At The Nintendo Fusion Tour

Well, the actual event happened for me just about 2 weeks ago, but because of laptop problems and various things keeping me busy, I haven’t been able to get to this until now. But anyway, I had the very fortunate chance of experiencing the Nintendo Fusion Tour not too long ago. Quite honestly it’s the first concert I’ve ever been to, but of course the main reason I put down the money for my ticket was for all the great Nintendo demos that would be showcased! In this article, I will tell you the story of my evening long Nintendo Fusion Tour experience, including everything I did and the people I encountered. To compliment the publication of this article, I also have three hands-on previews I wrote of three demos that I played. They happen to be Super Mario Strikers, Mario Kart DS and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. They are published in the Previews section of this website. Now without further ado, allow me to share with you my experience of the Nintendo Fusion Tour! All screenshots of this event are courtesy of my friend’s digital camera that I was given permission to use.

It was about 4:30 in the afternoon. I hadn’t gone to my advanced composition class that morning because I didn’t really need to (honestly!). I also didn’t have to work my normal 1-6 p.m. shift because both my best friend and I requested that day off. Anyway, when 4:30 rolled around, two other friends of mine whom I invited to go with us pulled up to my apartment and honked their horn. I immediately got myself outside and into their car, but my friend decided he had to do something first and made us wait a few minutes before he graced us with his presence. But nevertheless, he soon emerged and we headed off to get gas. My friend filled his tank up to about 3/4 full and then we went on our way after having sat at a stop light for a good three minutes or so. Well all thought that stupid thing was broken.

To make the beginning of this trip rather humorous, my friend took the exit for the route going the exact opposite direction of which we needed. I laughed and said we were going the wrong way, and he blamed his wife for his mistake. He claimed she told him different, and she of course claimed otherwise. But after going in the wrong direction for about five minutes, we managed to get ourselves turned around and headed the correct way. It took us about 20 minutes to drive the actual route that we got directions for, and once we turned onto the street we needed, the line was already forming.

We soon found a close-by parking lot and paid the ridiculous fee of $5. (I mean come on, why is parking so darn expensive at these events? Isn’t the ticket enough of a money eater?) Anyway, we got our parking spot and my friend’s wife handed each of us our tickets. We walked across a now busy street and made our way to the end of the line which was about 150 or so feet long at the point. So from about 5:00 when we got there until 6:00 we stood waiting in line for the doors to open. This of course spawned all the activity that usually happens in lines like that going to events like the NFT. There were your people looking to buy tickets and people looking to sell them as well. There also happened to be a small group of “unique” looking guys that were trying to sell their debut album from New Zealand by allowing people to sample their music on headphones. Myself and my friends of course declined, so that was the end of that.

So after the hour of talking about random stuff, the doors finally opened and the line began filling the building at a nice pace. In the process of getting to the front, my group viewed the very cool looking Nintendo Fusion Tour bus as well as all the newspaper headlines showing all the recent and upcoming band concerts. But anyway, we got to the doors after a couple minutes of following everyone else in, and you could already sense the excitement that was about to ensue. The men standing behind the doors simply scanned our tickets for counting and we immediately began receiving advertisement flyers from random people. It was at this time my two friends that brought us went immediately to the viewing area to see the bands, while myself and my best friend went to check out the Nintendo displays.

These were the kiosks on the bottom floor. Batallion Wars is on the far left, Viewtiful Joe 2 is the next one and the guy in front of the third is playing NHL ‘06.
The first kiosk we got ourselves to was a demo disk full of upcoming and recently released titles. The one that caught our eye the most at first was Mario Strikers. So we went ahead and began to play that, even though I wasn’t expecting much. But to my surprise it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. While playing the demo, I began taking random pictures of what we were seeing on our screen. I also took random shots of other kiosks around us, the band stage and big screens advertising more future games. The screens were advertising games such as Spartan: Total Warrior, Prince of Persia 3, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, X-Men Legends II, Geist, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness.

That’s the welcome desk of the NFT that had a bunch of Nintendo swag and laptops for the GBM sweepstakes.
After my best friend and I were done with the Strikers demo, I chose to go off by myself for a little while and check out what was being displayed upstairs. This is when I encountered Mario Kart DS. That of course put a huge smile on my face and I played that game. I can say with much confidence that anyone who is dying to have the game won’t be disappointed, it was incredibly fun and a very new experience. After playing that demo, I saw the laptop station right behind me that was built specifically for signing up for the Game Boy Micro contest. Happening at each city event, one lucky person will be awarded a free Game Boy Micro signed by Fall Out Boy (the featured band) and some custom NFT faceplates to go along with it. I entered my information and crossed my fingers hoping I would get the handheld I was never really planning to purchase myself.

There’s an angled look at the bottom floor kiosks.
After that, I went back downstairs to see what my friend was up to, and he was playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘06. Now we both absolutely despise EA right now so I don’t know what possessed him to pick up that controller, but I must say it was rather entertaining to watch him suck at it as badly as he did. But the putting part was rather understandable, as it seems like they made it so you almost have to figure it out yourself now. But that doesn’t matter now. After that, I chose to take the elevator to the next floor because I’m lazy like that. When the doors opened and I walked a few feet out of it, I…..found it…

That’s an upstairs booth of the Game Boy Micro sweepstakes entry laptops.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, YES!!! I must say, if the $29 I laid down for my ticket was worth anything in the whole event, it most certainly was this. I had to watch someone play it for a few minutes before I got my chance, but even that was more than worth it. I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything else. The graphics were incredible, even with them not being as good as they will be, and the whole thing was just a blast to play. It happened to be the E3 demo that featured the events that you could play in Toaru Village as well as the Horse Battle. I played a fair bit of both, and I walked away one heck of a satisfied customer. Thank you so much Nintendo, as you’ve definitely answered the prayers of millions of Zelda fanatics around the world, including my own. Come April 2006, I will have my own copy in hand and be absolutely anxious to jam the sucker into my system.

After that I actually listened a little bit to Motion City Soundtrack, as some of their music actually managed to catch my attention. Out of the five bands there, they were probably my favorite one, as they played the style of music that I’m the most fond of. They weren’t stellar and I’m certainly not a fan of them like I am with Linkin Park or Godsmack, but they definitely have me interested in their music. After going back downstairs again, I found my best friend again at the Fusion Tour desk that was giving out free retro Nintendo stickers as well as black wristbands that say Nintendo in white Japanese lettering. We also managed to snag cool Nintendo lanyards at the very end because we’re just that cool. But anyway, when I reached him, I saw something in his hands. To my astonishment, it was the Game Boy Micro. I could not believe how darn small that thing was, as it made my own cell phone look incredibly huge. He happened to be playing DK: King of Swing on it and he wasn’t too bad at it. What I didn’t realize until a few minutes later was the handheld was attached to a rather attractive (at least to me) female member of the Nintendo Street Team. My friend originally thought it was a key chain she had, but she let him know otherwise. She was wearing a rather large plastic “utility” belt that had a bunch of the handhelds in them, and I sort of felt sorry for how she was being subjected like that.

That’s our innovative DS!
Nevertheless, after my friend was done playing, I chose to take a crack at it myself. But it most certainly wasn’t without some difficulty. My hands are actually a little too big for the tiny handheld, as I was actually having trouble playing the game without actually dropping it. But thankfully it was attached to a cable fastened to the girl’s belt so I didn’t have to worry about breaking it. The game was actually a little hard for me and I didn’t really beat any levels, but it certainly was something different and unique for a change. I actually chose to talk to the girl who’s name happens to be Genevieve after I played it, and needless to say a little flirting was taking place. I also happened to get a couple pictures with her.

That’s me along with Genevieve of the Nintendo Street Team.
After that, both my friend and I began talking to one of the guys behind the counter who went by the name Kyle. He’s been with Nintendo for five years, has worked on every NFT to date, and actually works on Reggie Fils-Aime’s marketing team! It was rather exciting to hear how some of the “behind the scenes” operations go about at Nintendo of America, as he told us how they started the campaigns for games like Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Geist and Resident Evil 4. It was extremely cool to hear about everything he does, but just to keep some things under wraps, I won’t go into full detail. Although after that whole lecture we just began talking about each other’s love for gaming and what we’ve been loving to play over the years. Anything from Contra to the NES to Chrono Trigger for the SNES to Jet Grind Radio on Playstation came up. Every system and company was talked about, and it seems we all hold similar views on things which was great. We all also happen to think the Revolution controller is an incredible and intuitive concept and think the system will take Nintendo far next generation. At the end of our conversation, both myself and my friend got pictures with him.

I love that lanyard, it makes toting around my keys so much easier…The stickers are nice too!
Then after that, it was winding down to the ending of the event, and my two friends who brought us there finally emerged from the crowd. They’d been enjoying themselves a lot and wished to sit down and relax upstairs. I chose to go with them for a little bit because my back was getting rather sore at that point as well from all the standing I’d been doing and the pants pockets I had filled with goodies. I had both of them sign up for the GBM sweepstakes and then we began talking about what we’d done at the event all evening long. My friend picked up a t-shirt for himself and his wife managed to grab a picture with the lead singer of Panic! At The Disco along with getting her shirt autographed.

So after we chilled and Fall Out Boy was playing their second song, we chose to begin making our leave. I said final goodbyes and gave warm wishes to Kyle and Genevieve, and to be honest I was rather sad to see them go. They were both extremely cool people and I would’ve loved to get their contact information. But oh well, if the Tour comes back to my city next year I may get to see them again. So around quarter after ten we left, with all of us extremely hungry. Then to torture us even more because my best friend and I didn’t want to spend our money, our friends who brought us bought themselves gyros from two different street stands. Man those things smelled so good and we were both ready to kill them. But we managed to get ourselves to the parking lot where we were quite quickly and left before the rush could have a chance of slowing us down. We got back to our apartments around 11:45 and the day was finished.

So all in all, the Nintendo Fusion Tour was an experience like none other that I’ve ever had. It was not only the first concert I’ve ever gone to, but also the first Nintendo-themed event. I wouldn’t trade that evening for anything in this world, as all it did was strengthen my passion for gaming that much more, and bring me one step closer to becoming a full-fledged game developer. Just having all those demos available to me and playing three great upcoming titles was more than worth the ticket price. Then meeting Kyle and Genevieve was awesome too as they both provided me with more desirable knowledge about the gaming industry. It’s just too bad that I have no way of contacting them again so we can talk on a regular basis. But nevertheless, I loved it, as I’m sure many other thousands have. Thank you again Nintendo for the great experience, and I hope to have a repeat of it again next year!