AOU 2009 roundup

AOU 2009 roundup

AOU 2009 took place last week in Japan, with attendance figures showing an overall increase in visitors with a 6718 year-on-year increase. New titles included Sega's Border Break, Taito's Elevator Action, and the latest games in a number of the Konami music game series.

Official attendance figures showed that a total of 45,160 people attended the event, a 6718 visitor year-on-year increase. The breakdown of the figures showed that whilst the numbers for the trade only day were down with 18,110 visitors (a 3139 year-on-year decrease), the popularity of the public day resulted in an increase in visitors overall, with 27,050 visitors on the second day (a 9857 year-on-year increase).

Taito

Previously seen at JAMMA 08, Taito had Elevator Action on their booth; although this time Taito showed a fully playable version. The gun shooting game has a screen in from of the LCD monitor which resembles an actual elevator, with the screen opening and closing during play. Taito also had two new shooting games, Music Gun Gun and Haunted Museum. Music Gun Gun combines music and shooting elements, and is aimed more at a casual market. Haunted Museum is a standard shooter, with players taking on monsters in various locations including ancient ruins and in space.

Sega

Sega showcased networked robot battle game, Border Break. The game is controlled with a dedicated joystick and a mouse, with up to two teams of 10 people battling eachother in mechs. Sega also exhibited their new arcade hardware, the Ringedge and the Ringwide, and announced that Border Break will be the first game to run on the new hardware. A new version of the popular UFO catcher crane series was also on the booth, UFO Catcher DX. Other titles on show included Brick People, WCCF 07-08, Answer x Answer 2, Virtua Fighter 5 R.

Namco

Namco showed shooting game Razing Storm, motorbike racing game Nirin, Taiko no Tatsujin 12, and the latest entry into the Gundam vs series, Gundam vs Gundam NEXT. Namco also showed the latest in the Clena series of prize machines, Big Clena.

Konami

Music games dominated Konami's showing, with Dance Dance Revolution X, Jubeat, GuitarFreaks V6, DrumMania V6, Beatmania IIDX 16: Empress and Pop'n Music 17 all at the event. Konami also exhibited a number or medal games as well as Quiz Magic Academy 6 and Mahjong Fight Club7.77.

Other games on show included a raft of fighting games from various manufacturers. KOF 12 (SNK-Playmore) and Daemon Bride (Examu) appeared on the AMI booth, with Project Cerberus (Milestone) shown on the Sega booth. Atlus also showed a new 2D fighter. Other notable titles included Deathsmiles 2, a side scrolling shoot-em-up from Cave; and broomstick riding game Parse Rorunpe from RS Co.