Tokyo Game Show 2011

Written by Ross Locksley on 16 Sep 2011

In many ways, TGS is like any other trade show, especially on business days. You get handed leaflets by pretty girls and companies advertise their wares on flashy stands, but of course this is the Tokyo Game Show, where the girls are in costume and the stands are very flashy indeed…

My experience of TGS was slightly stunted since I didn’t have a grasp of the language, but there was still lots to enjoy, and since I wasn’t the only gaijin in attendance, allowances were made.

It would take several articles to take you through everything at the show, so here’s an overview of the “best bits”, tweaked toward fans of anime in particular.

The venue was split into 3 main halls. The first of these was home to ARC System Works, Microsoft’s Xbox wares, Konami, Capcom and Namco Bandai. To the right was the shopping area, which hosted games and anime related merchandise, at typically inflated prices (though some bargains were scattered here and there).

The Microsoft stand was a little lonely, but as it was the first booth from the entrance, I had a look, and to my surprise the very first game was a lovely looking fighter called Ougon Musou Kyoku X (Golden Dreams Song), an adaptation of a doujin fighter on the PC with 3 new characters. I got a hands on and really enjoyed the pace and character selection. If you have a Japanese X Box this could be the game to rival Phantom Breaker, and is due in October. They also had a playable demo of the new Soul Calibur, which is looking good, even if little change was evident in the gameplay.

The biggest announcement, at least for me, was Gundam Extreme Vs on PS3, a port of the rather splendid arcade game that’s gone down a storm over here (seriously, finding a free cabinet is nigh on impossible) – it looks awesome, features a ton of great mechs from across the Gundam timelines, and lands before Christmas, so that’s me sorted!

In all, Namco Bandai had a very strong showing, with announcements for Tekken Tag 2 for PS3, a new Lyrical Nanoha fighting game (PSP) which also comes in “God” flavoured special edition (eep!) a new Hybrid game/film Macross Frontier pack for the PS3 and of course the almost-here Evangelion 3nd Stage (PSP) which comes in a gorgeous special edition flavour and will be pre-ordered by me as soon as I get back to Akihabara!

Konami were pushing the HD remake of Metal Gear, with some truly impressive visuals on display, making it a must for Snake fans.

Capcom had playable code for Street Fighter X Tekken, which looked fantastic to be honest, and is definitely on my “to buy” list, as it features Poison from Final Fight (and is definitely a girl, let’s put that straight for a start!) They also had one of the real heart-stopping trailers, with an incredible opening to Dragon’s Dogma, which was edge-of-your-pants awesome to behold. Whether or not the gameplay will hold up (it looks like a medieval Phantasy Star) remains to be seen, but it was very, very strong.

Square Enix were pushing very hard, with playable code from Final Fantasy Zero (PSP) and video for Lord of Apocalypse (PSP), Chaos Rings 1 and 2 (iPhone),  the beautiful Bravely Default (3DS), the rhythm-action Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS) and Kingdom Hearts 3D, Dream Drop Distance (see what they did there?). To be honest it was one of the most comprehensively amazing booths at the show, and chucking up Final Fantasy XIII-2 didn’t hurt either.

Finally for hall one, ARC had a hell of a booth. Showcasing both new Blazblue code (PS3 and Vita) as well as the arcade-only Persona 4 beat-em-up, the company had solid queues throughout the day. Persona 4 in particlar played very, very well, and should be a must if it gets the home console port it deserves. ARC's careful balancing was clearly evident, and the graphics were as crisp as anything the company has produced. Their stand girls were among the best of the day, and they even had a little help from cosplay legend Ushijima Iiniku.