Last week was the first annual E for All Expo. Differing from E3, E for All was open to the public. While the event didn’t provide a lot in terms of news, it gave real gamers hands-on time with some of the hottest upcoming titles.

With the convention season over, we were curious what you think of all of these gaming shows. Do you think public events like E for All, PAX, and Comic-Con are important for the industry? Should the major events be made more open? Is the new closed E3 responsible for the growing number of public events? What are they good for? Anything and everything, tell us what you think by going to the forums.

Make a good post and you’ll be entered to win some very Hot Topic-appropriate prizes. This week, it's a bunch of E For All swag! We've got so many t-shirts, keychains, and other assorted crap that we don't know what to do with it. Oh wait, yes we do ... give it away to a random poster in this week's Hot Topic thread! That could be you, but only if you voice your opinion!

Reminder: We can only ship to the U.S. & Canada. Posting multiple times will not increase your chances of winning, and spamming posts, breaking the forum rules, or otherwise being a terrible poster may disqualify you or get your account banned. Be sure to check the forum rules before posting. And you can't post if you're not a member of our forums, so if you want to get a chance to win a prize, register now!

Last week, we discussed the good and the bad news. Sonic is in Brawl. Brawl is in 2008. The replies were surprisingly tempered.

GoldenPhoenix wrote: It is kind of funny, back in the SNES and N64 era it would have been a pipe dream to see Sonic appear in a Mario game. Regardless the character looks fun to play as, and I'm pretty impressed by how they balanced him out while still keeping Sonic's trademarks.

As for the delay, I admit I am pretty disappointed but I think it is for the better. Nintendo has a solid lineup of games and 3rd parties now have an opening to shine which I think is a good thing. It will be extremely disappointing if quality 3rd party games get ignored, but at least they have a chance now. Mario Galaxy will easily propel Nintendo to a successful holiday, so I don't think they have much to worry about even IF 3rd parties are ignored. The game [Galaxy] is looking to be something magical, Miyamoto through and through, deserving of all the attention which Brawl would have taken away from. Now both games can shine, especially since Melee proved that the Brawl series can sell YEARS into the life of the console.

Besides I already had too many games to buy since I'm a multi-console owner, so this makes things minimally doable, not only financially but time I'm able to invest!

18 Days wrote: On Sonic: Sonic is a fantastic inclusion but I feel his inclusion would be more warranted and make more sense if there was a larger cast of 3rd party characters with him. As it stands it's just him and Snake. The fact that they're put alongside such no names as Ice Climbers, Pit, Meta Knight and this Mother 3 guy is almost insulting to them and the other big name Nintendo characters.

On the delay, holiday lineup and sales: GOOD I SAY. Holy crap, with Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and Pokemon Battle Rev all hitting in November in PAL territories, there is NO ROOM AND NO TIME for Smash Bros. Not to mention Mario and Sonic @ the Olympics and the slew of big games on competing systems. Q1 is always a horrible, sluggish time in the gaming industry, but now Brawl sits there, ready to rock faces, dominate sales and bask in the limelight by in itself.

Adrock wrote: Sonic is awesome. Fans have wanted him since Melee, maybe even before that. Nintendo was smart to make that happen, whether they went to Sega themselves or approved a proposal from Sega.

I do think should be a larger cast of 3rd party characters, a minimum of 10. As cool as including Snake, Sonic, and most likely Mega Man (or Viewtiful Joe, I place my bets on a Capcom character) is, they seem a little gimmicky. I don't think they should be treated as guest characters even though most people consider them just that. I was always of the opinion that Smash didn't need 3rd party characters, at least until more of their older, more obscure, but still memorable characters made it in. However, if they're going to include 3rd party characters, I would've like them to go all out. This game should be an all territories, industry wide celebration of gaming (barring MS/Sony owned characters).

PartyBear wrote: Last week was pretty exciting, and not just because of Sonic. It's a good time to be a Nintendo fan. Even if the Wii was my only source of entertainment, I wouldn't be bored anytime soon. [When playing games] I usually take my time. I rushed a bit on Twilight Princess, and I regret it. I may not be finished with Prime 3 and Galaxy by February as it is.

Ian Sane wrote: Brawl gets better with each announcement. Any worry I have eventually gets squashed. I was afraid they would shoehorn waggle controls or something and then later we found out that it will support all control types. No forced usage, just lots of option. That’s very un-Nintendo like and remarkably user-friendly. We didn't hear about online for months so I just assumed that Nintendo wasn't saying anything because there was no online. They squashed that and confirmed online play. It seems clear they're trying to make this game as perfect as they can. Sonic is a great addition and didn't even really surprise me that much because it just fits with all the great Brawl news we've heard so far. They're trying to make the best SSB they can so of course Sonic is in it.

Dryden wrote: This game is one of the most anticipated, and most hyped, game ever. Nothing can tarnish that. Half of this forum was even expecting Wi-Fi to get cut, and even that wasn't going to negatively impact sales. Why would a delay hurt it?

Kairon wrote: I've been a Nintendo fan for so long that the delay announcement filled me with warmy goodness. MMMmmmmmm!

thatguy wrote: A year and a half ago, at E3 2006, I watched the Brawl announcement video, I read the conference transcripts, and I watched the video and read the transcripts some more. I decided at that point, I would be completely unopposed to any delays. I saw what could happen in the game just with Pit, Meta-Knight, Wario and ZSS, and I decided that Sakurai (Brawl’s lead designer) should do whatever he wanted until he decided the game was done. Needless to say, I made the right choice, and this delay does not bother me one bit.

Meanwhile, in the other stretches of Nintendo World Report’s forums:

- Nintendo Console Discussion: Okami: the French say it's coming, and goshdarnit they're right!

- Super Smash Bros. Discussion: Delicious tourney*** tears are my drink of choice tonight

- General Chat: Halloween Costumes

- Funhouse: Help Stop Global Warming...

- Talkback: EDITORIALS: On Ratings