Come Back Mini Pato

The depressing lack of original games at this year's Tokyo Game Show just proves that, even when facing an unignorable sales decline across the entire Japanese game industry that shows no signs of improving, it isn't just American firms like Electronic Arts that will chicken out and keep churning out uninspired sequels and ports. I wish more game developers would take risks with things that aren't already based on safe, licensed properties, but still, you have to respect this: Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor Come Back Mini Pato for the PSP. (Sorry about the overcooked website, but click through it to see all the screens in their manga-arts'n'craftsy glory.) It seems to be a mech shooting action(?) game based on the Patlabor series, with graphics rendered to look like paper cutouts affixed to popsicle sticks. It probably won't be great, and it certainly won't be released in the US, but I tend to cling desperately to any signs of life (as in vibrancy and brilliance) the game industry shows these days. I can't wait to try out whatever Nintendo's doing with their senso-remote thing, which is more than I can say for anything coming from Sony and Microsoft. I mean, I like "even prettier racing / sports / fighting games" (almost) as much as the next guy, but at this point I want something I haven't already played a thousand times. Even if it takes popsicle-stick graphics to get me to pick it up.