This weekend in Toronto at Yonge & Dundas Square, Best Buy Canada hosted its third annual Gaming Invasion. An event that brings together many of the biggest publishers in the industry and gives them a chance to show off their newest and upcoming titles to the public at large. Anyone that wants to wander out of the cold and into the gigantic tent, standing in the middle of the Square across from the Eaton’s Centre, is welcome to come in and try out games like LittleBigPlanet, Gears of War 2, Resistance 2 and much more. Companies like Activision-Blizzard, EA, Nintendo, THQ, and Sony were on the floor making sure everything coming out this fall was able to be sampled, and we made sure to take it all in.

LittleBigPlanet had the biggest showing there by far, with its own separate tent that was made out to look like a level created within the game. Sack-cloth blocks and sticker were littered all across the tent, guiding you through videos of the game and eventually to a space where 6 PS3s loaded up with the game were set-up. The first three levels of the game were playable, making it similar to the demo without the level-creation portion. We put impressions of the game up earlier this week and we didn’t learn much new, but what we did see was something a lot of the other booths lacked: a wide variety of people lining up to see what it was all about. While some booths were basically unreachable during the entire weekend, such as Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, Sony had managed to gather families, kids, adults, and just about everyone into the game to see what it was all about. We learned during the first day that the game was delayed, but that didn’t seem to hamper any excitement for it, and I was surprised at how simple people were able to pick up on the game. It would’ve been better off with at least a demo on level creation, but the game did its job and the videos showed off a bit of what else you could do.

During the first hour, when it was just media and I actually was able to play Guitar Hero, I was joined by Dominic Viola, bassist for Mobile (who performed at the event) who told us the whole thing was a dream come true. Apparently, the band was really into games, and getting the opportunity to show up, play a show for gamers, and sample the best in upcoming software was too good an opportunity to pass up. After I had sufficiently shattered my vocal chords on R.E.M.’s “The One I Love”, we moved onto the Gears booth to sample the multiplayer. They were setting up a ten-person deathmatch for the evening, and it was looking very solid. By the time the media preview was over, there was a constant line-up to play the game that didn’t stop the entire weekend. The same could be said for Resistance 2, which had a few individual consoles set up for a demo, and two back-to-back big screen TVs and full leather couches that Sony had placed so people could get a taste of the single player campaign.

A few games we weren’t expecting made an appearance, including Red Faction: Guerilla in a very early beta stage. Dan Sutherland from THQ explained to us the way that multiplayer mechanics were changed so much from what you’d normally expect in a shooter. “There is no camping, if you find a safe spot one minute it might be gone the next from a well placed grenade or rocket.” And it was definitely a treat to try. I enjoyed the first Red Faction but the level design didn’t lend itself to be very exciting gameplay, lots of tunnel digging and rail gun shooting. Having a desert setting and more sparse cover made the game very challenging and it’s something we are hoping to see more of soon.

As I mentioned before Mobile, a rock band from Montrèal, was on hand on Friday to sign some autographs and play a live set for all attendees. They also faced off with a few lucky players in Guitar Hero: World Tour and gave away Xbox 360s. Day two they were back to play some Rock Band and do the same, as well as welcome in the Frag Dolls who faced off in Tom Clancy’s EndWar with some tournament winners. The game wasn’t on the show floor, but it didn’t play very well in front of a crowd. Slower paced RTS shooters don’t seem to draw crowds the same way that music games do, but the game looked interesting, even if the display wasn’t.

Nintendo had a large presence at the show, as well. Lots of their family friendly titles were on display, but a lack of Wii Music for an upcoming first party title. Konami had a big part of their booth, showing off Castlevania Judgment, the 3D fighter based on the popular series. While it turned out to be a simple waggle-fest so far, it did draw a crowd, and it was one of the only “hardcore” titles available for the Wii that we had time for. Wii Fit drew quite a crowd, and I had a lot of people asking questions about every title I was trying, such as Mario Super Sluggers. People still love the Wii, and most of the major news coverage was pretty centric too that fact.

It was a very busy weekend, and a great opportunity to play lots of the upcoming titles for every console. Noticeably lacking was Fallout 3 and Fable 2, the latter of which I was told was there but wasn’t being shown because of the interest in Gears of War 2. It was one of the most fun events I’ve been to for a public show in Canada, and for anyone not part of central Canada, we can only hope that Best Buy extends the event to the rest of the country.

We’ll have more impressions of some big games tomorrow, but for now we have to give major kudos to Best Buy for putting on this show, and all the publishers and developers who showed up to give people the chance to have a little fun. Based on talks we had with some reps, the attendance for the show was equal to if not greater than the amount that showed up for the trade show E for All in LA earlier this month, and only in a space half the size of what many individual companies may set up for media previews. The interest is here, and Canadians should be clamouring for more shows like this in the country for enthusiasts of the medium and for the growing amount of Canadian developers to show off their wares to the hometown crowds. It was a good show, and as one rep told us “This may be the year that we look back on down the road and say ‘That was the year for games’.” Based on what we saw this weekend, they might be right.