Tokyo, Japan - On the final day of the show I ran into a small booth to get in line for what I knew was one of the only PC games at the show that wasn't an MMO. Even this wasn't quite a departure, but I had to check it out. The game is called Paperman and in order to get an idea of what it is is like, I want you to take the graphical and physical interaction of Paper Mario and mash it together with Counter-Strike. This game was fun with interesting weapon interactions and new strategies due to the 3D/2D orientation of the game.

Andrew "blind" Yamaguchi, and I waited in line to play this game for what seemed like forever due to that fact our feet both hurt from days of walking and when we finally got there, he was first and they took him to where I couldn't see him so I wasn't sure of his experience before having my own turn. Now, I am not sure of his experience with his guide, but my guide was a lovely Japanese woman who spoke no english.  However, one thing she did recognize was ownage and judging by the reaction of Andrew's guide, his did too. This game was very much like Counter-Strike, but used a different set of strategies with the new concepts. Thus, we both picked up the game quite quickly much to the chagrin of our opponents on the other computers.

The emphasis on the paper concept is really what made it for me. It didn't mean that they were just flat, but that the characters carried with them the same physical properties of being paper. Of course the most obvious thing is that you are 2-dimensional. For instance, because you are paper you can literally turn sideways and become very hard to hit.  I used this against everybody, wait for the reload before turning to shoot a couple of heads.  To give you an idea of how little FPS games are played over there, she looked at me and said while pointing to her head "Head more points?", I said yes in Japanese and she started laughing while she watched. When people started to use the turning sideways technique on me, I would throw one of the fire grenades and light all the opponents within a certain area on fire or throw an air grenade and make them all float in the air for a brief moment. This game was exciting and refreshing to play, but with enough familiarity to make it comfortable. When I got online later that day, I noticed there does not seem to be an English version available, but I was playing an English version at the show so I am not sure why that is.