Waking up bright and early, all of the attending staffers (sans Aaron in this case too due to arrival times) once again congregated in Guillaume and Jared’s room to boldly attempt to watch the North American Nintendo stream. As I am sure you’re aware of, watching was effectively impossible thanks to traffic, and we got our news from an occasionally barely-functional Nintendo stream and the chunk of staff who uses Twitter. Thankfully, we did get to see most of the Smash trailer live (Villager > Mega Man, sorry guys) and most of the Pokémon reveal, which was fun (though any Serebii-going fan worth his or her salt could have predicted Fairy type from a mile away).

The Nintendo Direct was fine, but there were so few surprises and so many sequels that being overly excited for another 3D Land and the follow-up to a game I just re-played on 3DS in May (Tropical Freeze is a wonderful name, though) made any substantial hype impossible. Of course, Smash Bros. still looks great and X is going to be wonderful, but those games are not coming out this year, and the list of games that are coming out in 2013 is literally the bare minimum Nintendo can offer and not have their schedule rightfully defined as anemic. There are a few games, but 3 launch window games, a full-priced HD remake, and two sequels birthed from games fresh in our memory is nothing worthy of praise to me. Of course, I am going to buy all of these games the day they come out, because that is the kind of person I am.

More importantly, this is when the real E3 began.  This is when I got my backpack and Dr. Scholl's-prepped sneakers ready for action and wore the media badge I obtained the day before with a genuine pride and purpose. But before the show floor opened and the marathon that was E3 could really begin, we had to arrive at the convention center early (a fifteen minute walk from the hotel) for the Wii U Software Showcase, in which journalists could become part of the media-gathering replacement to a press conference.

Mostly, it was just us playing games before everyone else did, but it was kind of cool because we did get to see people like Reggie (he is a giant) and Sakurai in the flesh, and we also got to be there when the Wii Fit Trainer was revealed for Smash, alongside getting to see a live match in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. It wasn’t quite the 2006 Solid Snake trailer, but at least there was a part of Super Smash Bros. that I got to see announced live with an audience, no matter how small.

During the event, the lines were so big that I really only had the chance to play Mario Kart 8 and Mario & Luigi before the show floor opened, but they were both great fun.

When the show floor did open and we were still in Nintendo’s booth, I made a bolt to play Yoshi's New Island for impressions (and for me!). I got lucky enough that when I did play Yoshi’s Island, I ended up being in the first group to play a roulette wheel that gave away Nintendo swag depending on where you were sitting (of course, the 3DS lines became impossible after that). Prizes included a Luigi hat, a Bayonetta 2 shirt, a Super Mario 3D World shirt, some Mario Kart flags, and a grand prize of a red 3DS XL that was given out once per hour.

The demo was interesting because every single group to play demos got to be part of the prize giveaway, so even though I finished my demo 8 minutes in, they didn’t kick me out when I sat around doing nothing for the final two minutes until the prizes were distributed. Oh yeah, and I won that 3DS (and proudly stated “Nintendo World Report” when a soon-to-be-confused booth babe asked me where I was from).

Delighted, I wrote my impressions, played 3D World and Donkey Kong, and went to the Capcom appointment with Gui and Andrew where I got to play Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. That game is extremely beautiful, and stands near the top of my list of E3 games that really need to come out. The appointment took place behind the regular area where attendees could play the game, and had an area where complementary drinks were served and games could be played sans-lines.  This is also the first of several “New Leaf breaks” I took during the day. Not out of addiction to the game, mind you, but playing 15-20 minutes of the game really allowed me to relax and decompress a bit during an otherwise extremely stressful (if fun) day.

Also with Andrew and Gui, we checked out Atlus. Andrew tried out the new Etrian Odyssey game, I got to play Daylight (a crazy-cool survival-horror game for PS4 and PC), and everyone got to try Shin Megami Tensei IV. For the sake of being surprised, I only tried it out briefly, but I certainly feel like the gang made a good choice in making it one of the games of E3.

By this point, there were about two hours left until I had to go to the Pokémon X and Y Developer Roundtable, and this time was filled up with Sonic Wii U (it’s okay), Tearaway on Vita (slow demo that picks up towards the end, game might be really great), exploring the show floor a bit, and watching a guided demo for Infamous: Second Son (game looks cool). But then the roundtable actually happened.

After waiting in line and going in to the event, it was really great to see the game finally played in action, and for them to explain in detail what the game is about.  It was in a small theater with some cameras in the back and a mostly-full audience, and big guys like Miyamoto and Sakurai were in the right towards the front. The game is going to be amazing when it comes out on October 12, and it looks to offer the biggest changes in the series to date, with the drastically improved multiplayer capabilities, new battle types, full 3D graphics (Stadium, eat your heart out!), and even a new type to balance out the overpowered dragons.

During the Q&A, some highlights include Justin asking Pokémon Director Junichi Masuda about Mewtwo’s new form making Smash (and the director folding his arms in defeat), and a personal highlight where I asked about why the games are grid-based (makes tracking Pokémon encounters easier, though movement will be more free) led to him complementing me on watching the game closely. I even got a picture with him after the event!

After a successful, somewhat tiring day (you can expect to walk thousands of steps and standing for minutes at a time as part of the E3 experience), the gang got curry (the non-Indian kind) and recorded a pretty cozy podcast where we all talked about what we played. It was very nice.