TGS: Kinect Gets Some Japanese Surprises

At Microsoft's press conference yesterday for Tokyo Game Show, the company revealed five specific Kinect-based games developed by Japanese third-party developers.

Coming from Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer 7, No More Heroes) is a unique thriller, codename D. While only shown in a teaser trailer, the game's premise is fairly understandable. Your character enters a crazed carnival filled with a multitude of twisted beings, including people who seem to always wear animal heads. Thankfully, you have a baseball bat and exploding baseballs in your arsenal.

Grounding Inc., the company formed by Phantom Dust and Panzer Dragoon-director Yukio Futatsugi, is bringing a new dragon-filled product to Kinect, entitled Project Draco. Taking designs which will remind you of Panzer Dragoon, the game is a 3D shooter, but at the same time, players will need to move and communicate physically and verbally with their dragons in order to help survive the onslaught of enemies on the horizon.

NanaOn-Sha, best known for the Parappa the Rapper series as well as a number of other unique titles such as Vib-Ribbon, is bringing an altogether "fun horror" title to Kinect, Haunt. In Haunt, players move along the game's set paths deep into a haunted mansion, and they will have to outsmart ghosts and escape the many traps within the spooky landscape. Keep a look out for those pesky ghouls!

Capcom and From Software are collaborating to create a very "gamer-centric" project through Kinect, and one that seems odd without buttons: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. The original Steel Battalion titles for Xbox had players control large mechanical war machines using a special controller, using 40 buttons, levers and even three pedals! With the switch to no controller at all, how this game compares will certainly be something to see.

Finally, Sega has announced a unique IP for Kinect, an on-rails horror title called Rise of Nightmares. The game promises to provide a spine-tingling experience unseen before, all while using your whole body to feel the terrors around you. Not much else has been provided.

Other products were shown using Kinect, such as Body and Brain Connection and Child of Eden, though the latter does not require Kinect to run.

This press event was the same in which Microsoft announced Radiant Silvergun's XBLA debut, as well as a look at Metal Gear Solid: Rising and a new Fire Pro Wrestling using Avatars. So, from the looks of things, those looking for a unique way to play Japanese-developed games, Kinect may be something to look toward.

Kinect is a peripheral for the Xbox 360 in which players do not use controllers, but rather, make movements in front of a 3D camera. The Kinect was originally called Project Natal when it was unveiled at E3 2009, and it will be launching this November with an assortment of titles from a number of developers.

TRAILERS

codename D


Project Draco


Haunt (skip to 1:40)


Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor


Rise of Nightmares