The MCM London Expo has grown incredibly in size since its first iteration, and this year was no exception. I attended the Expo last year, and it was the biggest exposition I had ever been to, and this year it was at least three times as big. ‘MCM’ stands for ‘Movies, Comics, Media’, but don’t tell the legions of people who go every year– over half of the people that attend, including sellers, are only interested in anime and manga. Nevertheless, since this year was so huge, there were a number of videogame stalls, some of which I managed to barge my way over to and have a go.

I’ll stick to tradition and start my story with the beginning of the day. During the train ride into central London, since I seemed to be the only one who knew the way to the Excel Centre, I managed to gather a troupe of what I can only describe as weirdos. You’ll never know public shame until you’ve had someone with pink hair, someone with a full ball gown, and about 20 others follow you into a tube train.

At the Excel Centre, we were greeted by what could be the longest queue I’ve ever seen. Here’s an idea of how big the Excel Centre is:

Well, the queue was the length of the hall, and at one point was doubled back on itself.

About an hour later, we were in. Obviusly, I went straight for the games. First thing I played was Prince of Persia. Despite the unskippable cut-scenes, I held on to my sanity long enough to play a little. The animations of the Prince are great, and the stylised graphics are pretty, but the game is sluggish; it feels like the Prince is a dead weight. He can run across walls and jump about like in the other games, but the controls aren’t as natural as you might think.

From these early impressions, I’d say it won’t be able to compete with PoP:Sands of Time in terms of playability. The section I played was pretty repetitive, too. Perhaps it’ll improve later in the game, but for now I’m passing on Prince of Persia.

Next, I headed straight for the Dead Space booth. As you can see, it was set up like a futuristic container, just like something from the game. On the inside, there were two rooms– in the first, there were a couple of trailers, nothing special (besides the severed foot hanging from the ceiling). When they had finished, Issac himself burst through the door to the other room and beckons for you to go through and play the game. As you might be able to tell, this was awesome. I played the game for a bit, but I’ll direct you to Roly’s review for impressions.

Capcom had a Street Fighter IV arcade with about five machines set up, and as you might be able to tell, it was intensely crowded all day. Regrettably, I wasn’t able to play it, and likewise for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (although from the latter I did get a free T-Shirt). I did however play the incredible Monster Racers DS. I held down ‘right’ on the D-pad for 30 seconds and won. Now that’s what I call gaming.

Before I move on, a word of advice: don’t piss off a bunch of Stormtroopers.

After the shenanigans with the games, I moved on to witness a Guinness World Record: the most people dressed as videogame characters in one place:

The usual Marios and Dantes were of course present, but there were some really awesome characters, too:

Finally, I met with two people I have grown to admire: Jim Sterling and our very own John “Wardrox” Kershaw. A good time was had by all. The London Expo may pale in comparison to the likes of PAX and even the now-defunct E for All, but it is almost all we have over here in the UK. Thankfully the London Games Festival seems to be promoting bigger and better events; those of us in the UK can look forward to decent shows in the future. If you’re attending any gaming events in the future, UK or US, why not start a thread in the forums? Hey, you might even get to meet one of us!

Tags: Animé is annoying and stupid, Dead Space, expo, london, MCM Expo, Monster Racers DS, prince-of-persia

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2 Comments » R on October 27, 2008 12:05 pm The queue wasn’t bad for us… espically as we skipped it on the Sunday. The whole convention was great though; momments like putting the STD Clinic sign on the Dead Space box made it. Sam Naylor on October 27, 2008 12:13 pm Haha, that’s awesome! RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.