Grasshopper Manufacture's inimitable figurehead, producer Goichi Suda, hosted a small media event in Tokyo's Roppongi district tonight to show off the company's slate of upcoming titles in advance of their public demos at Tokyo Game Show. Though he wore the now-mandatory Japanese game developer uniform of a dark blazer, jeans, and a T-shirt, of course, he set them off with some incredibly classy footwear. His shoes were nice enough that the crowd was remarking on them even before he pointed them out. Luckily for him, the lineup on display was strong enough that his shoes weren't the highlight of the evening.
Grasshopper's 2011-12 lineup spans consoles, portables, and mobile platforms; and while the games' themes largely revolve around zombie-killing, you'll find a handful of outliers as well. The most atypical entry in the portfolio is the upcoming (and ridiculously titled) Evangelion: 3nd Impact (apparently pronounced, with sufficient linguistic distortion, as "Sound Impact"). Based on the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion -- specifically, the in-progress "Rebuild of Evangelion" theatrical remakes -- 3nd Impact is a PSP rhythm game that sees players reliving sequences from the anime. That's all well and good, but the movies omit the episode where Shinji and Asuka defeat twin Angels with synchronized dancing, so it seems like a slightly missed opportunity.
Also well outside the zombie zone is Black Knight Sword, a downloadable 2D action game that features a black knight and his companion, a sword faerie, on a quest to put an end to the tyrannical reign of an evil princess. The inverted narrative and retro-style action are intriguing enough on their own, but the whole thing is set off by beautiful diorama-style artwork that makes the game look like the most elaborate puppet show ever.
The company offered a quick trailer for Shadows of the Damned (which isn't yet available in Japan), as well as one apiece for the proudly shameless Lollipop Chainsaw, Digital Reality's 2D shooter Sine Mora, and a hilariously over-the-top Kinect baseball game, Diabolical Pitch.
If the idea of Grasshopper, sports, and a casual gaming platform doesn't compute for you, don't feel bad -- you're hardly alone. It's a strange combination on the face of it. But just a few seconds of the game's trailer makes its idiomatic Grasshopper-ness clear; it's not a baseball game at all, but rather a sort of House of the Dead send-up that happens to use baseball as its visual theme. Players (that's one or two players, as the game supports simultaneous play) take to the pitching mound... which is promptly set upon by zombies. Making baseball-style pitching motions results in explosive projectiles which obliterate the shambling undead masses. But you can also do "hadoken" charges for massive flaming fireballs, as well as other ridiculously over-the-top attacks. It's one part baseball, one part light gun game, one part sentai show.
It was easily the crowd-pleaser of the night -- a loopy, ridiculously, and insanely fun-looking game for everyone. Even if you're like me and don't have any interest in zombie, Kinect, or sports games, Diabolical Pitch looks pretty great. Almost as great as Suda51's shoes, in fact.
Seriously, they really were some nice shoes.
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