Project Thursday

Last week’s E For All convention out in Los Angeles marked a new chapter in the world of gaming. Last year, the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) was scaled down dramatically and pretty much closed it’s doors to everyone except for media personnel and industry big-wigs. Average Joes like you and I were forced to either travel all the way to Tokyo, Japan for TGS or stay glued to our computers and check out all of the third-party media and "awesome" text updates.

But what about those of us who like a more hands-on approach? What about those of us who dream of being immersed by awesome games that few have ever played, meeting the B-grade celebrities of the gaming world, and (most importantly) lots of amazing booth babes standing around pretending to be totally into what you’re saying and doing while raining tons of free swag upon you? What are we supposed to to?! Enter E For All: a four-day convention open to the public that provided all of these things and more. Despite a lot of media criticism, the convention actually did a pretty decent job for it’s first time around the block.

Over 70 different vendors set up shop in the Los Angeles Convention Center, ranging from heavy hitters like Nintendo and EA, all the way down to little guys like Indiecade Games and Play ‘n Trade. There were some pretty big suprises, and of course, there were some major letdowns. One of the biggest misses for the convention was the fact that a pretty sizeable number of the major players in the industry were MIA, including Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, and Namco (with the exception of their mobile games division). You could definitely tell by the huge amount of empty space on the convention floor that the absence of some of these groups was hurting more than helping. Hopefully more of the larger companies will be present next August when the show rolls around for year two.

There were also some additional, minor event issues, including some staff and attendee confusion arising from all the different color badges and ribbons, each providing a different level of access to the show. Some people didn’t even get their registration packages in the mail (myself included -Ed.). Minor annoyances aside, most of the people that we spoke with were just excited about the chance to play a lot of the newer titles before their releases and to be a part of a major industry event.

The best booth of the show award would easily go to Nintendo. You could tell from the beginning that Nintendo definitely went all-out for the show, and it certainly paid off.

Nintendo’s largest attraction was a now playable demo of arguably the most anticipated Wii title, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. With a slick, clean presentation, there were tons of Wiis and DS Lites available to jump on, featuring a lot of great first and third-party software, including Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Final Fantasy XII, Call of Duty 4, and more.

Nintendo also came with plenty of swag, from Wiimote keychains to a variety of t-shirts for each day of the convention. Oh, and who can forget the booth babes? If you happen to look up the definition of a booth babe in the dictionary, you might see mention of Mario or Reggie, because Nintendo brought their "A" game. Long legs, short skirts, and tall heels abound, their presence definately made the time go that much faster. We even heard rumor that Nintendo was pushing these girls so hard that one of the girls was found in the Convention Center’s bathroom crying because her feet hurt so much from being forced around in heels all day. I have one word for that. Awesome. Nintendo definitely doesn’t play around.

Honorable mention in this area goes to both Konami and the Rock Band display. Konami really suprised me by bringing a playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 4. We waited hours to go in and be "briefed" by one of the developers about the new controls, followed by a chance to take a fifteen minute test drive. Unfortunately, only twelve people were allowed to play at a time, switching people out every half hour. So, by my math, only 430 people got to play the demo. It was definitely worth the long wait though. Konami also had some pretty cool meet and greet events, including the creators and producers of Konami games like Castlevania and Silent Hill.

The Rock Band setup was a lot of fun, and was honestly what we spent the most time on outside of the Nintendo booth. MTV had a stage set up with a backstage area where you could pratice and a main stage area where a part of your performance was filmed for you to view online later. This area of the convention wasn’t really popular at first, but by the time we left it was pretty much the main attraction.

Overall, I’d say that if you passed on E For All this year, you missed out on a pretty decent show. I can only hope that more planning and preparation will go into next year’s events, and that more of you will come out and support growth of the convention. Either way, next August, Project Thursday will once again bring you all of the news and happenings from the second annual E For All Expo. Hopefully that means the Nintendo booth babes and Indiecade Games girls will make a return as well. Cheers.