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Tokyo's video-game showcase short on excitement
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Published: October 16, 2008
Has Japan lost its mojo in the video-game industry? The president of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, thinks so. As the annual Tokyo Game Show began last week, Wada argued that game development has shifted to the West, and he urged his colleagues and competitors to work together to reclaim Japanese dominance.
There wasn't much at this year's lackluster TGS to encourage supporters of Japanese game development. For one thing, the most successful and innovative Japanese company of the new millennium, Nintendo, didn't even show up. And the most buzzed-about new game of the show -- Halo 3: Recon -- is being developed by an American studio, Bungie, for an American-made console, Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Bungie described Recon as a "campaign expansion" for Halo 3, although it will be sold on disc rather than as a download. It will be available in fall 2009, and Bungie described it as "the final basket of goodness that we will be delivering for the Halo trilogy."
HEARTS AFIRE: Square Enix had one of the largest displays at the Tokyo Game Show, but the much anticipated Final Fantasy XIII was still unplayable. The company's most notable new title, if only for sheer incomprehensibility, was the latest chapter of its bizarre Japan-meets-Disney experiment, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Square also announced a partnership with biosensor manufacturer NeuroSky Inc. to develop a video game controlled by brain waves.
Other TGS highlights included the return of the Wii's most ridiculously violent hero, Travis Touchdown, in No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. Sony announced Patapon 2, a sequel to its innovative rhythm-strategy game for the PlayStation Portable. And we'll finally be getting a high-definition version of Castlevania, with Konami's classic vampire-hunting series coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Sony also said it would be releasing new software that will allow players to use the PS3's DualShock 3 controller while playing games on the PSP.
STAR POWER: Across the Pacific, hardcore computer gamers gathered at the Anaheim, Calif., Convention Center for BlizzCon, the annual celebration of Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises. It was the first opportunity for most American gamers to get a look at Diablo III, the action/role-playing epic introduced earlier this year in Paris.
No strategy game may be more widely anticipated than Blizzard's StarCraft II, which has been in development for five years. Enthusiasts were either delighted or horrified by the news that StarCraft II will be broken up into three games, one for each of the universe's competing races.
Blizzard said that the first game, focusing on the Terrans, will probably have 26 to 30 missions, but fans of the Zerg and Protoss factions worried that it will be even longer before they'll see their favorite aliens again.
NEW IN STORES: Electronic Arts mixes science fiction and horror in Dead Space (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) ... THQ's gangstas return for more criminal mayhem in Saints Row 2 (360, PS3) ... Sega revives an arcade legend in Golden Axe: Beast Rider (360, PS3) ... Bored with the NFL? Try some other types of football with EA Sports' FIFA Soccer 09 (most systems) or Midway's Blitz: The League II (360, PS3) ... Konami tries to carve out a piece of the guitar-game pie with Rock Revolution (360, PS3, DS).
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