gathered the surviving members of our galley to reflect on PAX and discuss some of our favorite games and moments of the show just moments before the itis of bacon brownies sent us into a coma.

All jokes aside, our collective was impressed with the breadth of games available on the show floor.  It seemed to us that the indie games scene at the show did very well, as it was constantly as well-trafficked as the AAA titles. It’s truly great to see small developers get so much attention at a show. One extreme example: a scantily clad booth professional confessed to me that they had to delete Super Meat Boy from some of the game systems because people kept getting out of other game demos to boot it up. Viral marketing or hardcore fans? I’ll leave that one to the Matlocks.

Look for continued PAX 10 coverage throughout the week as more videos are coming your way. Also, swollen feet.  What was your game of the show?

Less than two weeks ago, I reviewed G.G Series Ninja Karakuri Den, a two-dollar microgame that is part of a Japanese series of budget downloadables. It was a decent game that could have used a little more zest, which is why I’m pleased to discover that a sequel is on the way.

From the trailer, Ninja Karakuri Den 2 keeps the auto-jumping gameplay of the original and adds a couple new moves, enemies, and a female second character. You are still offing samurai and ninja, but now you must contend with a mechanical Hindu statue boss with laser turrets. Hopefully, there are more surprises beyond what’s been shown.

If the G.G Series performs well enough here, I don’t see why this game won’t eventually get localized.