A reader reports back from last week’s London Comic Con, where he and his son had a fun time – despite the decline of EGX and the UK video games expo scene.

Last Sunday I attended MCM London Comic Con, along with my son, at Excel London. Readers may recall that last October’s show was paired with EGX (formerly known as Eurogamer Expo), and this year was much the same. However, despite being promoted as a combined event, the EGX side of things felt somewhat subdued, with hardly any major new releases on the floor.

The day started on a good note, as my son picked up an Astro Bot Funko Pop! from the Forbidden Planet stand. About half of the vendors seemed to be selling Funko products, with the remaining half focusing on Pokémon cards. Our next stop was the miniature figure painting area – something we missed out on last time due to its popularity, so we made sure to get there early this year.

Perhaps the most popular stand of the day belonged to Lego, who were showing off a wide range of gaming-themed sets including Minecraft, Super Mario, Animal Crossing, Fortnite, and Sonic. They also had a pop-up shop selling all of the above (and more). One nice touch was the ‘build and take away’ section, where you could create your own miniature Lego video game controller – people do love a freebie.

However, the main attraction was the chance to try out Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight, playable for the first time in the UK. The queue for that one was understandably long, so we decided to try our luck elsewhere.

Our next stop was the Family Gaming Area – always a favourite of ours – where you can generally hop straight onto a console without much of a wait. We jumped into a quick match of Gang Beasts on the Nintendo Switch, a ragdoll grappler where the goal is to push your opponent off various precarious platforms. Although we just played one-on-one, it can support up to eight players, which I imagine is the best way to enjoy the chaos.

Lego at least has some connection to gaming (Tom Pozzetti)

There wasn’t too much other support from major developers or publishers this year. The main gaming booths were from Bandai Namco and Konami. We didn’t sample anything from Bandai Namco. They were promoting Little Nightmares 3 and Digimon Story: Time Stranger, but not really my bag. At the Konami stand, we tried Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links on iPad. However, the long card text was almost unreadable, so we didn’t manage to finish the tutorial match.

Instead, we moved on to complete some colouring sheets nearby and were rewarded with a Yu-Gi-Oh! card booster pack for our efforts. Around us, others were playing the physical card game, and there were plenty of other trading card games represented, including Magic: The Gathering, Disney Lorcana, Star Wars Unlimited, and even a small Gwent (from The Witcher 3) area.

There were some games there, just not many game publishers (Credits: Aidan Synnott – ASV Photogrpahy)

We realised we hadn’t played many actual games yet, but that soon changed once we climbed aboard the Cyberpower Gaming Bus – something we’d been keen to try ever since missing it last year. It’s a double-decker bus packed with high-end gaming PCs, all brightly lit and running top-tier titles. We played Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, scaling around a shipbreaker yard, which turned out to be one of the day’s highlights. I think it helped that I was in a Star Wars mood after watching Andor that week!

We rounded off the day in the retro gaming area with Golden Axe on the Sega Mega Drive – great two-player co-op fun and a fond throwback to my own youth – followed by Overcat, a 1v1 twin-stick fighting game where you battle as cats in a small arena. The action was frantic, though some rounds ended a little too quickly for our liking, just as the fun was really getting going. It’s available on the wishlist now on Steam and is set for release next year.

While it wasn’t quite the showcase of the latest and greatest games we’ve seen in previous years, and in some ways felt like a slight step back compared to last year’s event, we still managed to have an amazing day overall.

Next up, MCM heads to Birmingham’s NEC from 28–30 November, before returning back to Excel London from May 22 to 24, 2026.

By reader Tom Pozzetti (eyetunes – PSN ID)

Golden Axe is not exactly a hot new release (Tom Pozzetti)

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