Nintendo at Game Stars Live!

by Karlie Yeung - September 1, 2004, 4:09 pm EDT
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Real bongo drums, tattoos, duck fishing and jelly beans await you.

After some technical problems Nintendo Pier opened to visitors of Game Stars Live today. The seaside themed booth is decorated with painted boards dividing it into different areas. The first is the Nintendo Arcade with most of the games in the booth. Tales of Symphonia, Wario Ware, WWF Day of Reckoning, Fifa 2005, Mario Tennis, Lord of the Rings The Third Age and Pikmin 2 are among the GameCube games in this area. On Game Boy Advance the selection includes NES Classic games, Star Wars, Fifa 2005 and Final Fantasy I&II.

Opposite to this is Paper Mario 2 and Super Mario Ball with Wario Ware thrown in for good measure. The “Haunted Castle” area houses Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Often there was quite a wait to see these games.

Continuing around the booth there is the Fortune Teller’s room where video of Miyamoto explaining the DS features and some upcoming DS and GameCube footage is shown, including the Legend of Zelda video from E3. In the corner opposite to this is a giant helter skelter slide to keep everything in line with the seaside theme.

The main stage of course features Donkey Konga. The stage is used for demonstrations by a professional bongo drum player and you can play along on real bongo drums. At other times Donkey Konga can be played on the two wide screen TVs. There is also a line of GameCubes set up with Donkey Konga and headphones so everyone can have a turn playing their favourite song. The version of the game is the same as the one used on the Road Trip, with around 10 songs to choose from over 30 listed. Today the Donkey Konga Bongo Battle finals took place on stage, with ten contestants aiming to win the grand prize.

On either side of the stage are Animal Crossing and Mario Golf. The Animal Crossing fishing stall has surrounded by a moat filled with rubber ducks around the screens and the Mario Golf room has golf balls and clubs in case you feel like trying to get a hole in one.

For the Pink Edition of the GBA SP there is a pink sweet shop with enough sugar to make you feel sick. Game Boys are sitting on trays of marshmallows, gummy bears and jelly beans. If you’re passing by at the right time you may even find more sugar in the form of pink candy floss or seaside rock with “Nintendo Pier” embedded into it.

Last of all right by the exit are Game Boy Advances with Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green. Again there are lots of consoles here so there shouldn’t be much of a wait if at all. Unless there are lots of parents sitting on the chairs while their children play!

Game Stars Live is the consumer show open to the public at ExCeL running from 1st – 5th September. Also running at the venue is the European Games Network for trade and European Developers’ Forum for developers.

We’ll have more news and impressions from the show shortly.

PRESS RELEASE

MTV Music Awards Celebs Rock with Donkey Kong!

A whole host of celebrities battle it out in Donkey Konga - and Red Cross gets a really big check!

RECORDING ARTISTS BEAT TO NINTENDO'S DRUM AT THE MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS IN MIAMI

VIPs Get Exclusive Treatment as First to Play Donkey Konga

MIAMI, September 1, 2004 - Hip-hop, R&B, rock, film and television artists all beat to the same drum this weekend at the pre-MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) luxury suite at the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach, FL. Celebrities played against each other on the highly anticipated Donkey Konga video game exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube available Sept. 27. Artists including VMA winners and nominees Outkast, Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz, MatchBox 20, Fabolous, Chingy, Good Charlotte, Steriogram, Evanescence and music video director Bryan Barber drummed along on the DK Bongo controller to music arrangements of popular songs featured on the screen.

"Celebrities are a great litmus test for what will be a hot game; we were pleased to see all types of celebrities from rock to hip-hop enjoyed playing Donkey Konga," says Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs. "It's not often you get to see Billy Martin (from Good Charlotte) playing music with (rap artist) Chingy!"

While the suite provided celebrities an array of hot products, celebrities did give back. Top of mind in Miami were the victims of Hurricane Charley. Big Boi from Outkast and award-winning music video producer, Bryan Barber, participated in the Donkey Konga Challenge. A $10,000 donation to the Red Cross was made on behalf of Big Boi, the winner of the friendly competition.

Additional guests of the suite included recording artists Christina Milian, Lil' Scrappy, Adina Howard, Omarion (B2K) and Lea; music producer Just Blaze; actors O'Ryan (You Got Served), Erika Christensen (Swim Fan), Brian White (The Shield, Mr. 3000), J.D. Williams (HBO's The Wire), Michael B. Jordan (All My Children) and Paulie Shore; Frank, Carmen and John Gotti (Growing Up Gotti); and music industry tastemakers including Fonzworth Bentley, MTV VJ LaLa, DJ Clue, DJ Sno, and Lisa May (KROQ-FM, Los Angeles).