BUSAN ― G-Star, the nation’s largest international game exhibition, kicked off in Busan on Thursday, drawing in many spectators with the newest and most popular games.

Reflecting the high popularity of online and mobile games, visitors packed the main hall at BEXCO for the eighth run of the annual game festival. Some of them formed a 100-meter line to watch the opening of the show.

Held under the theme “Game, Touching the World,” the global game convention drew traditional game lovers as well as flocks of families with children. 

Catching on the national trend of “mobile game fever,” leading developers of mobile games displayed their newest or most popular works that have more than doubled in number compared to last year’s G-Star.

SK Planet displayed the most mobile games, securing six booths to put up 37 mobile games, followed by WeMade Entertainment with 17 mobile games. The initiator of the mobile game fever “Anipang” of Sundaytoz attracted flocks of spectators from all ages.

Iconic developer and publisher of smartphone games, NHN Hangame, introduced an array of new smartphone games of multiple genres. Spectators with little experience in playing games gathered to play multi-combat baseball game “Golden Glove,” fishing game “Fish Island,” mobile role-playing game “Uparu Mountain” and dungeon action game “Undead Slayer.”

“I love watching baseball games on my smartphone when I commute to work. I think I will absolutely love to play ‘Golden Glove’ from now on,” spectator Kim Ji-hyun, 29, said after she test-played the game.

G-Star 2012 enjoyed high popularity among the traditional bracket of game-lovers. Both taking their motif from medieval Europe, traditional fantasy massively multiplayer online role playing games “Icarus” of WeMade Entertainment and “BLESS” of Neowiz Games were first revealed to public. Fans of Blizzard Entertainment swarmed to check out “World of Warcraft: Mist of Pandaria,” adding to the heated atmosphere of the global game mega-event.

By Chung Joo-won  (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)