Playing with my son at the UK’s biggest games expo was unforgettable for both of us – Reader’s Feature

A pop culture expo mash-up (Aidan Synnott)

A reader describes the recent team-up between MCM Comic Con and EGX, and what it meant to visit the expo with his son.

Last Friday I attended the UK’s biggest public video game event and pop culture show: MCM x EGX at ExCel London. EGX, the video game side of the show, had combined with MCM Comic Con for the first time, for a three-day long exhibition. I have visited both shows separately in years gone by and readers with a particularly vivid memory may remember my coverage last year when I took my son to his first ever convention. Well, he was back with me again, along with tens of thousands of other attendees.

None of the big three players were in attendance (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) but it was still a decent showing from other developers and publishers in the industry. A Tekken 8 competitive tournament with a prize pool of over £5,000 was being hosted in the EGX Arena, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 had a popular stand, and the English voice actors from the recently released Metaphor: ReFantazio had a panel, to name but a few other events that were happening.

The first video game we actually sat down to play was Astro Bot, in the family gaming zone where the queues were more forgiving. We both love Astro’s Playroom but have not got around to picking this up yet, although it might be arriving under a certain festive tree shortly… My son played the Go-Go Archipelago stage all the way up to defeating the boss, Captain Pincher, and loved every second.

I know it’s not video game-related but we both love card games, so our next stop was the Ravensburg stand to play Disney Lorcana. We each received a shiny Kristoff (from Frozen) promotional card for playing through a round with a helpful demonstrator.

There were a multitude of vendors selling pretty much everything from gaming energy drinks to Sylvanian Families. We purchased some Pokémon cards from a stylish Pokémon vending machine, along with a Scorbunny plush, and I picked up an X-Men comic for myself.

It seems Astro Bot is already a family favourite (Tom Pozzetti)

Lego had a big presence, promoting a number of things. We played Lego Fornite in a free build mode with three other convention players. The adjacent stand had Lego Horizon Adventures, which is due to be released shortly. There were Lego displays of the latest sets, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario (which we collect), and Lego Minecraft. They also had a dedicated area where you could build and take away a Yoshi and Supply llama from Fornite figures.

We spent a considerable time at the Retro Rhythm zone in the free play area; we sat down and played Donkey Konga – with the bongos of course – on the GameCube. Alongside that were both DJ Hero game, with the decks, and Guitar Hero. We finished this area off by playing Taiko: Drum Master on the PlayStation 2, bashing away along with the drumsticks to Toxic by Britney Spears. We then moved on to the system link area and joined in on a game of Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox, along with other convention attendees.

Donkey Konga is still a classic (Tom Pozzetti)

After wandering around two huge exhibition halls we came across the gamerbus – which was a hit last year but the systems and consoles were overheating, so we couldn’t go inside. Another winner from last year’s show was the miniature figures painting but it was fully booked for the day, which was a shame but we had left it pretty late.

We then ended up at the Niantic stand, who were there in collaboration with Safe in Our World, a gaming industry mental health charity. Thought it would be worthwhile having a chat with them, as we play both Pokémon Go and Pikmin Bloom, which are developed by Niantic. They were interested in people’s personal stories and friendships they have made from playing these games. After a great conversation they gave my son some Pokémon Go goodies, which he was over the moon about.

The other person is probably off playing with the real Lego (Tom Pozzetti)

Finally, we played a game that was just for me, which was Knights In Tight Spaces, made by Ground Shatter. It’s akin to the amazing Into The Breach, with its turn-based tactics with small scale skirmishes on isometric battlefields but adds deck building elements. Pretty much my dream game from all those combined genres.

I have played their previous title, Fights in Tight Spaces, but Knights takes it to the next level. I only sampled the tutorial level as the Brawler class, as opposed to the Fighter. I fought solo in the demo but there are two other party members, with typical role-playing jobs – cleric or monk – that can join the fight, opening up the combat possibilities even more. The Brawler can manipulate enemy placement by moving enemies around and lining them up in the crosshairs for another attack.

The game doesn’t have an official release date yet but there is another demo version available on Steam.

Combining the shows I think was a fantastic idea, with EGX benefiting the most from the extra footfall. Hopefully, we can see more companies sit up and take notice and return back to the show. The next batch of shows have been announced already: MCM Birmingham will return from Friday, November 29 to Sunday, December 1 at the NEC and MCM London returns May 23 to 25, back at ExCel London.

By reader Tom Pozzetti (eyetunes – PSN ID)

Pokémon trading cards are definitely video game adjacent (Tom Pozzetti)

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