Last year, I went to Wyomissing, PA's Best Buy to demo four of Nintendo's upcoming Wii U games. That time, there was a constant mob of around 30 people, all gathered around and semi-queued up to play using a sign-up sheet. This year, I traveled an hour and a half to Whitehall, PA to play Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U and was met with about 300 people lined up to play. I arrived ten minutes after the event started. By the time I got to the front of the line to play less than half a match of the 3DS version and a two minute match of the Wii U version, I had waited in line with my sister for over three and a half hours.
Was it worth the wait? Heck no! But at least I got a story out of it.
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| The Line: Part 1 |
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| The Line: Part 2 |
What I got to play was a rushed forty seconds of the 3DS version while I waited for the Wii U version to be free. On 3DS, I tried my hand at the Animal Crossing Villager and was pleasantly surprised by how good Smash felt on a 3DS in both controls and graphics. Before the local wireless match, each player had time to practice with their character against the sandbag and I found that the Villager's varied, but otherwise easy to use attacks were quite fun to mess around with.
This video is of the person in front of me in line playing as Little Mac.
Similarly, the Wii U version looked and played gloriously, although I didn't nearly get accustomed to playing as Mega Man for the first time while using a Pro controller for the first time in the allotted two minutes of chaotic four-player items-on action.
I was Mega Man, my sister was Villager.
The final results were: 1st - Link, 2nd - Mega Man, 3rd - Rosalina and Villager tied.
Strangely enough, the Nintendo reps requested my dad who was recording to not record only gameplay, but to have people in the shot as well or to take only screenshots. He reacted by wobbling the camera for a second and resuming focus on the screen. My instructions trump Nintendo reps'.
In addition to getting to play the game, I also got some freebies and a buttload of StreetPasses.
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| By the way, the coupons only last through the 14th. |
The final word? The games look great, feel fast, and will surely be awesome. Also, if you plan to go to one of these events in the future, getting there an hour early will save you time in the long run.
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| Yes, I am a derp. |
