AICN Games: E for All Day Two! Super Mario Galaxy! Super Smash Brothers Brawl! Video Games Live!

Greetings humans, Monki here with my second update from the E for All Video Games Expo in Los Angeles, California.

Show Floor Impressions!

Things pretty much kicked off the same as Thursday...slow to start and then it picked up considerably in the afternoon. Lots and lots of kiosks filled with lots and lots of people.

I got a chance to enjoy some of the "showcase" stages today. Nintendo is demoing Super Smash Brothers Brawl in a very cool way. They place you in bleachers in rows of 8 and when it is your turn, they take two rows of people to play four separate four-player Smash Brothers matches. The winners of all those matches go and play on an enormous screen in front of those bleachers...so if you win your small game, you go to the "big show."

And of course Nintendo has a lovely group of booth babes helping the whole way. (I hear they shipped the ladies in from Arizona...or their modeling agency was there or something...)

Target is sponsoring a stage as well for the Guitar Hero lovers. The ten kiosks I mentioned in my last article were used to start up a bracket system for a big tournament being held. If you make it past the kiosks you get a shot at the big stage where you are judged on various elements by some Major League Gaming "Pro Gamers." I caught a guy absolutely destroying "Laid to Rest" on expert, head banging his way through most of the song and nailing the hammer-ons and offs with only one hand on the guitar with his other throwing the horns in the air...that guy got perfect 10s.

The longest line of the show this year goes to Metal Gear Solid 4. Pretty much immediately after the show opens, the line will stretch from the door of the MGS4 area all the way around the rest of the Konami booth.

Apparently you get about 15 minutes of game time before being asked to fill out a survey and then booted back out on to the floor.

I have yet to hit the Konami booth up yet in full force, but I will before the fest is over...if nothing else but to play some Contra 4 on the DS...woohoo...I loves me some contra.

Another pleasant surprise I got was when I stumbled across Martin Leung (the video game pianist) just as he started playing a set at the Video Games Live! booth.

I've actually seen him perform before at a Video Games Live! show, but having him rock out to Super Mario Brothers right there three feet away (as opposed to on stage a few hundred feet) was pretty badass. That kid must have played a crapload of games when he was young because his hands fly across the ivories.

To cap the night off I actually went to a brand-spankin' new Video Games Live! show just down the street at the brand-spankin' new Nokia Theater here in brand-spankin' old downtown L.A. (Pardon the spankin's.) This was the first time they brought in a bunch of new tunes including tracks from Chrono Cross, Halo 3, the new Conan game and many others.

Tons of special guests showed up as well from Nolan Bushnell all the way to Zack Ward and the Soup Nazi from Postal. The show itself was pretty sweet but there were a few minor technical difficulties with the new show and the new theater. At one point they had a Frogger competition and pulled two people from the audience. One of these two was a young kid and the other was an older guy dressed up like Snake from Metal Gear. Snake went first and was dominating the game (as much as one person can dominate Frogger) but then something happened and they lost the video feed and couldn't get it back up. Weak...

One cool new addition was Chris Kline, the "Vertex Guy" who, like Martin Leung, got his start with a video on YouTube...this video.

He came out and played the Contra Jungle Jam track on stage and did a fantastic job...he also closed the show with Tommy Tallarico (the creator/exec producer of VGL!) playing guitars on One Winged Angel.

All in all, it was a fun show and I recommend you check it out when it comes through your town. I know it is making its way through Austin sometime next summer and I'm looking forward to going again.

Game Impressions!

Today was my "Nintendo Day" at E for All. I got some hands-on time with most all of their major offerings.

Super Mario Galaxy

I'll be honest; my Wii hasn't gotten a whole lot of playing time over the past few months. (I set that joke up pretty easy for you...) My 360 has been taking up the majority of my time as of late with major releases like Bioshock and Halo 3 dominating the lion-share of my gameplay.

This could all change soon...

Super Mario Galaxy is exactly what you'd expect out of a next-gen Mario title. The controls are simple and polished, the graphics are wonderfully cartoony, the levels are excellently designed...I mean...it's a Mario title for a new console...when have any flagship Mario games sucked? (Super Mario Bros. 2 doesn't count, cause it came out AFTER the 'original' SMB and even so, SMB3 is one of the best games ever made.)

You control Mario's movement with the nunchuk thumbstick and jump with the big A button on the Wii-mote. You can use your Wii-mote pointer to collect jewels on the screen while you play as well...which brings me to a very happy observance. While I was running around with Mario the lovely booth babe assigned to my station was using a second Wii-mote to collect jewels across the screen as I played...basically acting as a second helper on a single-player game. Kinda like someone controlling Tails in Sonic 2. They don't have to be there, but with someone else helping you out, it could make for some good times...if only the booth babes came with the game to help instead of my roommate...alas.

I played a couple of different worlds; one was a racing arena where you rode on the back of a stingray around a track trying to get your quickest time. The Wii-mote controls the ray as you roll your wrist left and right. The tilt sensor still isn't as responsive as I would like, but it worked better on Galaxy than it did on most games that rely on the tilting.

Then I checked out one of Mario's new power-ups, the bee suit. Nothing too special...it gives Mario the ability to fly for a brief amount of time and a few different attack moves. If you hit water in the bee suit, you lose it...eh...bring back the tanooki suit!

I didn't get a whole hell of a lot of time with this one, but I will certainly be buying it when it hits in a couple of weeks.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Gamers have been waiting for this match up for decades...Mario vs. Sonic...on the same system. If you would have told me Sonic would end up on a Nintendo system when I was a kid playing my NES...I probably would have punched you. Sega and Nintendo just don't mix. Sega does what Nintendon't...etc...but here we are...dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria.

The game itself is a lot of fun. I tried out a few different events during my hands-on time. My first bit had me as Bowser on the archery field. First of all, BOWSER WITH A BOW AND ARROW!!! Sweet...secondly...it's pretty cool. The pointer from the Wii-mote creates a target on the screen and your nunchuk has one as well that you manipulate by tilting it. Get those two targets lined up and let go to fling your arrow towards the bulls-eye. It takes a bit of getting used to (you have to account for wind as well), but it is pretty rad.

Next up I hit the trampoline as Knuckles...another simple setup...you flick your wrist to make the character bounce up and down and once you get enough height you have to match the pattern on the screen. For example, in the air you might have to press A-A-B-A-flick Wii-mote. If you succeed before your character hits the trampoline again you'll be rewarded with Knuckles performing a double-flip with a twist...or something along those lines. The patterns get longer and longer as you go on...good times.

Up next was table-tennis. It's pretty much Wii Sports tennis on a smaller scale. Use the Wii-mote as your paddle and keep the ball on your opponents' side of the table...the bigger guys rule at table tennis because they have all the power! Bowser has a killer serve.

From there I tried my last event, fencing. I was Peach...because there is nothing hotter than a Princess with a weapon.

Again...simple, refined controls. You swing your wrist, the character swings their sword. You hold A and swing your wrist, your character will parry. If you hit them enough times you get a power move which can blow your opponent off the course for a ring-out. Now, I kind of wish fencing was a first-person event where the Wii-mote would act as the hilt of the sword, (or is it lance? I forget) moving with your movements...but it did a decent job.

This game is poised to take Wii Sports' crown away as the party game to play when you have a lot of people over.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Let me first come out and admit...I haven't played a lot of Smash Brothers before...Nintendo just never screamed "fighting game console" to me. As a matter of fact, I really was never a fan of fighting games on consoles at all...I preferred my fights to be standing up next to a random person at the arcade.

That being said...I think I've been missing out...the hype for Super Smash Brothers Brawl is incredible. I've watched people sit and wait to play Brawl for half an hour...play their match and then jump right back in line. This thing is a monster.

The build available at E for All includes almost all of the characters except for Solid Snake...which makes me sad...but Sonic is in there and he is a total badass.

I won't get in to too many details on this one as I don't want to embarrass myself to someone who may be an enormous fan...just suffice to say that this one is fun and I love the one-on-one-on-one-on-one aspect of the game. I'll be checking this one out more thoroughly in the future...promise.

Wrapping it Up!

We're now at the halfway point of E for All with only the weekend remaining...I expect it to get really busy.

So far the buzz around the fest is pretty damn positive...fans that were kept away from E3 now have the chance to get some meaningful hands on time with some titles that won't be out for a few months and there are plenty of free shirts to go around for everyone!

I told you I'd keep you up to date on the chalk drawing, and here you go...progress is being made!

I've got another busy day planned tomorrow, so I've got to get prepped for it all! Until next time, back up the tree I go!

-Monki