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International | Feature

Feature: The 5 best games at the Tokyo Game Show

Feature by Sid Shuman | 10/03/2007 | 15:14:11 PM PST

We name and profile the five best games at TGS 2007.

Halo 3

Well, duh. Halo 3 made quite an impression on the mostly Japanese TGS crowd, something that surprised us quite a bit considering that Halo is a firmly Americanized game. Be it the hype, the advertising campaign, or simply word of mouth, we were impressed to see a crowd of over 200 watching a team CTF battle comprised of mostly mediocre players. There is clearly something about Halo 3 that galvanizes Japanese gamers. Will this be the game to sell the Xbox 360 in Japan? Actually, and surprisingly, we're thinking that the answer may be "yes."

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Newly rumble-enabled, Kojima's highest-profile PS3 project was looking sharp at the Tokyo Game Show. Outside of a few brief moments when the frame rate dipped into the 20's and teens, the visual presentation was superb: dust, debris, and elaborate post-processing effects showed off the power of Sony's battlestation. Otherwise, it was much of the same content that Kojima himself demonstrated at his Tokyo appearance in August. The controls have been much Western-ized since MGS3, and the change was vastly for the better. But not everything was different: the X button still handled dodging and crawling, and L2 and R2 handled item and weapon switching via the familiar MGS interface.

Despite the emphasis on stealthy combat, Kojima has mentioned earlier that MGS4 will allow for more guns-blazing approaches...but that such an action-oriented strategy would be "very hard." We saw quite a few players lunge into the fray, and as more and more soldiers ganged up on Snake, the results weren't pretty. Remember, kids: stealth is your friend!

Soul Calibur IV

Ah, yes. Soul Calibur IV had some of the nicest graphics we saw at the Tokyo Game Show. And though the gameplay and artificial intelligence were still clearly works-in-progress, the gameplay has taken some nice (if modest) steps forward. One key improvement particularly piqued our interest: a revised Ring Out system. A chief complaint of the series has been the ease at which players can knock each other out of the ring to score an easy victory. Soul Calibur IV improves upon this by introducing breakable background walls and objects, which give you a second chance if you're about to be knocked out.

But back to those graphics - they were sweeeeet. You could see real-time reflections of the arenas in Mitsurugi's katana sword, and they looked eerily accurate. Taki's new costume has a metallic sheen to it, an eye-catching detail, and Astaroth (read: the big brute with the axe) seemed to be formed out of semi-hardened magma. Oh, and the T&A factor was off the charts: Taki's, um, assets bobbed and jiggled after each move. We expect that fighting fans - and pubescent teen boys - will have a ton of fun with Soul Calibur IV when it hits the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime later in 2008.