idiosyncrasy Today: AOU2007 Coverage

For those arcade junkies out there like myself (and those too poor to travel to the holy mecha of coin operated gaming called Japan) here's a good rundown on some of the titles being shown as well as plenty of video from the event. The event of course being the All Nippon Amusement Machine Operated Union blowout party. Think of it like the old E3 for coin-op machines.

About half of the booths were dedicated to coin related games, ranging from Kirby to Taiko no Tatsujin to Alien themes, but were of no interest to me, as they all looked/played nearly the same.

Sega had a new haunted/scary themed (but not really scary) game where you use some kind of rod in a fashion very similar to the Wii. All the games consisted of waving the rod around or using it to hit enemies on the screen. Most likely for a younger audience, or maybe something to play with your girlfriend.

Taito was showing off their new fantasy/RPG-themed fighter Battle Fantasia. I don't ever play fighting games, but it looked interesting, to say the least. The 2.5D graphics were definitely nice on the eyes, with some good character design to go along with it.

Konami had a large portion of their showroom floor dedicated to their line of BEMANI music games. Me being a huge BEMANI fan myself, this was the most exciting part of the show.

They had set up: DDR SuperNOVA, Beatmania IIDX GOLD, Guitar Freaks/Drummania V4 and Pop'n Music Adventure. Only the newest DDR is already playable her in Japanese arcades. The lineups were crazy - from 10 min for DDR to 70 min for IIDX. Being the dork I am, I toughed out the wait for all games.

Aside from new interfaces, it was more of the same, in a good way. Konami has managed to successfully keep an addictive formula going, constantly backing it up with catchy music.

Throughout the day they put on small talk shows hosted by BEMANI music creator Naoki. Appearances were made by other BEMANI artists DJ Taka, Des-row, Wac, Tomosuke, DJ Yoshitaka, Jun, Asaki, and possibly others.

Silent Hill: The Arcade was just as people have been saying: fuzzy. Graphics-wise, that is. I was in too much of a rush to concentrate on the actual gameplay itself, but it should please fans of the genre as the basic elements seemed to be there. The poster shows the inclusion of e-amuse, which, if done right, can keep players wanting to come back for more. When I was still in Canada, playing Konami's games without e-amuse (such as Beatmania IIDX) was all fine and dandy, but being here in Tokyo, the ability to keep track of scores, unlock items, and compete online against your friends is a huge bonus.

Didn't get to try out Mario Kart 2 at Namco's booth, but what can I say? It's Mario Kart. It probably kicks a lot of ass.

Aside from the games, the crowd was generally amusing. Obviously most were otaku, but it was how they varied that brought a smile to my face. Some were incredibly shy and seemed freaked out by the fact that I wanted to ask them questions, whereas others got all giggly talking to me simply because of the fact that I'm a six foot seven inches tall guy.