October 28, 2003—Eric Mattei reporting for Nintendojo at Nintendo Canada’s press event at the stunning Liberty Grand on Lakeshore Avenue in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

The Show had some nice pizzazz to it. Upon entering the first room there was a lot of super high end Panasonic gear some “synergy” advertising that featured Panasonic Batteries with GBA games displayed together and several current releases on display including Viewtiful Joe and Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rebel Strike.

It was at the Rebel Strike display that I met the amicable Brett Tosti of Lucasarts. Brett’s comments to me were that Nintendo is definitely picking up steam since the latest price drop. When I asked Brett what his suggestions for Nintendo on their next system would be; he said that they need to get the dev. kits into developers hands as soon as possible so that they can create a large volume of games for the upcoming console. Also, Brett said that it’s a misconception that Nintendo is hard on third parties. He mentioned that if you have a great game, Nintendo will support you.

The event then moved into the theater room where the WWE’s Bad Ass Billy Gun introduced Ron Bertram of Nintendo Canada to a large audience of media and retailers alike. Bertram stated that Billy Gunn’s introduction is a sign that Nintendo has changed and that they are about great value. Nintendo will be spending approximately 10 million on advertising in Canada just for this upcoming holiday season and that Canada is a 1 billion dollar video game market. Not bad for beer drinking hockey lovers eh?

There were several guest speakers including Nate Williams of Capcom who commented on franchise development. Brett Tosti spoke of Rogue Leader: Rebel Strike's features. I have to admit, the game is getting undeserved bad press. The multiplayer features are excellent and far outweigh the few walking missions.

Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights was also a guest speaker. He showcased a small intro film of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes to the crowd. Aside from looking amazing (Denis is in great shape has lost a tonne of weight!) I quizzed him on MGS' lack of VR missions. Denis said that it wouldn’t be possible to add them without pushing back the release date of the game. Denis stated that the game has so much done to it that it’s just so difficult to get the current date met.

Lastly, Dyack said that after MGS just watch out because Silicon Knights has some incredible work on the way. He said that he’s learned so much from the creator of Metal Gear and Miyamoto that their next project is going to be a killer. He wouldn’t comment if it would be on the next generation of consoles or this generation. I took the time to congratulate him on having the best Cube game thus far in Eternal Darkness.

I had a chance to stroll around the floor and view the upcoming releases for the Cube this holiday season. Double Dash looked solid but not much of a graphical upgrade from the N64 version. However, Simon Tremblay of Ubi Soft showed me Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Listen to me clearly Dojo Disicples, you MUST BUY PRINCE OF PERSIA. It’s that simple. This game moves like water over a smooth rock, it looks stunning, it’s creative in its use of time… incredible. This game is the game of the year and you know what? It seems to borrow from Eternal Darkness, which isn’t a bad start at all. Killer app. Bottom line. I want to thank Simon for his tour of the game. It’s awesome.

As for Nintendo, they stated that they are taking the market back from Sony and had sold 25,000 Cubes last week alone. I wish them luck in their efforts. They put on a solid event today.

You heard this all here first, Dojo Disciples.

Source: N/A