Nintendo Spaceworld 2000 has come and gone, and thinking back, I've come to realize that it was one of the greatest experiences I've had in recent years. Not only did I get to visit the land of the rising sun for the first time, but I also got to attend one of the largest events in the gaming industry. It was definitely worth all the time, efforts and money I've put into it, and I would do it all over again without the slightest hesitation.
My adventure starts off at the Sturup airport in southern Sweden, from where I took the flight to Amsterdam, Holland. By coincidence, Thomas, a friend I had met online, would take the same trip from there, so we had decided to meet up. Thomas and his buddy Ole had taken the flight from Norway, and after meeting up with me, we boarded the Tokyo flight. After twelve long hours in the air, we landed at the Narita airport, and from there the three of us took a taxi to Makuhari New City, where Spaceworld and its preceding press conference would be held.
While Thomas and Ole went to check in at their respective hotels, I went to the New Otani Hotel where I would meet up with Fran Mirabella III, who was in Matt Casamassina's hotel room. While talking to the operator on a phone in the lobby, I heard a voice behind me asking "Did you say Casamassina?" I turned around and saw a young man sitting on a couch. He introduced himself as Dan Granite (although I'm not sure about his last name) and said he was a freelancer for IGN. He was looking for Matt too, so we took the elevator to the 18th floor, where Matt was staying.
As I entered the hotel room, I spotted alot of well-known faces. Not only were Fran and Matt there, but so were Peer Schneider, Craig Harris as well as IGN's Japanese Correspondent Tim Horst. It was quite a thrill to finally meet the IGN guys, especially Fran, whom I had known since December 1999, but never have had the pleasure to meet in person until now. After discussing the upcoming media briefing and playing some Excitebike 64 with Fran, we all left the room, met up with Brent Childers from Nintendojo, and went to the convention center, although the conference wouldn't start until several hours later.
After reaching the doors of the Makuhari Messe, which of course were closed, we decided to head to the shopping mall nearby, although Fran had offered to wait outside the entrance of the convention center. At the mall, we went through some stores and then headed to the top floor to an arcade hall. There we met Julian Eggebrecht and Thomas Engel from Factor 5, and after Matt and Peer had talked to them for a while, we entered a bar to get something to drink. As I was reading the menu, I found out that a Coke cost ¥500! "Welcome to Japan," Peer said. While sipping our $5 drinks, Matt told us that IGN had found out about Metroid being in development for the Gamecube. I mistakenly thought Matt said Red Storm was developing it, and remember thinking why Nintendo would hand it to them.
When we got back to the convention center one or two hours later, we saw a crowd sitting outside the closed doors. There were people from all kinds of magazines and online publications, and I met up with Billy Berghammer from PlanetN2000 and Mikey Veroni and Adam Kraus from Tendo Box among many others. While waiting in line, we discussed the Metroid game. "Did you say Retro Studios was developing it?" I asked Fran, and he said "Yes." "Wow, and I thought Matt said Red Storm. Now I'm really excited!" Of course, I wish NCL itself was making the game, but if the franchise was going to be handed to someone else, I was glad it was the promising startup company.
Months before the show, Fran had sent in a request for two invitations to the press conference, but unfortunately I didn't get one, as Nintendo of America was short of them. I was told to contact Nintendo of Europe, and therefore approached Bergsala, Nintendo's Swedish subsidary. Bergsala had managed to get me an invitation, but since it arrived just a day before I would leave Sweden, we decided to meet up before the press conference so they could hand it to me there. The Spaceworld staff would soon open the doors, and still there was no sight of Bergsala.
Therefore, while waiting in line, Fran asked Reilly Brennan, NOA's PR person, if I could get a pass anyway, which he said was okay. Unfortunately Matt and Peer decided to have lunch with Reilly just before the doors opened, and yet again I was left all alone. To my delight, a Nintendo representative by the International Press desk believed my story, and I got a pass to the presentation anyway. I was overjoyed, as I would get a chance to witness the unveiling of Nintendo's next-generation systems!
Finally Nintendo let us into the exhibition halls 9 - 11 where the "Nintendo, the Upcoming Generation" presentation would be held. This place was huge! After passing some TVs where N64 and GBC games would be displayed the next day, I spotted three large screens behind hundreds upon hundreds of chairs. Fran and I got a perfect spot right in front of the stage, which was located by the middle screen. Fran started a conversation with two guys, and I knew I had seen one of them somewhere before. Only later did I realize that it was Carl Johnson, who's picture I had seen in his excellent "E3 Experience" articles on Nintendorks.
After waiting for forty minutes or so, the presentation finally started. Atusho Asada, NCL's Executive Vice President, entered the stage and welcomed us. As he was talking, he pulled something out of his pocket. I immediately realized I was looking at the Game Boy Advance, and I liked what I saw. We found out that it was going to launch on March 21 in Japan, a slight delay from the previously announced December date. The Mobile Adapter, which enables GBC and GBA to connect to the Internet by using a cellular phone, was introduced as well. Then, the moment we were all waiting for was here.
The stage was filled with smoke as a large box was dragged onto it. When the front of the box opened, five girls walked out, each holding a small box, and the words Nintendo Gamecube were displayed on the screen. The boxes were put onto pillars, and after a closer examination, I noticed that they were in five different colors: black, silver, blue, gold and pink. Next on schedule was the showing of the very first footage of the Gamecube at work. Seven demonstrations were shown: Pokémon, Wave Race, Samus Aran, Star Wars, Link vs. Ganondorf, Luigi's Mansion and Joanna Dark. All the games I had hoped for were finally confirmed. Although Nintendo said it didn't mean those games were in development, it seemed clear most of the demos were infact teasers for actual games.
Genyo Takeda, who's in charge of the R&D division at NCL, entered the stage and explained to us that the Gamecube was not an audio-visual machine but was built for one thing only -- to play games. He talked briefly about N64's problems and assured us that those problems were fixed for the Gamecube. All of a sudden, something I wasn't expecting appeared on the screen -- the Gamecube controller. This thing looked sweet! We were also introduced to the Gamecube disc, digicard, SD-digicard, wireless WaveBird controller, modem, and broadband adaptor.
Soon Shigeru Miyamoto walked onto the stage and we found out he was going to demonstrate the controller. Miyamoto explained to us that he didn't want to unveil the next Mario game just yet, because other companies would steal his ideas before it launched. Instead, we got to see Super Mario 128, which was a demonstration that would show off the power of the cube. After this, Meowth's Party was shown, which featured singing and dancing pokémon. Last of all, we heard the bad news that the Gamecube was delayed to July in Japan and October in the US. We also found out the first games would be unveiled at the E3 show in May 2001.
After the presentation, we got to try out Nintendo's new handheld as well as see the Gamecube hardware and peripherals behind glass. This was when I realized how tiny the console really was, and no matter what other people say about the design -- I like it. There were also two Panasonic flat screen monitors on display running looping Gamecube demos. The left screen had some of the demos we got to see during the presentation but also new ones like Banjo-Kazooie and a car demo. The other screen showed off some nice FMVs from two games in development: Rebirth and Too Human.
The first day had ended and I was exhausted from all the excitement. Add to that the fact that I hadn't slept for 40 hours, and you can understand that I immediately fell asleep as soon as Fran and I had checked in to our hotel. I was more than satisfied with the day, and this was only the beginning.
On the next day, the show was open to everyone, and everyone came. Thousands of people of all ages were standing in line as I entered the convention center. While walking on the show floor, I noticed that the Gamecube hardware that had been on display the previous day was mysteriously absent. There was no sight of the Gamecube anywhere on the show and most visitors probably weren't aware of its existance. Even so, they were more than happy with plenty of playable N64, GBC and GBA games on display. I got to play all ten GBA games, and below are my initial impressions of them.
Mario Kart Advance -- This was without a doubt the game with the largest crowd. I had to wait in line for up to 30 minutes to get one minute's play. The game was better looking than its SNES predecessor and played as well. The Mode 7 effects worked without a flaw, and it also had three seperate backgrounds that moved independently from each other. It featured everything I had hoped for in a portable Mario Kart game, and although only one track was available, I left the booth with a smile on my face.
Ougon no Taiyo (Golden Sun) -- A really good-looking game, it reminded me of the classic SNES RPGs. One walks around and talks to people, solves puzzles (i.e. jumps on platforms, pushes statues for hidden doors and puts a stone on a statue's eye) and battles enemies in a usual RPG fashion. The battle scenes were well done -- whenever the attacks switched between your party and the enemies, it would look like the whole scene rotated in 3D, although it didn't. All that happened was that the background scrolled and the characters' sizes and sprites changed.
Kuru Kuru Kururin -- A very interesting puzzle game where one had to move around a rotating stick through a course without touching the walls. Three mistakes were allowed to be made, but luckily there were heart areas throughout the tracks that would fill up the energy. If the stick needed to be rotated the other way, it would just need to hit a spring; this was necessary in some of the later tracks.
Napoleon -- In this RTS game I had to ride around as the famous general telling my army to attack the enemies and their hideouts. When I had instructed all my men to attack the enemies, I could ride with them and with a button push yell "Hurrah," which would make my men even more successful in defeating the enemy.
Rockman EXE -- Capcom's Mega Man game for the GBA was not exactly what I had hoped for. Not that it was a bad game, but I was expecting a platform game like the classic Mega Man games for the NES, GB and SNES. Instead, I got to play an RPG-like game where I walked around in different rooms talking to people. The battle scenes were also performed in an odd way, where the main character and the enemies fought on a grid.
Konami Waiwai Racing -- While fun, this game was basically Mario Kart with Goemon characters. If nothing else, it proved that Konami is just as talented as Nintendo in making an excellent racing game for the new handheld. There were several levels available, from the regular grass lands to the more futuristic tracks a la F-Zero.
Silent Hill -- I found this game very boring as it was basically a story filled with Japanese text and nice pictures. While the images were pretty, the game had no gameplay whatsoever and since I don't speak any Japanese, I had no fun with it at all.
Golf Master -- As the title suggests, this is a golf game. The Konami-developed game had some nice Mode 7 effects. Although I'm not one of the golf fanatics, the game will surely please a lot of them, as it had everything one would expect in a golf game.
Momotaro Matsuri -- An RPG-like game by Hudson where one walks around on a map, enters cities and talks to people. The battles weren't as advanced as in regular RPGs, though. Some of the battles were math problems while other were probably riddles of some kind, but since I don't read Japanese, I'm not sure.
Pinobee: Quest of Heart -- Hudson's game features a little creature called Pinobee in a classic platformer. I only played this game once, so I didn't get to see much of the levels, but from what I played, it looked very promising.
Overall, the GBA games had some really nice SNES-esque graphics but nothing new when it came to gameplay, with a few exceptions (Kuru Kuru Kururin comes to mind). While it was nice to see what the new handheld could do, I guess we have to wait a little longer to play the really innovative games. In either case, I can't wait to play more GBA games and will definitely buy the handheld when it launches next year.
One of the greatest things about attending a Nintendo event is that you get to meet a lot of people you only read about in the media. At Spaceworld, I finally met many of the people that have made Nintendo into what it is today. Among those were Ken Lobb, Perrin Kaplan and George Harrison, all from Nintendo of America. Still, as the last day of the show was approaching, I hadn't met Shigeru Miyamoto, the NCL mastermind himself, and I feared I would not see him before leaving Japan.
On the third day, Thomas told me he had seen Miyamoto run towards the press room about twenty minutes earlier. I immediately saw my chance, and convinced Thomas and Ole to come along to see if he was still there. As I entered the press room, I spotted Miyamoto sitting behind a desk to the left. I went to the room's opposite corner by some tables and pulled out my Ocarina of Time cartridge that I had brought for Miyamoto to sign, but soon realized that neither me nor anyone sitting nearby had a magic marker.
Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot. I approached Shigeru Miyamoto with the game in my left hand, and as I did, all eyes were on me, including Miyamoto's. He got up from his chair and shook my hand as I told him it was a pleasure to finally meet him. I handed him my cartridge and asked if he would sign it, but also explained that I didn't have a pen. Luckily, one of Miyamoto's colleagues had one and gave it to him.
As Miyamoto sat down, I saw him struggling to find a spot on the cartridge where he could sign his name, because in Europe the game's label is all in black with only a golden Zelda logotype on it. I told him it was alright to write on the logo, and he signed his name there along with the date. He also wrote some strange Japanese signs on the right side of the cartridge. I later found out it was his Japanese signature.
While Miyamoto was signing my game, Reilly Brennan took a picture of him. Also, after thanking the master and walking away from the desk, just about everyone in the press room approached Miyamoto to get something signed, whether it was a game cartridge or a booklet. Ten minutes later Miyamoto left the room, and I didn't see him again. Still, I was happy to finally meet the NCL genius, and my moment with Miyamoto-san made the whole trip to Japan worthwhile.
I was quite sad when I heard a speaker voice announce something in Japanese at about 3 PM on the third day of the Spaceworld event, as I knew the show was over. I would have to leave the building where I had spent four of the most exciting days in recent years, played excellent games like Sin and Punishment and witnessed the unveiling of the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance. If I ever get a chance like this again, I will make sure to visit the halls of the Makuhari Messe once again, whether it's one or five years from now.
This year's Spaceworld event was definitely one of Nintendo's greatest ever. Although many of you weren't lucky enought to attend it, I'm sure you agree with me. Nintendo has finally let the cat out of the bag, and although we didn't get to see that much of the games in development, at least we got confirmation that some of Nintendo's best franchises would make it to our homes next year.
If you thought Nintendo revealed a lot about the Gamecube during Spaceworld, you'll no doubt be amazed what the big N will show at E3 2001. Being one of the many Nintendo fanatics on this planet, I can't wait for it. I will do my best to get enough money to attend the Los Angeles exhibition, because I wouldn't want to miss it for the world, and neither should you.
Meeting People
While Thomas and Ole went to check in at their respective hotels, I went to the New Otani Hotel where I would meet up with Fran Mirabella III, who was in Matt Casamassina's hotel room. While talking to the operator on a phone in the lobby, I heard a voice behind me asking "Did you say Casamassina?" I turned around and saw a young man sitting on a couch. He introduced himself as Dan Granite (although I'm not sure about his last name) and said he was a freelancer for IGN. He was looking for Matt too, so we took the elevator to the 18th floor, where Matt was staying.
After reaching the doors of the Makuhari Messe, which of course were closed, we decided to head to the shopping mall nearby, although Fran had offered to wait outside the entrance of the convention center. At the mall, we went through some stores and then headed to the top floor to an arcade hall. There we met Julian Eggebrecht and Thomas Engel from Factor 5, and after Matt and Peer had talked to them for a while, we entered a bar to get something to drink. As I was reading the menu, I found out that a Coke cost ¥500! "Welcome to Japan," Peer said. While sipping our $5 drinks, Matt told us that IGN had found out about Metroid being in development for the Gamecube. I mistakenly thought Matt said Red Storm was developing it, and remember thinking why Nintendo would hand it to them.
When we got back to the convention center one or two hours later, we saw a crowd sitting outside the closed doors. There were people from all kinds of magazines and online publications, and I met up with Billy Berghammer from PlanetN2000 and Mikey Veroni and Adam Kraus from Tendo Box among many others. While waiting in line, we discussed the Metroid game. "Did you say Retro Studios was developing it?" I asked Fran, and he said "Yes." "Wow, and I thought Matt said Red Storm. Now I'm really excited!" Of course, I wish NCL itself was making the game, but if the franchise was going to be handed to someone else, I was glad it was the promising startup company.
Getting Invited
Months before the show, Fran had sent in a request for two invitations to the press conference, but unfortunately I didn't get one, as Nintendo of America was short of them. I was told to contact Nintendo of Europe, and therefore approached Bergsala, Nintendo's Swedish subsidary. Bergsala had managed to get me an invitation, but since it arrived just a day before I would leave Sweden, we decided to meet up before the press conference so they could hand it to me there. The Spaceworld staff would soon open the doors, and still there was no sight of Bergsala.
Therefore, while waiting in line, Fran asked Reilly Brennan, NOA's PR person, if I could get a pass anyway, which he said was okay. Unfortunately Matt and Peer decided to have lunch with Reilly just before the doors opened, and yet again I was left all alone. To my delight, a Nintendo representative by the International Press desk believed my story, and I got a pass to the presentation anyway. I was overjoyed, as I would get a chance to witness the unveiling of Nintendo's next-generation systems!
Finally Nintendo let us into the exhibition halls 9 - 11 where the "Nintendo, the Upcoming Generation" presentation would be held. This place was huge! After passing some TVs where N64 and GBC games would be displayed the next day, I spotted three large screens behind hundreds upon hundreds of chairs. Fran and I got a perfect spot right in front of the stage, which was located by the middle screen. Fran started a conversation with two guys, and I knew I had seen one of them somewhere before. Only later did I realize that it was Carl Johnson, who's picture I had seen in his excellent "E3 Experience" articles on Nintendorks.
The Unveiling
The stage was filled with smoke as a large box was dragged onto it. When the front of the box opened, five girls walked out, each holding a small box, and the words Nintendo Gamecube were displayed on the screen. The boxes were put onto pillars, and after a closer examination, I noticed that they were in five different colors: black, silver, blue, gold and pink. Next on schedule was the showing of the very first footage of the Gamecube at work. Seven demonstrations were shown: Pokémon, Wave Race, Samus Aran, Star Wars, Link vs. Ganondorf, Luigi's Mansion and Joanna Dark. All the games I had hoped for were finally confirmed. Although Nintendo said it didn't mean those games were in development, it seemed clear most of the demos were infact teasers for actual games.
Genyo Takeda, who's in charge of the R&D division at NCL, entered the stage and explained to us that the Gamecube was not an audio-visual machine but was built for one thing only -- to play games. He talked briefly about N64's problems and assured us that those problems were fixed for the Gamecube. All of a sudden, something I wasn't expecting appeared on the screen -- the Gamecube controller. This thing looked sweet! We were also introduced to the Gamecube disc, digicard, SD-digicard, wireless WaveBird controller, modem, and broadband adaptor.
Soon Shigeru Miyamoto walked onto the stage and we found out he was going to demonstrate the controller. Miyamoto explained to us that he didn't want to unveil the next Mario game just yet, because other companies would steal his ideas before it launched. Instead, we got to see Super Mario 128, which was a demonstration that would show off the power of the cube. After this, Meowth's Party was shown, which featured singing and dancing pokémon. Last of all, we heard the bad news that the Gamecube was delayed to July in Japan and October in the US. We also found out the first games would be unveiled at the E3 show in May 2001.
After the presentation, we got to try out Nintendo's new handheld as well as see the Gamecube hardware and peripherals behind glass. This was when I realized how tiny the console really was, and no matter what other people say about the design -- I like it. There were also two Panasonic flat screen monitors on display running looping Gamecube demos. The left screen had some of the demos we got to see during the presentation but also new ones like Banjo-Kazooie and a car demo. The other screen showed off some nice FMVs from two games in development: Rebirth and Too Human.
The first day had ended and I was exhausted from all the excitement. Add to that the fact that I hadn't slept for 40 hours, and you can understand that I immediately fell asleep as soon as Fran and I had checked in to our hotel. I was more than satisfied with the day, and this was only the beginning.
Advanced Games
On the next day, the show was open to everyone, and everyone came. Thousands of people of all ages were standing in line as I entered the convention center. While walking on the show floor, I noticed that the Gamecube hardware that had been on display the previous day was mysteriously absent. There was no sight of the Gamecube anywhere on the show and most visitors probably weren't aware of its existance. Even so, they were more than happy with plenty of playable N64, GBC and GBA games on display. I got to play all ten GBA games, and below are my initial impressions of them.
Ougon no Taiyo (Golden Sun) -- A really good-looking game, it reminded me of the classic SNES RPGs. One walks around and talks to people, solves puzzles (i.e. jumps on platforms, pushes statues for hidden doors and puts a stone on a statue's eye) and battles enemies in a usual RPG fashion. The battle scenes were well done -- whenever the attacks switched between your party and the enemies, it would look like the whole scene rotated in 3D, although it didn't. All that happened was that the background scrolled and the characters' sizes and sprites changed.
Kuru Kuru Kururin -- A very interesting puzzle game where one had to move around a rotating stick through a course without touching the walls. Three mistakes were allowed to be made, but luckily there were heart areas throughout the tracks that would fill up the energy. If the stick needed to be rotated the other way, it would just need to hit a spring; this was necessary in some of the later tracks.
Napoleon -- In this RTS game I had to ride around as the famous general telling my army to attack the enemies and their hideouts. When I had instructed all my men to attack the enemies, I could ride with them and with a button push yell "Hurrah," which would make my men even more successful in defeating the enemy.
Rockman EXE -- Capcom's Mega Man game for the GBA was not exactly what I had hoped for. Not that it was a bad game, but I was expecting a platform game like the classic Mega Man games for the NES, GB and SNES. Instead, I got to play an RPG-like game where I walked around in different rooms talking to people. The battle scenes were also performed in an odd way, where the main character and the enemies fought on a grid.
Konami Waiwai Racing -- While fun, this game was basically Mario Kart with Goemon characters. If nothing else, it proved that Konami is just as talented as Nintendo in making an excellent racing game for the new handheld. There were several levels available, from the regular grass lands to the more futuristic tracks a la F-Zero.
Silent Hill -- I found this game very boring as it was basically a story filled with Japanese text and nice pictures. While the images were pretty, the game had no gameplay whatsoever and since I don't speak any Japanese, I had no fun with it at all.
Golf Master -- As the title suggests, this is a golf game. The Konami-developed game had some nice Mode 7 effects. Although I'm not one of the golf fanatics, the game will surely please a lot of them, as it had everything one would expect in a golf game.
Momotaro Matsuri -- An RPG-like game by Hudson where one walks around on a map, enters cities and talks to people. The battles weren't as advanced as in regular RPGs, though. Some of the battles were math problems while other were probably riddles of some kind, but since I don't read Japanese, I'm not sure.
Pinobee: Quest of Heart -- Hudson's game features a little creature called Pinobee in a classic platformer. I only played this game once, so I didn't get to see much of the levels, but from what I played, it looked very promising.
Meeting the Master
One of the greatest things about attending a Nintendo event is that you get to meet a lot of people you only read about in the media. At Spaceworld, I finally met many of the people that have made Nintendo into what it is today. Among those were Ken Lobb, Perrin Kaplan and George Harrison, all from Nintendo of America. Still, as the last day of the show was approaching, I hadn't met Shigeru Miyamoto, the NCL mastermind himself, and I feared I would not see him before leaving Japan.
On the third day, Thomas told me he had seen Miyamoto run towards the press room about twenty minutes earlier. I immediately saw my chance, and convinced Thomas and Ole to come along to see if he was still there. As I entered the press room, I spotted Miyamoto sitting behind a desk to the left. I went to the room's opposite corner by some tables and pulled out my Ocarina of Time cartridge that I had brought for Miyamoto to sign, but soon realized that neither me nor anyone sitting nearby had a magic marker.
Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot. I approached Shigeru Miyamoto with the game in my left hand, and as I did, all eyes were on me, including Miyamoto's. He got up from his chair and shook my hand as I told him it was a pleasure to finally meet him. I handed him my cartridge and asked if he would sign it, but also explained that I didn't have a pen. Luckily, one of Miyamoto's colleagues had one and gave it to him.
While Miyamoto was signing my game, Reilly Brennan took a picture of him. Also, after thanking the master and walking away from the desk, just about everyone in the press room approached Miyamoto to get something signed, whether it was a game cartridge or a booklet. Ten minutes later Miyamoto left the room, and I didn't see him again. Still, I was happy to finally meet the NCL genius, and my moment with Miyamoto-san made the whole trip to Japan worthwhile.
Closing Doors
This year's Spaceworld event was definitely one of Nintendo's greatest ever. Although many of you weren't lucky enought to attend it, I'm sure you agree with me. Nintendo has finally let the cat out of the bag, and although we didn't get to see that much of the games in development, at least we got confirmation that some of Nintendo's best franchises would make it to our homes next year.
If you thought Nintendo revealed a lot about the Gamecube during Spaceworld, you'll no doubt be amazed what the big N will show at E3 2001. Being one of the many Nintendo fanatics on this planet, I can't wait for it. I will do my best to get enough money to attend the Los Angeles exhibition, because I wouldn't want to miss it for the world, and neither should you.