Tokyo Game Show 2016 Highlights
Tokyo Game Show just concluded, and suffice to say, what we’ve seen is going to have the gaming community talking for quite a while. The cream of the crop? Virtual reality, much of it courtesy of Sony.
Oh and there’s the cherry on top: Several Filipino game devs managed to get their entries showcased too.
Virtual Reality Games
Sony, being the tech giant that it is, has been working on a “Project Morpheus” for the longer part of 2014-2015. Now, Sony isn’t new to Virtual Reality technology. The company has shown interest in the market since the later half of the 1990s. However, it seems rather late for them to release a mass-production video game VR unit. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift have already established a strong foothold for Sony to compete against. Finally, we’ve seen a bit of what Sony hopes to bring to the table.
Image by Sony
About 20 titles are going to be available upon PlayStation VR’s release on October 13. Among those featured at Tokyo Game Show were “Into The Deep,” where the player experienced an eerily realistic shark-diving, “Shin Godzilla,” where the player witnessed a Godzilla attack from a first-person street level, and “Summer Lesson,” where the player helped a 3D student with her homework (weird).
Anyway, the PlayStation VR wasn’t the only system on showcase either. HTC Vive had its own booth as well. Added to that, there were actual motorcycle VR simulators, driving simulators, and a plethora of other devices. The show was definitely a nice peek into the future of gaming. And with a list of upcoming titles including the surprisingly impressive “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” and “Farpoint,” we have a lot to look forward to.
Filipino Games Showcased
Congratulations to Games By Nico, Keybol Games, Monstronauts, Moocho Brain, Popsicle Games, Squeaky Wheel Studio, and Unlibox. All of them are Filipino developers out for a share of the pie that is the video game industry.
The most eye-catching of the Pinoy showcases hast to be the mobile game “Super Daivolter Z “by Popsicle Games.
Image by Popsicle Games
I mean why not? It’s themed on Mazinger Z, Daimos, and Voltes V (or Voltron, maybe). I was into mecha as a ’90s kid, and I still am. You can check out Popsicle Games here, and view their official Facebook page here.
On the other hand, my favorite showcase was Tower Fortress by Keybol Games.
Image by Keybol Games
It reminds me of the advent of dungeon crawler titles, when all you had were 8-bit processors and the courage to navigate a two-dimensional landscape in search of treasure. Touch Arcade has an excellent discussion on this particular retro gem.
The last time I was excited for a Filipino game studio was with the release of “Anito: Defend a Land Enraged” back in 2003. And my, have we come a long way since then. Congratulations again to the seven incredible developers who made it to one of this year’s “Big Three” video game conventions. Pinoy Pride, worldwide indeed.