This year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center Tuesday, June 11 through Thursday, June 13, 2019. As you’ll notice, it is smack dab in the middle of the work week. That’s because it started off as an Industry Only event – until 2017, when it opened up to the public, who could now buy a “Gamer Badge.” Coincidentally, in 2017 I began working at a video game company and have been able to get a complimentary Industry Badge since then.
Every year, and this year was no exception, I have only attended one out of the three days of E3, since I would have to use vacation days for any days that I attend. If you’re just there for the spectacle and to get a feel for the event, rather than try to play all the latest games, one day is generally enough.
This year, I decided to go on Tuesday, since a few of my friends were only going on Tuesday. The hours were 11am-7pm for Industry Badges and 2pm-7pm for Gamer Badges, which my friends had.
I took the train up from Fullerton and met up with my friends Steve (@OriginalScuba), Cheezmo (@Cheezm0), and Ricky (@SDComicConDad) at IHOP for a bit before we headed over to the convention center. There, we parted ways, as they would not be able to get in until later. It was a little after 11am at this point, and when I went to pick up my badge I discovered that there was only one long line, unlike last year, when I’m pretty sure there was a separate line for Industry. Or maybe it was just that I had gone on Wednesday, when most people had already picked up their badges… The line moved pretty fast though, and even though it looked really long, it only took about 15 minutes.
I had made a few appointments ahead of time, my first one being at 12pm. I had been able to snag a “Warp Pipe Pass” (basically a fast pass) to play the new Pokemon game, Pokemon Sword and Shield, at the Nintendo booth. Badge pickup had been at the South Hall, which I entered upon picking up my badge. However, I soon figured out that the Nintendo booth was in the West Hall, so I made my way over there, and was able to check in right at 12pm.
After about a 10 minute wait, it was my turn to try out the demo. There was a friendly booth worker there to assist me and explain how to play. Unfortunately, I have never played any Pokemon games in any form, either the card game or the video game, so the poor booth worker had to explain every little thing to me!
The demo was basically that you play a few matches and flip switches to try to find your way through a mini-maze until you get to the boss. I learned about the different types of Pokemon characters (Water, Fire, Grass, etc.) and which type of characters do better against other types of characters (such as Grass does well against Water). The booth worker also pointed out that there was a new type of character combination – a character that was both Dark and Fairy.
Eventually, with the help of the booth worker, I made it through all my battles and defeated the boss! He then signed off on my swag ticket, and at the exit, I exchanged it for a cool pin set!
It was a little after 12:30pm at this point, so I headed over to my next reservation, which was for the Unreal Garden. Luckily, this was located right next to the Nintendo booth. I was able to skip the long line and have a short wait, only waiting behind others who also had a 12:30pm reservation.
When it was my turn, an AR headset was fitted on me, and a small group of us was given some instructions at the entrance. Once the booth worker was satisfied that our headsets were working correctly, we were turned loose into the trippy garden.
Without the headset, you could see that the booth area was decorated with little trees and lots of black light type colors. However, with the AR headset on, you could see a lot more that was going on. There were animals on the ground and flying through the air. There were lots more plants around, including mushrooms, which you could “touch” and make them move around. There was even a place where you could “finger paint” with light. If I could describe this experience in one word it would be “psychedelic.”
Afterwards, it was about 1pm – time for my next appointment! I had also gotten a Warp Pipe Pass for Luigi’s Mansion 3, so I went back over to the Nintendo booth and checked in. I waited in line for about 15 minutes. When I was about 5 people back from getting in, I saw a familiar face approach the entrance – it was Mark Hoppus from Blink 182! He was there with his son. They flashed VIP Passes and were allowed to walk right in without waiting in any line. This all happened so fast, I didn’t get a chance to take a picture. Ah well.
I was let in just a few moments later to play the Luigi’s Mansion 3 demo. Full disclosure: I never played Luigi’s Mansion 1 or 2. Again, the booth worker was very patient with me in explaining how to play. There were different actions Luigi could do, such as shining a flashlight, or using a vacuum to suck up ghosts. Then by using a combination of buttons, you could bang the ghosts around. Another cool feature was that you could switch from regular Luigi to a green Luigi, who could go into spaces that would otherwise be unsafe for regular Luigi – like walk across spikes. I died at one point, and it let me start over again (I hadn’t gotten that far). I got a little farther the second time, especially since I had now mastered some of the gameplay. But I died again, and it was Game Over for me.
I spent a couple minutes looking around the Luigi’s Mansion booth, where there were some spooky and ghostly features. Then I headed to the exit and exchanged my swag ticket for a Luigi’s Mansion 3 flashlight!
I hung around the exit for a couple minutes just in case Mark Hoppus happened to take longer than me at the game, but no dice. I did see a Luigi character walking around though! He went in through the exit, carrying a flashlight.
At this point, it was around 2pm – which meant that the Gamer Badges had been let in! Upon communicating with my friends, I found out that they were in the Funko line. I figured out that the Funko booth was over at the South Hall, so I headed back over there and met up with them. While waiting for them to buy their stuff, I wandered around in that area. Right next to the Funko booth was an arcade area, which had a giant arcade machine! I also got a chance to say hi to Sully at the Funko booth.
After they were done buying their Funko stuff, we wandered over to the Fortnite booth, which was a favorite of mine at E3 2018. Once again, this year they did not disappoint. They had plenty of activities, photo ops, and most importantly, free food and drink! We never got to try any of the Slurp Juice though, because the machines were either out or in the middle of making some whenever we tried to get some. I did manage to snag a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie though! They also had popcorn and various other goodies to eat. While hanging out at the Fortnite booth, we happened to run into O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube’s son, so we got a photo with him.
Even though the Fortnite booth had a lot of tasty snack options, we wanted real food, so we met up with Trevor (@mactds) and took a lunch break, going to the corridor between South Hall and West Hall where there were food trucks. It was a bit warm outside, so we went back into the South Hall and just found a spacious area to sit against a wall to eat our lunch.
Then it was back to the show room floor to wander around some more. First it was South Hall, which had a nice Borderlands booth.
After a bit, we migrated over to West Hall, where the Nintendo booth was located, as previously mentioned, as well as the Mario & Sonic at the Olympics Games booth, complete with a rock climbing wall! There was also an eSports area with plenty of seating, but it didn’t seem like much was going on when we went over there.
Eventually, we found ourselves at the Satisfye booth. A very nice saleslady explained to us about the product, and let us test it out. It is a grip that you slide your Switch into that makes it easier to hold. They also had cases that come with power cords and a compartment so that you can put in a portable charger and charge your Switch while it’s in the case. It was $15 for the grip by itself, or $30 for the grip and case set. After we walked around for a few minutes, we decided it was a pretty good deal, so Steve, Trevor, and I went back and decided to each buy the grip and case set. Josh plays Switch a lot, so I figured it would be a nice gift for him, kind of as a souvenir since he never gets to go to E3. I’ll try to get him to do a product review at some point to let you know how it is!
It was almost 6pm at that point, and I had to catch the train back to Fullerton at 6:40pm, so I bid my farewells to everyone.
On my way, I got to see what was set up outside of LA Live, as well as the banners and building ads along the streets of downtown LA.
And so ended my experience at E3 2019! I felt like I had a good amount of solo time to get things done, but it was also fun to be able to just hang out with friends and see the sights.
You can view more of my photos from E3 2019 below.
