Video Games, Quest to Question

I just visited the opening day of Nintendo’s store in San Francisco! I’m still rather surprised that the store would be established here before Seattle (near Nintendo of America’s headquarters), Los Angeles or Orlando (Super Nintendo World), but I welcome it! The store is located at Union Square, a frequently transited public area anchored by a Macy’s and other shops along with convenient underground parking. It’s also a pretty decent place to watch the iconic Chinese New Years parade!

The simplest way I’d describe Nintendo is as a video game company driven by the idea of play. Intellectual property, hardware, and software are means for people to engage in novel experiences. It reflects the brand’s heritage as a toymaker, instead of hardware (Sony/PlayStation) or software (Microsoft/Xbox) makers. I recommend checking out sometime the website BeforeMario the toys that led into the present-day Nintendo. Having said that, Nintendo’s recent forays into theme parks, merchandise, and animated movies puts them in more direct competition with Disney than other competitors in the video game space.

An image of the blog BeforeMario, showcasing a variety of Nintendo designed toys.

Anyways, those unending theme park lines prepared me to line up just to enter a store in its opening day. What I do wonder is whether this store is aimed at locals or tourists, and to what extent this store varies from the My Nintendo Online Store. For better or worse, I can’t spend much today because I need to save for future travels. My goal is to acquire an Alarmo, the NSO Nintendo 64 controller, which has a historical tendency to be out of stock, and some exclusive merch.

To even get in line I had to log in to acquire a so-called “Warp Pipe-Pass,” and within seconds the earliest timeslots were already booked! Still, I was some-how able to get a reservation for 2:00 PM.

Needed to enter the store on opening weekend. Functioned via a QR code.

I arrived at the reserved time, and the queue nearly took the entire street! I was worried that they wouldn’t let me in because of the wait time, but a store staffer verifying that we had a QR code said I’d be let in. The people in the line seemed to be a mixture of locals and tourists, one that I overheard conversing that they came from Ohio just for this! I also noticed other wear clothing from other Nintendo branded stores, such as the one in Osaka. Though I did hear one mentioning driving one hour from home, so it’s a mixture of both local and tourist. An influencer on privacy within the sphere of technology used the line to interview people regarding the normalized encroachment of data collection. Meanwhile a staff member from the adjacent Westin began distributing water bottles and snacks to people. All in all, I queued for an hour, comparable to waiting for a theme park ride.

When I first entered, my first impression was how densely stocked the store was. This makes the showroom feel larger despite the small space. In the first floor, I saw a mixture of San Francisco store specific merch, specifically a design that had the different franchises follow Mario, whose merch is also in the front. There are Mario T-Shirts, plushies, bags, kitchenware, and the like.

Hmm… That book cover looks like the one that caused a stir a couple of years ago for allegedly plagiarizing the English Super Mario Wiki. I wonder if they updated that book. The front of the first floor has a bit more space to allow traffic to flow between the second floor and the store entrance.

Moving onto the second floor, I was greeted by statues of Link and Inkling Girl from the Legend of Zelda and Splatoon franchises respectively. The second floor with a lack of windows has more space to showcase wares, being divided by franchise including Kirby, Pokémon, and Mario again.

There’s also a giant display for people to try out Nintendo Switch games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe seemed to be the most popular game played there. I went against someone dressed as Mario at Cloudtop Cruise and won in part because motion controls were enabled on the Switch Pro Controller (according to him). A staff member commented how this space will be ideal for watching Nintendo Direct announcements together.

Adjacent are four TVs containing the same demos as the larger panel, of which I used one to play Super Mario Bros Wonder. Behind is a small, but densely concentrated cluster of amiibo.

On the other side of the room was a small panel for people to check-in to receive My Nintendo platinum coins and a sticker. I had to log-in and do the two-factor authentication so I suggest logging in advance should you find this important.

Later I saw former Nintendo staffers and present-day podcasters Kit and Krysta vlogging their opening day experience. I was rather surprised to see them at this late hour, thinking that they would have likely gotten an opening hour reservation. But alas, it seems that no-one is immune to the ‘uniqueness’ of online Nintendo services. I might have sardonically commented as such, eh (to the chagrin of Krysta) oops…

Anyways, towards the back on the first floor, they had the same display of the Nintendo Switch line as in the second floor, except with a tablet to customize the Joy-Con colors to one’s liking. I wonder how long that display will last considering that the succeeding model comes out in less than a month and isn’t yet on display. Accessories were stocked here as well.

I also found the Alarmo and Nintendo Switch Online Controllers in the same section! An employee confirmed that the N64 controller is in stock for purchase if you have an active subscription.

I really like how they display (floor 1 near the accessories, floor 2 near the amiibo), games in the store, each unit having a shelf directly tilted towards one’s view and really allowing the box art to introduce their game to customers. I surprisingly saw the version of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet including the DLC (downloadable content). It’s out of print, increasingly harder to find, and is the sort of item that’d be scalped or be absurdly expensive in the future. If this type of game is still available, I wonder if getting certain editions of games will actually be feasible without needless legwork…

Having returned from the store, I bought:

Nintendo Alarmo [$99.99 USD]
Nintendo Characters Mug [$24.99 USD]
2 Pokémon Scarlet & Violet + The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero [$94.99 USD each]
Total Cost: 315.21 USD (including 0.25 shopping bag charge, excluding tax)
I didn’t get the N64 controller because those two games made me spend $190 than I intended.

But I also got collectable Mario & Link coins with the opening date of the store. It’s a shame that the collectable poster that was given to people who entered in the earlier hours was already unavailable by my allotted time. And unsurprisingly both collectables are already being flipped on eBay.

Only given to the earliest opening day attendees.

An odd observation I made while visiting this store is that quite a lot of merch sold here isn’t available on their own online My Nintendo store. An unexpected consequence is that outside of the more obvious products (i.e., ones that literally say San Francisco), it was hard to tell what products were specific to this store, specific to in-person Nintendo stores, or merch that’s available elsewhere (i.e. Target, Walmart). For example, while Pikmin Pellet Coaster Set is available online, Wall clock doesn’t have any listing. The Mario book I mentioned earlier is readily found at bookstores, but not on My Nintendo. This store also takes inventory from the Pokémon Center, examples being a Pikachu Kitchen Ceramic Mixing Bowl 3-Piece set and the Everyday Fun Kitchen Apron. But the aforementioned complete version of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet isn’t available there. That its here might just be a one-off due to the occasion, but I haven’t been to Nintendo New York in years, and lack a proper point of comparison. Still, the uneven availability of online stock is probably why I found going to Nintendo San Francisco interesting, despite usually overlooking their online store.

I think locals will likely use this store to attend special events like Nintendo Directs, and to possibly buy items that tend to sell out like the Nintendo 64 controller or limited-edition Nintendo games. Tourists will likely buy more of the merch, as it links Nintendo’s IP with non-gaming audiences in an area with both tourist and local traffic. Nintendo actually recently announced that their next store will open in Fukuoka, Japan. If Nintendo’s goal is to spread the reach of their IP, where would you open another Nintendo Store? Seattle? Las Vegas? London?

Astro’s Playroom is a game celebrating the world and heritage of PlayStation by giving you the opportunity to explore a literal “world” inside the futuristic looking PlayStation 5 (PS5). Being a showpiece of both past and future, it is currently a free tie-in pre-installed every new PS5. But, um… I only really know one PlayStation related franchise: the racing series Gran Turismo. Is this celebration fun or worthwhile to someone with little or no nostalgia or attachment to its legacy? Is this game a competent 3D platform without preaching to the choir? Yes, because it familiarizes you with the new controller and still has an interesting world to explore, albeit sometimes wishing that the game volunteered just a little more context.

Name	Astro’s Playroom
Genre	Action, Platformer
Platform	PlayStation 5 (Exclusive)
ESRB	Everyone 10+
Release Year	2020
Developer	Team Asobi
Publisher	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Country	Japan
Website	Official Site

Game Information

First and foremost, and the game makes it very clear itself, Astro’s Playroom is designed to weave players into the DualSense controller, and familiarizing players with all its features in a coherent package. In that sense, this game is really helpful for people whom have never played non-mobile video games or have not done so in the last twenty years. People familiar with Team Asobi¹, might recognize them as the developers of Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, a showpiece for PlayStation VR. Their main value appears to be demonstrating why PlayStation is innovative, rather than iterative.

The game is comprised of four worlds (with four tightly integrated levels) that can be played in any order to unlock a final stage, for a total of seventeen courses. Each level is themed around a piece of hardware inside a PS5 and one of the four prior iterations, with the end goal being to collect all five first model PlayStations.

The courses themselves are not too long nor difficult if one simply wants to beat them expediently, as the main challenge and side goal is to try to explore your surroundings, take more challenging side-paths, or generally go off the the beaten path to discover puzzle pieces and additional “artifacts” (i.e. console variations, accessories, etc.). There is no penalty or lives lost if you make a mistake, probably as it would feel demotivating making mistakes while trying to learn the basics of utilizing the controller’s features. The motivation to keep playing and challenging yourself stems from the artifacts and collecting enough coins to outright buy the remaining collectables at Labo.

Labo is the gallery where you see the mural being built and can interact with the artifacts you collected or bought. You buy access to additional puzzle pieces, artifacts, or new residents that interact in Labo (making it feel more alive as you progress through the game. Although you have to spend your coins on a gacha machine, there are not many useless duds that make you feel that the game is unfairly rigged against you. The gacha machine at worst seems to only remove the player’s ability to choose the order in that they earn prizes, logical since it would keep the surprise of what are the items.

What is strange is the fact that you can still collect coins, even after the gacha machine is no longer-usable. You end up collecting coins for no reason, besides habit. It feels like wasted space that could have added something small, fun to play around with, or easier. Possible examples could be temporarily change the color of Astro, briefly make him faster or jump higher, or maybe a homing device (using the rumble) that makes it easier to find the pieces/artifacts that might be somewhat difficult to find for people who never play platformers.

As you beat levels, you unlock challenges where the objective is to reach the goal as fast as possible. After you beat the challenge once, you can keep repeating it to improve your time. And the game quickly restarts the course if you make a mistake. A leaderboard is available for more competitive players. I like how the levels are easy enough to be accessible, yet challenging enough to keep the more experienced engaged. Courses are short enough to retry areas where people might struggle, and it lacks collectables, making perfection only something for the enthused.

My own other frustration with this game is that I wish that some of the artifacts where better contextualized within the game. For example, it would have been interesting to learn more about famous, worthwhile games that used certain accessories. Otherwise, some of the artifacts feel either too specific to know what kind of game it was used in² or too mundane³ to find games that where actually worth seeking out today.

Nevertheless, this game is worth one’s time, especially if one enjoys platformer or has not played video games in a significant amount of time. The levels are dense, the computerized world is both interesting and endearing, and the mechanics effectively use the features of the DualSense. Also, this game is currently free or built-in to new PlayStation 5s, and is short enough to try and know whether or nor you find this genre of game enjoyable. You might dislike this game if you like difficult games, dislike “gimmicky” controls, or never liked platformers of any type. Regardless, this game is likely worth trying out if you just want to quickly test the features of the DualSense controller.

Score	8/10
Score Relative to Metacritic	85/100
Difficulty/Approachability	2/10

Astro’s Playroom

Footnotes

According to Google Translate, “Asobi” seems to be a transliteration of “遊び,” itself translating to Play. Team Play is clear, feels neat, and welcoming!
Examples of accessories are niche enough to justify additional context are the Buzz Controller and PocketStation.
Examples of accessories that are too mundane to understand why they were interesting in the past are the microphone and camera accessories.

Quest to Question

Preview 2.2

Video Games

A First Day at Nintendo San Francisco