The team behind PAX Aus 2025 have announced the first wave of special guests attending the show, with an array of notable names from across the games industry attending. That includes fan-favourite Baldur’s Gate 3 voice actor Amelia Tyler, and comedian, writer, actor, and host Ify Nwadiwe of Dropout TV, Um, Actually, and Smosh.
Rounding out this list of names is TTRPG content creator Diana Fay, voice actor Luke Dale (Kingdom Come: Deliverance), Call of Cthulhu creative director Mike Mason, and performer John Robertson (The Dark Room). Cosplayers Henchwench, Anaelic, Gem, and Kayla Jean Cosplay have also been locked in for the show.
Each guest will take part in panels, signings, live shows, and/or surprise appearances throughout PAX Aus 2025, with keen fans able to meet and greet them if they wish. For now, exact panels and appearances are not confirmed, but we expect more news closer to PAX Aus 2025, which has been confirmed for 10-12 October 2025 (in the usual spot, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Australia).
Read: Screen NSW announces PAX Aus Market Support Program
As confirmed by organisers, there’s still plenty more announcements to come for PAX Aus 2025, including the blockbuster content drop revealing the lineup of panels, activations, and more. This is typically fairly chunky – and this year, the lineup will be elevated by a fresh focus on tabletop gaming.
The eBay Tabletop Hall at PAX Aus 2025 is expected to be a welcome addition to the annual event, with this representing ‘colossal franchises, fan-favourite experiences and the debut of legendary worlds.’
Games Workshop is bringing Warhammer Fantasy and 4K to this hall. Wizards of the Coast are on hand with Magic: The Gathering (and specifically, bringing the Universes Beyond: Spider-Man set). MetaZoo is also joining the hall, alongside Bandai Namco (One Piece, Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World, Digimon Card Game, Gundam Card Game), VR Distribution, Dungeons and Dragons, Stonemaier Games, Good Games Publishing, Keymaster Games, Chaosium, Ravensburger (Disney Lorcana), and plenty more.
Stay tuned for more about PAX Aus 2025 as the event approaches.
Also on ScreenHub: Donkey Kong Bananza review: a smashing new frontier for DK
Donkey Kong Bananza is a blast, in the literal sense of the world. Where formerly, Donkey Kong was a monkey of finesse, trampling through jungle stages, riding in barrels, with a degree of precision to his every leap, here he is transformed into a one-monkey wrecking ball. Your job in this game is not so much to reach the centre of a magical realm, completing quests and rescuing strange beings, it’s more about smashing as much of the world’s terrain as you can, terraforming landscapes as you crash-land into each new stage.
Or at least, that’s the way I was playing. Donkey Kong Bananza is sandbox in form, encouraging you to play how you’d like. A loose narrative follows your journey – you want bananas, with this quest only lightly disrupted by the arrival of a human child named Pauline – and this guides you along strange pathways, through worlds filled with beings in need of aid. Along the way, you’ll meet ancient animal elders, and harness the power of the musical ‘bananaza’ to gain new powers, which aid traversal.
This is an adventure that feels entirely new for Donkey Kong, with the platformer action and quest-based banana gathering feeling more akin to a 3D Mario platformer. It’s to the franchise’s benefit, as it opens an entirely new frontier for the titular monkey. Even so, it doesn’t drift too far away from the beloved Donkey Kong formula.
