E3 2005 - First Day Report Card

So the press conferences have gone and most of the major news is out. So who made the biggest splash?

Sony
First to go and scored. The PS3 design showed style and most of the big hitting games were there. Then we saw the controller. Not even the most hardened PS nut could deny the fact that this is the worst controller design ever. A massive own goal and the Spring 2006 release date makes the current kings look vunerable.
Grade - C+

Microsoft
The big boys made a similar performance to last year. They did nothing but re-state what had already been said at the Full Circle party last week. The announcement that the 360 could link up with Windows PCs was met with a lukewarm reception and the only thing they don't want to say about the 360 seems to be its PSP connectivity. Only a demonstration of Xbox Live v2 could save a poor performance. They need a good showing in the expo to rescue another bad E3 but the Christmas 2005 release could help.
Grade - B-

Nintendo
Adam Sandler was busy on the walk of fame outside while this was going on.

Metroid was the only major franchise missing from Nintendo's demolition of the other 2. A sworn dedication to free wireless DS gaming was made along with news some gamers had wanted, a wireless connection won't be needed to play online when at home as the DS can be connected to a PC with a USB cable and played over dial-up. Then came Gameboy Micro which scored a middling mark on the whoop-ometer and following that came the big one. "You say you want a revolution" said Satoru Iwata with hands behind his back. "Well..." holding up the shiny black box "we've got one". The whoop-ometer went into meltdown. The announcement of free online gaming along with news that games from as far back as the NES would be available for download to the platform sealed the deal. After that a now very excited crowd sat and watched the GBA and GC lineups announced with whoops going to Mario Party 7, Fire Emblem and Pokemon XD. The whoop-ometer gave up when it saw what was next. Zelda. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to be exact. An awesome trailer put to bed Nintendo's best E3 performance in some time along with the rumour that the Revolution could be starting as early as September 2005.
Grade - A (the grandads of gaming have woken up angry)

The expo starts today and with Nintendo and Sony right next to each other in the West Hall it could get ugly. Looking at the floor plan it could be interesting in the South Hall as Microsoft, EA and Konami all have relatively similar sized booths (which are dwarfed by Nintendo's).