With the hearts and minds of Japanese gamers won over by Nintendo and its casual-skewing software, this years Tokyo Game Show saw those in the nation issuing a collective “meh”. The press? They had to show up, helping to pad this year’s attendance figures by an extra 30,000 for a combined total of 193,040 over four days. By comparison, last year’s three day show pulled in an impressive 192,411 over just three days.
But who can blame attendees for a lack of interest in the 2007 flavor of TGS? The market leader didn’t show up and many games were simply old news or Western focused. Despite the fact that a playable Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Online had a big presence, as did Devil May Cry 4, most attendees seemed to be taken by Wii and Nintendo DS titles—Biohazard: The Umbrella Chronicles, Final Fantasy IV, and the sequel to Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village.
Has Tokyo Game Show peaked? Unless CESA expands the thing to five days or somehow convinces Nintendo show up—or a massive shift in tastes occurs—the show may see even further declines next year. More »
newVideoPlayer("FarewellTGS_gawker.flv", 475, 376); We’ll still be finishing up our impressions of Tokyo Game Show throughout the rest of the week, but with most of our staff back home nursing their hangovers, we thought it a fit opportunity to say goodbye with heavy amounts of TGS fandom and over modulated bass. More »
Taito’s classic brick-breaking arcade game Arkanoid is some twenty years long in the tooth, with the latest iteration, Arkanoid DS, bringing little to the table in the way of evolution. Instead, Arkanoid DS simply brings itself to another platform, taking advantage of the Nintendo DS touch screens for stylus control and using the Game Boy Advance slot for an arcade accurate dial controller. The cross-pad and button controls work fine, but stylus controls and the custom controller are the ways to go.
The dial controller, in particular, brings back that arcade feeling, as the add-on has real weight to it. You’ll feel the ball bearings spinning as you move Vaus, the space ship at the bottom of the screen left and right. Stylus controls aren’t twitchy and felt very accurate.
The only complaint that DS fans may have is losing track of the ball as it crosses the top and bottom screens, obscured by plastic. It’s not a game killing problem, but you may find yourself annoyed.
Arkanoid DS features classic arcade modes and two player options, but is also loaded with some 140 goal oriented challenges. These include smashing a number of bricks in a certain time limit, achieving a certain number of points, or destroying one particular block in a field of dozens.
The real draw, though, is in the arcade accurate experience with the new dial controller. If Taito can bring it out stateside for a reasonable price, fans may should consider picking it up. Arkanoid DS feels like a fun distraction for most, but a solid sequel for hardcore fans. More »
Meet Alex. Alex is the second guy in line at the Halo 3 launch here in NYC. If you remember from earlier, I told you the first guy in line got there at 6PM yesterday. Those of you mathematically inclined might have already pieced this together. Alex was standing there, minding his own business, when someone handed him this orange sign and asked him to hold it up. It’s been photographed, videotapes, and has appeared on the giant monitors outside of the Best Buy. The image will probably appear in local papers and on TV news stations later this evening. It’s not entirely a lie, really. Alex has almost been in line for 24 hours, and 50% is totally considered almost in some countries. Silly PR peoples. More »
When Metal Gear Solid 4 assistant producer Ryan Payton honorably justified his team’s video game, many of you wondered “Who?” and “Where can I get that hat?” To simplify it for the masses, while Metal Gear figurehead Hideo Kojima is the great river from which all ideas flow, Payton may be the dam that controls the flow of insanity. Yes, there are moments of surreality in Metal Gear Solid 4, such as soda-addicted monkeys, hilarious send ups of irritable bowel syndrome and a woman in a giant wolf mech exoskeleton. But there are also plenty of technical ideas that must be implemented, with Payton aiding to implement a simplified control scheme and further addressing Western tastes. Based on the hour with spent with the game in a private meeting, MGS4 retains not only the series’ artistry, it’s technical implementation is reaching mad-genius levels, too.
But let’s focus on one thing first: the controls. What has grown to become a complicated control scheme that requires great finger dexterity has been wisely refitted to appeal to both hardcore players and those who have never played a Metal Gear game before. More »
Word is from Microsoft’s PR in Oz that they haven’t heard of this being an issue here, but they’re still waiting for an official comment. Still, if you do find your Limited Edition is suffering from scratchy-scratchies, return it to the place you bought it for a refund or exchange, or better yet, let us know! More »
Screw this. I didn’t sign up to have my soul devoured by a marauding hell-beast masquerading as a creepy-ass fast food mascot character. You guys can just imagine the rest of the NYC Halo 3 launch. I’m getting the hell out of here before it eats me. More »
