I, along with six thousand other like minded individuals, was fortunate enough to be able to pop along and have a good old nosey around the London MCM Expo last weekend. The event was sponsored by Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, so it wasn’t too alarming to see a few costumed assassins lurking about in the hall. In fact, I hardly noticed them, because nearly every other person was in costume, too! The games event was being co-held with a comic convention, so the costumed players were out in full colorful force! Watching Mario play Donkey Kong Country was visually entertaining, but I sidestepped all the costumed merriment and headed straight to the games section.

This year’s expo saw the video game companies out in full force, including Koei, Capcom, Nintendo, Namco Bandai, Ubisoft, EA, Warner Bros., PQube/Zen United, Atari, Smashmouth and Rising Star Games. I managed to penetrate the excited masses and chat with most of the company representatives, and since I noted long queues for some of the demos including Tekken 6, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and LEGO Rock Band, I laid my claim to the less busy areas.

The first game I managed to get my grubby paws on was the rather fun Explodemon! It’s a 2.5D action platform game with, as you might expect, an explosive main character. The graphics were rather nifty and the story narrative quite amusing. The game, from UK based Curve Studios, mixes classic platforming action (like MegaMan ) with an old-school gameplay bang, and brings it up to date. For me it had that same happy, cartoony feel as Castlecrashers – pretty and engaging. From the nice informal chat I had with lead artist, Simon Cooper, it’s clear that the game was a labor of love. After a long and troubled road, the game had somehow made it to reality. Very entertaining it was too, and I recommend you keep an eye out for it.

Next up I made my way over to the Koei guys for a slightly more visceral experience. I had a dabble with both Warriors Legends of Troy and Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll. I jumped straight into Trinity, which is an action RPG set in the world of Zill O’ll. You lead three characters of different types, Aleus, Daguza, and Zelena, through a massive story that promises plenty of optional sub quests. The game’s combat system is party-based, with all three characters using swords, magic, and other attacks to defeat the sometimes massive enemies. It reminded me in that respect of Dragon Age. The game environment contributes to the action, so I managed to find a fallen column use it as a weapon (just don’t tell any archaeologists). The game looked and sounded nice but I didnt get any sense of a new type of experience. You can watch a preview trailer at the game’s launch site.

Having run around the jungles of Zill O’ll my next stop was ancient Turkey. Warriors Legends of Troy is built off the Dynasty Warriors engine, and follows the tale of the Illiad, though I’m not sure how closely this game follows the story. Troy does allow you to play on both sides of the battle as the Greeks and the Trojans, and you’ll play as eight different heroes over the course of the two separate storylines. Each side has four major characters — Achilles and Agamemnon have been confirmed for the Greeks and Hector and Paris for the Trojans. I played as Achilles and managed to fell wave after wave of enemy militia. You have one main weapon to employ, but you can if you wish use those of fallen enemies. To defend yourself, you’ll use two kinds of attacks and a basic rolling dodge. As you kill people, a meter fills until you can trigger Fury mode, where time slows down and makes your attacks even more devastating. Graphically, the game looked very sharp, but I got a bit bored by the bucket loads of gore. The game is due out later this month, so head on over to the official website for more info.