Gallery: Hands-On With PlayStation 4 and More at Tokyo Game Show
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CHIBA, Japan -- PlayStation 4 is the star of the show here at Tokyo Game Show, but some of the most anticipated games are still on current-generation platforms. From last gen to this gen, here's what I played as I walked through the halls of the Makuhari Messe convention center at Japan's annual gaming gala. __Above:__ Deep Down (PlayStation 4, 2014) ------------------------------- There wasn't a lot of Capcom's Deep Down to see at the Tokyo Game Show, but as a next-generation videogame title (one made in Japan, at that) it only needs to do two things: look pretty and feel familiar enough to lure players in. By those standards, Deep Down is already a success. Deep Down's graphics are the first I've seen on the PlayStation 4 that appear to justify the PlayStation 4's existence. The level of detail in every glimmering object and flickering flame is impressive. If your knight has the misfortune to be lit on fire, watching the blaze spread across his body will be a treat. Ah yes, the game: Deep Down resembles Dark Souls, but its technical advantages weigh combat heavily in favor of the player. In Dark Souls, combat is messy. You swing a sword or axe and whatever's in that range, you hit. In Deep Down, *where* you hit is important: Stab an orc in the knee and it'll fall to the ground, vulnerable. Poke its weapon and you might break it, reducing the orc's reach. Deep Down even lets you hold the L1 button to aim and make precision strikes. Orcs are large and slow, so once I realized how vulnerable they were, they were no longer a threat. It was still fun to poke them with a spear though, especially as their bodies remained in the dungeon, allowing for continued poking practice.
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Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 2014) -------------------------------------------------------- The first thing you do in Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is die. Your character, Yaiba, fights the hero of the Ninja Gaiden series, Ryu Hayabusa, and Ryu kills Yaiba. Yet Yaiba wakes from the grave, newly stitched together and sporting a robotic arm. Then the zombie horde attacks. Whatever narrative twists lead to this point, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z becomes a standard third-person slash-all-monsters game. Mash the attack buttons, shred the zombies. Some zombies are bigger than others, but those zombies can be mounted and used against lesser zombies. This reminded me of Batman Arkham Asylum, especially since enemies give you a brief visual warning before they attack. What keeps it apart from a regular Ninja Gaiden game, and what held my attention, were two things: the inked aesthetic and the grim humor. Vanilla Ninja Gaiden, like a lot of third-person action games, takes the "realistic" approach in its artistic and character design. Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z looks more like a comic book, with strong blacks, shading and exaggerated proportions. The one solid laugh I got from playing Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z was during a cut scene. I had thrown a zombie into a steamroller and it took the wheel. It then gestured and moaned to another zombie in a fruitless attempt to clear a path. A later cut scene, one that ends with Yaiba surrounded by falling panties, didn't have the same morbidity. But I appreciate a game trying to make me laugh, even one soaked in blood like Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.
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Titanfall (Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, 2014) ------------------------------------------- Here's the elevator pitch for Titanfall: You play Call of Duty until a giant robot falls from the sky and then you get inside the giant robot and continue to play Call of Duty. That sentence either thrilled you beyond belief or bored you to tears. Personally I have never been big on multiplayer-focused experiences like Call of Duty, but a session of Titanfall on the Tokyo Game Show floor was a lot of fun. I'm sure the competition level was a factor; history has shown that [I am better at shooters than most Japanese businessmen](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2009/09/left-4-dead-2/). The field isn't just player vs. player, as CPU-controlled soldiers help to fill the war-torn city with life -- which you must extinguish. As a human, I had a magnetized handgun which let me better target opponents. Once I climbed into my personalized robot, my gun was so large I didn't need magnets to help aim. During my brief but murderous rampage, the game was feeding me lots of encouraging messages. I "leveled up" at least three times. My gruff commander said "You're unstoppable" each time I managed a kill streak. And the Xbox One controller shook in my hand in just the right ways to support the notion that I was driving a giant robot soldier. If nothing else, the long lines for Titanfall at Tokyo Game Show prove there are some curious [customers remaining in Japan for Microsoft](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/09/tokyo-game-show-kinect/all/) to try and woo.
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Strider (PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, 2014) --------------------------------------------------- Capcom's classic Strider series has been on ice since 1999's Strider 2 on the original PlayStation, but this new game looks to push all the right buttons in reviving the character. Main character Hiryu is fast, both in moving and in slashing his sword. He can slide across the ground, double-jump, climb walls, and hang from ceilings. And since nearly all the enemies carry guns, the best way to play Strider is to rush in and chop everything to pieces. With a little practice, I found that Hiryu was more than agile enough to dodge most attacks, a far cry from his clunkier arcade and Sega Genesis roots. In the demo level at Tokyo Game Show, there was a steady progression of upgrades. New powers like reflecting bullets and a charged blade attack both enabled new combat tactics and opened up new paths to explore, making it feel like Metroid. This means rather than simply dashing towards the finish line, players will have to do a little backtracking... like Metroid. So far, Strider reminds me of Bionic Commando Rearmed: a game that channels the best elements of a classic game without hesitating to throw away the bits that didn't work. It also helps when the new game contains frequent nods to the old game, such as a cackling laugh when you press the Start button and giant mechanical snake boss at the end of the first stage.
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Puyo Puyo Tetris (PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Wii U and 3DS, 2014) -------------------------------------------------------------- In a way, this puzzle mashup seems long overdue. Tetris has been a global sensation for decades, and Puyo Puyo has been big in Japan for almost as long. Puyo Puyo Tetris simply lets players compete using whichever puzzler they prefer. Both games work the same way: drop pieces onto the screen to either complete lines or arrange blobs into groups of four. Succeed, and the other player's screen is restricted by raising the floor (Tetris) or dropping grey blobs that can't easily be cleared away (Puyo Puyo). With the ability to rack up big combos through continually matching blobs, Puyo Puyo players seem to have the competitive advantage. After all, the best a Tetris player can hope for is four lines. Yet Tetris players are stronger defensively because opponents' attacks go on the bottom of the screen. With each side having inherent strengths and weaknesses, Puyo Puyo Tetris is poised to start and then settle arguments in households across Japan. A friend of mine put it simply: "My girlfriend loves Puyo and I hate it, but I'm good at Tetris." Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, let this be your final battlefield.
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Dark Souls II (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 11, 2014; PC to follow) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I missed out on the original Dark Souls phenomenon, mostly because its critical praise was always uttered in the same breath as cautionary tales of its difficulty. A game where you die a lot and lose progress doesn't sound like a good time to me. My time with Dark Souls II showed me I was right and wrong. Yes, it's hard. Yes, I died a lot. But I certainly enjoyed it because after fifteen or twenty minutes of fighting for every inch of progress, I felt like a champion. Granted, it wasn't enough to find the next bonfire checkpoint, but that feeling was a powerful lure to play again. The game will have an open beta with six pre-made characters in October, which is the version I played. My first choice was the Temple Knight, a mountain of man who didn't so much "attack" as "lunge." Powerful, sure, but he moved less gracefully than a rotting corpse, which meant each missed attack made him a feast for the undead. The director of Dark Souls II, Yui Tanimura, told me the Sorcerer was a better choice for new players. He was right: the Sorcerer was weaker but moved and attacked much faster, and had the ability to fire magic missiles to deal damage without getting close. I still died, of course, but the game had its hooks in me by that point.
