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GoNintendo 'End of day' thoughts - The last 10 minutes of Konami's press event will forever stick in my head

by rawmeatcowboy
18 July 2008
GN 1.0 / 2.0

gonedc

The rest of the US may call NJ the armpit of the nation, but I love the place. Very happy to be back, at the my desktop, writing a thought for you guys. I’m also very happy to have wrapped up E3…which I fear may have been the very last one ever. That was the impression from pretty much everyone. Without the yearly banner hanging up that says ’see you next year’, everyone is prepared to never see E3 again. I guess we’ll have to wait awhile to find out.

Thanks again to all of you for dealing with the hectic, and less than favorable schedule. All is back to normal now, and I couldn’t be happier. Thanks for checking out our E3 coverage, especially the support of our live-blogs/streams! I am off to grab some sleep. I shall see you in a few hours with whatever post E3 drips come out, as well as allllllllllll the regular news you can handle. You know you love it!

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Out of everything that happened at E3, Konami’s press event will hold a special place in my mind. Actually, Konami had the worst 10 minutes of any E3 event ever…that goes for all the shows I’ve attended, and watched from the comfort of my desktop. Being present at Konami’s presser while this disaster took place was…painful. Yes, I admit that I did laugh, but the laughing turned to an uncomfortable feeling soon thereafter. Allow me to explain…

I had the pleasure of sitting with MTV’s Patrick Klepek during the event. I chatted with him a bit before the event started, and told him that I’d have to duck out a bit early. I had an interview that I had to attend. Boy, am I glad that Konami’s event ended before I had to leave. Patrick and I got to witness a total disaster take place in the final minutes of their show.

Konami was saving their big guns for the last section of their presentation. The plan was to show off Rock Revolution, their upcoming Rock Band/Guitar Hero competitor. Konami had gone out of their way to bring in a local band to help them promote the game. This band was an all-female Ramones cover band. To showcase Rock Revolution, the band would take the stage and play a Ramones song, and then someone would go over and play the same song on Rock Revolution.

The first half of the idea went really well. The band took the stage with their real instruments, and rocked out a Ramones cover. I don’t even remember what song it was, due to the situation that came up afterwards. The band was great, even if Patrick and I agreed that it was a bit awkward to sit there while this impromptu concert took place. Since almost all Ramones songs are just a tad over 2 minutes long, the tribute ended quickly. That’s when the guitarist put down her guitar and picked up the Rock Revolution guitar. This is where it goes downhill…fast.

So now we have two people, one on Rock Revolution drums and the other on Rock Revolution guitar. First off, everyone laughed at the switch. It was just funny to see all real instruments, and then a switch to tiny, toy instruments. That’s alright though, no big deal. Rock Revolution came up on the screens, and the same Ramones song started to play. The lead it finished up, and the duo started to play…

Between the two of them, they could barely hit any notes. I think the longest streak I saw on the drummer side was a 5, and the longest for the guitarist was 2. It took about 10 seconds before the entire crowd realized that this wasn’t going well at all. They couldn’t play the game, and the song sounded absolutely horrible. Patrick leaned over, and said that he wanted to see the band fail the song. Yes, he’s an evil, evil man! Screw-up after screw-up, it looked like Patrick was going to get his wish.

Sure enough, a few seconds later…the song crapped out and the duo had failed. Everyone in the crowd started laughing, while the two people on stage looked frightened/horrified. The guitarist took to the podium, grabbed the mic, and said that the presser was over, and thank you for coming. Yes, Konami really ended the show like that. They let the horrible disaster play out, and then 2 seconds after the failure, they announced that the event was over. The laughter turned into an uncomfortable silence with a few groans being muffled. Everyone automatically felt extremely uncomfortable…and we all quickly shuffled out of the room.

Not exactly the best press event I’ve been to, but definitely the most memorable. That’s the point of these events anyway, isn’t it? These companies want you to remember their games. Well, I will definitely never forget Rock Revolution…even though its for a horrible reason.