Danny @ TGS – Day 1

To me, Tokyo Game Show can be summed up in one word: overwhelming. I generally feel like a spoilt kid in a sweet shop. Surrounding me is a buffet of videogames and I just want to consume everything at once.

09:30 We arrived at Makuhari Messe, the large event hall that hosts TGS each year. The Japanese summer decided to go easy on us for once and treat us to some light showers that I genuinely miss from back home.

10:00 Press passes around neck, we headed in. Deciding against the logical idea of getting some gaming in early before the queues started, I headed in the completely wrong direction to try and get some early shopping done, but ended up in the Food Court instead.

10:15 Some Capcom booth attendants beckoned us over to view their trailer reel. With Trish, Viewtiful Joe and Amaterasu taking on Dr. Doom and Super Skrull in a lovely new Marvel vs. Capcom 3 trailer, who could refuse? Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2 were also shown; the former of which, tempted me to take a closer look at the game later in the day. Next door was the Dead Rising 2 booth, which had a poor zombie fiend trapped for mean press-types to have their photo taken with it. I obliged, of course.

11:00 Was drawn in by free phone straps at the Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity booth. Had to kill some poor little Chao to progress through the game!

11:30 Ran into an old friend, namely Sonic the Hedgehog, hanging round the Sega area. He suggested I try out Sonic Colours on both the DS and the Wii. The DS version is being developed by Dimps, the team behind the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series. Three zones were playable, each with two acts and one boss. Here Sonic is saving “Wisps” rather than his old “Flicky” friends, and these little critters grant Sonic special powers that he can use to get through the stage, such as rocketing to the top of a level and drilling his way through any wall that stands in his way. The levels themselves were fairly easy to storm through but the main focus of the game was on the expert timing of homing attacks. The Wii version, being developed by Sonic Team, puts you in a third-person view behind a perpetually-moving Sonic as you move him from left to right with the Nunchuk. This version of the game felt a little more awkward. Maybe it was just my horrible lack of skill, but whenever I tried to not let the game play itself for me, I ended up plummeting into an infinite pit of doom.

12:00 Made my way to a nearby hotel to have a short interview with the mind behind Deadly Premonition: the charming Hidetaka “SWERY” Suehiro. The game has already achieved cult classic status in the US, and has received enough of a demand to finally make its way to Europe more than half a year after its initial release. More on this in an upcoming feature!

13:45 Back on the show floor, queues were building up, and I decided it was time to tackle some Dead Rising 2. Before making our way into the playing area we were “treated” to a flurry of live-action zombie trailers including the upcoming “The Walking Dead” TV show, as well as movies we are already familiar with like”The Crazies”, “Zombieland” and “Survival of the Dead”. Odd, I know. Inside I had a little trouble getting the controls set to inverted (yes, I know), but before long I was knee-deep in guts and glory. Half-way through a boss encounter, who should enter, but a bunch of (slightly tame) CRAZED ZOMBIES. Fret not though, luckily a guard came in and saved us before we were lunch. Speaking of which…

14:45 Lunch. Beef curry and rice for me, please. Today I learnt that I am apparently the only person who eats curry with chopsticks.

15:30 Capcom always put a lot of effort into their booths, and the Monster Hunter Portable 3rd one in particular really stood out. We teamed up with a MHP 2nd veteran and completely let him down. I think  I managed to kill a few deer though.

16:00 Did I miss something? When did the Yakuza series involve zombies? The odd zombie and a couple of (rather cheery looking) gun-toting hostesses stood at the front of the Ryū ga Gotoku: Of the End booth. Intrigued, I went in and was blown away by a very long, very loud, very fun trailer. Familiar faces from the Yakuza series are back in not-so-familiar surroundings. Combat is no longer limited to fisticuffs – there are a plethora of weapons, even tanks, to take down zombies on the once Yakuza-run streets. At least four other kinds of monsters were also shown, although it was hard to work out exactly what they were or how this outbreak had started. The game still sports its well known (well-missed?) minigames including pachinko, golf, fishing, karaoke, darts et al. No Sega reps would comment on whether this would ever see Western shores, but I’d bet on it. Let’s hope they include more than half the game this time!

17:00 With day one of four drawing to a close, I decided to reattempt hitting the shops. They were essentially all closed, but the friendly people at the Game Centre CX (a Japanese show you must see) store let me pick up a few bits and pieces.

I shall be talking with Takashi Iizuka  (Producer of Sonic Colours and Head of Sonic Team) tomorrow. If you have any questions for him, just leave them below in the comment section and I’ll see what I can do!

Day 1 Gallery


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4 responses to “Danny @ TGS – Day 1”

  1. Andy T avatar
    Andy T

    As directed from the forums, I have a couple of questions for the king of Sonic team when you meet him tomorrow.

    Either as part of the Dreamcast revival on XBLA or as a separate project are there currently any plans to return to my beloved Chu Chu Rocket?

    Also with Sonic having mixed success in his history completing the transition from 2D to 3D and then recently heading back into it’s original context where does he see Sonic in the future?

  2. Ninja avatar
    Ninja

    Could there be a “NiGHTS into Dreams…” redux or a new instalment on XBLA and/or other digital distribution platforms?

  3. Danny avatar

    It was recently announced that CCR is coming to the iOS. I will ask about the XBLA version we are all dying for though.

    I have a similar question re: classic Sonic.

    An upgraded version of NiGHTS was released on the PS2 here in Japan. This makes me think it must be feasible to port it to XBLA, etc. (but what do I know?).

    Keep ’em coming!

  4. Ninja avatar
    Ninja

    Yeah, I know about that though admittedly I only found out today, did a little quick research before I posted my question 😉

    Hmm… Are there any external developers (specifically Western) he’d like to work with if he had the opportunity? Or genres he’d want to try his hand at? Suppose that could be a combo question 🙂

    Man, I’d love a new version of CCR! 😀

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