For many, the first day of E3 is barely representative of what the show will eventually become. It is marked most notably by "the herd," an enraged group of showgoers who have been sweatily waiting for dozens of minutes merely to gain admission to the show floor, from where they can expect to wait in even more lines for brief, five-to-ten minute looks at a variety of games that don't necessarily lend themselves to the type of play that can be experienced in five-to-ten minute increments.
For us, this situation was approximated: upon entry, all carefully laid plans are rendered waste, a flaming shambles of good intentions tossed to the winds. We had a meeting to see The Beatles: Rock Band an hour after the floor opened, and see it we did, so convincingly that we didn't leave for another couple hours or more (impressions coming later, I promise). Just before the meeting we scrambled to Nintendo's booth to grab whatever was available and quickly; somehow lines had materialized from the aether for New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports Resort as though their would-be samplers sprouted from the ground like delicate Pikmin (not shown). This resulted in the impressions you have available to you now: a variety of games that were easily digested and quickly available sans agonizing waits.
After The Beatles we had to tool the show floor, the results of which the most ardent amongst you may have sampled via our liveblog. Steve Wiebe's Donkey Kong world record attempt was ongoing (G4 tells me he got close, then was interrupted by a subsequent power failure and kill screen), Tecmo booth-women were posing scandalously, and Square Enix's trademarked media hounds remained positioned to sternly reprimand anyone who would dare take photographs of their media screen during this, an event which exists to distribute media. Additionally, games were played by members of staff who are in the midst of preparing impressions: look out for coverage of Sin and Punishment 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and a variety of others.
Before we knew it our time on the floor was over and we were off to the developer roundtable—Miyamoto was on hand to speak candidly to an audience of roughly 150 to 200 people about his work on NSMBW, Wii Sports Resort, and Spirit Tracks. Such events only serve to remind us that there are few things greater than listening to those who create the games actually speak about them, and as I tweeted earlier, it was one of the great sublime moments of my gaming life to see Miyamoto-san slide around his ice level as a penguin, muttering and exclaiming as he went, the crowd reacting in turn. (You may have also heard that he wanted to show a new Zelda for Wii today, but simply couldn't devote the efforts to preparing it—instead we received the first piece of concept art along with an assurance: the game is deep into development.)
Later, Nintendo's business summit made fools of us all, and we thank them greatly for it.
Tomorrow brings a new day with renewed and steely resolve! Now we know what we want to see first, and will be offered the opportunity to b-line to it as soon as the herd marches in. A series of meetings await as well—conversations with Denise Kaigler of Nintendo, a look at High Voltage's new IP, and a rendezvous with XSEED are all on our already heaping plates. All this plus whatever we can get our hands into: Bayonetta, King of Fighters XII, and who knows what else are all waiting for attention!
From our hotel we wish you the most pleasant of evenings,
N-Sider
For us, this situation was approximated: upon entry, all carefully laid plans are rendered waste, a flaming shambles of good intentions tossed to the winds. We had a meeting to see The Beatles: Rock Band an hour after the floor opened, and see it we did, so convincingly that we didn't leave for another couple hours or more (impressions coming later, I promise). Just before the meeting we scrambled to Nintendo's booth to grab whatever was available and quickly; somehow lines had materialized from the aether for New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports Resort as though their would-be samplers sprouted from the ground like delicate Pikmin (not shown). This resulted in the impressions you have available to you now: a variety of games that were easily digested and quickly available sans agonizing waits.
After The Beatles we had to tool the show floor, the results of which the most ardent amongst you may have sampled via our liveblog. Steve Wiebe's Donkey Kong world record attempt was ongoing (G4 tells me he got close, then was interrupted by a subsequent power failure and kill screen), Tecmo booth-women were posing scandalously, and Square Enix's trademarked media hounds remained positioned to sternly reprimand anyone who would dare take photographs of their media screen during this, an event which exists to distribute media. Additionally, games were played by members of staff who are in the midst of preparing impressions: look out for coverage of Sin and Punishment 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and a variety of others.
Before we knew it our time on the floor was over and we were off to the developer roundtable—Miyamoto was on hand to speak candidly to an audience of roughly 150 to 200 people about his work on NSMBW, Wii Sports Resort, and Spirit Tracks. Such events only serve to remind us that there are few things greater than listening to those who create the games actually speak about them, and as I tweeted earlier, it was one of the great sublime moments of my gaming life to see Miyamoto-san slide around his ice level as a penguin, muttering and exclaiming as he went, the crowd reacting in turn. (You may have also heard that he wanted to show a new Zelda for Wii today, but simply couldn't devote the efforts to preparing it—instead we received the first piece of concept art along with an assurance: the game is deep into development.)
Later, Nintendo's business summit made fools of us all, and we thank them greatly for it.
Tomorrow brings a new day with renewed and steely resolve! Now we know what we want to see first, and will be offered the opportunity to b-line to it as soon as the herd marches in. A series of meetings await as well—conversations with Denise Kaigler of Nintendo, a look at High Voltage's new IP, and a rendezvous with XSEED are all on our already heaping plates. All this plus whatever we can get our hands into: Bayonetta, King of Fighters XII, and who knows what else are all waiting for attention!
From our hotel we wish you the most pleasant of evenings,
N-Sider