Gamestop Conference Expo
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So I attended the Gamestop conference out in Las Vegas in September, and after two full days of presentations from various game companies, we had a few hours to spend on the expo floor, which is kind of like a mini E3, with booths set up from tons of gaming companies to try out upcoming titles. A couple hours can go by pretty fast, especially when I spent the first half hour in line for a photo with Igarashi-san (I made a bee-line for the Konami booth as soon as I was in), I tried to avoid any titles that would have a huge line, unless I really wanted to try the game. And when it comes to the booth I went to after a pic with Igarashi, I really wanted to try the game.
Street Fighter 4
This game was gorgeous, and unbelievably smooth. I’m not much of a fighting game fan, but I’ve always, always loved Street Fighter, and this game feels every bit as good as the classic ones. They had 8 Japanese arcade cabinets set up, with each pair of cabinets linked, so you were fighting against the guy on the cabinet across from you. Everyone was in high spirits when they played, everyone shook hands after each match. I played as Chun-Li, won the first round but last the next two and had a great time doing it. While I was in line I could see people playing Silent Hill Homecoming, Bionic Commando and Resident Evil 5, all of which I knew would be too long of a wait if I wanted to get any additional games in.
Persona 4
I headed straight to the Atlus booth after loosing at Street Fighter, where they were showing off for the first time anywhere the English build of the game. If you liked Persona 3, you’ll feel right at home from what I played. You’ve got a group of four kids, you’re going around randomly generated dungeons and trying to sneak up on shadow-like creatures to get the initiative in battle. When in battle you have the usual range of commands, item, fight, magic, etc. The main character can once again switch Personas, while the others have just the one. One big addition is the ability to control each character in battle; whereas you were at the AI’s mercy when it came to your teammates in Persona 3, you now have the option to tell each person what to do. You can still switch them to autopilot, but this should make boss battles much, much easier. Also interesting to note was the characters’ weapons, which were common household things, like a wrench, umbrella, etc. The rep said you’ll get more lethal weapons later in the game, but with them being kids and all it makes more sense for them to start fighting with things other than swords.
…Then again, you are fighting creatures with spirits you conjure, which is all happening inside a TV you get sucked into, so it’s weird that they decided their weaponry was just too darn unrealistic. I did ask the rep if there were any plans to release the new Devil Summoner game in the states, but I guess it’s still too early to tell.
Onechanbara
This game’s coming out on the Wii and 360 sometime around March, I think. It started life as on of the Simple 2000 series of games in Japan and took off, similar to the 360’s Earth Defense Force 2017. You play a bikini-clad girl with a cowboy hat and a huge sword out to slice up some zombies. The premise seems wonderfully quirky and I think, like Earth Defense Force, this one could be a simple but fun game. My hands-on time was with the Wii version, and after about 10-15 minutes playing, I think I’ll go with the 360 version to spare my wrists. Don’t get me wrong, the game was fun, but the Wii remote and nunchuk each control the character’s right and left arms, so fights generally had you waggling like crazy non-stop, and my hands started getting really tired. One thing to note, however, is that it’s two player split-screen, which is a nice touch. Nothing like slicing up zombies with a friend!
Little Big Planet
I watched some people going through some of the developer-made “mini games” that are scattered throughout the game, but when I sat down with three others, we went through a traditional side-scrolling level. A lot of people have probably gotten their own hands on time by now thanks to the beta, but I will say that the multiplayer aspect could be something really great. That some of the areas require teamwork to get the secret items is a nice touch, but even little things like the ability to grab hold of each other and make like a little sackboy chain is really cool. Playing with friends is probably a bit more fun than playing through with three other strangers though, as I really didn’t want to be the one that was holding everyone back!
Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
This one is more of an aside than any actual hands-on time, due to the fact that there didn’t seem to be a functional option to exit or restart the level from the pause menu yet; the option was there, it just wouldn’t do anything. The part of the level I was in had already been played a bit, and from what I could gather, I was supposed to fly my vehicle through a series of rings in the air. That’s all well and good, but someone who had played it prior had instead flown the vehicle into the bottom of the large body of water nearby, and I couldn’t figure out any way to restart the challenge, or get my vehicle out. So I can only comment on the visuals really, having not gotten any actual playtime of any use. As is to be expected from the folks at Rare, the game looks amazing, much better in motion than any stills I had seen. I was a really big fan of the original (not so much the sequel) and I’m really looking forward to getting this game in my hands. The fact they’re giving the original for free as a pre-order bonus is icing on the cake!
Rhythm Heaven
I absolutely love Rhythm Tengoku on the GBA, and if they’d announced they were brining the DS sequel, Rhythm Tengoku Gold, to the US a week later than they had, I would probably have an import of the game by now. As it is, I decided to wait and support this game coming to the US, so they was my first time having any hands-on time with it. Basically, if you liked the first game on GBA, you’ll easily find yourself once again sucked into this one. I played the first four games on my way out of the expo, and found them just as charming and addictive as the original.
So that was pretty much everything I got to play. There was a ton of great stuff on the expo floor and I really wish I could have had more time to give more stuff a try, but as it is I was pretty excited to get to try a few games I am greatly anticipating a little bit early.