Kingdom Hearts aside, what do Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Game Show have in common? Well, for starters, neither of them are in Tokyo; both are located in Chiba prefecture, east and a little south of the big T. Secondly, both are crowded. You can get on the teacups whenever you want in Disneyland, but if you want to get on Space Mountain, you're going to have to wait in line. The same applies for TGS, but only if you replace "teacups" with "low profile games" and "Space Mountain" with "hot games." The whole thing kind of falls apart if you don't, so please do.

The faithful arrive at the Makuhari Messe convention center; hopes, dreams and costumes in tow.

The first impression one gets of the show is 'damn, it's crowded!' The second one would be 'damn, it's dark!' The third would undoubtedly have to be 'damn, Sammy's got a big booth this year!'

And indeed they did. They were the first, biggest and brightest thing to be seen upon entry. Ironically, they were also the most coy of all the exhibitors when it came to photography. Even the booth assistants were instructed to refuse photo requests - perhaps not too surprising given the wispy, translucent outfits they were forced to wear.

Sammy's major push at this year's show was Seven Samurai 20XX, with four demo levels set up at seperate stations around their huge booth. Play any two levels, get the stamps, and get a free keychain. Huzzah and hurray!

This "stamp rally" system was symptomatic of a new attitude towards giveaways this year: rather than just handing out random goodies, most - if not all - of the exhibitors forced attendees to earn demos and loot by playing their games. Perhaps not a bad idea in principle, but a little tedious when you take the whole "Space Mountain" theory into effect.

The first of the two big halls contained the sales corner, food court and table-gaming area, as well as a number of relatively small companies. Also on hand were:

Taito, with a big construction site to call their own.

Taito again, displaying the epitome of gaming technology.

Gung Ho Online Entertainment, purveyors of Ragnarok Online, had themselves a freaking castle, and were giving out rabbit ears. No, I can't do the math either.

Sammy. But I already mentioned them. Move along.

Microsoft dominated the hall with their X-Box pavillion. It was like a big, tasty donut, only instead of being filled with cream, it was filled with games and scantily gaming assistants.

Players were divided into Capcom and Microsoft teams in order to compete in Tekki Taisen (Steel Battalion Online).

Microsoft has your best interests in mind.

The man, the myth, the boob-meister: Tomonobu Itagaki, head of Team Ninja, about to show off his mad skillz in Ninja Gaiden. Not pictured: Hayabusa getting nailed from offscreen thanks to some dodgy camera work. To be fair, the game isn't complete, but that didn't make it any less funny.

Tecmo shows us that it knows what matters to its audience: Ninjas...

Big pictures of rendered girls...

...and bikinis.

Aruze shows off their hot slots IN ACTION!

But they were mainly showing off Shadow Hearts 2.

Only the masters of rock, paper, or scissors were permitted on stage!

Atlus was sharing a booth with some buddies.

There were also a number of smaller companies peddling their products to the masses.

Tokyo Music and Media arts. I'm not sure who these people are, or what they sell (I think they might be a school), but they were putting on such a spirited presentation despite the lack of an audience that I felt the need to promote them. Rock on, sisters!

Tonkinhouse is in the house, representing with DA Black. Looks to be a pretty-girl interaction game with a 3D Dragon-Quest-lookin' battle system. No, really.

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