Attending the Brawl Event on Feb 16

All my previous moaning and groaning aside, I attended my first real videogame 'event' so to speak. This was the Smash Bros. tourney in Los Angeles, run by Nintendo. This turned out to be a very interesting and tiring experience.

First off, considering the overall popularity of Smash Bros. Brawl, I knew I had to get there relatively early. It began at 3 Pm and there were only 256 spots available. When I got there around 10:30 Am, already a huge line was outside the building. Luckily, I got in as #164.

Along waiting for over 3-4 hours I got to chat with a bunch of people, where they came from, how long they've waited for this, and why they're so fanatical about waiting just to play a game for a few minutes.

Wait. I forgot I'm one of them. Haha...

Anyhow, it was surprsing to see what walks of life they came from. I met a few college students from San Diego, a person who works in an observatory in Santa Barbara, and a Mormon person. Talking to some more random people, I found some ended up waiting at 3 in the morning just to play, while most of the crowd came around 8-9ish and the rest followed around the afternoon.

As an extra, we also got some nifty gloves, free soy milk, and water to help pass the time. Even G4 tv came down to record the event and get people's opinions on why they were waiting. Unfortunately, by the time they came most people were tired of waiting and decided to act stupid... understandable, but it kind of hurts when the stereotype of a hardcore gamer is further pushed out.

After the waiting, we finally get in. I managed to get in the building and see 8 Wiis, all with Brawl hooked up and running. To be excited was an understatement. I saw one of the on the big screen, and became estactic. A DJ was playing music, fancy pictures on the stage, and serveral Nintendo employees running around to keep things in check. They kept things organized, so not much happened.

The tourney itself consisted of using only starter characters in a 4 minute match. Whoever scores the most KOs wins, and moves up the bracket. The bad thing about it was that we could only use the classic controller, had no real layout of the buttons, and couldn't do any practice. I felt a little irritated, but then again, so was everyone else. I think a large majority of the players lost simply due to not completely understanding the controls.

I lost in the 1st round (failed to realize why flying in the air against pikachu was a bad idea), but I left with a lot of insight into the game. Those brief few minutes of playing and watching told me that this game felt like there was a LOT of content to discover. There were already 20 stages from the start, a slew of characters possible to take out (I think it would've been better if I used Ice Climbers), and as much as I hate to admit it, workable controls. I've only been given a taste of the game, but I left with a hollow feeling. My guess is that it'll only be sated when I actually get my hands on the game (or win it in a contest).

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. Waiting in line, talking to people, and the expectations to the event itself gave a little insight of why being a game journalist is worthwhile. You actually get to attend these events, simply to report on it. Along with that, you carry along any hopes and expectations of various gamers, see for yourself if the event/object is worth it, and enjoy simple side benifits like free swag. I guess it helped bring some perspective into this business.