I’ve been to Tokyo Game Show a bunch of times. I think the last time I went I said that I wouldn’t go back on the public day again – but here I am. I asked my son (12 years old) if he wanted to go, and he did, so I’m back. We left the house at about 8am, and Makuhari Messe is about an hour away from where we live. The door opened at 9:30am so I figured we’d wait about half an hour. I told Alan to bring his Kindle, because we will have lots of time in line.

As always, Kaihin Makuhari Station was extremely crowded, and then stayed crowded all the way to Makuhari Messe. We waited in a very large group of people for about an hour, slowly moving up to the ticket exchange place and later bag check. I think we got into the venue at about 10:30am.

I didn’t have any real goals other than playing the upcoming SNK game City of the Wolves, so I was happy to wander around with Alan and take pictures of anything interesting. He didn’t have anything that he particularly was interested in seeing either, so I was actually more worried that he’d be bored than anything else.

While we waited to get a picture at the Epic Mickey Rebrushed stage, I spotted a neat “holographic” display. It is a couple of LED wands that spin quickly, using your eye’s persistence of vision to present an image. The CCD sensor on a camera or phone though is fast enough that you catch the individual spinning segments (slightly blurred) so you can’t tell what the image is. In person it was really neat though! I explained the effect as well as I understood it to Alan, I don’t know if he thought it was as interesting as I did.

We waited in line for a bit to get a picture at the Epic Mickey Rebrushed photo spot. At most booths you can wait in line to play whatever game they have there. Usually the lines are super long – although some smaller games or indie studios don’t have anyone there, so it depends what you are looking for. Some of the larger booths have more experience things though, like this photo spot.

I’m glad I was able to get a picture with Alan! The person taking the picture (dressed like the booth attendant in the picture) told Alan to move because he was hiding Mickey. They really seemed to be particular about that. After that we wandered around some more. The next place that I was interested in was the Like a Dragon Pirates of Hawaii. I haven’t played the Like a Dragon series much, I have started on one of the remakes, but just didn’t really get into it. I like the idea though.

I know they had famous cosplayers here, the only person I knew was Kaho Shibuya, primarily because she frequently hangs out when MarkMan when he comes to Japan.

Walking around some more I was excited to see Ryan Hart MC’ing a Qiddiya Gaming stage. It looked like it was some Crazy Raccoon thing and I didn’t know the people, so we kept going. Ryan Hart is an interesting guy, a famous Tekken (and Street Fighter) player who speaks Japanese very well, and has been around fighting games from the start. Always nice to see him doing well.

I like Atlus games a lot, so we headed over there. There was a group of Persona cosplayers, though I didn’t recognize the game. I’ve only played Persona 3 Portable, and am currently playing Persona 4 Golden. Clearly I need to learn how to adjust the lighting on my camera, because a lot of my pictures are just bad.

The main thing I was interested in was playing City of the Wolves, the upcoming SNK game. I’ve played it before – at EVO Japan and last year’s Tokyo Game Show I think – and was really impressed. So Alan and I waited in line for 100 minutes – yes, 100 minutes! – and played a 20 minute set. While we were waiting Maxx Clark stopped by for a few words – I had met him at a previous event, and I really appreciate that he said hi. He liked that Alan was with me, always good to get new people into fighting games. Hellpockets was working the booth too, playing long sets with Media and other stuff. It’s really nice to see fighting game community people involved in the game!

I played Mai, Vox, and Rock a bit before our 20 minutes were up. It was fun! Alan had fun too I think. I said when we got home it was what he enjoyed the most (even with the 100 minute wait!)

After that, we wandered around some more, and came across the Samsung stage. Kagecchi was up there with Momochi, they had just finished the Momochi Dream Challenge, whatever that was.

After that, they had a “Valkyrie Battle” with four women Street Fighter players. I knew Betty and Harumi, and have seen Shadow before, but didn’t know Mofu. The SF6 directors were there too – Matsumoto on stage, and Nakayama watching from just offstage, near where we were. It would be nice to meet them some day – they really have been great for Street Fighter. We watched the first match, Betty vs. Harumi (Betty won – she’s super strong), but I sensed that Alan wasn’t too into it, so we moved on to the lunch (Onigiri we bought before leaving) and the International Hall.

I also managed to take a nice shot of Betty. I really would like to learn how to use my camera better.

After we had a quick bite to eat, we went through the final three halls somewhat aimlessly. We left at about 3:30pm, and got home at 4:30pm.

It was fun, but I wasn’t sure whether Alan had a good time. If it wasn’t there I would have watched more Street Fighter stuff and sought out people that I know – I missed Itabashi Zangief at the WD_Black stage and would have liked to have seen whatever he was involved with.

This did remind me that you really need to make a plan when you go to TGS. There is a schedule available, and a list of all the booths, so you really can (and should!) plan what you want to do. With all the people there you really can’t do too many things so you need a strategy.

Anyway, Alan said he wants to go back next year, so I guess that is what I will do. Make a plan.