Despite reports, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was actually released in Japan sometime in 2005. With this in mind, Microsoft took over a relatively large portion of the Tokyo Game Show floor this year, which surprisingly drew consistent traffic on the days that I attended.
Like much of TGS this year, there were no major surprises here other than the fact that there were Japanese people lined up to play Halo 3. Other first party titles like Project Gotham Racing 4 were accented by the likes of Beautiful Katamari, Virtua Fighter 5, NBA Live 2008, Ace Combat 6, and Devil May Cry 4 (with no significant lines, as there were zero phone charms to be had as a result). A handful of Xbox Live Arcade titles were also playable at dedicated kiosks, with the highlights being titles like Ikaruga and Every Extend Extra Extreme.
The closed-off Ninja Gaiden II (non-playable) demonstration predictably drew lines, but what’s most surprising is the behind-drawn-curtain playable demo of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. At certain points, the wait topped out at close to an hour and a half, according to what one Ubisoft rep told me. Impressive for a foreign game that features a male lead that does not look like a girl.
By far the most intersting title being shown? How about a squad-based tactical strategy title set in World War II sound? I can see I’m losing you here, so let’s try this. What if it re-wrote history so that the Nazis were vampires, werewolves carry bazookas, and zombies and dragons are par for the course. That about sums up the Sega published, Japanese-release only Xbox 360 title, Operation Darkness. “Sweet” just isn’t a strong enough word.
