E3 Through the Eyes of a Man with 20/20 Vision
Monday evening I boarded a plane, escaping from Minnesota in a mere three hour plane ride to the sunny palm-tree sustaining city of Los Angeles. With the warmth of dusk, comforting buzz of jet engines and twinkle of the city lights hundreds of feet below, I pondered what I hoped to accomplish at my third Electronic Entertainment Expo. "Something special" was my first thought. What that meant exactly, I did not yet know.
Is it falling asleep on the shoulder of Yvonne Payne, the sweet elderly lady sitting beside me on the plane? Is it shaking Miyamoto's hand? Or is it stripping out of my clothes and seeing how fast I can run from South Hall to West Hall before being tackled and accosted by security? While I didn't know what that "something special" was initially, I unconciously realized it by the conclusion of my flight.
If a public phone is ringing, do you answer it?
I realized the something special is and has always been the affection and child-like yearning I feel for Nintendo's comforting touch. Nothing tangible could ever hope to replace or substitute it. Unless, that is, you have a hair wrap and your name is Miss Cleo.
After a three-hour flight, I arrived in LAX at 11:10 PM to a welcoming rush of warm air and the sight of resident writer Cory Faller and artists Aimee Lamoureux and Matthew Musselman. Nevermind the requisite Dairy Queen induced colin cleansing mid-flight or the grabbing of a luggage cart from a man in SARS face-mask attire, I'm at E3 baby! With a backpack and duffle bag at my side, the four of us grabbed a shuttle to the Inntowne Hotel (pictured left) - N-Sider's official E3 accomodations since May 2001.
Room 202. After meeting up with Dean Bergmann, Brenden Petracek, Mary Jane Irwin, and NintendoInsider's "Gary", we closed the night with a nostalgic walk to Chez Denny's and a sleep-crazed laugh at Cory's violating of Brenden.
This year's media briefing was held within the majestic Kodak Theatre ballroom, located on the infamous crossroads of Hollywood and Highland. The N-Sider staff encountered some issues in registering all of its staff for the briefing. Nintendo was only allowing three attendees per media organization. After a little convincing of the nevertheless good hearts at Nintendo, we managed to squeeze in all nine of our staff. A sincere thanks to Tom of Golin/Harris and Beth Llewelyn of NoA for accomodating your most loyal, and possibly whiny, of fans.
We woke up Tuesday to find a strange Hawaiian named "Dan" sleeping in our room. Dan is a friend of N-Sider artist Josh Langley. Our day began at around 6 AM, with a shower and a trip to the Los Angeles Convention Center to gather our badge holders. We flagged down a few taxis - picture nine people squished into two taxis - and arrived at the Nintendo Media Briefing at around 10 AM.
Before the pre-show, the N-Sider staff took part in the filming of Extra, a cable television entertainment news show. Our job was to clap furiously and look pretty. Carmen Electra was a guest on the show. After speaking about the respectable occupation of taking off her clothes, we had the chance to ask her a scandalous question. Dean chimed in asking Carmen what she thought of Nintendo. She responded correctly with "I love Nintendo". Good girl.
After meeting David Hellman, Josh Langley, and Anthony Graham, we merrily skipped up the four flights of stairs to the Nintendo pre-show. The show didn't begin until 11:30 AM. In the mean time, we patiently nibbled on cookies and bite-size sandwiches provided by Nintendo's catering. The doors soon opened and we rushed to plop our butts down into the closest up-front and center seats.
The show began with a jittery George Harrison on a stage gently lit by an orange glow. Two giant projector screens adorned the stage, one on the left and another on the right. To make a long story short, here are the parts I found most impressive.
First up is the confirmation that Factor 5 is working on an exclusive GameCube title besides Rogue Squadron III. Chances are good that this is the rumored Pilotwings. It's nice to see Factor 5's support for Nintendo strong as ever and the rumors that said otherwise, collaboratively kicked in the head with my left and right foot.
Geist was a pleasant surprise. While not a direct answer to Microsoft's Halo, Geist nevertheless has the potential of creating a fanbase of its own. It's nice to see Nintendo supporting the development of such innovative game titles.
Another thing that surprised me was when George said Nintendo recognizes changes are needed. He said while Nintendo has no plans on changing its core commitment to its franchise characters, changes are in the making in terms of increased third-party support and more variety in first-party offerings. He pointed to Nintendo's newly formed development office in Tokyo as an example. Regardless of this change, he assured the audience Mario will never start shooting hookers.
The finest part of the media briefing was when Shinji Mikami - unable to attend E3 because he's so busy working on Resident Evil 4 for GameCube - jokingly said in a pre-recorded video that despite recent rumors, he has not been fired and is still working at Capcom. He confirmed Capcom is delivering several exclusive titles to GameCube including Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, and Killer 7 and that development is progressing smoothly. He concluded by saying Resident Evil 4 will be scarier than ever before. After seeing the video, I have confidence he's telling the truth. Resident Evil 4 has become my most anticpated future GameCube game surpassing Metroid Prime 2, F-Zero GX and others.
Nintendo pulled out the infamous 40 percent of the GameCube audience is over the age of 18 statistic. In the eyes of someone with a functional brain, this means the GameCube is 60 percent kiddie guaranteed.
The briefing concluded with Iwata and Harrison assuring the audience that Nintendo has never been more focused, determined or willing to take risks.
For Nintendo's sake, I hope these statements are true. If Nintendo is so willing to take risks, however, it makes one wonder why they have been so tight-lipped regarding their online program. Nintendo says it has failed to see a killer app released for online gaming, so then my question is, why doesn't it take the initiative and create one itself? I guess the only good news is that Nintendo has been and will continue to research online gaming and will have additional information sometime in the near future.
If Nintendo doesn't begin taking risks, it needs to decide whether or not it's satisfied with being niche player.
At this point a gentleman decided to get up from my row of seats. As he neared the aisle he spontaneously tripped over my bag, falling face flat into the aisle with an accompanying thud. I managed to hold in my laugh and look innocent.
After the briefing, we grabbed some real food before catching a ride on the Los Angeles subway (me pictured left). I returned to the Convention Center's Media Center in order to update with a transcript of the Nintendo Media Briefing. The full transcript of the Nintendo Media Briefing can be read by clicking here.
While in N-Sider's chat room, I heard complaints about Nintendo's dismal pre-show. I can't help but disagree. Nintendo's pre-show has always been about Nintendo. This is the first year Nintendo has ever focused more on the offerings of third-party developers - whether it be Namco's Soul Calibur II, or Sega's Billy Hatcher, or EA's Sims, or Konami's Metal Gear, or n-Space's Geist - Nintendo and president Satoru Iwata are making an admirable effort of getting quality third-party games to its audience. I'd like to see those who fault Nintendo's emphasis on connectivity react when Sony does the same thing with its PSP. In the meantime, all I can do is a perpetual rolling of my eyes at the reactions to Nintendo's E3 showing.