Tokyo Game Show 2006: PlayStation 3 roundup

After some serious manhandling of the PlayStation 3 at the Tokyo Game Show, here's what worked and what didn't.

Despite Ken Kutaragi's bizarre keynote on the PlayStation 3 and the future of gaming, you can't deny that the Tokyo Game Show was well and truly owned by Sony. Nothing drew a bigger crowd than the PS3 titles, and the 200 fully functional units scattered around the show were loaded up with the first batch of titles ready for launch. Here's what was most impressive in the PS3 camp.

First up, motion sensing. 2006 will go down as the year console makers realised that not all games are best played with an analog stick and primary-coloured buttons. Sony's new motion sensing controller does everything you'd expect it to, despite being clumsier and less elegant than the Wii's nunchaku.

The first game I played was fl0w, which puts you in control of a worm-thing that swims around in water, eating things, avoiding other worm-things, and growing bigger. The demonstrator didn't speak English, but even if she did, I doubt I'd have any more clarity on what fl0w was about.



But damn, it's fun. Once you tape your thumb to the side of the control to stop it instinctively going for the stick, you'll get in the zone and vague out for hours, or until the demonstrator politely pokes you in the side and shoos you away. Apparently, fl0w will be a downloadable game, which shows you what you can expect from the online distribution service.

The next game to use motion sensing was the dragon piloting game, Lair, which unfortunately didn't give the same intuitively seamless feel of fl0w. Technically, it worked well. The dragon responds to your tilting or flicking, and when you get close to an enemy dragon, you can perform a melee attack by striking the controller in the direction of the target. It's a great idea, but the extra layers of control felt tacked on and gimmicky. Hopefully the final release will smooth it out.