Game Boy at E3 2006 – Day 2

Game Boy Advance lives…just not at Nintendo's booth.

It's been quite a busy, and exhausting, second day at E3 2006. This is typically the busiest day of the show but this year the floor seemed a bit less crowded. There also is a lot less non-game related hoopla coming from the booths that cause attendees to stop in the middle of the isles blocking traffic. This change could be the result of the Expo's stricter requirements for entry, or perhaps the attempt at cleaning up the morality of the show by requiring "booth babes" to wear modest clothing and not allowing certain adult-oriented games at the show. I'm not trying to say that the show is getting smaller; I just mean that you were only stuck in human traffic jams once every twenty steps instead of the usual five. Heck, the line to get in to see the Nintendo Wii was still several hours long…all day.

My first stop was in the West Hall at the Nintendo booth. Although there was a powerful temptation to try and wiggle my way in to see the new Wii, I fought it, dedicating myself to focusing on Game Boy products. My concerns over Nintendo's omission of the Game Boy in their press conference grew when I learned that the only Game Boy related demo at the booth was Visteon’s Dockable Family Entertainment System, which isn't technically a Nintendo product. This unease was diminished when I met with Nintendo of America's manager of corporate affairs, J.C. Smith, who enlightened me in an interview which will go up on the site in the next few days.

From Nintendo's booth I worked my way through the rest of the West hall where Game Boy publishers Atlus and Destination Software demoed their upcoming GBA titles. Then it was over to the South Hall which, this year, happens to house the majority of the Game Boy Advance demos. Major publishers like Konami, Ubisoft, The Game Factory, Sega, Capcom, Crave, and many more, all promoted their newest GBA games, but not everyone had a demo to show.

Tomorrow is the last day of the show so check back for a recap, as well as a breakdown of the GBA titles that were unveiled and my top picks of the 10 best GBA games at E3 2006.

Photo by D.S. Cohen