My Best Buy Nintendo Experience, by Arnell.
Short Version – Not worth it.
Long Version – Since it is E3 week, Nintendo was giving an opportunity for fans not attending E3 to get to play some of the Wii U demos they were displaying. This wasn’t going to be at all Best Buys, but there was one in Houston. So I went and arrived a little after 4.
There was a long line when I got there. I underestimated the popularity of this event. So I got in line and assumed it would be a 30-60 minute wait. I was told at some point that all attendees (solo/group) would get 10 minutes max or finish one of the demos of one game out of the 4. Some people left upon hearing that or decided to get out of the line and just watch the TV from the side. And there was only one kiosk. A lot of us there thought there would be multiple, 1 for each of the 4 games. Nope. We were all in line for one kiosk.
Hour 1, I went around two rows of ovens and stoves and was able to look across where I started in line, 10 feet away. Hour 2, I was 20 feet away from my original starting point and was standing in front of the Nintendo Experience sign (pictured above). Hour 3, 5 extra feet. Honestly, we couldn’t tell why the wait seemed longer. We soon discovered that most were opting to play Mario Kart 8 since it was the longest demo with 3 races at 2 laps each. The rest were either 10 minutes or until you beat it and in the case of some, could have been beaten in less than 5 minutes.
Hour 4 was when things picked up as I was finally able to see the screen the demos were being played on. All 4 demos (Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker , Mario Kart 8 , and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze) looked gorgeous. I was also partnered up with a young girl since I was wanting to play Mario Kart 8 (2 players). Throughout the day, they were trying to pair and group people together so there were no empty spots when playing and to have the line go somewhat quicker. She and I had a nice conversation and it looks like I got a new fan for The Game Fanatics. Apparently she heard of us, awesome.
Myself and others were also expecting that the staff for the event were going to interact with those of us waiting in line. Maybe doing fun quizzes about Nintendo games, taking pictures with us, or just anything to make it fun. They didn’t. It was just waiting in line.
The event was only to last from 4-8PM, but they told us they would extend it another hour since lots of people were waiting. During that last hour, they started packing up. And a lot of the free swag was already given out so only Mario Kart 8 flags were left, which I got.
So my arranged partner and I were watching the time and counting how many turns were left before us. The pair in front of us went up to play Mario Kart 8 when the event organizers said that they were the last group of the night. My partner and I just looked at each other shocked. But we had befriended the guys in front of us and they said they would give us one out of their 3 races. So they finished their race and handed the controllers off to us.
I got to use Waluigi on a bike on the Game Pad while my partner got Peach on a bike on the Wiimote. Not what we wanted, but we were playing. And 2 minutes later, it was over. I lost. We had a good race as we both knew from our conversation that we were both seasoned Mario Kart players. We turned around to hand the controllers to the family behind us for the last race, but the system shut itself off. That was the second time the whole day that happened. The first time it happened I yelled “blow on the cartridge” and everyone laughed. But that was it. A friend asked me while I was typing this out “Was it good?” Honestly, I can’t say. One race wasn’t enough time. All I could say is that it felt like Mario Kart and that it looks great. That’s it.
A few things that I liked and didn’t like about being in line:
1. I liked seeing all the Nintendo fans interacting with each other. I wish I talked to a few more.
2. I liked seeing a lot of them playing with their 3DS’ while waiting. Some were constantly walking around collecting and recollecting StreetPasses.
3. I liked making faces at the baby from the family behind me that kept staring at me. Adorable.
4. I did not like the narcissistic guy that was behind me at the start (he called himself a narcissist). He was very annoying to those around him and his cousin who actually wanted to be there to play. Good thing he left, but I did feel sorry for his cousin. Although had they stayed, they wouldn’t have gotten a chance to play.
5. I did not like this one guy saying “Who would pick an 11 year old game like Wind Waker when you can play it on Gamecube?” He said that a number of times and even when a girl was playing it. Thankfully he got shut up by her family by saying “She never played it before. She didn’t own a Gamecube.” Not everyone has played Wind Waker. My thought was there probably were some kids there who weren’t even born when Wind Waker came out that wanted to experience it for the first time. So that guy just needed to shut up. Let who ever enjoy what they want to enjoy.
6. I did not like waiting in line for 5 hours. That event was not organized well at all and I don’t plan to go on Saturday when they do it again.
And that’s it. 5 hours (4-9PM) in line and I got to play one race in Mario Kart 8 for about 2 minutes. As a life long Nintendo fan and this being one of the first Nintendo related events I’ve attended, I was not happy. Not worth it at all. I hope that future events would be well organized so that others won’t have to go through what I did and go there to have fun playing great Nintendo games.
