In this case, the Nintendo 3DS preview event at Makuhari Messe last month. Yes, I know I’m late and that no one cares what someone who knows nothing about consoles thinks about the 3DS but…I was there! I took pictures! I’m going to write about it anyway!
When we showed up I basically thought it would be like TGS (noisy, colourful, a bit mad) but it wasn’t like TGS at all! Apart from the queues. It was all very white and grey and corporate looking, a bit like being inside a giant Apple store or something. Queues were very long and unlike TGS there wasn’t much going on to distract people. Oh hang on, I meant to say we were lucky enough to be entertained by Arashi’s advert for the 3DS played on a loop, forever and ever and ever!! I saw it so many times it got addictive. It turned into some kind of crazy mantra, I couldn’t stop watching it! Help me! Next thing I know I’ll start listening to Arashi’s music!! No actually, that’s never going to happen. Wow, this recollection is pretty intense!
Some pictures:
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- Entrance
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- Floating 3DS
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- Terrifying facial expression!
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- Worst paparazzi photo EVER
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- Cool dresses
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- 3DS is SO MUCH FUN!!!
OK, the 3DS itself. Bear in mind that I don’t know what I’m talking about and I suck at most games.
It’s pretty. I like the Aqua Blue version best.
Games I Played:
Zelda: Looked nice but I struggled to play it so…it was alright I guess.
Dead or Alive: Looked average, not especially impressive BUT I won all 12 fights so it was great. Or I am great. Or both.
Kid Icarus: DIFFICULT. Pretty though.
Super Street Fighter IV 3D: Awesome. It looked poppy and jazzy and luminous, 3D was very effective and I can play it, hooray!
Nintendogs and Cats: Sucked. But I really don’t like Ninetendogs. They’re not cute.
3D camera: Pretty fun. Made me oddly sad to see people getting the attendants to take their photos because they were by themselves.
AR Games: Cool, but I can’t imagine it would hold my attention for very long. The feature where you can play around with your Mii and take photos with it and stuff looked quite fun but there were no opportunities to make your own Mii. Unless you happened to be one of the comedians on stage. I tried not to watch them but as I said, there were few distractions…
I should have brought some queue entertainment. A nice book or something. About 99.9% of all the children there had a DS. I suppose there would have been a lot more tantrums if they hadn’t.
The stands weren’t really giving away any merchandise, except the Capcom people who were giving out holographic postcards. So they win. Best game (Street Fighter) and a free postcard.
The second day was similar except for two special things!
One: I watched the Puzzle Bobble trailer demo thing about five or six times because I didn’t care about any of the others and because it was just so cute…I want Puzzle Bobble things.
Two: I made like a paparazzi and spotted Toshihiro Nagoshi. I mean, he isn’t exactly hard to spot but I was rather pleased with myself. Except I didn’t know what to do with this information. I informed Danny that I’d seen him and then I put my serious journalist hat on aaaaaand…….stood about five metres away from him trying to pretend that I wasn’t looking. Paparazzi skills. My camera, lovely though it is, doesn’t have an amazing zoom lens, so I took lots of photos of the back of his head, from a distance.Occasionally the people who were talking to him looked at me. Terribly exciting I know.
Stayed almost all day both days and left, as we entered, through a pair of walls plastered with giant posters of Arashi. Now every time I think of the 3DS I will also think of Kazunari Ninomiya, Sho Sakurai, Jun Matsumoto, Satoshi Ono and Masaki Aiba. Way to go advertising.
Maybe when I get to play around with a 3DS for real, I will post a picture of the amazing Mii I am going to make. Exciting times!
Little Fireworks 