I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the Tokyo Game Show several times over the years, but this is the first time that I’ve ever had to spend a few days working at the front desk of a company booth at the show. This turned out to be both good and bad. Good, because I managed to hook up with a surprising amount of media people at the people (talking with media people is a large chunk of what I do here at Capcom) as well as managed to spend time chatting face-to-face with a number of Capcom Japan compatriots that I usually know as little more than an email address or a voice on the phone. Bad, of course, because I had to spend a few hours standing on a concrete floor in the hot sticky Tokyo air, and I am a lazy, lazy man. Mostly, I’m happy that I only had to work on the “business days” (Thursday and Friday), and not the insane free-for-all that is Saturday and Sunday at TGS.
I have several pics of the Capcom booth that I consider “before” and “after.” The before shots come from Thursday and Friday, before the sea of Japanese gamers washed up against the steely shores of Capcom’s booth. The after pics are from 30 spazmotic minutes I spent swimming against the tides of humanity to document hour long lines for DMC4 and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles play sessions, not to mention similar lines for We Love Golf! and Kobyashi-san’s other game-in-progress, Sengoku Basara 2.
The main focus for the booth this year was, unsurprisingly, DMC4. We’ve been regrettably quiet on this title for most of the year, breaking new gameplay footage in the Spring, a light sprinkling of deviously short trailers here and there, and 360-playable code at the European Games Convention in August. However, the DMC team pulled out a new 3 minute trailer for TGS that was positively jaw-dropping, featuring hot Dante vs. Nero action, new bosses, new characters, all sorts of quick glimpses of new levels and gameplay, etc., all delivered in high definition on a 20’ screen. This new trailer will be delivered to Xbox Live Marketplace and the PS3 store in a few weeks, so you will be able to bask in the rosy glow of high definition video from the comfort of your own home. There was never a moment when the 30+ game stations running DMC4 were not occupied, including the ones in the Microsoft and PlayStation booths. The DMC4 section was a bit restrained, with ranks of game stations set up in two rows, and a city backdrop from the game that was similar to the one we had at E3.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (henceforth typed as REUC, to the relief of my fingertips) was shown in a dialed-out creepy mansion-flavored area that sported columns and checkered floor patterns similar to RE 1, as well as guttering chandeliers and campaign girls (aka “booth babes”) decked out in REUC shirts, camo shorts, camo high heels (where does one go to purchase camouflaged high heels?) and Zappers galore. The area was dark and spooky and felt much like a haunted house attraction and rang with the sounds of co-op gunfire. We really should have had wandering zombie dudes jumping out to freak out gamers. Damn, next year…
TGS marked the first public showing of We Love Golf!, the superfun golf game being developed by Camelot Software for Capcom. The Camelot team’s past experience designing games like Mario Golf, Mario Tennis and the original Hot Shots Golf is obvious from the gameplay and design of the title. With assistance from the helpful orange shirted campaign girls, most folks were up and putting with the Wii Remote in moments. The booth area felt much like a Japanese golf range, with green “grass” flooring and a very mellow lighting scheme. The We Love Golf! portion of the booth sort of felt like an island oasis of sanity amongst the Crazy-Crazy! Funtime! Exploding Frenzy that is TGS.
Zack and Wiki is quickly becoming one of my most favorite Capcom games. There’s really nothing else like it out there, and the dedicated area matched the game’s kooky pirate spirit perfectly. The campaign girls working the Z&W area had a jungle explorer look, which matched the giant idol and treasure trove tucked away within the play area.
Other notable areas in the Capcom booth included the small GTA: Vice Cities Stories section (Capcom distributes the game in Japan) and the Moto GP zone that had suits and boots from actual Moto GP riders. Samurai-flavored action game Sengoku Basara 2 had a pretty large chunk of space next to the REUC mansion, which housed a giant metallic samurai statue, as well as plenty of kiosks running the PS2 game. Basara may or may not come to the US, but it is becoming an increasingly large franchise for Capcom in Japan. Recently, the arcade division there announced a Basara fighting game, and there’s even going to be a Basara festival in Tokyo in late October. Oddly, the game has a sizable percentage of female players (over 50%), which was obvious from the amount of women lined up to play during the show.
During my time at the Capcom booth, I was able to watch several presentations, which is incredibly helpful in getting to know the various game producers, as well as being able to see first-hand what elements of the various games the actual creators think are important enough to hammer home to a consumer audience. As in most TGS booths, a large part of the overall floor space was dedicated to the stage and 20’ screen, from which Capcom ran hourly… shows? Interviews? Presentations? I’m not sure how to even define these events accurately. At the start of each session, a hottie campaign girl would come on stage, accompanied by one or more members of a game team. The hottie would then usually conduct an interview, asking a series of questions about each game or franchise, while video would run on the screen above and behind them. Sometimes, a larger group would come on stage, such as the host of Japanese comedians who came out to demo Zack and Wiki while producer Takeshita-san offered gameplay suggestions and hints. Mega Man producer Horinouchi-san (who is cool enough to sport a blonde topknot and the rad nome de game “Hori-ken,” which sounds like a Street Fighter special move) was accompanied onstage by Mega Man – the same Mega Man that appeared at Comic-con in San Diego this summer. The costume, at least, not sure who was inside.
On a side note, Capcom’s campaign girls won a TGS show award for best costume design. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say who, but a top member of Capcom’s development was undoubtedly very pleased by this, as he personally designs the campaign girl costumes almost every year. “Campaign girls” are so called because they are considered to be part of the marketing campaign around a game. Sounds a lot less trashy than booth babe, too. True story: there are officially approved poses for the girls; they must strike one of them for any picture they pose for.
For even MORE coverage on all things Capcom at the 2007 TGS, click here!