The entrance hall was nice, with Mario Kart on display, but the goods we all wanted were still behind the curtains.
"Feed the Need" press event
Recently, I was invited to attend a press event held by Nintendo called “Feed the Need”. And even more recently, I actually attended the event. Now this certainly isn’t on the same latitude as E3 or TGS (Tokyo Games Show), but it was certainly quite an exciting and entertaining day where I got to meet many of the companies and people that are contributing to Nintendo’s success.
I arrived at 9:30 a.m. (after a two hour stroll through traffic!) with bag on back, camera in hand, and a whole lot of excitement inside ready to explode. I met up with my buddies from GameXC (for the first time in person), then lounged in the entrance hall with them where we discussed business and important matters (Mario Kart, 1080, T.H.U.G.). There were a few games on display (Mario Kart, 1080, and Soul Callibur II), some sponsors promoting their products, and nice drinks and entertainment. But everyone was still waiting for the real goods, the games!
Shortly after watching Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in action for the first time, Mario himself came out and invited us all into the next hall, this is where the press conference would take place. Once inside, there were three large projection screens high on each wall, a stage where the press conference was to unfold, and two walls lined with loads of video games (newly released and unreleased games).
Billy Gun from WWE introduced the press conference by running in with a platinum Cube in hand dancing to his wrestling music “The Ass Man” then attempting to begin the conference himself, before getting cut off by Nintendo of Canada’s General Manager Ron Bertram (all in good humor nonetheless). Ron then went on to talk about financial figures, and Nintendo’s strategy on winning in retail this holiday season. He noted that the past few months have been Nintendo’s strongest with the GameCube, and went on to give brief statistics to back that statement up, while throwing in some humorous wise cracks about Billy Gun.
Ron then introduced the first of 3 guests who where to speak.
First to speak was LucasArts Bret Toasty, he is the producer of Rebel Strike, and has worked on all of the Rogue Leader games. He went on to give details on Rebel Strike, and discussed the advantages of developing games for the Nintendo GameCube. Second to speak was Nate Williams, Publishing Manager for Capcom. He briefly talked about Viewtiful Joe, and it’s triumphant sales across North America, then went on to talk about Capcom as a third party developer for Nintendo. The final speaker was probably the most anticipated speaker, Den Stai. He’s the President of Silicon Knights, who is currently working in collaboration with Konami on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. He gave an interesting speech comparing the games industry to the movie industry in the 1930’s, in which the movie industry started to see lots of collaborations between studios, and how the games industry is starting to see collaborations between developers in this present day. At the end of his speech, they showed a clip from Metal Gear Solid (the beginning of this video), which was quite impressive, but nothing we haven’t seen before.
Finally, the press conference finished and the gaming began! The seats where quickly taken away by staff, and the room suddenly became a big GameCube arcade. The show floor had a number of newly released games, but the more notable games (the ones worth playing) that were there include: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Beyond Good & Evil, XIII, 1080: Avalanche, Tony Hawks Underground, and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
I got quite some time with each of these games, except for Prince of Persia, in which case I got no time with. But out of those I mentioned, I was most impressed with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Which isn’t much of a surprise, but it really lived up to my expectations. Visually, it’s quite an artistically stunning game. And it plays very well and smooth, even with 4 player split screen action. I was always placing 8th though, since the other racers where actually quite skilled in racing and combat, nevertheless I was having a blast.
The other title I was equally impressed with was Ubi Soft’s XIII, it looks even better than I had anticipated (unless it’s only the slick Panasonic flat screen tv’s they where displayed on). And it plays very well too, though the controls where a bit hard to get used to. Mainly due to the small C stick the GameCube controller has, and the aiming was a bit for my hands.
Another of Ubi Soft’s upcoming games, Beyond Good & Evil caught my eye. Getting some hands on time with this baby is really fun, even if you don’t know what you’re doing (in my case), since it looks absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t appreciate the sound on this game though, in fact on any of the games I got to try out, since there was a live DJ in the house who drowned out most of the games audio. But this didn’t take away from my experience with any of these games, I was very impressed with all of them.
For a more detailed look at each of the games, check out our forums, I’ll be discussing each game in further detail in there. You can get to our forum boards by clicking here.
Well that basically raps it up. I had an awesome time at the press event, scoring hours of time with all the beautiful games on display, meeting new people, and getting my hands on Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Be sure to check out the forum boards for more information on the games at the event, and also check out the screenshot gallery for even more photos of the event. Enjoy!
- Richard Targett
Recently, I was invited to attend a press event held by Nintendo called “Feed the Need”. And even more recently, I actually attended the event. Now this certainly isn’t on the same latitude as E3 or TGS (Tokyo Games Show), but it was certainly quite an exciting and entertaining day where I got to meet many of the companies and people that are contributing to Nintendo’s success.
I arrived at 9:30 a.m. (after a two hour stroll through traffic!) with bag on back, camera in hand, and a whole lot of excitement inside ready to explode. I met up with my buddies from GameXC (for the first time in person), then lounged in the entrance hall with them where we discussed business and important matters (Mario Kart, 1080, T.H.U.G.). There were a few games on display (Mario Kart, 1080, and Soul Callibur II), some sponsors promoting their products, and nice drinks and entertainment. But everyone was still waiting for the real goods, the games!
Shortly after watching Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in action for the first time, Mario himself came out and invited us all into the next hall, this is where the press conference would take place. Once inside, there were three large projection screens high on each wall, a stage where the press conference was to unfold, and two walls lined with loads of video games (newly released and unreleased games).
Billy Gun from WWE introduced the press conference by running in with a platinum Cube in hand dancing to his wrestling music “The Ass Man” then attempting to begin the conference himself, before getting cut off by Nintendo of Canada’s General Manager Ron Bertram (all in good humor nonetheless). Ron then went on to talk about financial figures, and Nintendo’s strategy on winning in retail this holiday season. He noted that the past few months have been Nintendo’s strongest with the GameCube, and went on to give brief statistics to back that statement up, while throwing in some humorous wise cracks about Billy Gun.
Ron then introduced the first of 3 guests who where to speak.
(From left) General Manager of Nintendo of Canada Ron Bertram, WWE wrestler Billy Gun, LucasArts Producer Bret Toasty, Capcom’s Publishing Manager Nate Williams, and President of Silicon Knights Den Stai.
First to speak was LucasArts Bret Toasty, he is the producer of Rebel Strike, and has worked on all of the Rogue Leader games. He went on to give details on Rebel Strike, and discussed the advantages of developing games for the Nintendo GameCube. Second to speak was Nate Williams, Publishing Manager for Capcom. He briefly talked about Viewtiful Joe, and it’s triumphant sales across North America, then went on to talk about Capcom as a third party developer for Nintendo. The final speaker was probably the most anticipated speaker, Den Stai. He’s the President of Silicon Knights, who is currently working in collaboration with Konami on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. He gave an interesting speech comparing the games industry to the movie industry in the 1930’s, in which the movie industry started to see lots of collaborations between studios, and how the games industry is starting to see collaborations between developers in this present day. At the end of his speech, they showed a clip from Metal Gear Solid (the beginning of this video), which was quite impressive, but nothing we haven’t seen before.
Finally, the press conference finished and the gaming began! The seats where quickly taken away by staff, and the room suddenly became a big GameCube arcade. The show floor had a number of newly released games, but the more notable games (the ones worth playing) that were there include: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Beyond Good & Evil, XIII, 1080: Avalanche, Tony Hawks Underground, and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
These are my buddies I met from GameXC, giving Mario Kart: Double Dash!! a test run.
I got quite some time with each of these games, except for Prince of Persia, in which case I got no time with. But out of those I mentioned, I was most impressed with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Which isn’t much of a surprise, but it really lived up to my expectations. Visually, it’s quite an artistically stunning game. And it plays very well and smooth, even with 4 player split screen action. I was always placing 8th though, since the other racers where actually quite skilled in racing and combat, nevertheless I was having a blast.
The other title I was equally impressed with was Ubi Soft’s XIII, it looks even better than I had anticipated (unless it’s only the slick Panasonic flat screen tv’s they where displayed on). And it plays very well too, though the controls where a bit hard to get used to. Mainly due to the small C stick the GameCube controller has, and the aiming was a bit for my hands.
Another of Ubi Soft’s upcoming games, Beyond Good & Evil caught my eye. Getting some hands on time with this baby is really fun, even if you don’t know what you’re doing (in my case), since it looks absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t appreciate the sound on this game though, in fact on any of the games I got to try out, since there was a live DJ in the house who drowned out most of the games audio. But this didn’t take away from my experience with any of these games, I was very impressed with all of them.
Nintendo’s “Feed the Need” was my first press event, and it was certainly an exciting and enjoyable experience. Now if only ever day was like this…
For a more detailed look at each of the games, check out our forums, I’ll be discussing each game in further detail in there. You can get to our forum boards by clicking here.
Well that basically raps it up. I had an awesome time at the press event, scoring hours of time with all the beautiful games on display, meeting new people, and getting my hands on Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Be sure to check out the forum boards for more information on the games at the event, and also check out the screenshot gallery for even more photos of the event. Enjoy!
- Richard Targett