At the Shibuya event, Nintendo allowed the public to test out their upcoming games, Kyojin no Doshin (Doshin the Giant) and Doubutsu Banchou (Animal Leader). In addition, footage of Biohazard and NBA Courtside were also shown on big television screens. A Doubutsu Banchou contest took place for 5 hours or so. And to top it off, a 1 hour round table conference between 3 game creators took place.

Since the event was held on the fifth floor of a huge Japanese equivalent of Blockbuster, people came in and out of the floor. It never got so crowded where you couldn’t move really move around. Overall, I think it was a success as it allowed many non-Nintendo fans to experience the Nintendo Difference by testing out their two new unique games, Animal Leader and Doshin. Since most people are aware of Biohazard, but not many know it’s coming out for the GameCube, the Biohazard footage, which were also shown on big televisions, added to the impact.

The Animal Leader contest consisted of two rounds. In the first round, the contestant has to try to catch and eat 13 bugs within a one-minute time limit. Eating three earned you Animal Leader and Doshin tattoos. Eating 6 would get you a big Animal Leader box, and 13 would get you a Pikmin cell phone strap and the privilege to advance to second round, battle of the boss. Contestants that advance to the second round had to beat three bosses within three minutes. If the contestant succeeded in doing so, s/he got to choose from Animal Leader boxes. The prizes I saw handed out included GameCubes and GBAs. As for me, I entered and I only caught 12 bugs, but I got my Animal Leader box and my cool tattoos, so I was happy.

When it’s your turn, Nintendo reps will kindly wipe the controller grips and hand it to you. I didn’t get kicked off, which was pretty cool. Out of the two games, I would prefer Doshin to Animal Leader since I am fond of SimCity / Populous type games. Regarding Animal Leader, maybe it’s the boxy graphic look that’s bothering me, but I still remain a bit skeptical about that game. However, most people walked away remarking the game was interesting and fun. Perhaps the most impressive part is the simplicity of the Animal Leader. Nintendo reps didn’t have to walk through much people. People simply picked up the controller and got in to the game.

The conference between the Animal Leader’s graphic designer, Doshin’s concept writer, and Biohazard’s producer was entertaining. Basically each game creator walked the audience through their current projects.

The Biohazard portion was probably the most anticipated. The producer ran Biohazard in real time on GameCube. It was amazing, and I am probably not supposed to say this, but for a second I thought, “Wow. I didn’t know the GameCube could do this.” I never played Biohazard before, and I only saw it running once on the Playstation a few years but what they showed us at the event was much more impressive.

Biohazard’s producer demonstrated the game and stressed that there were a bunch of new features added to the GameCube version. Characters are given a facelift, and look much better than the original version. A new and exclusive forest scene is added. The manor has been reconstructed. The appearance of enemies has also been tweaked to add to the element of surprise, even if you have played it before. It seems like there just might be enough new features to get people who already experienced the original to play.

Before I conclude, I would like to thank Bibimba, our equipment guy, for helping us take awesome pictures and recording the event.

My final thoughts are that the event showed that Nintendo has a solid lineup to keeps us gamers in Japan busy till the summer when Mario will arrive. Let’s just wish Nintendo holds more of these events to get increased awareness from the public.