This past weekend I took the bus down to Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Show. Saturday and Sunday were open to the public. I figured that I’d be able to see what I wanted to see in one day, so on Sunday morning I left my capsule hotel and took the train out to western Chiba.

Arriving at my destination station, I went outside only to find that where I had expecte to see a huge exodus to the convention center I ended up coming across… nothing. After being confused for a few minutes I realized that I had exited the wrong side of the station. Oops. I switched over to the other side, saw thousands of young people, and was relieved. It took an hour of waiting in line to finally get inside, then it was finally on to the show itself!

Welcome to Tokyo!

The convention was split up into three seperate (but in a row) buildings–two for publishers then one for food/booths where game colleges showed off student-made games/stores. Of course, most people spent most of their time in the first two buildings, which tended to be dominated by huge booths from the huge publishers.

Microsoft trying to make a dent in the Japanese market

To my surprise, out of all of the large extravagent booths, I was most surprised by Sega’s.

Sega’s huge wraparound LED display(s)

In my opinion Sega had the most elaborate booth, which was so surprising because to me, Sega has been becoming a more and more peripheral part of the video game industry. Out of the huge elaborate display, only two games really stood out to me–Let’s Tap for the Wii and Sonic Unleashed. While the demo levels I played for Let’s Tap were enjoyable, overall it felt like yet another gimmicky Wii game. Tapping on a cardboard box can only be fun for so long. Sonic Unleashed looked a bit more promising. Aside from some framerate stuttering (a game based on speed should run constantly at 60 fps) I’m highly considering buying it for my Wii if the full version comes out well-reviewed.

They also had Phantasy Star 0 there, but I didn’t really care enough to wait in the uberly long line to check it out (a theme with me throughout the day).

While looking around a bit more at other games, I realized that there were really long lines (40+ min) for most games, so I wandered around a bit and played some DS games that had some shorter lines.

The DS’s LCDs grew up

After a bit of trying out various DS games, I headed over to the EA booth where I came across a Porsche.

I was trying to take a photo of the Porsche, but some booth babes got in the way

Out of all of the booth babes, and there were many, this is the only photo I happened to take of any, simply because I thought it was a cool display on EA’s part. Anyway, I found it to be a much more interesting display from the other way around.

Remember that for every photo of a TGS booth babe that you see, there were a bunch of drooling photographers on the other side

But it’s OK, because at least two people found love

But really, out of all of these games from big-name publishers that had cost millions upon millions of dollars yen to make, there was only one game that I felt compelled enough to wait in line for… then to wait in line for again… then to wait in line for again. Unforunately, while waiting in line for the third time the lady told me that they would be closing down their booth in half an hour, so I didn’t get to play the third time. Oh what game would compel me to do such things, especially when I was so content to just stand and watch other people play most other games with long lines?

It was to drive a train.

The best “game” at Tokyo Game Show 2008

To be more specific, this isn’t actually a game–it’s the system used to train train conductors, and to me it kicked every single other display’s ass at the show. Of course, this is coming from the guy that enjoys playing Densha de Go! in his free time. The huge difference is that Densha de Go! is a video game, while the software/hardware on display at TGS strived to be as accurate as a simulation as possible, straight down to the kickass hardware.

When I first walked up and started watching some guy playing it, I was quite surprised at the graphical quality for the scenery and such, especially so considering the obviously limited market and how much money it would cost to make such a detailed real-world environment. As I got closer I realized that I had had it all wrong, as what they had actually done was attach a high-def camera to the front of the actual train on the actual route you were driving. It then plays back at variable speeds depending on how fast you’re going. A rendered display of the cockpit and controls is then placed over the video, and along with the controls, it does an excellent job of simulating driving the specific train on the specific route you choose. There’s also a foot pedal for the horn. Oh yeah, baby, that hits the spot.

I asked the guy attending to the game how much the setup would cost, especially the controls. He simply said that regular people can’t buy it. Oh. Damn.

Nothing else was able to top driving the train. On that note, TGS ended and everyone headed home.

Far more people trying to buy tickets than the station was designed for

The train back to Tokyo Station was so packed that it felt like Tokyo morning rush hour… except it was Sunday evening. Then it was on the Sakura Bus back to Fukushima.

「福島やああ福島や福島や」

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