What I did at PAX South 2017

I just got back from PAX South and I wanted to tell you about my experiences.

PAX South officially started with me waiting for Nintendo to open their booth. As soon as it hit 9 a.m. and it was media hour I kindly told the Nintendo employee and he declined. Then a guy with a Breath of the Wild shirt gave the signal and everyone could play. The booth was packed with Nintendo employees. For every two Switch systems there was one employee.  I walked to the last Breath of the Wild kiosk and started playing.

The reason I picked Zelda was because I was still on the fence about getting it for Wii U. When I saw the trailer at E3 I was kind of bummed about the graphics. To me the game looked like something from 2012 which is fine for a budget title, but this is Zelda and is full price… well $47.99 w/ Amazon Prime or GCU. I also hadn’t looked at anything Breath of the Wild related since then, so everything was a bit of a surprise. The game reminded me more of a Dark Souls like game than Zelda.  Link has a stamina bar for fighting; he gathers supplies, and can get different weapons. I also walked away from the direction I was supposed to go and saw a cool looking skull rock with enemies inside. The previous enemies that were 50 feet from this thing I took down in three seconds, but since there were five for some reason I died almost instantly. At one point the nice Nintendo employee told me I could now take the switch off the dock while a nice cut scene was playing. I did and then I couldn’t hear the game anymore since the headphones were linked to the TV.


The Switch itself feels like a Wii U slim with the joy cons attached. The length is the same, but with the width cut in half. After a few seconds I plugged that sucker back into the dock so I could play on the pro controller with a TV display. The pro controller feels like an Xbox 360 controller that’s lighter and has a good D-Pad. Honestly not sure where the $70 price point on this thing comes from unless that amiibo port and HD rumble really killed production costs. I’m not a huge Dark Souls fan, so I think I’ll wait for Zelda on Wii U to hit around $35 or lower until I pick it up. Backlog is big enough as it is.

After that the Switch booth was packed and getting to play anything else within a decent amount of time looked grim so I went over to the Shovel Knight booth which also had the Switch. I brought my copy of Shovel Knight for them to sign and they were very nice about it. They asked if I downloaded the free DLC, and I looked at them like they were a bit crazy since I work for Cheap Ass Gamer and it was free DLC. He said I’d be surprised at the ratio of people who bought the game versus the amount of people who got it.


They had their newest free DLC: Spectre of Torment out to play. Unlike their last free DLC: Plague of Shadows, this has completely new levels. You play through as this new character that could walk up dirt walls, and slice through flame lanterns. I played with the Joy Cons docked into the grip. It honestly felt like a decent controller set up for that game, so you might want to hold off on pre-ordering the pro controller until you’ve played your switch when it comes out.

That was it for media hour. Since I’m on a Switch roll, I might as well talk about the two other games I played also coming to the Switch and other platforms. I was invited to check out Has Been Heroes, a game published by GameStop owned company GameTrust. I was most interested in this since it’s the cheapest switch game on cartridge at the moment for $19.99 when it comes out and is a GameStop exclusive in cartridge form. The set up they had for the Switch was with the pro controller. The game is like a mix of Darkest Dungeon with Plant vs. Zombies. Enemies go down 3 different lanes and you need to prepare for how to defeat them before they reach you. The game was very difficult to figure out but as soon as I was about done, I got the hang of it. RPGs aren’t exactly the best quick demo materiel. The game comes out at the end of March, which is the perfect time to pick up this game on the switch since you’ll be done with Zelda by then and fits well as a portable experience.

Lastly, I played RiME, a game also coming to the Switch. It’s an environmental puzzle based game where you explore some ruins as a little boy.  It had many interesting puzzles like one where you needed to cycle through day and night to match a statues shadow up perfectly to unlock a door, or one where you needed to traverse a landscape under shade so a flying monster wouldn’t swoop down and grab you. If you like the games Team Ico (Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Last Guardian) has made, you need to get this game.  It’s only $29.99 at select retailers too.


One thing I like to do when at conventions is talk to smaller booths with indie developers showing their game. Their marketing budget isn’t huge, so I try to lend a helping hand by offering a twitter contest promotion near the day the game is released so you guys know it exists and to get them to tell me when their past, present, and future work goes on sale at a discount so I can tell people.  Here are some games I saw at PAX South that I thought were great and that CAGs would love.

A Rogue Like indie game with AAA animation behind it. The game’s cut scenes and game animations are amazing and look like something you’d see on Boomerang or a cartoon from the 70’s. Game has a Toe Jam and Earl tone to it where you go out to discover strange aliens on a foreign planet.

I played Hand of Fate 1 when it came out as a free on Games w/ Gold for Xbox One and liked it quite a bit. The dealer is back and looking for revenge by finding a new hero. Like the first game, you make choices from the cards dealt to you the best way you can while all battles have that Batman Arkham fighting style I love quite a lot. They’ve expanded on the gameplay by adding companions and more. If you liked the first game, you’ll love 2 when it’s released.

The game consists of you automatically dying every 60 seconds and respawning in your house. Objective is to find inventory items that stay with you and to try and figure out what to do before you die yet again. Has an art style like that of PC Games from the early 80’s on one color monitors.

Fun shoot em up space ship game with a slowdown mechanic and hyper blast you shoot when you fill enough energy. If you like Ikaruga and others like it, check it out.


The spiritual successor to the Wonder Boy series of games. It’s a fun platformer with great mechanics, and beautiful art style and animation. Animation is on par with the Shantae Half Genie Hero and other Wayforward titles.


This game has you trying sneak into your neighbor’s home to find out what’s in the basement. The colorful art style is nice, and kids flocked to it. It’s going to be the next Five Nights at Freddy’s.

A Strategy game like XCom that focus’ on team gameplay in a PvP style. The game has a charming art style and feel like Overwatch with a variety of characters to choose from.


When the Expo hall was closed I’d hang out with friends, go to panels, did my panel and more. If you live in Texas, PAX South is amazing. I actually prefer it over PAX West because everything is still under one very big roof with tons of hotels within walking distance… and the Alamo.

thanks for sharing! sounds like it was a good time!

thanks for all the info! Love PAX South, went two years ago, miss it.

Was also able to attend this year.  The Switch has some prospects but there are still a lot of things that bug me on it.  Snipperclips was by far the best thing I played this weekend.  Really looking forward to that.  I would say Zelda but I wasn't about to wait 3 hours to play 20 minutes worth of a game coming out in a month or so. 

I also had a blast playing Hyper Universe and Has Been Heroes.  Hyper Universe is more approachable than other moba types and I believe Nexon confirmed it will be free to play with some cosmetic pay to get options. 

Has Been Heroes has a very steep learning curve but once you got it down it was great to play.  Everyone was in line to play the Switch version which made the XB1 and PS4 versions always available.  For only $20, that game is going to be a steal. 

Hoping 2018 will bring PAX South back to San Antonio as the convention center there has TONS of space.  Also special thanks to thorbahn3 for the panel and prizes.  I managed to walk away with the Fallout Wanderer figure and Yoda chopsticks.