This year’s Penny Arcade Expo was different for me, as I wasn’t on the media list. I purchased tickets when they went on sale and was able to spend more time going to the show with my kids rather than working and trying to see everything for coverage. That said, there are some things I will be talking about, but not today. Much of what we saw I will cover in depth on the Parents Press Play podcast.
Since I wasn’t working officially, there was no need to me to dress up. Instead of wearing a video game shirt to a video game convention, I decided to wear a shirt from a different band each day.
Friday
I wore my DEVO shirt from their 2006 tour.
I took August and Ciárán to PAX this day, and was able to get them in to check out Minecraft: Story Mode. This was easily one of the biggest hits of the weekend, at least with my kids. Not only was the booth fantastic, but the game was fun. August and Ciárán got shirts from the booth and they really liked them.
Other games we saw that day included LEGO Dimensions (another big hit) and Starfox Zero, which came with the longest wait time of just over 2 hours.
I wore the Replacements shirt I picked up from their most recent tour.
This was the day I was by myself and had the most appointments. I traveled the convention floor hitting up some old friends and checking out games. Got my hands on the D&D which I welcomed greatly, and enjoyed the time I had with Sword Coast Legends, the upcoming D&D video game.
Other games I got some time with include Bombshell, Meg 9, Orcs Must Die: Unchained, and Stories: The Path Of Destinies. This was a great day for me as I was able to catch up with friends, relax, go out and have a drink and just talk with friends I don’t get to see very often.
Sunday
Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour shirt was covering my torso this day.
Déla came with me this day, and since I wound up having an extra ticket August got to go again. The caveat was he didn’t get to choose what we saw, since he was responsible for the 2 hour wait to play Starfox Zero. I was able to get Déla in to try out the Minecraft: Story Mode demo, and she liked that quite a bit. That’s three out of three kids who play Minecraft who enjoyed the adventure game. After getting her set up to play that I took August over to play something else (because he had played it on Friday), got him set up then went back in with Déla and the whole time everybody in the booth was super nice about the logistics of it all.
We also got our hands on (among other things) Munchkin: Nightmare Before Christmas, LEGO Dimensions, Galak-Z and Superfight, a card game that was so fun we wound up picking it up.
Monday
I wore the Mighty Mighty Bosstones tour shirt from last summer.
Xavier’s turn. He played LEGO Dimensions twice (once was when Ciaran came down for a couple hours after the first day of school) among some other games. The folks at the Telltale booth also let Xavier go through their booth. Not to play Minecraft: Story Mode, but because they recognized me from bringing my kids earlier and I asked nicely if he could just go in and look at it. Booth of show, easily, since it was built up to look like a house made within Minecraft.
We stood in line to play a multiplayer battle of Splatoon, and I even got my hands on the controller and played alongside them. We already have the game, but they wanted to play a multiplayer battle and said it was worth the time spent in line to play.
This year’s Penny Arcade Expo was a hit on a number of levels. Three things made it absolutely fantastic.
First, the Enforcers. Every year an army of volunteers helps the show run smoothly. Line and crowd management, directions to a particular place, questions answered, etc. Each morning I brought the a new kid to the show I went up to the nearest Enforcer at the beginning and pointed them out. I said if anything were to happen, if we somehow got separated, look for one of these people in a blue shirt with ENFORCER on it. They would help. Every single Enforcer I ran into this past weekend was ridiculously helpful and friendly. And thankfully I never once had any trouble with a lost child.
Secondly, the folks at Telltale who bent over backwards on three separate days to get my kids in to the booth, even if it was just to look inside. Friendly? An understatement. And the game looks great too.
Finally, Nintendo. There were a couple of people in particular who were great, and I want to give one example. Friday, when August and Ciárán were in line to play Super Mario Maker they wound up getting cut in front of a couple of times. And it was supposed to be the only day they got to go, so it was their one chance to play it and time was running out because the floor was going to close shortly and we were going to be picked up. (Both August and Ciárán did wind up being able to attend the Penny Arcade Expo a second day due to the generosity of a friend, but that is a separate matter.) I talked with one of the people who was conducting the demo station Ciárán and I were at while August was waiting in line at another. He gave us the buttons you get for playing the demo before we got our hands on the controller just in case time ran out and we didn’t get to play. Then he told another person conducting demos our situation to help insure that Ciárán could play next before having to leave. Both August and Ciárán got to try out Super Mario Maker because the people conducting the demos at the booth were really nice, attentive, and helpful. And now we need the game.
I asked the kids what their favorite game of the 2015 Penny Arcade Expo was and these are the responses:
August: Galak-Z
Ciárán: Super Mario Maker or Minecraft: Story Mode
Dela: Superfight
Xavier: Splatoon