Tokyo Game Show 2006: The Kikizo Report

Sony had to deliver, and Microsoft had to push harder. As TGS 2006 comes to a close, Kikizo brings you this report to see who prevailed, with photos and babes aplenty.

Page: 1  2  3 

Page 3

Capcom certainly hit the right spot for everyone looking for new PS3 software to get excited about as well. While Dead Rising, and more specifically, single and multiplayer Lost Planet for Xbox 360 were two major highlights, it was Devil May Cry 4 for the PS3 that had the most attractive booth theme and the biggest lines to wait for a play session over at Capcom.

-->

A classy gothic church booth with fantastic Dante and various DMC artwork in every direction looked the part, but judging by the game demo itself, which offers more of the familiar DMC gameplay and extremely pretty visuals, Capcom could have exhibited the game in a trailer park and still racked up overwhelming attention. The publisher must also have been smiling about the ludicrous four-hour line that accumulated on Saturday for Monster Hunter Portable 2.

A ferociously strong Konami line-up reinforced the superb vibes it gave off back at E3. Naturally led by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, another PS3 exclusive with the customary all-new trailer specifically for the show, the line-up mixed great titles not just from Kojima Productions (MGS Portable Ops for PSP, Lunar Knights for Nintendo DS) but of course the rest of the Japanese development powerhouse too - Coded Arms Assault for PS3, which looks promising but currently has some significant framerate concerns, the new Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for DS, as well as Elebits for the Wii, which is shaping up to be a winner for the Nintendo system's thirdparty line-up. The publisher now seems to be the master of the 'no fuss, just games' format of stage presentation at the show as well; as in previous years Konami's presentations drew massive crowds, particularly those with Kojima talking through MGS.

These crowds were only topped by Namco's ludicrously massive gatherings for the various Tales RPG games on its big screen. Namco's booth was less obvious than in previous shows where the familiar Namco logo and giant Pac-Man stood out, now replaced with subtle Namco-Bandai branding, but nonetheless the publisher's wares were as popular as ever. Ridge Racer 7 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire were the major PS3 attractions, with Tekken 6 only shown in trailer form (and just the same as the E3 2006 video, at that). Namco's RPG invasion on Xbox 360 included Trusty Bell, aka Eternal Sonata, and Culdcept Saga, featuring all-important online battles.

Tecmo's traditionally babe-soaked booth was this year enhanced with palm trees and an exotic flavour in honour of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 on Xbox 360, but the big new title from the publisher is, once again, a PS3 game - albeit a remake. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a visually stunning (what else would you expect from Team Ninja) ultra-remake of one of this-gen's best action titles, Ninja Gaiden. A massive visual boost improves the already impeccable graphical standards to a satisfying next-gen standard, while a range of additions such as new enemies and the ability to play as buxom blonde Rachel is also sure to make this popular with all gamers who love a challenge. We're happy with any excuse to revisit the stunning world of Ninja Gaiden, especially when it's updated with truly arresting graphics like this. A lovely surprise.

Square Enix had a sort-of-new Kingdom Hearts in the shape of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, essentially a PS2 remake of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on the GBA. The rest of the line-up was pretty much domionated by Final Fantasy, with more than ten Final Fantasy titles altogether. Chief among these is the triple-whammy of Final Fantasy XIII titles: the main FFXIII and FFXIII-Versus (both for PS3) as well as a FFXIII spin-off for the mobile phone. The FFXIII trailer was popular but the same as seen at Sony's E3 2006 briefing. These were joined by Final Fantasy III on the DS, FFVII Compilation on PSP, and GBA versions of FFV and FFVI. It almost feels dirty seeing one franchise so dominant, not just for one publisher but in the entire nation's popularity charts as well.

Koei was another of PS3's most prolific publishers with a total of four titles forming its line-up in one form or another. Fatal Inertia is a launch title as we already knew, alongside Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War, Ni-oh and some Mahjong title (someone has to do it). Although Koei seemingly had nothing for Xbox 360 at the show, it did make a big noise about its new Dynasty Warriors for PC.

One of the most strikingly obvious, unstoppable trends over the last few years at TGS has been the rise and rise of mobile phone gaming, and this year the presence was simply massive. With the entire event sponsored by NTT DoCoMo, and software support from all major publishers, mobile gaming is a huge deal in Japan now. A version of Final Fantasy XIII and even Namco's Tekken 2 are just two of the upcoming titles that will be available to cellphone users in Japan.

Whether gamers were at Tokyo Game Show 2006 for PS3, Xbox 360, the sprinkling of Wii titles being demonstrated, the onslaught of cellphone titles or some good-old current-generation software for PS2, PSP or DS, one thing seemed certain: TGS is on the rise. The show is still the world's biggest game event, eclipsing the mighty turnout at Leipzig's Games Convention in Germany last month - and TGS 2006 was the largest TGS ever in terms of exhibitors, showing as many as 650 software titles in total. The crowds were easily the biggest we've ever witnessed in seven years of TGS attendance.

We've got a lot of follow-up Tokyo coverage on the way, including some big-name video interviews you definitely won't want to miss. We're attempting to prioritise a huge amount of exclusive content we have in our enormous publishing outbox, but rest assured we'll be delivering features picked up and kept under wraps from GC06, TGS2006 as well as X06 next week, well into 2007 at this rate...

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com

Page: 1  2  3