Category Archives: Tgs08

TGS Interviews Round-Up Get! [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

Interviews galore! Peter Molyneux sat down and gave Kotaku just about everything there is to know about Fable II, RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi says he likes the new and improved controls for the game, and Akinori Nishiyama, producer of Sonic Unleashed, talks about the possibility of 2D, HD Sonic games. More TGS interviews after the jump!

Interviews
Justify Your Game: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
LocoRoco 2’s Number One Fan
Last Remnant Team So Cannot Wait For Unreal Engine 4
Justify Your Game Loco Roco 2
But I’m Talking Bout Halo Wars
Justify Your Patapon 2
Fable II Coop Patch Getting Once Over By Msoft, Molyneux “Super, Super Hopeful”
A Fable II Primer for Dog Training
Molynuex More About Emotions, Less About Trees
Molyneux Walks Us Through Fable II’s Deep, Casual Combat
What Is Halo 3: Recon?

Click here to read more.

Star Ocean 4 Looks Amazing, Plays…The Same [Star Ocean 4]

Most games at TGS had one booth. Maybe two. Some more high-profile titles had 3-4 booths, some AAA titles like LittleBigPlanet had 10-12. Star Ocean 4, on the other hand, had around 25-30 machines running at the Microsoft stand, giving you a fair indication of how important this game is to the company, who are hoping it can be their next big, console-selling exclusive after Tales of Vesperia. So how’s it shaping up?

It’s shaping up as a safe, safe game. Like most Japanese games on the showroom floor, if you stripped back the graphical improvements a new generation of hardware has brought, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing a PS2 game.

Click here to read more.

TGS News Round-Up Get! [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

Tons and tons of news came out of this year’s TGS over the weekend. From the announcement of Halo 3: Recon to Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion coming to Xbox 360, Kotaku covered it all, and at the expense of sleep, no less. It’s all right here after the jump! So what do you, the commenter, think was the biggest piece of news to come out of Tokyo?

Namco Bandai’s Teenage Boy Friendly Line Up Dated
Tetsuya Mizuguchi Is Making New IP
Microsoft Has Over 140 Demo Kiosks, Buddies With Square Enix
Sorry, But Ninja Blade Is *Not* Otogi 3
Tecmo Announces New Third Person Shooter
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Sells 2.5 Million In Japan
This is Your Tokyo Game Show 2008
Tekken 6 Coming To Xbox 360
New Xbox Dash Gets Release Date
Halo 3 Expansion Hits Fall 2009
Vague Date for Final Fantasy XIII, Nothing For Versus XIII
These Fighters Are In The King of Fighters XII
“PSP Plus” Brings DualShock Control To PSP
Old Snake, Sephiroth Get Sackboyed For LittleBigPlanet
Classic Controller For Wii Monster Hunter 3
Ensemble Studios May (Soon) Be Dead, But They’re Not Out
360 Sales Have Doubled in US, More Than Doubled In Europe, Quintupled In Japan
Bionic Commando Delayed, Coming “Early 2009″
Uncharted Waters Online Getting PS3 Version
Microsoft: Japanese Sell Out Is “Totally Legit”
Resistance: Retribution, Resistance 2 Connect To Add “Infected” Gameplay
Xbox 360: Official Console of 2008 Recession
Konami Whips Up Castlevania For Xbox 360, PS3
Goichi Suda Has Not Given Up On You Nintendo Wii
Bionic Commando Movie Is A Definite Possibility
First Look At Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li Movie Poster
Tokyo Game Show Attendance Plummets Again
Revenge Of Public Day: TGS Attendance Rebounds!
Kojima Might Announce New Game At Next Year’s TGS
Perhaps Why Tokyo Game Show 2009 Has Been Rescheduled…
Tokyo Game Show 2008 Attendance Actually Up!


Tokyo Game Show: Best In Show Winners Announced [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

TGS is over. *Sniff*. But with the Makahari Messe now devoid of bright lights, scantily-clad ladies and the sweaty musk of tens of thousands of Japanese gamers, attention now turns towards the important stuff. Like what won “best in show”. Or, as CESA (Japan’s ESRB) call it, the “Future Awards”, held as part of their Japan Game Awards 2008 festivities. Twelve games were recognised - most of them having been playable on the showroom floor - and every major Japanese gaming platform (ie everything bar the PC) is represented.

The winners are:

Idolm@ster - Namco Bandai - PSP
Gyakuten Kenji - Capcom - DS
White Knight Story - Sony - PS3
Star Ocean 4 - Square Enix - Xbox 360
Final Fantasy: Dissidia - Square Enix - PSP
Dragon Quest IX - Square Enix - DS
Resident Evil 5 - Capcom - Xbox 360/PS3
Monster Hunter 3 - Capcom - Wii
428 - Sega - Wii
LittleBigPlanet - Sony - PS3
Yakuza 3 - Sega - PS3
Let’s Tap - Sega - DS

[Japan Game Awards 2008]


I Wish I Hadn’t Played Castlevania Judgement [Castlevania Judgement]

Of all the days I had to play games at TGS, and of all games I had the chance to play, why the hell did I leave it until Sunday afternoon to play Castlevania Judgement? I mean, my last memory of TGS could have been of something good, like Macross Ace Frontier or, in Konami’s case, another kick at Pro Evo 2009. Instead, I walked away from the show feeling bad. Bad for Castlevania fans, at least.

There is just nothing right about this game. Nothing. As a Castlevania game, it’s…well, as a fighter, it’s not a Castlevania game at all. And as a fighter, it’s one of the worst I’ve ever seen.

Click here to read more.

Booth Showcase: SNK Is The King Of Fighters, Boobs [Lets Tgs]

We close out our TGS booth tours with SNK’s. Thanks for stickin’ around. It was both larger and more impressive than last year’s mild effort, thanks in most part to the presence of an row of eight playable King of Fighters XII arcade cabinets. Oh, and two 60” LCD’s showcasing that action, helping make it easily the most visually impressive game of the show. The rest of the stuff in their booth (ie anything not King of Fighters) was standard SNK fare: boobs, more boobs and mouse pads with boobs on them.
galleryPost(’snkbooth’, 3, ‘TGS: SNK Booth’);


Studio Ghibli/Level 5 Game Box Gives Other Game Boxes The Finger [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

[Gallery fixed, pics now up] The best thing about Level 5’s booth wasn’t a game. Wasn’t even a game trailer. It was the box for the company’s upcoming collaboration with animation house Studio Ghibli, Ninokuni. The entirety of the final retail package was on display, including glorious box art and ridiculously extravagant spell book (which you’ll actually need to use whike playing). This can’t be cheap, and might not even look like this when it hits the West, but that doesn’t matter. For now, just enjoy the craftsmanship
galleryPost(’ghiblibook’, 3, ‘Ninokuni Box is Wonderful’);


Booth Showcase: Level 5’s Grand Designs [Lets Tgs]

Level 5 are on the up. And nowhere was this more evidenced by their increased TGS presence, the company hosting an impressively large booth that housed demo pods, game art, the ROID game portal and a mega theatre that rivalled Square Enix’s in size, if not in stature.
galleryPost(’level5booth’, 3, ‘TGS: Level 5 Booth’);


Space Puzzle Bobble Hands-On Impressions [Tokyo Game Show 2008]

Taito has dragged Bub and Bob out to solve another Puzzle Bobble conundrum, one that can only be unraveled by launching bubbles from a cannon in the hopes of more match three puzzle gameplay. Space Puzzle Bobble doesn’t bring too much to the Puzzle Bobble (aka Bust-A-Move) series, it just slaps it on the Nintendo DS, tossing in some outer space themes for good measure. We’re okay with that.

Using the DS touch screen isn’t exactly the best interface for angling your shots, but it’s good enough. Just make sure you have a steady surface on which to play.

We were hoping that the excellent dial controller — used in the previous Taito effort Arkanoid DS — would be one of the options on hand at Tokyo Game Show, but no dice.

The scope of the demo was unfortunately very limited, giving us a few dozen stand Puzzle Bobble boards to clear.

Click here to read more.

Bionic Commando Is “Not Fucking Spider-Man” [Bionic Commando]

People are worried that Bionic Commando might be a bit too hard. I’m one of them. There’s a fear that, because the game’s swinging mechanic is both integral to the game and difficult to master at the same time, a lot of players may not take the time to learn the system and give up on the game. Is this a concern to the development team? No, not really. Making the mechanic hard was the whole point, says GRIN’s Ulf Andersson:

It’s not fuckin’ Spider-Man. We made a swing mechanism that’s not automatic. This means you have to focus a bit more, because it’s a proper mechanic instead of just a button press; it’s the core mechanic of the game.

Click here to read more.