Kinect to the core!

When Microsoft unveiled Kinect at E3, a great whooping howl of dismay went up from the hardcore gamers. "Where are the games for us?" they roared. "We're made of sterner stuff than this! Stroking virtual tiger cubs isn't going to cut it!"

This week at the Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft finally gave its answer. "Here are your hardcore Kinect games", said the giant technology multinational in a metaphorical sort of way as it unveiled motion-controller games developed by some of Japan's top developers, "Now please stop saying mean things about Kinect on the internet."

Top of the list is perhaps the most hardcore of all the hardcore games:
Steel Battalion. This is the Xbox game that once came with a giant controller that turned your desk (or lap) into the cockpit of a hulking battle mech. Developed by raging robot specialist From Software, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor swings to the other opposite, by featuring no controller at all. Instead you'll pilot your mech with hand gestures alone, like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, only instead of solving murders you'll be launching rockets at tiny soldiers. The game will be exclusive to Kinect and should stomp into view next year.

Also very hardcore, but in a more flamboyant way, is cult developer Suda51. He took to the stage at Microsoft's presentation to show off codename D (the lower case "c" is important, probably). The man behind Wii slash-em-up No More Heroes revealed that the game takes place in an evil amusement park, and involves fending off fiendish attackers with bodily attacks. The scratchy, punky trailer shows a man destroying a gang of bad guys, clad in football armour and animal masks, using an exploding baseball. Your guess is as good as ours, but it's clearly not a party game for grandmas.

Yet another cult Japanese code wizard drawn to Microsoft by the lure of Kinect is Masaya Matsuura, best known as the creator of cult PlayStation music game Parappa the Rapper and the abstract brilliance of Vib Ribbon. He's come up with a first-person horror game called Haunt, which promises to be more fun than frightening with graphics that look somewhere between Tim Burton and Disney's Haunted Mansion ride. Details are still shrouded in graveyard mist, but apparently players will "unravel the veil of rumours" in a spooky old house, as well as "dodge traps" and "outwit ghosts, ghouls and frights".

Finally, it was the turn of Panzer Dragoon creator Yukio Futatsugi to reveal what he's got in store for the Kinect-owning core gamer. Dragons, is the rather predictable answer. "What I want to do most in my games is to fly" Futatsugi says. Project Draco, therefore, is an "epic 3D flying shooter" where you take to the skies on a giant beast and use your body to both steer and direct projectiles at enemies. You'll also "nurture and train" your dragon, becoming more like partners than rider and mount. Xbox Live multiplayer will allow you to gather a flock of friends and flap your way to victory together. The trailer gives little away, but seems to draw at least some inspiration from the dizzying flying scenes in Avatar which should match up nicely with the immersion of Kinect. Like all the other games, it's bound for an as-yet unnamed 2011 release date.

The only other Kinect surprise slinking out of the TGS was Sega's deeply mysterious Rise of Nightmares. Another first-person horror game, though with a more blood-curdling approach than Haunt's gothic whimsy, there's very little hard information beyond a cryptic trailer which gives teasing glimpses of zombie hordes, grisly dismemberment and someone being strapped to a bed, no doubt in preparation for some sort of unpleasantness. Oh, and there were screams. Lots and lots of screams. Sega promises "new encounters filled with fearful anticipation and terror" in a "spine-tingling horror experience". If Kinect can really put us "in the game" then it could be as freaky as it sounds. We'll find out in 2011.

All of this is in addition to the two core-friendly games already announced for Kinect. Perhaps the most anticipated is Child of Eden from Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the brain-mangling boffin who created arty Dreamcast shooter Rez. Similar in style to that evergreen cult hit, Child of Eden is an abstract shooter that continues Mizuguchi's obsession with sensory trickery, mashing visuals and sound into a beguiling gameplay soup. It's already won praise for the way it integrates Kinect, encouraging you to "conduct" the game with bold sweeping gestures, rather than timidly pointing at stuff.

And finally, of course, there's the mostly under wraps and as yet untitled Star Wars game from Lucasarts. It may not have the cult cache of Japan's developer elite, but we know it'll be an on-rails combat game, in which you guide a very determined Jedi as he cuts a swathe through ranks of Stormtroopers, deflecting blaster bolts with his lightsaber. It seems fairly simple from what has been revealed so far, but the Star Wars license still has the power to excite when used well, and the chance to make actual Jedi gestures and see them turned into devastating Force Push attacks on-screen is enough to keep this one on our radar.

And that's the news from the floor of the Tokyo Game Show. Kinect will be more than just family games and avatar waggling. There'll be giant mechs, dragons, ghoulish ghosts, trippy shooters, zombie mayhem and exploding baseball theme park fighting as well. Consider us interested.