[Feature] MCM Comic Con London 2025 – An Unforgettable Experience

During the weekend of October 24-26th, I had the privilege of attending Reedpop’s MCM Comic Con London 2025 at the ExCeL building. With my press pass at hand, I could take in pretty much everything the convention had to offer over the three days it took place. I was only intending to go for the Saturday and the Sunday, but a number of things cropped up for the Friday as well that I really couldn’t miss. One of which was a panel hosted by our good friend Pete Beckett of Rapid Reviews UK and on top of it, I was invited to be on the panel with him!

As for what it was all about, we discussed at length on whether the gaming industry is heading towards another crash due to the exorbitant costs of video game production and the dwindling returns on AAA and AAAA games. I could divulge more about it, but seeing as we had recorded the whole thing, you can watch it for yourself on the Rapid Reviews UK YouTube channel!

It wasn’t the only panel that I had invested interest in on Friday. There was also one for the upcoming James Bond game by IO Interactive: 007 First Light.  IOI’s Senior Licensing Director and Theuns Smit, was on hand to talk about the game and showcase gameplay which, to be fair, we had already seen during the State of Play presentation.

However, it was nice to watch it again on a much bigger screen and get additional commentary from Smit and learn the motives and reasoning behind the game’s play style and direction. This was another panel that we were on hand to record and have uploaded the video to our own YouTube channel, complete with footage from the 007 First Light State of Play showcase to provide a better quality of the gameplay rather than that from a screen.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy cast were also taking part in a press junket on Friday, and both Pete and I were looking forward to sitting in for that. It was great to be able to listen to John Eric Bentley (Barrett), Briana White (Aerith), Britt Baron (Tifa), and Paul Tinto (Cait Sith) as they shared their experiences in a more intimate setting having just previously done a panel for the public at MCM Comic Con London prior to the press junket.

A number of the journalists in attendance had the opportunity to ask the cast questions and they were all too happy to answer them. Pete had to shoot off before the junket had finished in order to prepare for his panel and I had a mad dash once the interview was over so I could make it for Pete’s panel.

Pete wasn’t the only one of my friends who had attended MCM Comic Con London 2025. Another good buddy of mine is Richard Stokes of We Love Game Music. We have met up at a number of conventions over the years and it is always great to bump into him again. Although, we only spent a little time together over the weekend, we did check out a number of things together including the 007 First Light panel, and Marioke, which consisted of a live band playing musical numbers while gamers played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on a large screen.

It sounds like a weird concept, but it was actually a lot of fun. Listening to the iconic music tracks from the game being played by the band really resonated with me and I admired their fluidity to change from arrangement to another when one of the players used a Super Star and how swiftly they would change back to the original music track as soon as it had finished.

On Saturday, I was accompanied by Pete to attend a number of panels including A 25th anniversary panel for Perfect Dark and Timesplitters, and a press junket for Sonic the Hedgehog voice actors Jason Griffith (Sonic/ Shadow) and Pete Capella (Silver). On the way over to where the press junket was being held, I got to meet Matt Ryan who is known for portraying John Constantine in the TV series, as well as in animated films and reprising the role for DC Legends of Tomorrow. He also voiced Edward Kenway in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which just so happens to be one of my all-time favourite Assassin’s Creed games. I called out to him and he acknowledged me and excitedly shook my hand in return. That was really nice of him as he could have easily just walked by and blanked me if he wanted, but I’m glad he didn’t.

Another random thing that happened was during the press junket with Jason and Pete,. The Punisher actor, Jon Bernthal, was casually strolling on the balcony outside as he was talking to someone on the phone. Jon was announced for MCM Comic Con London only a few weeks up to its opening and I imagine it may be due to him filming in London for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

We also had time to check out some of the many, many stalls that had a whole range of merchandise available for all kinds of video games, comics, film franchises, books, and more. It was all too easy to spend a small fortune at the event, but I did manage to resist remortgaging my house. That said, I did pick up a copy of Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64 so that I could get it signed by the developers who were having a meet and greet later that afternoon.

The Perfect Dark/Timesplitters 25th anniversary panel was really informative and enlightening. The developers on the panel were David Doak, Karl Hilton, Steve Ellis, and Graeme Norgate with Chris Dring acting as moderator. The Devs shared plenty of anecdotes about their time working at RARE and their initial development of Perfect Dark before leaving the company to start their own (Free Radical), and working on their new game at the time; Timesplitters. We got to hear stories of how they come up with some of the sound effects for Perfect Dark, and why some of them that were never meant to be added to the game eventually got included. It really was entertaining to listen to and if you want to check it out, the panel has been recorded and uploaded to our channel as well!

I will admit that time flew by quite quickly on the Saturday, bouncing from one panel to another,and even though there was more that I could have done, I was more than happy to hang out with Pete and recap the day with him for our own Game & Chat Podcast.

Rolling on to Sunday. This was the big one for me personally. There were more amazing panels, but there were two that were particularly special for me. They were of course for the Mass Effect Trilogy and The Boys. I’ve been watching The Boys since the series first released on Amazon Prime and it was such a joy to listen to the cast and the crazy stuff they got up to when recording.

The Mass Effect panel was also exceptionally good and was well worth attending as my sister is a huge Mass Effect fan. Her friend Shaun had also come down to MCM Comic Con specifically for this panel and I don’t think either of them was disappointed. My sister had brought her Mass Effect collector’s edition helmet to get it signed by the cast and Mark Meer (The voice of Male Shepard and other characters) asked if he could get a picture of my sister with the helmet.

The rest of the day was spent going round playing some of the games in the EGX section of MCM Comic Con London. I will admit that as cool as some of the games were there, there is no denying that they were heavily overshadowed by everything else at the event. Even though Bandai Namco had a presence and some playable games at their stand, and LEGO had LEGO Batman playable, there weren’t any other big publishers, and the rest of the collection of playable games were mainly from indie developers and university students presenting their finished projects as part of their course.

All in all, I had a very good time at MCM Comic Con London and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is a big fan of film, television, anime, manga, and having a great time. Yeah, it can get a little hectic at times with the amount of people at the convention, but the calibre of guests in attendance for the incredible talks and panels, with autograph and photo opportunities to boot makes it all worth the experience.

If you would like to learn more about my thoughts, as well as our editor Jack’s thoughts, we caught up at MCM Comic Con London to record our Game & Chat Podcast, covering the events of Saturday and Sunday. Feel free to check it out below!

Thank you for reading this feature. If you were in attendance or are thinking about going next year, please let us know in the comments. Well, until next time, Keep On Gaming!