東京ゲームショー年2008

Since the fall of the previous public world dominator in game conventions, E3 (electronic enternatinment expo) in Los Angeles, Tokyo Game Show (TGS) is now the largest gameshow in the world. Tickets were sold for a mere Y1200 (SEK 80, $11) and for that price, you were set free in a world where no one even knew of the word 'reality'. The typical japanese mentality "Do it exessively, or not at all" applied here as well... and yeah, they went all out on this one. Even before setting foot in the actual buildings (multiple buildings connected to one and other) we got a taste of what was to come. They put out a huge action toy in front of the entrances just in case people were to "miss" the place of the gameshow.


So in we went; To the vast technological jungle of games of tomorrow, endless aisles of tv-screens, game developers, merchandise in the millions and a good bunch of good 'ol fashioned japanese self-objectification of women.


The very first thing we did when we got in was to split up and go seperate ways, because everyone got all hyped up and were seemingly high on sugar. I started out by watching some new trailers and introductions for new games which were of course shown for the first time in TGS. There were actually some pretty damn interesting upcoming titles here which I must admit I wouldn't like, because of the brands. Xbox had a surprisingly interesting lineup, and there was some Dragonball and Bleach games which looked interesting, but I couldn't really photograph there since it was prohibited (Arigatou, youtube). After those ones, my eyes got caught up on something so beautiful... something that brought me back fond memories of the past, as well as the promising light of tomorrow; I saw the SquareENIX booths!

They had kind of a marketplace set up for themselves. Titles likes Final Fantasy XI Online, Final Fantasy XIII, Valkyrie Profile and Dragonquest sprawled up everywhere and so did the people, of course. Crouded as holy hell, but it was worth it for sure! I'm very much looking forward to FFXIII, but the most interesting piece here was actually a new Dragonquest game coming out for the Nintendo DS. Of course SquareENIX knows how to please their audience, so they had set up theater rooms and gigantic cinema screens showing the drooling nerd masses (in which I was part of, of course) the new games they were working on. There were also tonnes of FF-merchandise available for purchase.

After browsing through the SquareENIX area like Michael Jackson at a Toys 'r Us, I decided to go out and watch some cosplayers. My spanish friend from the gueshouse, Alberto, is a journalist and photographer of a spanish gaming magazine, so he guided me around a little bit. The first thing that struck me was the fact that the cosplayers were so utterly professional and devoted to their respective character. But then again, this is probably *the* best cosplay place in the world.

Don't know who these guys are supposed to be, but they're cool.

Rurushuu ri Buritania commands you!

If sugar had a human form, this would probably be its adequate form.

L and Watari decided to show up as well.

Cosplay gone right.

They kind of look like stuffed action dolls, but I assure you, they are real!

Next up was the Playstation area. For me, the choice was simple... I mean, Playstation's upcoming games overshadowed the rest of the developers in a way. Also, Kojima Hideo was strolling around there. Seeing him was pretty cool. He is short, has black hair, looks japanese... yeah. He was demonstrating the new expansion pack to MGS4 I think, I wasn't really paying attention because I had another game in mind: The first thing I did was to rush in like to play "Little Big Planet" which was just too cool for words =) Although I felt kind of slow and retarded when trying to co-operate with my lightyears-before-me-in-gaming-skills japanese teammates sitting next to me. The booth-girl who was introducing the game to us and later helping us play it sat next to me all the time, in an attempt to prevent me from accidentally destroying something I think. The japanese people didn't need any help at all. They have all like... developed their gaming skills since birth. Anyway, it was awesome! Everything is just so customizeable, it almost seems like the developers have left *you* to create the actual game, and just handed you the right tools to do so. I especially enjoyed the versatility of the characters!

"Suneeku" and "Sefirosu" as their katakana names read...

As this is Tokyo, moving around and getting to places has nothing to do with distance; Just with how many people are in your way. In TGS, people are in your way. Like, for instance, if you want to saaay.... play the upcoming Biohazard (Resident Evil 5), there is a 3-hour waiting line in front of the booth. Although this didn't stop four of my friends, who waited an impressive 2 hours and 50 minutes to play for approximately 15 minutes in an exclusive gaming chamber. While inside, they were treated with Resident Evil cosplay women showing them never-EVER before-seen trailers and footage of said game, and of course a taste of the actual gameplay.

They put signs like this one up before lines so that people know how long they are expected to queue. This particular sign was placed at a Konami item shop, where you could buy all sorts of crap which apparently was worth waiting over two hours for.

While on my way to get some food at the restaurant area, I stumbled upon a few other interesting booths. These were actually different game development universities in Tokyo that were promoting their programs. And I'm sorry Blombrink... but I think Skövde is going to have to take a back seat this time. These schools were simply amazing. Both teachers and students were showing the guests around, and demostrating what their schools had accomplished. There were games created by students that could just as easily be done by Capcom, Nintendo or SNK. They were rather impressive indeed =) The games were in different formats, some for Xbox360, some for the PS3, but most had their own formats for demonstration purposes. They were offering education in writing, coding, music composing, graphic design and everything else related to game creation. These schools are probably the creme de la creme of game development.

Examples of game development schools in Tokyo and their "show-offs"

Tokyo Game Show opened up at 10:00 and closed at 18:00, and of course we were there for the whole duration. The first two or three hours I tried to browse the different areas and booths in an organized fashion in an attempt to see and try a little of everything, so as not to miss anything major. This was, however, impossible for me in the long run because of my suddenly awakened nerdiness. Whenever I saw something in the far distant that caught the slightest glimt of my attention, I had to go there. Whether it was the latest beat-'em-up by SNK, the new Sonic game from Sega or that game where your main objective was to pull down the panties of a japanese schoolgirl by some strange independant company - it was all cool! Actually there were a disturbing amount of those kind of games there... kind of makes me wonder how many letters the Swedish newspapers would get from the overly complaining people there if these kind of games were ever to see the light of the Swedish retail market. God forbid, the world is not yet ready to be exposed to true japanese pervertism. Regardless of game, the fact holds true that japanese people take their gaming seriously.

In Tokyo Game Show, they had set aside special areas where people could bring their PSPs and DSs and compete in tournaments. Although less "competition based", I loved the gaming rooms for Phoenix Wright. They had set up rooms with enough Nintendo DSs to fill a small country in cozy living-roomish areas where you could go and enjoy this "far out there" kind of game series. If you're wondering who won the "handheld wars" this time, I have to say that Nintendo DS totally kicked Sony's PSP's ass in both audience attendance and upcoming titles. The DS monitors were full for the whole show, and the game developers have really worked hard on their games. I'm really looking forward to illegally downloading their games to my console as soon as they are released.

Caution; Don't feed the nerds while in-game.

So in conclusion, this has to be one of my best experiences in Japan so far. To be surrounded by thousands and thousands of people with the exact same love for video games as you have makes you feel at the right place. Even though you are on the other side of the globe, you feel surprisingly at home at Tokyo Game Show. Now, for the pictures of booth-babes and cosplayers for Sayam:


Enjoy, and thanks for reading/drooling! (For those interested, here's a video too, sorry for the quality I had to reduce its size considerably)

The cutest of them all