Nintendo, too, had spokesmodels, albeit in far more tasteful and modest get-ups. But it wasn't their attractive smiles that had droves of people packing the Big N's booth.

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There, the main draw was the hardware on display. There was a wall of Wiis running the Punch-Out! and several other games.

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More importantly, visitors could hold, touch, and play the DSi handheld, which his US stores on April 5.

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All the DSis--which were literally attached to either a table or the wrist of a spokesmodel--were running the camera-enabled party game WarioWare: Snapped. Despite the humiliation suffered by a demonstrator during Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's keynote address…

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…One unlucky GameSpot correspondent had to try it himself. The results were no less embarrassing:

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Across the aisle was Sony's booth, which had a row PlayStation 3s playing currently available games like Little Big Planet.

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The line of PSPs featured several unreleased games, including Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, due out later this year. Towards the rear, Sony was showing off a technical demo of Phyre Engine, the new free middleware the company is giving out to help promote PS3 development.

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