Booth Showcase: SNK Is The King Of Fighters, Boobs

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. More »

Studio Ghibli/Level 5 Game Box Gives Other Game Boxes The Finger

[Gallery fixed, pics now up] 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 whike 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 More »

Booth Showcase: Level 5's Grand Designs

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. More »

Booth Showcase: Konami's Solid Sense Of Longing

Oh, Konami. What a difference a year makes. Last year, they were the star of the show, Metal Gear Solid 4 winning over both critics and public alike. This year? They…well, let’s just say they probably wish they could re-release Metal Gear Solid 4 all over again, as without it, their lack of depth in other areas really showed. Pro Evo 2009 was great, as we’ve already discussed, but after that there was little else to see but the sad (still peddling MGS4 and Metal Gear Online? Really?) and the God-awful (Castlevania Judgement is a farce of a title). More »

'Demon's Souls' Hands-On Impressions

From Software had two console exclusives on its plate at TGS, Ninja Blade for the Xbox 360 and Demon's Souls for the PlayStation 3. Both are dark and moody hack and slash affairs, filled with demonic beasts to slay. But Demon's Souls is billed as an action role-playing game, seemingly a greater time investment than its "cinematic" action sibling. The poorly translated fact sheet describes the game with "Nothing but a player's decision and a tactics of using various weapons are important than anything that you really need to think to play." While that makes no sense, Demon's Souls is fairly easy to wrap one's brain around. More »

The PSP Needs More Games Like Macross Ace Frontier

Macross Ace Frontier is in a no-lose situation. The lucky thing. If it sucks as a Macross game, well, it’s a Macross game. They have a history of sucking. If it sucks as a PSP game, well, it’s a PSP game. They (mostly) have a history of sucking. What’s so surprising given both of those expectations, then, is the fact that having played the game at TGS, it’s not sucking. On either count. More »

Booth Showcase: Yes, Sega Were At TGS

For a publisher of their size and stature, Sega’s Tokyo Game Show booth was a little on the disappointing side. Nothing on hand was really wowing the crowd – not even the promise of a new Sonic game (Unleashed) – and were it not for the mild excitement accompanying Yakuza 3 the booth would have been one of the emptiest of the major publishers. More »