Before I go any further, I need to thank Adam Kontras, and 4TVs Productions (which is Adam) for the amazing production of this DVD. Just to give you a little back story, Adam e-mailed me about 6 months ago telling me he wanted to donate to Planet GameCube, but couldn’t do so with money, so he offered his services. I knew he was very talented when I saw his website, but I never imagined this. Adam, we really appreciate your help and hours upon hours of hard work and dedication. You definitely are the man. Adam is currently looking for employment, and is for hire. He’s available for jello wrestling conventions, booth babe tryouts, and many other things. Want to really know how I feel about his work? Read on…
It’s very strange to have watched this DVD. After months of preparation, and hours of filming, editing, and mastering, the master of the Planet GameCube E3 DVD is in my hands. When the FedEx arrived I rushed to the door, grabbed the package from the now frightened carrier, dove to the couch, powered up the Q and dropped in Side A.
These impressions are to give you a taste of what to expect on the Planet GameCube DVD. Considering the DVD is shipping later this week, I will try to be as spoiler free as I can. Most of you are probably saying to yourselves, “Well this is stupid, Billy is obviously going to be biased.” Well I may be a little biased, and normally wouldn’t have written impressions of a project that I was involved in. But this DVD has far surpassed my expectations. Couple that with the fact I’m one of a few people that actually has seen the final product, and here I sit typing away.
Side A:
The first side of the DVD is comprised of the Nintendo Press Briefing, and Day #1 footage of E3, with game footage mainly of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. Side A also includes Billy’s Pictures and the DVD’s credits.
The footage of the press briefing is fantastic. Not only is it the complete conference, but you get the added benefit of picture-in-picture windows so you don’t miss any of the action. When Iwata is talking numbers, or when Miyamoto is demonstrating Mario, Zelda, or Four Swords, you get to see everything. Even though I was there, it was nice to see it again because I was busy during the conference taking pictures.
The Day #1 footage begins with PGC rushing the Nintendo booth at exactly 9:01. You get to see all the chaos that ensues when thousands of crazed idiots make a mad dash for the gaming goodness. Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda (GC), and the Metroid Prime footage follows. There is a total of about 45 minutes dedicated to these three games, which is comprised of both direct feed and video recorded on the floor. Since I’m a Mario whore, I’ve watched that footage alone at least 15-20 times already. The Zelda footage is a mixture of a few of the playable levels, and some stuff not shown on the show floor. You also get to see almost the entire playable Metroid Prime level.
Once that is done, you can take a look at my picture book, dubbed “Billy’s Pictures”. Basically I took the best of the pictures that we shot at the show and narrated them with my commentary. There are over 50 pictures here, and can be navigated through with your DVD remote’s arrow buttons. I think the commentary is the best…so witty! Ok, biases aside, you get to see the staff here doing all the things we do. Picture quality turned out very nice, and it’s easy to flip through all the pictures.
Side B:
The main components of Side B are Day #2, Day #3, and game footage. You get the rest of the first party titles, and all of the second and third party offerings that we could cram onto this DVD. Whatever your desires, I’d say at least 90% of the GameCube games shown at the show made it on here. One company that didn’t make it on the DVD was Electronic Arts. Due to the fact that they were the only company that denied us an appointment, we didn’t get any direct feed footage. They were the only ones cut from the list. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of Sega Sports on here, so you can get your jock on. Additionally, some of the footage is either narrated by the company's PR representative or Planet GameCube staffers. If you don’t like a game, fast forward it and you jump to the next game.
Also on Side B are more candid moments with the Planet GameCube staff and our friends. Staffers will probably wish there were more staff moments on the entire package, but with all the game footage that’s available on both sides, I think everyone will be content. Basically it’s just us in our element of geekdom. Oh yes, and then there are the booth babes. Can’t forget about those. ;) They’re great!
The majority of the audio on this DVD was loaned to us by OverClocked Remix. It’s some of the best damn video game remixes you’ve ever heard. These tunes are the perfect compliment to the high quality video you’ll be watching. So good in fact, we’ll have a full downloadable soundtrack available in the next week. On a side note, we urge you to support this website and the good work they do. Their music cannot be beat.
One small warning; this DVD is rated PG-13. There are a few obscenities on here, but I think we’ve cleaned up our act a lot more since E3 2001 and the Japan Experience. Ok, so I have a problem subduing myself from dropping the F-bomb. Just a slight warning for those of you who have parents that will mind this, you might want to keep the volume down. Hey, it could be worse. We could have been nude on here. And yes, the Booth Babe stuff is clean as well. It’s not porn. It’s very respectfully and tastefully done. Well, as tasteful as booth babes are. ;) We here at Planet GameCube respect the ladies.
Overall, I’m really excited about how well the Planet GameCube E3 2002 DVD turned out. Even if you attended E3 2002, there’s probably something on here that you missed. For any Nintendophile out there, it’s a definite must have. Even though I shot some of the video and was involved in most aspects of the DVD, I had no clue how it all would turn out in the end. I’ve seen other E3 videos from other places before, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this. It’s very unique, and entertaining. I’ve even shown the DVD to people that don’t really like video games and they enjoyed it. So, as you can tell, I love it. Hopefully everyone out there who orders it will think so too. Not only is it the whole E3 experience, but it’s also a quick look at what E3 is like for us here at Planet GameCube. Absolute insane Nintendo gaming bliss at its finest.
