TGS 2009

TOKYO--Last year's Tokyo Game Show hit a record-high visitor count that came in just shy of the 200,000-visitor mark. Unfortunately, TGS 2009 did not fare as well. Show organizers the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Organization announced today that this year's attendance fell by almost 10,000 people, dropping from 194,288 in 2008 to 185,030 in 2009.

As a breakdown of attendance figures indicates (below), the business days had about the same number of visitors as last year. But the show was hit hard on its public opening day, which is when the most dedicated of Japanese gamers traditionally come in for an early peek at the new games.

Day 1 -...

TOKYO---Today at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, Capcom held a stage presentation to introduce the new story addition to Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, its upcoming Wii remake of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica.

Appearing onstage, producer Masachika Kawata started out his presentation with a new trailer, which showed us a new chapter, Operation Javiar. The year is 2002 and the setting is South America. We see Leon S. Kennedy, who has walked into a deserted village together with Jack Krauser.

Leon and Krauser search through the village, only to find their guide gravely injured inside one of the wrecked houses, mumbling...

TOKYO--At the
2009 Tokyo Game Show, one of the anticipated titles at Capcom's booth was the DS sequel to Okami, Okamiden: Chiisaki Taiyou, ("Okamiden: The Small Sun"). As expected, Capcom held a stage show to show off the highlights of the game and to give a more in-depth look into the game's characters.

First, Okamiden producer Motohide Eshiro appeared onstage and began by showing a trailer. The trailer started with a brief outline of the game's plot: It has been only a few months since peace was brought to Nippon by the sun god reincarnation Amaterasu. But demons have once again returned, and instead of Amaterasu, a smaller, cuter puppy with her same powers has appeared...

TOKYO--For the past several years, Sega debuted every new Yakuza title at aTokyo Game Show. That's an impressive feat, considering the short development cycle for a fully featured game. This year was no exception, and series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi was once again on Sega's stage to talk about the latest installment, titled Ryu Ga Gotoku 4: Densetu wo Tsugu Mono. The game's title roughly translates into English as "Yakuza 4: Inheritor of the Legend."

Nagoshi's presentation of Yakuza 4 started out with a surprise revelation: This time, the game will have four main characters instead of just one. An introductory trailer was shown, and we learned about the three new main characters who will accompany series protagonist Kazuma...