Tokyo Game Show 2008
Robots, games, booth babes and people who never venture from their rooms!
The Tokyo Game Show 2008 was held at Makuhari Messe in Tokyo on October 11th & 12th and as excepted it pulled in an overwhelming crowd. It took over 30 minutes to step inside after having waited just over an hour in line outside, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of Japanese fans mashing away on their PSP`s (Monster Hunter by the way seemed to be their choice of entertainment).
Crowd navigation within the first hour was extremely difficult - people were locked up against each other, focused on reaching their favorite booth first. As expected, people swarmed the Square-Einx booth immediately so I decided to come back later and see what else was on offer. Amongst all the shoving, I witnessed on two occasions a couple of foreigners forcefully pushing people out of their way from shier frustration. I certainly don’t blame them cause I too was starting to get quite irritated.
Naturally there were a ton of new games on display - recent or soon to be released but it was a bit disappointing that no ground-shaking news about anything was unveiled. I guess at this stage it’s too early for developers such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to announce any information on their next generation of consoles and Metal Gear Solid 4 had already been released back in June. A new console, R.O.I.D from Level 5 Inc. was pretty neat looking but nothing I would consider worthy for great excitement. Maybe next year.
The focus was almost entirely on game titles, which is after all what The Tokyo Game Show should be about. That and gorgeous booth babes in tight-fitting, sexy uniforms…Smile!
Developer List
The list of developers that attended this year`s show was long and extensive. Some of the more major ones included:
- Capcom
- Electronic Arts
- Konami
- Level-5
- Microsoft
- Namco Bandai
- Sony Computer Entertainment
- Square Enix
- Tecmo
- Hudson
- Koei
I was surprised to see Australia`s own Fuzzyeyes Studio with their new game Edge of Twilight and a couple of Dutch developers on the floor. Their presence was naturally small and in no way could they possibly compete with the developers above, but they indeed got their chance to display their talent and hopefully open a door for themselves amongst Japanese gamers.
Games
A total of 462 games were on display this year which is indeed an impressive number. More surprising to me being the fact that out of those 462, 78 were for the Nintendo DS. The types of games on display varied from FPS (first person shooters) and RPGs (role playing games) to the down-right crazy aero afro game.
A short-listing of the top games from my view are listed below. Click each game title to expand.
Do ninja`s use cats to do their bidding? …apparently they do.
Ushiro from Level 5 was one of the titles that really grabbed my attention. Ushiro, meaning “behind” in Japanese is a horror-themed RPG where you haunt a young girl (your “honey”) and battle against other haunters like yourself. I really hope they make an anime from this game!
The crowd of people lining up to get a first hands-on chance to play Monster Hunter 3 was enormous and at one stage was nearly a 2 hour wait. Naturally, I passed on this opportunity because I`m not as crazy as a Japanese otaku - they`re in a league of their own and I have no place amongst them.
Similarly when I was standing in line to get inside the show, many people at this booth were mashing away at a previous Monster Hunter title on their PSP. Just how big is the Monster Hunter franchise in Japan?!
Playing this game brought back some nostalgia. The graphics and animation were sweet and overall a very pleasant game to play. As any Street Fighter game, all your favorite characters have been included like Chung Li and of course Chung Li. You can see some of the Street Fighter cosplay pictures below. Oh yeh, and they also added in Akuma and Sakura.
…matte ne.
The latest installment in the Biohazard series was quite amazing I felt. Top graphics and very exciting gameplay. The game is set to be released next year and the online co-operative mode seems very appealing. One interesting feature is that if one or both players die, the game is over - both players must work together and help defend one another.
The story of White Knight Chronicles begins with an evil corporation called “Wizard” raiding a princess`s coming of age banquet. A young boy grabs her hand and takes her to the castle`s cellar where he finds a special suit of armor which transforms him into the white knight, giving him the power to fight against the attackers (naturally).
The game has a huge single player quest but players can also meet up online to complete other quests. This online co-op mode supports up to 4 people but isn`t accessable from the beginning of the game. Instead, you must reach a certain point within the storyline for this mode of gameplay to become available. Sounds pretty neat. So neat that it might even be a Final Fantasy XIII killer. White Knight Chronicles is currently due for release on Dec 31st, 2008.
Tokyo Game Show 2008 Cosplayers
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Filed Under: Anime / Otaku • Featured
Christian Emil | Nov 14, 2008 | Reply
Why is everybody but me meeting such beautiful girls
admin | Nov 14, 2008 | Reply
Wrong country?