TGS 2007: Video Game Museum less exciting than Akihabara

If you’re going to take up an entire section at one of the world’s largest industry events and call it a “Video Game Museum,” you’d better be damned sure it delivers. Never mind for a minute the fact it spits in the face of Destructoid’s internal style guide by spelling “videogame” as two words. The least they could do is really blow us away with some rare gems, or other interesting pieces of gaming history. But not so much.

The “Video Game Museum,” tucked away quietly on the show floor of this year’s Tokyo Game Show, was nothing more than a near-abandoned station of previous year’s “games of the show.” Titles like Dragon Quest VIII (PlayStation 2), Brain Age (Nintendo DS), and Sakura Taisen (Sega Saturn) were all playable, but were far less interesting than the new and unreleased titles that were just 200 feet away from being playable. The booth also included: Final Fantasy VII (PSX); Final Fantasy X (PS2); Final Fantasy XII (PS2); Monster Hunter (PS2); Final Fantasy XI (360/PC, video only); Taiko No Tatsujin (PS2); Deko Demo Issyo (PS2); and Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64). 

The booth was quite a disappointment, and far less interesting than Japan’s Akihabara electronic district, a glorious land of rare, interesting, and unique videogaming treasures. Oh, and cosplayers. Lots of cosplayers.