Thursday, May 06, 2004
The Quiet Before The Storm
The week leading up to E3 is always the hardest pat of the year for me. For the past few months all I've been hearing is "wait until E3 and we'll reveal all." Well, it's just about here and I can't wait anymore. I need to see how this DS thing will really work. Two screens? What is Nintendo planning? And what is Sony planning with their PSP? Is it a video game system or a multimedia do everything contraption? And, of course, will Tecmo shock the world and finally unveil a sequel to Solomon’s Key?
To distract myself from the events taking place one week in the future, I've traveled back (in my mind...) to 2001, when I was one of the privileged few (thousand) who was actually admitted into E3 - also known as gamers heaven except you're alive and can tell your friends about it later - and was able to actually play games before anyone else. I will tell you folks who haven't attended this event a story that perfectly describes the situations will you find yourself in when trapped in a giant building with thousands of games for 3 days.
During those days at the show, I traveled almost everywhere with frequent poster Brendan.Sure, I forget all about him when I was playing Metroid Prime, but you definitely need a buddy with you when Pac Man Fever comes your way. And who else will show you up in a game of Unreal Championship by coming in first while you come in dead last? Believe me, Brendan is the guy you want with you at E3. As far as I can tell, there aren’t any other journalists on the planet who will take time away from playing brand new games to get their hands on an arcade version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – a game that came out one year earlier on the Dreamcast.
Anyway, my favorite moment of the show happened just after leaving the Microsoft booth. As you can imagine, MS's booth was jammed packed with eager gamers. Needing some relief from the crowds, Brendan and I snuck away to a quieter booth where there were no lines or people to worry about - Acclaim. I remember making frequent trips through the Acclaim booth that year to play the god awful Turok: Evolution. But this time, a new game caught my eye: Legends of Wrestling 2.
For those who aren’t aware, the LoW series is Acclaim’s attempt to cash in on the lucrative wrestling market. Their shtick was placing the greats from our youth into the game – great wrestlers like Koko B. Ware and Big John Studd. It was a good idea, but they forgot to implement fun gameplay. Still, it was a new game and there wasn’t any wait, so Brendan and I approached the kiosk. As we reached for the controllers and started to play, we realized something was wrong. Apparently, when you churn out the hits like Acclaim does, you have to skimp here and there. The result was one dead controller in my hands. Fortunately, I’m a kind man, so I let Brendan play the game one player.
This game represented the dark side of E3. It was very buggy with only an average product to eventually look forward to. Bad combination. Just when we were about to move on to something more exciting, though, a booth babe approached. Could a legendary booth babe really be approaching us? It was too good to be true.
She walked up to us and said "Hi" or "Hello" or whatever they say in L.A. So attached to the amazing gameplay at hand, we acknowledged her existence briefly, and then resumed the classic fight between the Hulkster and Andre the Giant. She started to talk about the game, I think she mentioned it was a sport and took place in a ring. After she had clearly established her expertise with the game she picked up the broken controller to demonstrate just how awesome she was.
"Sorry, that controller’s actually broken." I said to her.
She was undeterred though. "That's ok."
It was then that I realized she was not your average booth babe. Despite my kind warning, she started to hold the controller in such a manner that it appeared like she was trying to play the game. Her left thumb rested awkwardly on the directional pad while various fingers from her right hand slapped surprisingly hard at the poor little buttons. Brendan and I exchanged a look, but I assumed she was simply playing around, joking if you will, so I remained silent.
A few seconds later, after Brendan had knocked Andre down on the mat, we heard her speak again. "No, get up!" she slammed on the buttons "Get up! Get up!"
Brendan intervened this time. "You know, that controller isn't working."
"Yeah, I know,” she responded.
But then, "I'm going to beat you now. Wait... Yay!" as Andre landed on Hogan.
At that point the game froze or reset or some other glorious signal from above and Brendan and I were able to meekly walk away from the kiosk.
To distract myself from the events taking place one week in the future, I've traveled back (in my mind...) to 2001, when I was one of the privileged few (thousand) who was actually admitted into E3 - also known as gamers heaven except you're alive and can tell your friends about it later - and was able to actually play games before anyone else. I will tell you folks who haven't attended this event a story that perfectly describes the situations will you find yourself in when trapped in a giant building with thousands of games for 3 days.
During those days at the show, I traveled almost everywhere with frequent poster Brendan.Sure, I forget all about him when I was playing Metroid Prime, but you definitely need a buddy with you when Pac Man Fever comes your way. And who else will show you up in a game of Unreal Championship by coming in first while you come in dead last? Believe me, Brendan is the guy you want with you at E3. As far as I can tell, there aren’t any other journalists on the planet who will take time away from playing brand new games to get their hands on an arcade version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – a game that came out one year earlier on the Dreamcast.
Anyway, my favorite moment of the show happened just after leaving the Microsoft booth. As you can imagine, MS's booth was jammed packed with eager gamers. Needing some relief from the crowds, Brendan and I snuck away to a quieter booth where there were no lines or people to worry about - Acclaim. I remember making frequent trips through the Acclaim booth that year to play the god awful Turok: Evolution. But this time, a new game caught my eye: Legends of Wrestling 2.
For those who aren’t aware, the LoW series is Acclaim’s attempt to cash in on the lucrative wrestling market. Their shtick was placing the greats from our youth into the game – great wrestlers like Koko B. Ware and Big John Studd. It was a good idea, but they forgot to implement fun gameplay. Still, it was a new game and there wasn’t any wait, so Brendan and I approached the kiosk. As we reached for the controllers and started to play, we realized something was wrong. Apparently, when you churn out the hits like Acclaim does, you have to skimp here and there. The result was one dead controller in my hands. Fortunately, I’m a kind man, so I let Brendan play the game one player.
This game represented the dark side of E3. It was very buggy with only an average product to eventually look forward to. Bad combination. Just when we were about to move on to something more exciting, though, a booth babe approached. Could a legendary booth babe really be approaching us? It was too good to be true.
She walked up to us and said "Hi" or "Hello" or whatever they say in L.A. So attached to the amazing gameplay at hand, we acknowledged her existence briefly, and then resumed the classic fight between the Hulkster and Andre the Giant. She started to talk about the game, I think she mentioned it was a sport and took place in a ring. After she had clearly established her expertise with the game she picked up the broken controller to demonstrate just how awesome she was.
"Sorry, that controller’s actually broken." I said to her.
She was undeterred though. "That's ok."
It was then that I realized she was not your average booth babe. Despite my kind warning, she started to hold the controller in such a manner that it appeared like she was trying to play the game. Her left thumb rested awkwardly on the directional pad while various fingers from her right hand slapped surprisingly hard at the poor little buttons. Brendan and I exchanged a look, but I assumed she was simply playing around, joking if you will, so I remained silent.
A few seconds later, after Brendan had knocked Andre down on the mat, we heard her speak again. "No, get up!" she slammed on the buttons "Get up! Get up!"
Brendan intervened this time. "You know, that controller isn't working."
"Yeah, I know,” she responded.
But then, "I'm going to beat you now. Wait... Yay!" as Andre landed on Hogan.
At that point the game froze or reset or some other glorious signal from above and Brendan and I were able to meekly walk away from the kiosk.
// posted by Tom @ 9:08 PM 
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