TGS '07: MGS 4 casts shadow over Konami

TOKYO--Konami's booth here at the Tokyo Game Show is located right in the middle of the main hall in Makuhari Messe, where other important companies like Sony have also taken up residence. Of course, Konami offered one of the biggest stories of the show by giving attendees the chance to play Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for the first time. Unfortunately for those fans, the wait to play the game's 15-minute demo had reached a whopping three-and-a-half hours by midday on Saturday, the first day TGS was open to the public. (Luckily, GameSpot had the opportunity to get a more in-depth 90-minute hands-on demo with MGS 4 on the show's first day.)

Kojima Productions' other anticipated PlayStation 3 game, Metal Gear Online, had a much more respectable wait, however. When GameSpot secured a spot in a six-versus-six multiplayer match, we were first shuffled into a cramped meeting room where an attractive woman in faux military uniform harshly lectured us on the tactics we should employ in our forthcoming match. These matches were open for spectators to see on large screens at the front of the booth.

In fact, Metal Gear consumed most of Konami's booth. The company's massive video screen drew walkway-clogging crowds when the latest MGS4 trailer appeared. Hideo Kojima himself took the stage a number of times over the course of the show to discuss his latest goings on, again bringing in crowds big enough to bring nearby foot traffic to a crawl. Girls in MGS-themed hot pants were seen walking around the perimeter of the booth, allowing waiting attendees to play Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus on the new version of the PSP. Lastly, a display case showed off a number of Metal Gear toys and figurines, boxes from the entire series (MSX through PlayStation 2), and a couple of books about Kojima.

Sports and lifestyle games also occupied a large portion of the booth, from the latest Winning Eleven to Konami's numerous baseball products. The company is also prepping a new line of Nintendo DS games that cover everything from skincare to yoga, and a number of incredibly fit yoga instructors (we assume) were on hand to show off their poses and the yoga game simultaneously. The final, rear segment of Konami's booth was an enclosed area showing off the company's new Nintendo DS adventure game, Time Hollow. This enclosed area amplified the already uncomfortably warm conditions of the TGS show floor to sweltering levels, but we waited through the 15-minute presentation to give the quirky temporal adventure a spin.

Check out the gallery up top for some pictures of the Konami booth, and hit our TGS event page for all the coverage we've amassed this week.