Tokyo Game Show 2008

Through some careful and sly manouvering, yours truly managed to squeeze in a visit to the Tokyo game show held in the huge "Makuhari Messe" convention center in Chiba this weekend. Although Ms. Sunshine couldn't be less interested in games, she kept herself entertained in the close by shopping center while I went to check out the latest games that will be hitting Japan in the future.

The event is an assault on the senses, with blinking lights everywhere, huge crowds of people, that range from looking ordinary to a quite large number of Akiba-kei (Akihabara style) Otaku people of both sexes, and constant noise from music, games and ongoing panel discussions at the different companies exhibition booths. However, since my patience for waiting in lines is pretty limited I didn't bother to stand in line for the hours needed to actually try out any of the games for 5 minutes, but just walked around the hall and checked out the ongoings.

One of the more interesting aspects of the game show is also the large amount of "cosplayers" that this event attracts and who hang out in the area connecting the two main exhibition halls. However, even a geek such as me cannot identify more than a few of the game characters that they are dressed up as. This is a disturbing fact as it is, that a large number of grown men and women go through the time and effort to create costumes that look like cheap plastic versions of their favorite video game character, but even more disturbing is the huge lines of otaku with expensive camera equipment that are lining up to take pictures of these people. I found it more entertaining to take pictures of the lines and the people taking the pictures since it's such an exquisite opportunity to chart the fashion culture of the Akiba-kei.

Oh, and yeah, I'm sure that you are all curious on what amazing games will await in the coming months and I am more than happy to share some of the highlights with you! We can all look forward to another amazing installment of the "Cooking Mama" series and also another, amazing I'm sure, "Gundam Musou II" game... Seriously, those type of games are what's wrong with Japan today, at least they're gonna release a new Puzzle Bobble game, but what we really need is a real remake of the original Puzzle Bobble game!

In any case, I'm probably going to go to the 2009 event as well, and I'm seriously thinking of participating in the cosply fun and I'm sure I could get the Akiba-kei people line-up for photos if I come dressed as the coolest game character ever; the Prince of Cosmos!