In previous years the Tokyo Game Show has always been a three day event. The first day being exclusive to the press and industry insiders, and the remaining two days being open to the public. This year the gaming gods have smiled upon us, and press access has been extended to two full days. Since we have been given such a tremendous opportunity, we couldn’t let it go to waste. Here are some of the things we did today. *deep breath* Ready?

For the second night in a row I managed to get by on less than 2 hours of sleep. I dragged myself out of bed, showered, threw on some clothes and went right to the station. The station next to our hotel is pronounced “Toe Kay” but we still thought it was pretty funny. Sleep deprivation can do that to you.

Another thing it can do to you is have you not notice that your shirt is inside out until after you arrive at the convention center. We were already running a bit late for the Namco-Bandai press conference and I didn’t have time to find a bathroom. It was at that time that I decided to hide behind a bush and take off my shirt. The plant provided little to no actual cover, and the Japanese people who stared as they passed must of thought that I was some crazy cos-player getting ready to go as a naked character from Metal gear Solid. I winked at them and they stopped looking at me. It’s a good thing, because I think I was turning red with shame.

Now fully clothed, we could go to the Namco-Bandai overseas press conference. This was my first time to attend a presser that was presented in English. It mainly consisted of the new trailers (many still in Japanese) and the unveiling of a new Wii title, based on a very old concept, in the form of “Family Trainer”.

The original “Family Trainer” was a plastic pad (much like a DDR controller) that was released for the Famicom about 20 years ago. People outside of Japan know it as the “Power Pad” and it was so popular that for a time Nintendo actually packed it in with the NES system in the United States. I never had one, (my mom forbid games that shook the house) but my friends did, and seeing this brought back a lot of good memories.

Of course the only way to properly debut a new product in Japan is to have a few young pretty girls demonstrate it for you. This product is no different. Two girls came on the stage and attempted to play this collection of mini-games. Unfortunately, they were not very good at them and their lack of skill actually made it look like the controller was hard to use. Trying it myself later I found that it actually was fairly responsive and that these girls were not chosen specifically for their game playing skills. We took a video of the game in action and hope to have that posted shortly (I need a nap) so you can see what it is all about.

After the demo was over I got a chance to try my hand at Soul Calibur Legends (impressions coming soon), and a number of Namco-Bandai games for the DS. The staff was really helpful and let us spend a long time trying out the games.

After leaving Namco-Bandai, I went over to the neighboring Tecmo booth to have a go with Super Swing Golf 2 (Pangya 2). Now I must confess, I never played the first Super Swing Golf and I guess I just assumed that it would have controls similar to Wii Sports Golf. I was wrong about this. The actual controls are quite different and in my opinion less intuitive. It is definitely a more full-featured golf game than Wii Sports, but at least for me it was awkward to control. I am sure I would get used to the controls if I played it for more than the 15 minutes I had with it on the show floor, but I was hoping it would be more of a pick-up-and-play sort of experience.

Next I visited the Square-Enix booth. As usual the lines were very, very long. This year it seemed that Squeenix really wanted to push their DS titles. They were in the best booth locations and had the most demo stations available. I decided that I needed to try my hands at the Final Fantasy IV remake. Full impressions will be coming soon but… spoiler… It’s really good.

After this we headed back to the staff room to get something to drink and sit for a bit. I chatted with some other writers and reporters I knew and SeanOrange closed his eyes for a few minutes of rest. I snapped a picture of him, but before I could get to a computer and write this story, Kotaku, who were at the table next to us, had already put it up. Scooped again…

On the other hand, I wasn’t tired at all and went to wander around with Jools for a bit. We came to the Hudson booth where they were showing off a game called “Deca Sporta”. At first it looked like a Wii Sports clone (which it sort of is), but there is more to it than that. It sort of picks up where Wii Sports left off by including a large variety of other sports. The full game will include the following: football (soccer), super cross, snowboarding, curling, basketball, kart racing, beach volleyball, figure skating, archery and badminton. The version on display at TGS had only 3 of the sports; Archery, Badminton and Snowboarding.

I played archery and badminton with the girl in the booth. Both of them, like the Wii Sports games, were very intuitive and easy to control. Badminton was extremely forgiving, it was almost hard to not hit the ball, yet there was still an element of strategy. I think this game would be great for new Wii players. Sadly the game does not use the Mii characters like Wii Sports, and I can see many people being disappointed because of it. Other than that, I see it as a logical extension of Wii Sports and people who liked that game will most likely enjoy this title as well.

After the Hudson booth I went around and played any Wii game I could find with a short line (or no line at all). I quickly found out why some of these games had no one lining up. I especially remember one I tried where you were a creepy looking guy (think Tingle) in a bug suit trying to jump a wooden horse. Very odd.

A day at TGS seems to go by so quickly, and you never really get to see everything you want. Looking at my watch I could see my time was almost up so I decided I had to indulge in a personal favorite of mine and check out the latest game in the Sakura Taisen series. I have been a fan of “steam punk” tactics/simulation games since the Saturn days and have played each of the games in the main series. When the DS game was announced, it was also revealed that it would be a “dungeon RPG”. I really had no idea how they would make this new direction work.

I was pleasantly surprised that while this new iteration is a very different type of game, it still retains the look and feel of the series. All the familiar characters from the main series are present, as well as the conversation system known as “LIPS”. At the same time they have managed to speed up the battle process my making it sort of an “Action Tactics” game. I wasn’t able to play it long enough to fully understand all the controls, but the little taste I had left me wanting more.

Another thing I realized I wanted more of was something to eat. TGS was closing, the booth attendees were shooing people out and the press were packing up. Jools, SeanOrange and I decided to eat at a restaurant we went to last year called “It’s Vegatable”. We went with a few other nice people we met at the show and had some very good vegetables, both cooked and fermented. Unfortunately, since this place was nowhere near our hotel, we finally crawled “home” around midnight.

Which brings me up to right now. Again I have managed to stay up past 2:00am and still have so much more stuff to post. I hope you look forward to reading it as much as I look forward to my pillow.

Goodnight.