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The future, or the past?
Tokyo Game Show used to be the biggest event of the year for gamers, but as Japanese development found itself being overtaken by the West, the importance of the convention has waned. That's not to say it's no longer important, though--TGS is still a vital part of the industry, giving a glimpse into what Japan's developers, publishers, and public are interested in. Some of gaming's greatest innovations have come out of Japan, and there's no reason to think that this won't continue into the future.
Monster Hunter clones are bigger than ever
Monster Hunter 4 came out in Japan this week, and while it didn't do GTA 5 numbers, it still sold absurdly well considering it only launched in one market. Everywhere you turn there are people playing it, giant billboards for it, and stores promoting it--honestly, it's about as crazy as a Call of Duty launch in the states. The country is obsessed with MH, and nowhere was that as evident as it was at the show itself.
Next-gen doesn't appear to be all that important yet
Microsoft and Sony both had booths showing off their next-gen consoles, but, honestly, the new hardware has a relatively small footprint on the show floor. Instead, it looked like most developers decided to simply stay the course, pushing out new games for the PlayStation 3, 3DS, and Vita instead of preparing for the impending generational switch.
It's as if the Wii U doesnt really exist
While we were mildly surprised by the lack of PS4 and Xbox One games, we were outright shocked by the complete lack of Wii U titles at the show. In fact we don't know if we saw any. At all. There might have been one or two squirreled away in a closet somewhere, but seriously--Nintendo's tablet-based peripheral was nowhere to be found.
More and more developers are working on crossovers
Puyo Puyo Tetris was being shown off at the Sony booth this year, a game that mixes... well, Puyo Puyo with Tetris. It's a competitive game where one player plays one game and the other plays the other, with very little actual crossover of the two. It's like having one team play basketball and another play tennis on the same court. And that wasn't the only crossover we saw--in fact, we noticed that there were a good number of developers striking deals with other developers to merge their licenses.
Brawlers are on the upswing
J-Stars Victory Vs. wasn't the only brawler, though. This genre appears to be on the upswing, with more developers finding unique ways to drop a bunch of people into an arena and have them beat each other up. It makes sense--they're good for the aforementioned mash-ups, and they seem to be an interesting way to merge traditional Japanese gameplay with more action-based combat.
Everyone is remaking everything
Walk by the Square booth and you'll see Final Fantasy X HD on display--and only a few booths over you'll see Capcom' who is re-releasing Monster Hunter Frontier G for the Vita. Namco is remaking Soulcalibur 2 and adding online multiplayer, and Castlevania: Mirror of Fate being bumped to HD. Oh, and Sega had Castle of Illusion HD at its booth, too.
