Getting the badge
Unfortunately for me and about several hundred other people who didn’t pre register their media credentials there was a long wait to register your badge. For each person they have to check credentials and actually print a badge, which takes a couple of minutes per person. Before the show the power went out at the media check in, forcing relocation and a chaotic dash to the other registration booth. Somehow I was lucky enough to be near the entry door of the new media check in area. From here on it was just another 2 hour wait and my E3 badge was in hand! Note to self (and to you other people going to E3) register in advance… months in advance… if not then at least do it the day before the show.

With my E3 media pass on I head straight for the South Hall, which has Nintendo and Sony’s booths. Right when I enter I see a line wrapped around the entire Nintendo booth for Zelda: The Twilight Princess. If you wanted to play as an adult link you’ll have to have the patience of a saint. A nearby sign said it was a two hour wait with more people trickling in by the minute. It seemed like a good idea to come back later on, so I headed over to Sony’s booth. At the booth there was a wide screen projector above hundreds of slim line PS2s featuring key titles namely Kingdom Hearts 2, Soul Calibur 3 and strangely enough We Love Katamari. When I stepped inside the actual PS2 section I spot a Kingdom Hearts 2 demo with no line so I hop right in to play it.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is a vast improvement from the first game. Hands on I played around with the Mulan level. You’re in direct control of Sora who has a couple of new abilities. He can do a light smack with the keyblade and a heavy slash, which makes for some cool combo mechanics. What really impressed me were timed interactive attacks. Where “Command” was displayed new options with the triangle button would appear. Some allowed Sora to interact with the environment by jumping into a whirlwind. Others let Sora pull off new techniques. One trick had Sora spin around a white heartless so you can do a back attack. When Sora was surrounded by a huge mess of bee like heartless the triangle move had Sora spin his keyblade to hit a bunch of the heartless at once. The actual swarm of heartless was really amazing too. On screen you had literally hundreds of heartless flying around without a hint of slowdown. The battle was epic in size and leads players who have seen the KH2 trailers to believe that Sora will be battling hordes of heartless in real time like in how one of the trailers ended. Magic has been given a bit of a change too. Fire causes a circle of flames to surround Sora, instead of a ball of fire emanating from the keyblade. In the other demo where you’re in Olympus you get a chance to fight along side Auron of FFX fame. The two can do a combo attack and Sora can also transform into a dual keyblade wielding machine. Kingdom Hearts 2 is shaping up to be one of the strongest titles in the PS2 line up this winter.

We Love Katamari was right next to KH2, so I hit that up next. When I played this demo I liked the E3 related humor where the King of Cosmos said he wants a Katamari rolled up larger than the E3 show. The demo allowed up to two people to play, which is where We Love Katamari separates itself from the first game. In a lot of ways the single player mode is the same. You’re in a school, with a sticky ball and it’s up to the tiny prince to roll up junk. Being indoors allows you to roll up stuff faster since you can roll along the walls to pick up scenery. Using this strategy you’ll pick up the walls too as you grow. What was kind of neat was that there were different rooms in the school and low loading times in between each area. With each area filled with objects you would expect some waiting, but We Love Katamari pulls it off without a wait. If you loved the first game you’re bound to enjoy this. We’ll have further coverage of this game in July when we pick up the Japanese version Minna Daisuki Katamari.

Back to the Nintendo booth and the Legend of Zelda line is even longer. I thought “Will I ever be able to play this?” Instead of jumping straight into line I headed over to see what other things Nintendo had going for it. First off I checked out the DS download station. Some downloadable demos you could pick up included The Legend of Zelda Trailer, Polarium, Meteos and what everyone was trying to download, Electroplankton. I managed to get a clean download of the Zelda trailer, really just to see how the station worked. While I was lucky, thirty other DS owners standing around it were frustrated with constant disconnects. I got curious about how Nintendo had it set up, so I tried to get Electroplankton. Right in the middle of the download it crashed and refused to start up. Since this was the main way of trying out Electroplankton I could see why people were upset with it. DS downloads aside Nintendo has a really strong booth. An English version of Fire Emblem for the Gamecube was around. Geist, the spectral shooter and Super Mario Strikers, a Mario soccer game were playable. One of the bigger surprises was Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix. Not the game itself, but seeing Mario play it. Speaking of DDR Mario Mix it’s pretty much what it sounds like DDR + Mario with a unique song list. Songs like “Here we Go!” have more fanfare than DDR’s typical house mixes. The DS side was just as strong as the Gamecube line up. A new station featured VoIP using the DS’ microphone and a tiny earpiece. If the DS does become a portable VoIP device Nintendo is pushing the limits of handheld electronics. The same booth also featured Mario Kart and Animal Crossing with online network play. Each game had you play with people next to you and a person teleconferencing from states away.

I had a chance to check out Animal Crossing DS where the remote player was 3,000 miles away in New York. Animal Crossing DS was really similar to the Gamecube title. In the demo four people were running around, each carrying a shovel. We could bury peaches on a tree or as some more creative players thought of hitting each other with virtual shovels. The touch screen makes communicating between other players a breeze. Instead of having to scroll through the alphabet for each letter, a touch screen keyboard pops up for in game chat. While the game demo we played had no lag, it’s hard to imagine a similar situation when thousands of people are playing it. We’ll have more on this title in the winter when it’s released. The DS area was packing a line up full of surprises. Kirby Canvas Curse was popular DS game to check out. There was a playable version of New Super Mario Bros., which takes Mario back to his 2D roots. Only he’s rendered in 3D now. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (actually Gyakuten Saiban in Japan) was playable, in English too. Finally US gamers will get a chance to try the unique text based adventure series. Mega Man Battle Network was sort of playable. A Japanese version of the series was on the floor, that few people dared to try. In battles it played like other Battle Network games where you select battle chips and move on a grid using your selected chips. The card / action game hybrid didn’t really use the DS features much. The main difference was a touch screen menu interface. Out of the entire lineup Nanostray was the sleeper hit. An old school shooter made by Majesco blew away other top name titles even though it has a minor presence in the show. Touch screen weapon controls and with fast paced top down shooting makes this a game to look out for.

And all of this was just one tiny area of the show… (Read on for more)