It was trade show time again 2 weeks ago as the Tokyo Amusement Expo 2008 (aka Tokyo Arcade Game Show) rolled into town at the Makuhari Messe. Compared to the Tokyo Game Show, which is the year’s video game event by excellence, TAE is a much smaller affair spread over two days and taking in just one of Makuhari’s exhibition halls. When TGS rolls into town, pretty much the whole of Makuhari is taken over, and the majority of Tokyo’s geek community descends on the Chiba town. TAE was quieter and smaller, which didn’t necessarily make it less fun.
For one you get more space to stroll around, taking in all the glory of trade shows: the scantily-clothed ladies, the suits eyeballing people from the sides, the stall staff looking bored or scared, the geeks willing to queue 2h for a five minute blast on a yet to be released game and the hordes of pervy old men with big cameras chasing the aforementioned scantily-clad ladies. The arcade show had the added bonus of also being swarmed by hundreds of kids, dragging their parents to various stands displaying the latest wares aimed at the younger market, from card games to UFO catchers to… well, really weird shit.
The highlight of this year’s show, by a long mile, and pretty much the reason I decided to call in sick at work and go, was Capcom’s unveiling of the new Street Fighter 4 arcade. After all if anything is going to pull in numbers and attention it’s the return of one of the world’s best known and most loved game franchises. Anyone who’s spent (or should that be wasted?) uncountable hours of their youth bashing buttons on pads and joysticks to discover the secrets of the gameplay will understand what I’m saying. There is no two ways about, Street Fighter is the best fighting game ever made, and that’s that. Anyone who disagrees gets a dragon punch to the stomach.
Capcom’s stand was mobbed from the moment we stepped in to the moment we left. And while I kind of expected that, it still sucked. 2-hour queues were requisite to get a blast at the soon to be released arcade. Oh and you also got what looked like a sweat towel with the SF4 logo and Ryu’s face for your troubles. I didn’t even bother trying it on, but looking on from the sides and at the rolling demo was enough to convince me that for once the game might well live up to the hype, and that a company will deliver a product that actually betters the much-loved original. As my mate put it, “it looks like Street Fighter EX on crack,” a comment you need geek goggles on for to fully appreciate 
.
Apart from SF4 there wasn’t much else to really get excited about unfortunately, bar a few other fighting favourites including a 3d rework of Samurai Spirits (Samurai Showdown in the west). That’s actually the one arcade which ended up taking most of my time, aided by the fact that you only needed to wait ten minutes for a bash. The game is basically Soul Calibur set in olden times with all the standard Samurai Spirits characters, plus new ones, and some amazing music, sound effects and visuals used for the cut scenes. And the best part is that it’s great fun to play. Anyone with a bit of knowledge about the gaming industry in recent years will know that making an original 3d fighting game with swords after Soul Calibur is going to be nigh on impossible, but Samurai Spirits may well just pull it off.
Only other things tickling my interest were some arcade classics, inluding Taiko No Tatsujin, now on its 11th incarnation. But they were all mobbed from the off, and I can’t say I’m enough of a geek to queue two hours for a go on an arcade that’ll be on general release within a few months.
And that was about it really, apart from a few incredibly geeky other things which I don’t really know much about (including some crazy ass shoot-em up game called Don Don Pachi) and what must have been one of the weirdest arcade ideas I’ve ever seen, called Jubeat. Basically it’s part of the music making arcades family, Guitar Hero for example, but instead of looking like an idiot playing a fake instrument with stupendous dexterity (you wanna see some of the kids in the arcades out here, shit’s scary), you look like an idiot whilst tapping pads on a flashing cube that looks a bit like a Rubix cube. If I remember well the pads create the music, as opposed to just following it like normal music games. Whatever, it looked pretty messed up, a feeling only increased by a demo from a Japanese pop band which was pretty abismal. The geeks will no doubt love it, and so will the schoolgirls.
Oh yeah, Sega’s stand was pretty disapointing, a shame considering their rep in the arcade world, and Square Enix made a surprise appearance, apparently they’ve decided to enter the arcade market with a new card based role playing game. Where Square are betting their money is the game’s cards, which feature artwork from some of their most famous artists, including the guy responsible for the original Final Fantasy artwork. Well that and the fact that when it comes to role playing games you just don’t fuck with Square.
As a sidenote, those role playing card video games are pretty amazing to witness (or sad depending on where you stand on the whole game/role playing thing). It’s like a geek’s wet dream, the combination of role playing video games and role playing card games, so not only are you making money off people by getting them to pay for playing the game, you get money for getting them to buy cards to play the video game! As I said, amazing. The games generally have a sort of motion sensitive panel in front of the screen, where players lay their cards which are then recognised, as well as their movements, and integrated into the gameplay. While the role playing ones are incredibly popular here, which isn’t surprising considering it combines two incredibly geeky and addictive past times, there are also ones based on sports, including football and horse racing. Oh and a Gundam one too. And they all involve cards and video games. Sometimes I really do love this country.
You might still be wondering about the ageing rockers mention in the title, and you’d be right to do so. Turns out this year’s TAE took place on the same day as an Iron Maiden concert at Makuhari Messe. As a result we not only had the pleasures of the usual geeky crowd, but also hordes of ageing rockers, westerners and Japanese alike, trawling the halls with long hair, tight trousers and black t-shirts looking either confused, amused or drunk (or a combination of the three). As we left, more and more were pouring into the area making for an increasingly amusing mix of geeks and hard rock nuts. You got to wonder if Maiden made an appearance at the show, maybe squeezing in a little bash on Taiko or a quick round of UFO catcher.
As usual, a pics are on Flickr for those who like pictures to accompany words
TAE 2008 set on Flickr
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