San Diego ComicCon International; never will one see a bigger melting pot of batleth wielding Klingons, legions of Stormtroopers, otaku cosplayers, table-top card duelists, d20 dice rolling dungeon masters, and old/new school comic fanatics squeezed into over half a million square feet of geek bliss. ComicCon has now become such a huge phenomenon that it is a pop culture event, with celebrities such as Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane) and Kevin Smith (Clerks 2) hosting panels on their upcoming movies, industry legends like Stan Lee (Spiderman) providing insights on future projects, and recording artists like Snoop Dogg (Hood of Horror) showcasing their published projects. It only makes sense that the video game industry, an emerging influence in today’s pop culture, should have a presence in this festival of the popular arts, and ComicCon 2006 did not disappoint.

As a veteran attendee of ComicCon International for the last ten years, this year’s convention easily boasted the most video gaming booths. 1st party companies Sony and Nintendo made their presence known with their impressive Playstation 2 and Nintendo DS video gaming exhibits.

The Sony booth was split into two sections: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony’s movie studio promoting upcoming films such as Ghost Rider and Spiderman 3, and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), where upcoming PS2 releases like Monster House (based off the animated movie) and Okami where available to play and demo. Okami was easily my favorite game at the show, and if it wasn’t for the 15 minute play limit, I would have been content spending the entire show immersed in the wonderful imagery and unique game play it has to offer. At least we only have to wait until the 19th of September to enjoy what I am predicting will be one of the best video game titles this year.

Nintendo showcased it’s highly popular DS Lite with playable demos of Final Fantasy III, StarFox DS, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, and many others. I had a chance to play Final Fantasy III and StarFox DS, and both titles impressed me. It’s nice to finally see the only non US localized Final Fantasy finally come over to North American audiences. The revamped graphics, music, and game play will make it an easy favorite among Final Fantasy fans. The almost exclusive stylus game control of StarFox DS made it one of the most unique and fun DS titles to play. ComicCon exclusive DS games and content were also available to download for those fortunate enough to bring their Nintendo DS (which I forgot to bring).

I was a bit disappointed that Microsoft did not have a presence at ComicCon this year, and that I could not find playable demos of the Playstation 3 and the Wii at the Sony or Nintendo exhibits. Watching the new Spiderman 3 trailer in PS3 Blu-ray format and seeing Jedi geeks playing a lightsaber Wii game would have been an awesome sight.

Several 3rd party publishers also set up booths to showcase their upcoming releases to the ComicCon attendees. Among the various video game publishers there I had a chance to visit Capcom, Konami, THQ, and Square Enix.

Capcom primarily focused their booth on its popular Street Fighter series. Street Fighter II, Darkstalkers, and recently Rival Schools are currently being published in an ongoing licensed comic book series published by Udon Comics. The stories are well written and the art is beautifully done, so I highly recommend them to any fans of these Capcom games. I have been collecting each series for quite some time now, so it was a real treat having the main artists there to sign my first issue of the Street Fighter comic. Capcom also held Street Fighter II tournaments and offered various Capcom and Street Fighter related prizes to the winners. To this day (in my humble opinion) there is nothing more satisfying in versus play than beating down your opponent with a well timed Shoryuken uppercut and being called “cheap” afterwards.

A couple of the major draws to Konami’s ComicCon booth were the game stations featuring two upcoming Dance Dance Revolution releases: DDR Universe for the XBOX 360 and DDR Supernova for the Playstation 2 console. For a game that’s been around since 1998, Dance Dance Revolution can still attract a huge crowd of players and spectators, and these two latest installments only prove how popular the dance simulation still is. Konami also displayed its line of portable titles for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, including Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS), Bomberman (PSP), Lunar Knights (DS), and YuGiOh! GX Tag Force (PSP). Silent Hill fans got the chance to immerse themselves within the comics, music, and interactive media of this popular horror series with The Silent Hill Experience on UMD.

THQ made a very impressive showing with three upcoming RTS titles for the PC. Company of Heroes, a real-time-strategy game based off of the World War II conflict in Europe, features a breakthrough graphics and physics engine, interactive environments, and advanced AI. This game is slated to be released September of this year. Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, based off the popular tabletop unit game, has an upcoming expansion called the Dark Crusade that will introduce two brand new races to this fantasy RTS, the Necron and the Tau. Finally, Gas Powered Games director Chris Taylor (responsible for the best selling game Total Annihilation) gave a live demonstration of Supreme Commander, a futuristic real-time-strategy between three powerful factions fighting on a global scale. This highly anticipated game is expected to be available first quarter of 2007. THQ also showed some love for its consoles gamers with its new racing title Cars, based off the Disney Pixar animated hit, the alien shoot human sequel Destroy All Humans! 2 Make War Not Love, and wrastlin’ fan favorite WWE: Smackdown vs Raw 2007.

The Final Fantasy Series was the big highlight at the Square Enix booth, especially the Final Fantasy VII spin-off Dirge of Cerebus. I can’t say that I was immediately fond of this game, with the weird 3rd person angle and the initial fumbling of the game controls. Dirge of Cerebus was reminiscent of Parasite Eve II though (one of my favorite SquareSoft titles) so I’m willing to give this ambitious action shooter another shot. Besides, after seeing a glimpse of the new dynamic battle system from the Final Fantasy XIII trailer, the active game play of Dirge of Cerebus might offer a hint of what’s to come. Demos were also available for Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XI Online: Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Final Fantasy III. The RPG giant also showcased Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP), Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2), and the cute spin-off from the Dragon Quest series Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS).