Written by Daniel Ekman  on September 10, 2001

Special: Welcome to a journey through the living hell that makes nightmares seem benign beyond comparison. Welcome, to my life.

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It all started a long time ago, and it was not in a galaxy far away but rather on this planet that we call Earth. I had decided that this year I would go to London to attend ECTS. What I didn't know at that moment was that there would also be an event called The Nintendo Show at the very same time. Around March this year the announcement was made about TNS, and I was slightly taken by surprise; did this announcement mean that Nintendo wouldn't attend ECTS? It surely did, and as time went past more and more companies decided to hold their own events around the time of ECTS. All of this would lead to a lacklustre ECTS that couldn't hold a candle to last year's incarnation.

Let's go back a few days in my story, though, till the time when I was packing my bags. It was the last week of August and I was preparing for my little trip overseas. The first two days of that very week I had been a substitute teacher for some bratty kids. Yes, bratty. As a thank you for my efforts in school the children gave me a present also known as the flu. So there I was packing my bags with a runny nose, cursing some kids because they would probably ruin my whole trip. Anyhow, I got my things together and tried to get into a good spirit.

The very morning of the flight I had to drive 300 kilometres just to get to the airport, but I actually made it. More than once did I question the wisdom in my decision to go after all, but well in London I felt a lot better about my choice. Of course, it didn't start too well; the first thing I had to do was to cancel a job interview. But after Friday comes Saturday, and with Saturday comes The Nintendo Show.
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Waking up wasn't such an easy task, but after a while my girlfriend and I were on our way to the show. Yes, my girl happens to be a writer as well and we are both quite rabid Nintendo fanatics. In any case, our steps took us towards Westminster Central Hall where a beauty such as the world has never witnessed met us. Exactly, Mario in all his glory was inlaid in a huge windowЧkind of like those mosaics always seen in church windows.

After having walked a distance with wide-open mouths and tripped over small indentations in the concrete all the way, we had reached our goal: The Nintendo Show. Stepping inside with a feeling of reverenceЧno, we didn't kneelЧwe both went to collect our badges. After a brief chitchat with the lady at the desk we went up some stairs to look upon Nintendo's history. It was a museum of sorts, with all the gadgets that Nintendo has pulled out of its hat the last century. Cards, Game & Watch games, Game Boy Colors and lots of other stuff were shown. Did you know that Nintendo has actually made a table soccer game and a baseball robot? Neither did we, and it was both fascinating and educating to walk around gazing at all the things in the showcases.
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However, that wasn't why we had come there, and a short time afterwards we walked into a great hall filled with chairs for the press. Neon lights were everywhere, and a huge Nintendo logo was lying on the stage. Everyone sat down with an expectant expression on his or her face and the show started. A gospel choir entered the stage and started singing Уtake me higherФ while the Nintendo logo was lifted up towards the ceiling. Several key people entered the stage after that and presented us with the usual numbers and statistics, trying to impress while in reality just being tedious, while Shigeru Miyamoto only made a video appearance. Showing off his new babies Mario Sunshine and an as of yet untitled Zelda game, Miyamoto seemed enthusiastic yet modest.

A magnificent screen the size of Mount Everest was formed like the Nintendo logoЧoval shaped and allЧand displayed the speaker as well as relevant stats and pictures. We're talking impressive in every sense of the word here. Big-screen displays aside, however, the event was mostly about Pokщmon and everything surrounding it. At least half of the presentation was filled with info about those little critters. The single most interesting thing was probably when Satoru Iwata, together with another Japanese that I can't remember the name of, tried out Kirby Tilt & Tumble. Playing the game first on GameCube by tilting a GBA, which is used as a controller, the player can then jump off the screen and continue playing on the GBA. The jumping forward and back continued, and it seemed like a very interesting concept and was also a good sign of things to come.
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After the presentation I felt like vomiting on the floor because of my high fever, but now it was time for the games. Walking into a room that quickly became known as УMeccaФ to most of us, we were met by high-resolution Panasonic displays that played all the games that we had heard about for so long. Star Wars, Wave Race, Star Fox Adventures, Pikmin and more, all of them there to entice our poor souls. We walked out into the throng of people and waited not so patiently in line for our first go.

My first game was Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. It both looked and played great, even the newly implemented Arwing missions that had me zipping through golden rings while trying to dodge enemy fire. Rare has certainly worked overtime on this one, as the graphics engine was so much more impressive now than it was just a few months ago. Anyhow, however much you might feel bad about it, I didn't want to spoil this one too much and so didn't play it more than just once and very briefly. If you liked Zelda for N64 you'll love this, though. Actually, even if you didn't like Zelda I think that you'll like this quite a lot.

After that I tried to get a hold of one of two controllers to Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II, but failed miserably. I was awestruck by its graphics, though. Some hours later I got back to the stand and got my grubby hands on a controller at last, and off we go to the land of surprises. Surprises? Yes, the first one being that this game didn't do it for me at all. Mind numbing graphics aside, this was just Rogue Squadron all over again. OK, it was not that bad, but I wasn't really anything special. I know that that's blaspheming to a lot of you people, heh. You who liked Rogue Squadron on N64 but thought that it lacked in the space mission and graphical department will certainly cream your pants, though. It looks gorgeousЧthe version I played even had dynamic shadowing for larger structures and small ships, buildings and troops incorporatedЧbut is the same game essentially. Not bad news for many, I'm sure, but I was still let down by this title.

The other disappointing title was Wave Race: Blue Storm. Well, Wave Race was so much more disappointing than Rogue Leader that I shouldn't mention them in the same sentence. I thought that it actually played worse than its N64 incarnation! Sure it looks pretty good, but that doesn't matter squat to me. Both Mari, my girlfriend, and I liked the way you ride over waves in the N64 version better, and apart from four-player support this game doesn't add much to the franchise. I truly hope that my initial impression has something to do with too little playtime, though, as this was previously one of my most anticipated titles. Trust me, I would love nothing more than playing the game again for some hours just to realise how wrong I was.


Any good news, then? There sure is: Pikmin was better than I had thought, and Luigi's Mansion likewise. Pikmin is actually bloody great when I think about it. It doesn't strike you as particularly great at first, but somehow it's just so much fun playing around with it. It's so simple and yet so brilliant. God how I've missed such a game... As for Luigi, he's in good shape. Sucking up a ball from the corner of a room just to hit a cranky baby lying in his cradle was something that I thought was pretty funny. In fact, the same baby seems to be the game's first boss. After I had played through the whole demo I did think that it had been a bit monotonous, but considering that I had only played through 25 minutes of a 20+-hour game I can safely say that there should be more to this game than meets the eye.

Eternal Darkness... wow. I thought that this game would be a simple Resident Evil clone, no matter how many reports to the contrary that I had read. And sure, the game had its fair share of encounters with undead characters just when the camera changed perspective (which can get a bit annoying at times), but good grief if it plays much better overall. This game is great fun, and its attention to detail is wonderful: If you're in a cramped corridor, for example, hitting the wall with your weapon doesn't only hinder you from beating enemies, but also blunts your weapon so it takes less damage after a while! I don't know if this little fact was known previously, but I was surely taken by surprise. I'll buy this game for certain, no matter what I thought of it before.

Super Smash Brothers: Melee was fantastic, but I loved the N64 version also. The differences are subtle, and chances are that you wouldn't even know that you played the GameCube version if it wasn't for the graphics. However, with all the added modes such as tournament and adventure mode this game is still very much on my wanted list. The thing that disappointed me a bit was that they seemingly have taken away the ability to throw people off the screen... grabbing people and throwing them would just make the other players fly for about three metres (if the characters had human proportions), even if the percentage meter was high. Really odd...
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So was there anything else? Ah, yes, GBA games. Golden Sun is gorgeous, and Super Mario Advance 2 is perfect; it's just like Super Mario World but with even sharper, livelier graphics. Advance Wars was OK, and Wario Land 4 was a big hit among female show goers (i.e. Mari ;)). There was also a thing called Pokщmon mini, but I don't have the courage to utter any details about that for fear of nightmares. You daring people might want to check out our news section for more information about that one, though.

And that was it, actually. Surely there was more to the event than I have brought up here, but this is neither the time nor the place to elaborate further. If you feel the need to know more about anything regarding the event in general, or just want to know why Brits smell more than the rest of the world's population, head on over to the forum and I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability. As for now, I'm out of here. Oh, and just so you all know: Nintendo is back, big time.