Eurogamer at TGS 2004
In the first of our reports from the Tokyo Game Show, we take a quick run around and try and scoop up as much as possible with our eyes. Check back later this week for a PSP special, and more.
The Tokyo Game Show is in town again. In Makuhari Town, Chiba, Japan. We spent the weekend there playing games, watching games, listening to games, and now we're going to talk to you about games.
TGS never ceases to amaze. Sony chose to show off its PSP this year (see our forthcoming PSP Special), Sega Sammy had SEGA Rally 2005 running on a PS2, Capcom showed BioHazard 4 on the GameCube... and Nintendo didn't bother to turn up. Bless them.
Hideo Kojima has become internationally famous in recent years and he was good enough to grace the Tokyo Game Show with an appearance in video form. Quite what he was saying we're not entirely sure, but it was probably something like "Metal Gear Solid 3 is Solid Snake's best game yet!" And he's dead right. Playable at the show, Snake Eater was charming. The interaction between Snake and his environment is incredibly natural. When he falls, a human falls. When he runs, he runs like no game character. A trailer spoke of Snake's "sorrow" and also showed a romantic scene. If Kojima-san moves any further in this direction, Hollywood will come knocking at his door. Snake Eater should be an impossibly huge hit.
Sony's booth announced December 3rd as the Japanese launch date for Gran Turismo 4. Dozens and dozens of demo pods displayed GT4 in every light imaginable. The only thing missing was online functionality, which has been dropped in order for Sony to release GT4 by the end of the year. Shame. Arcade Mode, however, played seated with the new GT Force Pro wheel, rather showed up the weaknesses of other new racers (read on, you'll be surprised) and was thoroughly enjoyable. Photo Mode, on the other hand, is nothing to do with racing. But we like it. PStwos were hooked up to Sony USB printers and a whole noticeboard was filled with snazzy shots of cars from above, cars from below, and cars from the side. If all goes well, Europe will be able to shift into Gran Turismo 4's gear around December 19th.
EyeToy was strongly supported by several key developers. SEGA Superstars was on show, with the NiGHTS stage looking and playing just like a hands-free NiGHTS. (We hope Sega makes a standalone NiGHTS sequel out of this.) Then there was Tecmo Sports, which encouraged mad arm-swinging in baseball mode, and DDR Festival (mad hip-swinging) as well as Card Captor Sakura. On this last game we have nothing to say, but take a look.
SEGA and Sammy's holy union of a booth was mightily impressive. The Rumblefish was not only the best-named game of the show, but it's also a damn fine 2D fighter in the style of Sammy's own Guilty Gear. We played as a fat English character with a white beard, called Boyd. Elsewhere in SEGA and Sammy's area, we enjoyed Dororo (Blood Will Tell in the West), a samurai adventure directed by Manga guru Osamu Tezuka (think Metropolis). Dororo shows potential; it could even dethrone Onimusha. Super Monkey Ball Deluxe and OutRun2 on the Xbox are quite lovely, but you most likely knew that already.
SEGA's most intriguing new game, however, was SEGA Rally 2005 on the PS2. An actual WRC Subaru Impreza draped with a minimally dressed babe could not, however, blind us to the fact that the game in question is (at this stage) distinctly average. It is only 30 per cent complete, and pop-up combined with frame-rate drops attest to that fact - yet the main problem is that it's too easy. In today's world of Richard Burns and Colin McRae, SEGA Rally 2005 feels dated. We really hope it picks up the pace before its release next year.
Over at Capcom's fluorescent booth, huge queues formed around the designated Viewtiful Joe 2 and Devil May Cry 3 play areas. Which is no surprise, really, given how great both games were to play. Viewtiful Joe 2 is the original side-scrolling fighter explored (and progressed) to the nth degree. Some awesome set pieces and wonderful visuals made this one of the games of the Show. Devil May Cry 3 offers similar improvements in the context of its series: passages of play are now linked incredibly smoothly and the tightness of control is also improved.
Elsewhere in Capcom's area of the exhibition BioHazard 4 (aka Resident Evil 4 was demoed. The game is simply drop-dead gorgeous. Visually, even Nintendo's own GameCube titles are humbled before Capcom's masterpiece. Unlike any other game on the horizon, BioHazard 4 could potentially put hundreds of thousands of GameCube consoles into previously ‘Cube-less homes. It's going to be very big in Japan.
The Tokyo Game Show afforded Square Enix the opportunity to show off its newfound prolificacy. Square Enix' area was teeming with new projects. The so-called Final Fantasy VII Compilation works - Before Crisis for mobile phone users, Advent Children for DVD viewers, and Dirge of Cerberus for PS2 gamers - is an ingenious way of providing for FFVII fans' every wish.
Meanwhile Kingdom Hearts fanatics could enjoy Chain of Memories, the new GBA instalment of Square Enix' Disney classic. And there's more: Kingdom Hearts II on the PS2 was also on hand. In fact, several other new PS2 projects also show great promise: Front Mission Online takes the tactical series to its logical destination, Dragon Quest VIII is beautiful, and Full Metal Alchemist II is similarly stylish. And as if all that wasn't enough, Square Enix had DS-exclusive RPG Egg Monster Heroes, and a PS2-based party game featuring the likes of Cloud Strife, Chocobos and famous Dragon Quest characters. Square Enix wants your money, and we recommend you start saving now to give it to them.
Console owners, particularly those of the Sony faith, were given a banquet of choice software at the Tokyo Game Show. There was something else which set salivary glands secreting, however, and that was something by the name of PSP Check out our PSP Special later in the week to see what the smart new handheld had to offer at this year's TGS.