Nintendo's booth was a butt-load of fun. When walking into it, the SMB theme greeted me while a running video Mario and Zelda games of previous generations lit the way to "The Nintendo difference."

The Nintendo booth--more accurately the GCN section, was always jam-packed while I was there. That's more than I could say with the other booths. There were some very amusing things to see and do at this show. My favorite part was a contest was running throughout the booth where you get various stamps and then wait in a 3-hour line to try your luck at winning a free GBA (or another door prize that could be found elsewhere in the booth.) I didn't really pay attention the first day I was there (the 2nd day of E3,) but an animatronic Mario was doing something. On Saturday, though, I had time to watch the show. Replacing Mario was the ultra-cool Wario, with 2 booth babes running the "wheel-of-fortune." Someone was behind the curtains, doing the motions and voice for Wario (excellently,) so it was live and seemed somewhat unscripted. Whenever Wario would win the GBA (as he had his own space at the wheel,) he would yell out "I win, I win!" in classic Wario style. My favorite part was probably when one of the booth babes said that she liked Wario's mustache.

Booth Babe: I really like that mustache of yours!

Wario: Yeah, you like it?

BB: Yeah, that nose hair of yours is pretty sexy!

Wario: It's sexy! (mustache twitches)

BB: Especially when it twitches!

Wario: I'm SEXY!!111@#31!#@#!!123r (twitching his mustache)

Yes, that got quite the laugh out of me.

Later on, Wario--the sleazy villain he is--lead a chant while the wheel was spinning: "Xbox sucks!" He then went onto the more controversial "Sony Sucks!" and I could feel a little more tension. It seems that everyone was disapointed in Microsoft's display. These comments were very unlike Nintendo, but I guess Wario can get away with such things ;-)

After playing Eternal Darkness while talking to Denis, a lovely lady gave me a GBA case. When I got back home, I tried it out. It works pretty well, although I wish there were more room for games and ACCESSORIES. But it's free, so I can't exactly complain.

Another great story happened at the Luigi's Mansion booth. There was a Japanese man that worked for EAD that was hanging around, watching people play. He seemed to get a kick out of seeing everyone's faces while playing the game--I think he smiled when I laughed. It must be a lot of fun to see people play your work of art and having a ball.... I had a brief chat with him. He didn't know much English, but I was able to find out that he was a software engineer working on Luigi's Mansion. I also found out that Koji Kondo and someone else (I didn't catch the name) was working on Luigi's Mansion. Later on, I asked him what the coins were for. Either he didn't understand me, or he was trying to avoid the question. He did mention something about Mario, though....

He handed me a lovely miniature foam and rubber GameCube, which I carried around in my hand everywhere I went. (it's probably around 2/3 size) To me, the little toy represents Nintendo's amazing success at this year's E3. It seemed that wherever I went with the thing in the convention center, someone asked me where I got it. I probably got asked about 15 times in various places, from the hallways to Ubisoft's booth to Nintendo's booth itself. I'd just tell them I got it at the Nintendo booth. To sum it all up, one man asked me is I was willing to sell my Cube on the way to the parking lot at the end of the day! Those babies were quite the commodity! Right now, it is sitting next to my NES on the shelf, reserving a space for the real thing.

Well, that's it. I'm sure the others will have more to say, as I missed Wednesday and Thursday, but I really had a blast hanging out with the gang. They're even cooler in real life. I'm already looking forward to next year's E3, and I really encourage you guys to watch our E3 video for some of the action. I just hope someone got a little of Wario.

I would like to thank the all of the folks at NOA, NCL, HAL, Rare, Silicon Knights, and Left Field for the awesome time I had! And a special thanks to Denis Dyack and the very kind EAD Software Engineer at the Luigi's Mansion kiosk.