eGames Expo: Day Two Report

Day two was less about the Wii and more about random adventures through Melbourne with one of my close friends. However that did not mean I didnt get one last hands on with the Wii before its December release, despite lines that made my head dizzy.

Continue reading for a recap of the Day 2s events.
I headed into Melbourne at 9AM with a girl gamer who happened to find out about the event just last weekend and after her friends bailed on her she was surprisingly overjoyed at my revelation I would be going a second day. Early on I started to talk up the Wii but it was like trying to explain the laws of physics to an 8 year old. The only way I was going to be able to impress her with my Wii talk was to plant the extremely comfortable wiimote in her hands.

On our way in Vook and Nicko arrived and we shared pleasantries before departing ways. Due to an all to optimistic friend wanting to go shopping I was unable to catch up with Vook later on in the event but we will hear all about his experience in the next few days. When we got inside the expo it was obvious that Saturday was not going to be as easy going as the previous day. Lines were already filling up at the Wii booth and people of all ages were rocking up to get their hands on the new generation of consoles.

The Aussie-Nintendo crew from Friday were around to get more out of their press passes and we discussed everything there was left to discuss, including a confirmed midnight launch for my hometown which I am totally pumped about. Lets see how many gamers I can get to do the Mexican wave on Wednesday in a few weeks. So I needed to show my friend just what was so special about the Wii and her initial response at watching Wii Sports in action was, The graphics are hardly impressing. It was my duty to explain to her that the Nintendo Wii was not about graphics unlike the other competing consoles, rather it was about expanding the definition of gameplay.

So she got her first taste of Wii Tennis and despite a little cheating happening in the beginning, (I served before she even had the wiimote in her grasps) she was instantly hooked to the Wii. We then popped in a quick game on Sonic the Hedgehog but did encounter a technical issue when the young kid in front of us kept dying in the exact same spot over and over again. Finally we got in some Wii Bowling of which I totally sucked at. I mean you could put Wii Bowling in the hands of an infant and it would still outclass me. Still, it was good fun and I hope to get a better grip of it shortly.

Shortly after the A-N crew headed home as the Wii lines were becoming quite enormous and it was becoming obvious that unless we waited hours in line to play the Wii our time would be better spent exploring the city. So it was with great regret that I left Egames but it had left a warm place in my heart as well as some fond memories. Hopefully next year will see an expanded Egames with more publishers, distributors and gaming related media. For the first year they have done a top notch top on reaching out to the enormous Australian gaming community and we here at Vooks thank the organisers for such a wonderful event.

A big thank you out to EXC355um, Sharpie, Pyro, Chrono, the A-N crew, the little dude that followed us around and everyone else that made this event such an awesome place to be this weekend. If the sheer popularity of Egames is anything to go by this will not be the last time we see a massive event for gamers to get their hands on the hottest and newest toys and software. Thanks to Nintendo for their excellent Wii showing as well as there ability to keep a smile on their faces even as the biggest week in Nintendo Australia history slowly approaches. Your hard work has paid off, now lets take it home this December 7th.

Pictures of Day 1 and Day 2 will be posted up shortly. Keep an eye out for them later this evening. Until then, discuss the Egames expo and anything Nintendo related in our message board.