I started off my 3rd and final day of this year’s PAX in the Family Gaming Room. It was a good start. The Summit building is the building to start in if you don’t want things to feel rushed. I know I was fine with that to start out of the day. I picked a good time to go in this room as it was just me and the people running it, which means good time for an interview.
I was expecting to sit down in front of one of the TVs again that I saw in the distance and play a few of the games on the console. To my surprise, I looked to my left when I walked in and saw a new company called Couch Games. I decided to start there. These are all instantly playable on their website and can be played on your tablet, or PC. Some games are solo only and some are for two players. They can be played on the same screen for online with two people. The game I tried was called Cappy and Tappy. Think Mario x Tetris. As shown in the image, one player must get across the stage to the other side. The other player uses the grappling hook to click and drag the tiles on the stage to help the first player get across. I had a good time as I got to play this with the developer as I asked her some questions during and after we were done. “We’ve been around for five years. In 2024, we made a game and sent it directly to Steam. We learned a lot,” said Sylvia Aguinaga, Co-founder and Game Designer.
All of these games are free to play with no account required. There are no intense games on here. They are all casual, simple games that anyone would enjoy. “The internet needs more spaces that are free. We love co-op. I want to build something I can play with friends, something that kids and couples can play together. I want to promote Indie, so I reach out to the devs about a web experience.”
Sylvia Aguinaga also added that they might create a TV app. I could see that being successfull with being able to use your remote and click on the app to instantly play. In response to whether or not users will eventually have to pay, that was up in the air. There is no timeline anytime soon for that to happen but this what she said in response: “If we can get 50,000 subscribers, we’ll consider a paid subscription. We’ll look at 3-5 dollars a month. “
I wish this company the best and will look forward to see what will be added to the list of games. You can check out the games on their website at http://www.couchgames.com. Keep in mind that if you want to save your progress, you will need to make an account.
I spent another half hour in here before I moved on. I went over to a Switch console and tried a game called Minishoot Adventures. This one I will be getting for my Switch 2. It’s a lot like the arcade classic, Asteroids, but not so stationary as you must move along the stage to the end.
After a good hour, I made my way to the main convention building into the main expo hall and lined up for Godzilla Remastered. It was a good game and I’m not much for versus fighting games. If you’ve played that retro game, King of the Monsters, it will give you that feel, except it is more of a fight than a wrestling match. It was fun to play as you can pick up buildings and throw them at your opponent and use your ability.
Next I checked out Crab Rapsody. This is a run’n gun game where you play as a crab taking out crab enemies. It’s a 3rd person shooter and besides guns, you get melee weapons such as a hammer and also a chainsaw. It’s quite action-packed and the stages will overwhelm you with enemies. It will be out on Steam next year.
New this year that I at least had never seen before at PAX was a high school game making club. The booth was ran by all students as they showed their side scrolling game they made. The joystick and the buttons were all put together by these students. The whole system had some technical errors with the button response, but that was expected. It was cool to see such a club being able to come to a convention such as this.
It was time to head back to the GameSir booth for one final attempt at winning a controller. On my final draw, I did it! I drew in the back left corner and won it like that. It was a good time as drew applause. This has been a good 3rd party controller company. Check them out on their website and social media. Many of the controllers used during the convention were GameSir controllers.
I wanted to spend a little more time checking things out at the Summit Building as far as what closes down at 6pm there. I walked into a museum with displays and facts for Full Motion Video Games. On my way out, I spent sometime at the last display there for an upcoming unique FMV game called Fogtown.
This upcoming title is going to be the first ever TV show and game where players click on choices for lines to say. I spent a few minutes chatting with one of the producers. “We basically turned a small idea into a big idea. We wanted to see what we could make into three hours.”
Seeing part of how they make the game with one of the characters on display was impressive. As you can probably tell, this is going to be a mystery show that is going to have some comedy in it. With some of the lines you can choose to say, this new idea could be something. We’ll have to wait and see. You can check out the game on their website, YouTube, and Instagram.
I still had some time left before the main convention closed down for the night. Before my last game I played in there, I spent some time just wondering around and checking out the stores. This year, I noticed there were more stores in the expo hall then in the past. New this year was a whole section of artwork for sale. I browsed along as there were posters and books to name a few.
Maximum Thunderness
My last stop for day 3 in the main expo hall was Maximum Thunderness. It sure was a thriller ride I will say. With the heavy instrumental music and the combat, it will wake you up. The game felt like Ninja Turtles and X-Men. The special abilities for your character felt like the mutant powers in the X-Men arcade game. At the end of each stage, you get to look at special abilities to get and upgrades. The game is not a side scroller as the stages move themselves. You can still hover left and right across the screen. The heavier armored enemies do not react when you hit them. They just eventually fall down after you finally take them out. I think Maximum Thunderness has potential with the chance for it to win an award at the VGA Awards next year. It is going to be 4-player co-op on the same screen. It will start out on Steam, but it will make its way into the consoles with cross-platform gameplay! I will surely look forward to that.
Well that wraps up PAX West 2026. Despite Nintendo joining Microsoft and Sony for absence, it was still another successful convention. I had a lot of fun learning about the games as I conducted my interviews. I hope you enjoyed reading all this because of that. But there is still more! Be sure to come back for my next article, as I go over the MIX station that was located in the west side of Seattle. I’ll have more interviews including one on Gravhound, which was shown at this year’s GamesCom Opening Night Live. Please subscribe and then you can instantly get notified in your email when the next article has been posted. Drop a comment below too. Take care.
Leave a Reply