So, I just got back from Best Buy and the E3 Wii U demos. My thoughts, the games were good, but every thing else was handled poorly. I'm not denying that Nintendo and Best Buy tried their hardest to get things done, but it wasn't too pleasant.
Being a big Nintendo fan, I head off to Best Buy 2 hours in advance (1 to get to the Best Buy, the second hour to try and beat the crowd). I finally arrive, and see a Best Buy employee trying out Donkey Kong. No biggie, until I see the whole mob of people gathering around the demo unit. It's not my fault or the people's fault for being there so early, but they only had one demo unit, the regular one the store has. Why only one unit? It's like if Nintendo put all their E3 demos on one unit at the real E3, it just doesn't work. I do understand that there are space limits, but there was enough space for at least one more smaller demo unit.
As I'm standing there, I didn't see any organized line, so I didn't know what was happening. I saw a table with a sign up sheet, but at the time, I thought it was for some sort of contest. Only to my surprise later that it was actually for the demos, possibly a half hour was lost, thanks for not having any notification that it was for the demos...... So after about an hour (thankfully a slot for 3D World multiplayer opened up, I originally went for Donkey Kong, which was about two hours in), I finally got to play 3D World......
It was good, but I wasn't the Gamepad player. I was forced to use the Wii Remote, meaning I had to mesh the D-Pad to work as a control stick. It's awkward to use, and I wish I could have enjoyed the game better with proper controls. After about another half hour to an hour of walking around the store, I finally got called up for Donkey Kong. This was worse, the game was all fine and dandy....... But I had to use the Wii Remote + Nunchuck combo, which was mandatory for everyone. No Gamepad, no sideways Wii Remote. So of course I sucked at it for no controls, but it got worse.
I had another player with me, and he (without any input from me) chose a stage. It was practically nothing but barrel blasting segments (showing off the impressive camera angle gameplay), but he made all of the blasts. So I barely did anything.
But it did get better, I picked up an open slot for Mario Kart 8. I was the Gamepad player, and the controls were great (made sure to use the control stick, not motion). And the courses were fun, the anti gravity segments were neat, but didn't offer any control change, which is a good thing for me. So that was it, by around that time it was 6PM. All sign up sheets were filled, so I just decided to leave. Even though they considered staying open an hour longer, I wasn't gonna wait two hours for the slight chance to play some more games, and Wind Waker (which I couldn't play). I think the concept of a sign up sheet was good and bad. The good being that people could wander around the store while waiting, the bad being that it was filled up quickly, literally a half hour after the shebang started no less. Plus, each demo was expected to last 7 minutes. But the only one I saw end on you was Zelda. With Mario Kart being pretty close to the 7 minute mark. But 3D World and DK only let you play one level, which lasted about 2 minutes per game. So some people got the short end of the stick.
So in summary (AKA Too long didn't read) here's my complaints.
1. Control schemes were meh for 3D World and Donkey Kong (obviously the final games will fix this issue) because of the controllers.
2. Sign in sheet caused some confusion and difficulties, plus the wait times could be up to an hour
3. Some demos were over before they started.
I also had two minor gripes that are pretty much issues for me. Being nowhere to sit, and that I barely played DK because the other player took over the level.
Now, the event wasn't 100% bad. All the demos themselves were fine. Plus the free Luigi loot was awesome (I got a Luigi hat, Mario Kart flag, and two Year of Luigi coins. Along with a pamphlet shaped like the Animal Crossing leaf for Nintendo's E3 press site). The sign in sheet table also had two 3DS units tethered to them. Which were handy so you could do something while waiting.
In summary, I'd give the event a 5 or 6 out of ten. There was some good stuff, but the atrocious wait times and lack of multiple demo units just screams a rushed event.
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