October MCM Expo 2013: Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Land, Legend of Zelda and Dragonball Z

So I go to this little event semi-annually. This little get together of thousands of people all in and around a gigantic building in the middle of London. Why do I go there? That's because I love pretty much everything about it (except for the odd issue or two). Anime, Video Games, Food, Cosplay, you name it. It's great to see all of these people in impressive outfits all mingling amongst one another.

This time round though, I sort of messed things up a bit. I decided I would dress up as a character from Shingeki no Kyojin (or Attack on Titan for those that don't know its Japanese title) and I had discovered that not only did my boots cut my heels to ribbons, but my harness was too short and my jacket was too small. I really know how to plan my costumes for events like this don't I? Oh well, onto the gaming side of the Expo.

Whilst I was there, I managed to get my hands on a few controllers and tested out some games. I somewhat ignored Batman Arkham Origins, Lego Marvel heroes and Saints Row IV. My mind was set on trying four other games I had seen on my way in.

Mario Kart 8 was there. This came as a surprise to me so me and an eager friend wanted to try it out. Honestly, the game is everything you would ever expect from Mario Kart. Drifting, Items and your favourite characters are all present as you would expect but they also kept the air gliders in the game as well. On top of that, anti=gravity zones allow you to drive up walls. That really grabbed my attention. I can overtake people by driving up the side of a building? That sounds awesome and it really was.

The new Super Mario Land though was exactly what I had expected. Its a platformer with new and old powerups such as the Cat suit that lets you run up walls. We ended up riding some giant lizard that looked slightly like Yoshi down a river whilst trying to co-operatively steer the thing. Even now I'm unsure how those controls even worked as pushing right didn't always make it go right as the other players would push left like you were supposed to. If the guy I played with is reading this, sorry about hurling us off of waterfalls.

The new Legend of Zelda title that is just around the corner is 'Link between worlds'. It goes back to the old days of birds eye view cameras, swords that shoot lazer beams and your usual dungeon runs with item based puzzles. The addition of 'turning into a moving painting' really adds some depth to the games puzzles as my friend seemed to run in circles unaware that he could slip out of the window in painting form. The idea is certainly new and keeping the old traditions of Zelda classics makes this game worth picking up.

Finally, I walked into the Dragonball Z: Battle of Z booth. I love the DBZ series but all of the games have been lacking. They don;t feel like a proper Battle Anime game to me so I was very sceptical about it before I had even picked up the controller. What I was greeted with looked promising until I saw the control scheme. Nothing made any sense without a proper tutorial and the characters I was given to fight with didn't seem at all fair. 4 Super saiyans against the Saiyan Saga Vegeta? That's like driving a small car into a train. Sure Vegeta turned into a Giant monkey but all that did was swap the car out for an ice cream truck.

I'm looking forward to most of these games though. Maybe DBZ will be better if I pick it up and learn from the start. Mario Kart and Super Mario Land have always been fun and Zelda is a beloved classic reborn onto the 3DS. What's not to like about any of this?