The Official SuperWes Homepage

September 21, 2002 Wes Ehrlichman

Ahh, the reason I HAD to come to Tokyo this particular weekend. The Tokyo Game Show.

Did it disappoint? Well, it certainly wasn't what I expected, but it was just as good as whatever it was I expected. For example I played no games at all the entire time I was there. This was party because my girlfriend was with me, but it was mostly because I had already played most of the games at E3, and any other high profile games had waits that were at least an hour and a half. I guess that's what happens when they leave these things open to the public. But the things you DO get when you leave it open to the public are well worth allowing thousands of people in. This was the first thing I saw when I got there:

There girls aren't paid to be there. They're just really into dressing up like game characters. No, I'm not joking. These people paid the $10 to get in just so they could walk around looking like an idiot. But I LOVED it, so I thank them for it. If I was good at sewing I would totally make myself a nice Mario outfit to wear to the game show. I collected all of my Cosplay pictures below, so when you're done reading this you can scroll down and check it out.

Here's the Sega Booth. They probably had the best booth at the show. There was a huge front stage area and a back section with tons of playable games and waits that weren't long compared to other companies. They also gave out more stuff than other companies, but you had to play the games to get most of it. I grabbed several 3D Panzer Dragoon postcards and a Monkey Ball washcloth.

You know how I said that I didn't play any games at all? Christina and Quinton both got to play one. They played the Low Rider game. If you think it's hilarious that they're making a low rider game wait until you see the game. First of all, the game itself consists of competing with your friends in a high jump contest using your car's hydraulics. First you try to jump the front half of the car as many times you can and as high as you can, then you do the back, then you shake the car from side to side, etc. the presentation is ultra stylized, right down to the Jesus on the cross in the middle of the screen whenever you lose. I promise you I'm not joking. This is one purchase I can't decide if I'll make. I feel like I should only buy good games, but this game is really drawing me with how stupid the concept is and how great it is that the Japanese people making it are totally taking a Low Rider game seriously. I'll probably end up buying it.

The Capcom Booth was ultra tight on camera security. I wasn't supposed to take this picture, but I did. I'm glad I did too because I got an early look at an awesome cutscene! Straight out of Final Fight!

Near the end of the show we found the Transformers section of the booth. They had almost every Transformer ever released, including three different repaints of the two foot tall Fortress Maximus Transformer, and one that I've wanted ever since I first saw Transformers the movie that's apparently in the production process right now... That's right. A Unicron Transformer!

This thing looked like it actually transformed into a planet and that the planet had an arm and a drill that extended from it so that the planet wasn't boring to play with. If this thing ever comes out I'm definately gonna pick it up.

There is a new clear white Playstation 2 coming out some time. Quinton asked when it was coming, but he said that they haven't decided yet. The booth design for it was really cool though. The guy in the glass case is one of Sony's mascots in Japan. I'm sure his game sucks, but he's such a cool character that I wish they would have used him somehow in the American advertising. Oh well.

And now, as promised above:

Cosplay Pictures

CapcomVega (M. Bison)