Are These the “Five Most Impressive” TGS Trailers?

Some might call these the five most awesome trailers to come out of this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Do you agree?

This year’s Tokyo Game Show may have been a bit light on reveals and news – leading at least one veteran Japanese developer to prophesy doom for the Japanese games industry – but it may have made up for its deficiencies with some rather pretty trailers. Shui Ta at The Examiner has posted a roundup of what he feels are the five most impressive TGS trailers, and they’re all worth a watch.

We’ve previously reported on two of these trailers – namely, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Assassin’s Creed II, but the other three certainly bear mention:

First, we have The Last Guardian. Yeah, the trailer is kind of on the short side and doesn’t actually show much, but that is one breathtakingly beautiful game. It isn’t even so much the technical graphics that stand out as it is the stunning animation – that ear-scratching moment looks just like what any real-life dog would do. Yeah, we all know that this Team ICO game is going to be gorgeous, but it never hurts to be reminded, right?

Second, we have an interesting choice here – Bayonetta. It’s the standard flash and glitz that we’ve come to expect from the game, and though the trappings look ridiculous (at best – that accent is earsplitting, and I’m not even English) the game itself looks slick and pretty damn fun. My colleague Mr. Deam got his hands on Bayonetta at E3, and says it compared favorably to what he played of God of War III, and to be fair it certainly does look like quite the combat system. There’s plenty of style; I just hope there’ll be substance to go along with it.

But the trailer here that really catches my eye isn’t for a big-budget title like The Last Guardian or Assassin’s Creed, but for a small DS title called Ninokuni: Another World. Ninokuni is a collaboration between Professor Layton developers Level 5 and famous Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli – yes, the same Studio Ghibli responsible for some of the most revered animated films of all time, such as My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. The trailer is mostly animation with a little bit of gameplay footage, but the animation alone is enough to knock you on your ass (proverbially). It has some of the most compelling artistic design I’ve seen in a game in a long time, and certainly possesses that trademark Studio Ghibli aesthetic.

It’s interesting that this roundup would omit the rather eye-catching Final Fantasy XIII trailer we saw earlier today, but there’s no denying that those are five solid choices.

So, what do you think? Are these the top five trailers from the show, or have we missed some?