Mathieu Jobin's Life and Thoughts

Nintendo World 2006 in Nagoya, Japan

Posted by Mathieu Jobin Tue, 07 Nov 2006 09:29:00 GMT

So, last Friday I realized a long time dream I had. Going to a video game expo, in Japan. It's one of those reasons I'm in Japan, and Nagoya is only 1h15 and 1620 yen of train away, how could I not go.

The event was from 9am to 4pm and I was pretty excited so I took the train as early as possible. Going there was pretty easy, even though it was my first time visiting Nagoya. I got there around 9h30, had breakfast at the station and the first train on Aonami line was leaving at 10am. so It was a perfect timing. 10h30, I was sure inside. That's about the best I could do.

First thing I learned when I got inside... They were giving away 100 Wii to the visitors. We receive some kind of lottery number when we arrive and we can check if we have a winner number as we leaves. Now I was excited, hehe...

read on for details ....

It was a bit different than I has expected. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting. but they had about 200 Wii on demonstration, if not more. and many many DS you could play with. So without asking myself too many questions, I put myself in line to try out Tennis from Wii sports. Let's get a feel of the Wiimote as fast as possible.

First the Wiimote is much smaller that I had imagine. It about the same length as a DS Lite. It feels totally comfortable in the hand. I had a hard time dealing with my excitation, the Japanese instructions and analyzing this remote to get as much as I could of the gameplay. I unfortunately got beaten. The other geek found some trick to throw a spin. Seriously the ball was really going much faster when it was doing it. So that means there is a lot of possibility with this new style of gameplay. Especially these are only the first generations of games for this console. Games always gets better and better on the 2nd and 3rd year. It was both our first experience and overall, we were pretty equal I think.

It was very important for me to try Wii sports as it does not come with the system in Japan. You have to buy it extra for 4800 yen. So I really wanted to know if I wanted to buy it or not. Tennis is fun, If I had it I would sure play. But If I have to choose 2 or 3 games between the 30 games available at the launch. I'm not sure this is the one I'll pay for. Especially US people consider getting it for free. I might end up getting a copy for 5$ on ebay. That said, many times I read US people feel sorry for us in Japan because we don't get Wii Sports "for free" but they forget they pay 250$ for the system while we only pay 25000yen. It might look similar, but its about exactly a Wii Sport different ;) So really, the difference is that we have the choice, while you don't. I think Nintendo wanted to have a price that looks similar everywhere. Or It's a conspiracy with the Japanese government to make people believe (slowly) that the US dollar is equal to 100 yen. Another big reason, is because in Japan we get a game called はじめのWii. Which kinda means "Beginning with the Wii". So buyers, depending on their age and experience are most likely gonna get one of the two games to start with. While, only Wii sports is available in America to have this Wii educational purpose.

Then I tried Wii sports Boxing. That one I had a huge time. And I sure beat this other amateur, hehe. It was so much fun and my body temperature really increased. I was so hot after this 6 minutes trial. I made a comments earlier this week on a blog post at IGN complaining about Wii Sports. The guy rather have a bad opinion on the game but while some of it might be true, I think he exaggerates a bit. Anyway, Boxing was awesome. and for this one game, Wii sports is worth it. but then other boxing-only games are coming out. so who knows what am I gonna buy.

Then I went to Zelda, they had about 8 Wii running with Zelda on it, but unfortunately it was too busy. They required special ticket for that game, which were unavailable since 11am. Crazy... it was sure very busy. That is only Nagoya, I can't imagine Osaka next week and Tokyo near the end of the month.

Too bad, I went to Mario Galaxy which was very very interesting. Mario Galaxy was twice special, because it is not available at the launch. We had an demo disk probably made especially for this event. There was a countdown in the game so we cannot play more than 6 minutes, while the other games (full version) did not have that. There is a lot of people and Japanese people are quite precise when it comes to this. Everybody has to get the same thing. So nobody complains about injustice.

So the game requires you to do quite special movement. It is definitely different from the side-scroller we all know. Killing enemies can either be done by pointing at them, shaking your hand, taking and throwing objects at them (a bit like fishing) and of course jump onto their head. The you often gotta travel from a planet to another, which is very easy to do and very fun at the beginning. Pointing and shaking your hand. there is tons of different new moves you gotta learn compare to the sports games, which can only be sports games. I had a very good time playing Mario Galaxy. And this title sure brings a new type of gameplay onto the table.

That's it, I was tired of the crowed after that and starving to death for two good hours. So I decided to leave a bit earlier. After all, it was my first stop in Nagoya, I had to checkout the city a bit more. And I, unfortunately, did not win one of those 100 Free Wii they were giving way.

But hope is not gone, next Sunday, in Osaka, Nintendo World 2006 part 2 is taking place. I expect it to be very similar. So I'm not 100% sure to go, but I might to try few more games.

For those you like pictures, I took a few.... http://gallery.somekool.net/v/Japan/2006-11+From+May+To+November/2006-11-03+Nintendo+World+2006+Nagoya/

enjoy yourself...