I've got a chip on my shoulder about mobile multiplayer. What's the point of using a networked device with a tiny screen to play a 3D shooter or throwback arcade game, when you could be playing something more like MULE with your friends?

I wasn't seeing any blow-away mobile multiplayer at the Tokyo Game Show this year. But I wanted to be excited about something. Souris and Silvio had asked after a certain wireless ping-pong game; when I found it on the show floor, the sheer excitement of physical play without wires was inspiring -

Excite Ping Pong 2 is a simple RCA device that plugs into the TV and reads some radio or IR signals from simple plastic ping pong paddles. When you see the ball coming your way onscreen, follow through with your paddle and fire a ball towards the other side. It's amazing to wave your paddle through the air and affect the action onscreen. the 16-bit era graphics are indispensible, neatly matching the casual fun style of the product. But it's not clear that sweeping right or left makes much difference - the sensors in this game don't seem accurate enough to pick up the subtleties of good paddle skills. In that case, it's mostly a matter of timing - who is paying attention, studying when the computer wants you to block the ball and return - like Pong! Either way, it definitely warrants more play, which is more than can be said for much of the other content on the show floor.

A similar play dynamic rules Square Enix's sword waving "Kenshin Dragon Quest: Yomigaerishi Densetsu no Ken" game. When the beasts appear onscreen, wave your plastic sword hard in their general direction and you might be rewarded with a clean sweep that destroys your foes. It's like playing Tetris where you must urgently wave your arms to destroy lines of stationary enemies.

Just the physicality of these games is inspiring - part of the DDR magic. There seems to be a rash of these games flying off shelves in the Akihabara game stores - one-off, wireless controller based, standalone game devices. Buying a machine to play a small subset of games - it's a throwback to Baer days!

These game devices don't have much to do with mobile phones, and they're about as "wireless" as a WaveBird or television remote control. I travelled to the Tokyo Game Show this year in part to cover it for TheFeature - I ended up writing about Konami's tiny cars that can be remote controlled by mobile phones: TheFeature :: Mobile Reaching Robots.)