PAX East wrapped up a few hours ago, and it was a awesome, tiring blast. There were new games to see, clever people to talk to and helpful strangers at every turn.

Over this coming week I’ll be converting video, deciphering notes and generally devoting more time to everything I got my hands on. But until I get home, here are some things I’m looking forward to.

Best Brawler

There were two great brawlers at PAX East this year: Shank and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Even without Shank’s visual style, I think the game’s combat would be very satisfying. But the original The Dishwasher is one of the most technically proficient brawlers I’ve ever played, and Vampire Smile seems even more refined.

In The Dishwasher, each basic enemy had specific ranges where they were most dangerous, and you had a lot of options for neutralizing enemies. That carries over to the new game, only now there are new weapons to experiment with and new bad guys to deal with.

Also, the levels in the demo have a more consistent flow to them. In the original, you’d come to a new screen. It would fill with enemies and you’d stay there until they were all dead. You’d do that for a bunch of screens then you’d come to a boss. Cut scenes and bosses are woven much more naturally into the level design of Vampire Smile, at least in the demo.

The game looks a little better than the first one, the enemies move more naturally and the cut scenes are more than manga panels. And there are little touches that really add to the characters you control, Yuki and the Dishwasher. If you pay attention, you can see a cat following Yuki and a crow following the Dishwasher. Vampire Smile will be on my Xbox when Ska Studios releases the game.

Best Local Multiplayer

Slam Bolt Scrappers takes a lot of ideas and magically fits them together. You and your teammate each control a large flying muscle man in a halo, sombrero or Viking hat. As the match progresses creeps descend from the sky. When you pummel one to death, it drops a building block — a Tetris piece — that you pick up and carry around.

You can rotate the piece and drop it like you would in a game of Tetris, or you can fly down and place it anywhere it fits among your base. But instead of disappearing whenever a line is formed, they transform into turrets any time you make a square out of the same color blocks.

Of course, as you’re trying to construct your base, the other team is flying around, fighting the same creeps in the same airspace. So it’s only natural that the players can attack each other. But fighting the other players is the weakest part of the game. There’s not much to do besides swing your fists, so whoever has the least amount of life gets to choose to stay and die or run away.

It’s pretty easy to get a handle on what you’re supposed to be doing, but actually doing it while another team is getting in your way and building their own tower is harrowing.

I had a ton of fun losing both games I played, so when Fire Hose Games releases it I’ll be trying to convince my friends to play this instead of Wii Sports or Rock Band the next time four of us are gathered.

Best Style

Once again, Shank is going to get passed over for another game. I nearly missed Limbo this year. I went to the Xbox booth in the last hour of the convention to get some time with Hydrophobia, but when I got there it had a pretty big crowd and I didn’t want to wait in line. So I wandered around the booth and saw Limbo. It still had a line, but I didn’t mind waiting for an IGF winner.

Limbo really is gorgeous. I knew that, obviously. It looks like something creators of the new A Boy and His Blob would make if the designers had no souls. But YouTube videos don’t really do it justice.

It’s also a cruel, punishing game that encourages puzzle solving through death. In one of the puzzles, there is small body of water you have to cross. There are two bodies in the water. I jumped on the first one, but I didn’t make it to the third, so I drowned. But I was able to see someone ambling my way. The next time, I jumped to the first body and waited. The ambler walked into the lake and promptly drowned to create the platform I needed to cross the water safely.

Did I mention it’s wonderfully morbid? Bear traps sever your head from your body, gears grind you to pieces and spiders happily impale you. The actions are surprisingly detailed for a game that lacks a color pallet.

Best Game I Know Little About

I was in line for a panel on the Death of Print (which I have some interest in because my day job is at a newspaper), and I found myself in line with an iPhone developer from the UK.

He said his primary influence was X-COM, and while I don’t have a clue how that style of game would work with a touch interface, a mention of X-COM is enough to generate instant interest from me.

His studio is called Stargazy Studios and the game he’s working on is called Huscarls. Huscarls was an Anglo Saxon bodyguard, so the game asks you take on that role, keeping important Anglo-Saxons alive as they go from place to place.

That game will take X-COM’s turn-based tactical gameplay, but focus on close combat. Of course, I haven’t seen any of the game yet, so the concept could fail miserably. But I’m an optimist and I hope the game is awesome.

Best Online Multiplayer

Monday Night Combat is probably going to be written off by some of those who see trailers as a less charming derivative of Team Fortress 2. And it’s true that the games share the qualities of stylized art and team combat, as well as a similar color scheme.

But Monday Night Combat takes some good ideas from DotA: Allstars, Heroes of Newearth and League of Legends. Each class has three skills, which can be upgraded during the match with the money players earn for performing various actions.

And the goal, aside from putting bullets into the other team, is to escort bots to the opposing team’s base, where they take down the shields of the Money Ball. First team to destroy the other’s ball wins. Keeping them alive is pretty important, so the support classes have more to do than in some other games.

I wish it were for PC, because I hate console FPS controls, but I may pick this up anyway when it comes out this summer on XBLA. The developer, Uber Entertainment, doesn’t identify as indie, but they’re privately held and don’t seem to have a publisher, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.

and finally…

Biggest Disappointment

This is probably a bit unfair, but my least favorite game of the con, aside from some of the very experimental games from the MIT’s Gambit Game Lab, came from the same guy who did Dishwasher.

Charlie Murder isn’t finished. James Silva says the official word is that the band is on a break while the attend counseling to deal with conflict within the band.

When I saw the game was playable, I was really excited. It’s the first game I played at PAX, after we had finished setting up and before the doors opened. But the game was a huge letdown.

Characters run slowly and awkwardly across the screen. There are two attack buttons, but one of them is a limited special attack, so there’s really only one button to mash for most of the game. The characters are still people I want to play as, and I’m still interested in the band rivalry between Charlie Murder and (other band), but the gameplay needs to be there or I’m not going to play the game.

I’m still glad I got a chance to play the early build. If the released version is great, I’ll get to say I played the game back when it wasn’t awesome. Ska Studios put Charlie Murder away to make room for a second Dishwasher station by the third day of PAX East, and I think that was a good move.

…

And now it’s time for a long ride home.