Tokyo Game Show hosted the fourth annual Sense of Wonder Night last week, allowing experimental games to have their spotlight. Ten titles were given ten minutes each to present what essentially makes them wonderful.

Today I wanted to look at two of the titles. Taplib and Solstice were very innovative titles that I believe at least one will make you shake your virtual piko-piko (the noise makers at the event).

Taplib from Yanagihara Takayuki is a route exploration block puzzle game with highlights on autonomous performance. Each block in the puzzle grid has a diagonal on it that connects to a larger route. The route is explored, or cleared away, as the user taps blocks.

All the other blocks that exist on the route, that is the diagonal path, of that tapped block also disappear.  However, if the tapped block is surrounded by a line, the block’s diagonal is rotated 90 degrees and the block is revived. The game’s autonomous performance comes from the user generating BGM and sound effects from how the game is played.

It’s insane to watch at full speed, and it’s still mind boggling at the 1/4 speed shown in the video. Have a look:

The second game today is Solstice from students at Digipen, some of whom are also working on Nitronic Rush (that crazy neon racing game I showed off last month). Solstice is an Kinect-controlled, music driven, interactive fable combining various creation myths.

It’s interesting to hear the creation themes behind the game, however, the audio from the game didn’t pick up very well to coincide with what the guys were saying. Apparently by waving one’s hands, in addition to controlling the flying aspect, piano sounds play in the game.

The music creation seems both incidental and crucial. It seems the former in accomplishing the game, as players seem to only need to collect fragmented pieces of the sun to win. However, it seems crucial to the overall ambiance, the kinetic and aural experience, that the team is trying to create.

Interested persons can hear Solstice better on the team’s official website. Solstice will eventually be out for PC, since it uses the Microsoft Kinect SDK that was released in June.

That’s it for today. Great presentations from Japan and America! There’s even more sense of wonder ahead, so “let’s pikopiko” again tomorrow!