Tokyo Game Show 2007: Friday Report

Once more into the breach I dove to bring you more hands-on impressions on a variety of games on display.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii) - This SEGA title is one of the more anticipated Wii titles this fall, especially by fans who remember the cult classic. I had problems with the controls, but only because the SEGA staffer forced me to use the wiimote with my right hand instead of my preferred left, but I slowly adapted. Stunning visuals and although the controls do take some time to get used to, the game plays essentially like an airborne version of Sonic - not that that’s a bad thing, of course. In the level I played, I flew Nights around a tropical environment that involved both bouncing off clouds and diving underwater in a quest to catch bad guys holding special keys. Definitely a title that will perform well upon its release later this fall.

Power Pro Major League 2 (Wii) - Part of the Power Pro series from Konami, this game will be released as MLB Power Pros in the US this fall, and features all 32 major-league teams. The basic mechanics are simple (think Wii Sports Baseball but with less frustrating pitching) and the graphics are fun in their cartoonishness which means this game will likely find success with younger gamers (and perhaps sports bars that want to have fun promotions). I played three innings as my hometown Phillies versus the Cardinals and ran up a 6-1 score in three innings. Oddly enough, Cole Hamels kept shaking off the pitches I signaled to him. Bastard.

Little Big Planet (PS3) - I’ll admit, the PS3 is not high on my priorities list, not just because of my aversion towards Sony as a result of the last three or four years of gaffes, but because $600 is a helluva lot to pay for a console. That said, Little Big Planet was perhaps one of the most enjoyable experiences I had at TGS today and, if I had the spare change lying around, would certainly be a factor in any decision to purchase a PS3. The demo at TGS organized players in groups of three (in this case, myself and two French journalists) with a Sony staffer taking the fourth controller and guiding us through a level in which we had to perform various tasks such as moving a soccer ball or lifting a heavy object, which would combine the efforts of all four pint-sized players. We bounced on stars, clamored up and down platforms, and rode a runaway skateboard down to the finish zone. While I desperately want to describe it as a ‘killer app,’ I worry that it’s not quite the case - Little Big Planet, while certainly a technical achievement in the greatest of terms, dazzles the player with warm and fuzziness rather than knocking them on their ass with elaborate fight sequences or the fare we typically expect from games. It almost feels like it would be a better fit for a Nintendo console, so I’m curious as to how it will perform upon its release next year.

No More Heroes (Wii) - This anticipated title from Grasshopper Manufacture was on display at the Marvelous Interactive Inc. booth. How I missed it the first day I don’t know, but I’m certainly glad I found it today. Incredibly stylish art, with fights that culminated in defeated enemies exploding in a cloud of pixels, were a huge draw for me. The controls were also quite a relief; no reliance on waggle. Instead, sword slashes and attacks are executed mostly with the A and B buttons on the wiimote (although some shaking may be in order to charge the laser katana), and the Wii-mote and nunchuck can be swung in a certain direction (following on-screen cues) that result in devastating finishing moves. Here’s hoping North American publisher Ubisoft is taking notes - No More Heroes is everything Red Steel could have been.

Assassin’s Creed (360) - Was the demo worth the 90 or so minutes both I and others spent waiting to see it? Despite the relative lack of hands-on experience (I only held the controller for a couple minutes), the demonstration by an Ubisoft staffer was incredibly impressive. He demonstrated the various ways that you can lead the main character, Altair, to your target; from blending in with a crowd and walking past guards to scaling towers and using throwing knives to incapacitate archers. Free-running mode allows you to scale buildings and run through the crowd (pushing and shoving NPCs to keep them out of your way). In combat, fighting mode allows you to use devastating counter-attacks that looked cinematic in scope when executed. This is not a game where the player needs to worry about every single little thing - the nature of the control scheme means that the basics are practically automatic when executed with the left thumbstick, and that the push of a button will cause fantastic things to occur one way or the other. At the end of the demo I was handed the controller and asked to scale a large cathedral, which I was able to do almost effortlessly and then gaze on the hundreds of buildings below, all of which, I was told, are explorable. Afterwards I jumped off the steeple several stories down into a cart full of hay. Sony took a major hit when they lost this as an exclusive, and I for one look forward to finding out just why there’s so many “digital” elements in the game in November.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) - In terms of sheer space dedicated to it, this had to be the most-hyped game at TGS. At Konami’s booth, 25 or so stations were enclosed inside a fence topped with barbed wire. Before getting to play, we were brought into a small theater where several actors in military uniform gave us our “briefing” on the control system and the various ways in which Snake could kick ass and take names - or choose not to and sneak past undetected. Oddly enough, when we were instructed to pull the PS3 controllers out of the pouches under our seats, they turned out to be real PS3 controllers; I would have expected a plastic mock-up to have done the trick, but it’s not my showroom display. The briefing - all in Japanese was filled with the requisite humour and included a suave ‘general’ who picked on the one white girl in the room, an overenthusiastic private who insisted on speaking in English, and a black commanding officer who definitely enjoyed his role. When the briefing room came under “attack” (complete with smoke effects), we were ushered to the consoles and given 20 minutes to complete our mission.

As for gameplay itself… well, let’s just say that I am not very stealthy and pretty much decided to abandon my position of hiding and have a blast taking out soldiers with a combination of anesthetic bullets and machine gun fire. I completed the mission regardless, but it was certainly not in the Way It Was Meant To Be Completed. I suppose I just wasn’t meant to hunt Metal Gears.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) - After taking up an invitation to the Capcom press suite I was able to get my hands on a Wii Zapper without having to wait in line for an hour. I played in co-op mode with another journalist and we had a go of the train level which involved blasting zombies, leeches, and a giant scorpion. It was fun, but the feel of the Zapper certainly takes some time to get used to and depending on your arm length you may find it uncomfortable. Personally I would have preferred the Zapper to be adjustable in length - that way it could be more comfortable for people in different stances. I imagine a 3rd-party solution of that sort will be available in the future. In any case, the other issue I had with the Zapper was that my left hand (on the front handle/trigger) would need to contort to somewhat uncomfortable positions in order to be able to hit the A-button when needed. It was fun, but I almost feel like it’s only a metaphorical testing of the waters; hopefully there will be better executions of the Zapper in the future.

Devil May Cry 4 (360) - As the Capcom rep in their press suite told me after I viewed a cut scene in which Dante shoots a control box to activate a switch, “In any other game, you’d have to go back into the mansion and find the red key and the green card to turn on that switch - Dante just shoots it and you move on.” That’s all that really needs to be said about DMC4. It is, in essence, the opposite of Metal Gear Solid 4. No sneaking around, no subtlety, no wide variety of weapons and tactics. Just Dante, his pistol, a demon hand (or sword!) and a never-ending stream of bad guys for you to shoot, slash, throw, and slay in a variety of ways. Solid graphics and action that flows from one battle to the next. Devil May Cry appeals to the reptilian part of your brain that just wants to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and will likely be the first game in the series that I’ll purchase.