Tokyo Game Show 2022 – A quieter return to normal, with more console games
Due to the pandemic over the past few years, the last proper Tokyo Game Show we had was back in 2019. So this year’s event had a lot of catching up to do.
The first day of the show was active but quiet, as people are obviously still a bit wary of attending events like this.
The upside was that the previously hectic pace of the show was tempered to a more humane level and made for a more pleasant experience overall.
Moreover, unlike in recent years where mobile gaming has dominated the Tokyo Game Show, this year it was much more about console games. With international publishers such as THQ Nordic also turning up.
While Sony was a no show this year, Valve had a big booth showing off the Steam Deck, as that was only released this August in Japan.
Apart from that, most of the major game news was announced before the show, so it just left me to go and play the games directly.
If you were worried that Capcom would mess this up and turn the game into Def Jam: Fight for NY, then your concerns were unfounded. This is a proper Street Fighter game, it plays and looks great.
Street Fighter 6
It feels like a natural continuation on from Street Fighter V but is more flamboyant in terms of its presentation. From the multi-colored brush strokes on impactful strikes to a constant announcer, this feels like you are in an arena and comes across well for a Street Fighter game.
While Capcom is definitely emphasizing the “street” in Street Fighter here, the core mechanics haven’t been interfered with and is still a thoroughbred fighting game.
Sky: Children of the Light
While this was released on mobile back in 2019, the game will be finally coming to PlayStation platforms this December. That meant the PlayStation 5 version was playable and it was very nice indeed.
I am a big fan of games like Journey and I’ve enjoyed Sky on the Switch, so to have it come to PlayStation is great. Mainly because it feels like a Journey sequel has come home.
That aside, the big news about all this is that all versions of Sky will support cross-play, from mobile to consoles. That’s pretty special.
Forspoken
I have been looking forward to playing this for ages and while the game did look nice enough and the gameplay was decent, the whole setup with switching between spells/weapons is definitely ungainly at present.
From what I played, you have differing loadouts within which you can customise the spell selection. L2 and R2 handle the spells, with both together unleashing a powerful attack.
The various spells, from ranged to melee, work well enough but trying to select the right ones on the fly, as well as switching between loadouts, takes a bit of getting used to.
It’s also another open world game, which is inevitable at this point and while I still get Soukaigi vibes here, the “boosting” we saw in trailers is more to do with the running/parkour setup rather than anything vectored.
I still want Forspoken to be good, but at the moment the game is held back by some weird interface choices on how you access your arsenal. The only other criticism is that the main character, Frey, is far too chatty.
Apart from the above, I played quite a few other games, with the upcoming Snufkin game being really quite charming. However, I missed out on Sonic Frontiers, which I will hopefully get to play tomorrow.
It’s really nice to have the Tokyo Game Show back again though, as it’s been a while since gamers had to descend upon Makuhari Messe and check out what’s coming.
While the Tokyo Game Show was quieter this year and all the big announcements were handled online beforehand, it’s great to finally get hands on with upcoming Japanese games again.
