The Tokyo Game Show is long over. It ended last month, which in internet time is a decade ago. The latest issue of Famitsu has fascinating TGS 2008 data for us to look at and mull over. The publication surveyed 1,000 visitors, 79 percent of TGS attendees were male, 21 percent female. Here’s the data:
Watch it while you can! (And before Square Enix strongarms Game Videos into taking it down.) Someone snuck a camera into the Square Enix booth and filmed the Dragon Quest IX trailer, which looks great. Wasn’t that excited about this game until I saw this. See Square Enix, people filming your trailers is a really good thing!
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 thing after Tales of Vesperia. So how’s it shaping up?
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.
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.
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. Check it out here.
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 while 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
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. Hit this link for the gallery.
Taito has dragged Bub and Bob out to solve another Puzzle Bobble conundrum, one that can only be unravelled 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.
