Tokyo Game Show 2008

Overview

Despite the economic crash, Tokyo Game Show proved that video games could weather any storm. Like the other years, it was held at the Makuhari Messe at the beginning of October. Major game publishers such as Sony, Microsoft, Sega and Square Enix were present with Nintendo once agin skipping the event. Over the 3 days, the show had 194 288 visitors. 

Big News

Little Big Planet Guest Appearances

Sony made it clear that Little Big Planet was both for the casual and hardcore crowd. It announced during its press conferentce multiple sack boys that would be released as DLC. These sack boys were in fact famous game characters such as Kratos, Nariko, Sephiroth and Solid Snake. Snake was part of a larger package ax it was introduced with an entire level pack that parodied Metal Gear Solid 4. In desert like environments, you could guide your Solid Snake to stop liquid. This also introduced a new gameplay element, paint guns that could be used to shoot and paint enemies. 

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Announced

What would become the 2010 release Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Konami unveiled a new Castlevania game at the show while giving almost no details. The game's announcement was considered by the game's producer Koji Igarashi as a "surprise" since he found that the game was far from finished. 

Star Ocean 4 Dated

During Microsoft's press conference, the long awaited Star Ocean 4 was finally given a date of release: 19th of February 2009 in Japan and March 2009 in the US. No date was givern to the european release despite it being announced for the region and both those release dates concerned the Xbox 360 version. 

Tekken 6 Goes Multiplatform

After stealing Final Fantasy 13 from Sony, Microsoft took another hit at the PS3's stable of exclusives by announcing that Tekken 6 would be also coming to the Xbox 360. It was also announced that the 360 version would be coming with two extra characters from the arcade version: Alisa Boskonovich and Lars Alexanderson. This marked the first time that the Tekken series was coming to a platform other than Sony's. 

Play PSP Games with a Dual Shock Controller

During its press conference, Sony announced that owners of a PSP 2000 or 3000 would be able to use a Dual Shock 3 controller to play Resistance: Retribution on their PSP. Resistance was the first game to use this feature but it required you to have Resistance 3 running on your PS3 (this also enabled cross platform content) and disabled the auto-aim. 

Halo 3: Recon Announced

During its press conference, Microsoft debuted Halo 3: Recon (later called Halo 3: ODST). The game was shown via a reveal trailer where an ODST is shown dropped onto a destroyed Numanbasa, revealing some of the future elements of the game such as stealth. The game was a departure from the traditionel Halo formula. 

Avatars Revealed

Microsoft revealed the new and improved dashboard which also introduced Avatars.