Saturday, December 02, 2006
GAMESFEST 2006!!!
GamesFest is a long running tradition of mine. Around Christmas time, me and some of my high school friends would skip school to play video games. Since we're all big Nintendo fans, these were almost exclusively GameCube titles (and the occasional N64 one). GamesFests featured large amounts of video games (obviously), pizza, and increasingly, alcohol.
So after a 2 year hiatus, it was only natural that I'd celebrate the launch of the American Nintendo Wii (OK, I was 2 weeks out but still a day ahead of Japan and a week ahead of Europe!) in style by reviving this cherished tradition! Interlink Express delivered the Wii from London a few hours ahead of the celebrations beginning, so there was time for me to run home and set the thing up (to discover my first stepdown transformer wasn't working properly and I needed to revert to an older one I had lying around - NOT the most pleasant feeling in the world). My high school friends Adam (who I lied my way into ECTS with in 2004) and Ryan (who I think has owned every Nintendo console known to humankind) came, as did good old Craig. My friend Pete, who I've known since I was about 10 but haven't seen much of lately, also showed up, so with these fine miscreants and my brother and myself, the total body count was up to 6. It was great seeing these guys again!
Although this doesn't sound like a huge number of people, when you're playing Wii Sports and jumping around the room like a lunatic (see picture), you soon realise that in order to avoid getting bludgeoned with the remote or getting your front teeth knocked out, you have to allow whoever's playing "room to breathe". And yes, Wii Sports is TIRING. My shoulder blades are killing me but I get the feeling I'll get used to it.
I'll leave my thoughts on the Wii console itself and the launch games I got, for a later post here, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. Everyone was having a fan-fucking-tastic time and the hours literally flew by. Wii Sports definitely stole the night with opinions on Trauma Center mixed (I love it myself) and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz being pretty much dismissed as awkward to control and a move in the wrong direction. What about Zelda, you ask? Well, that one hasn't arrived just yet but that may actually be a good thing, since it's not really the ideal party game anyway. We also had a ton of fun looking at these ridiculous pictures we took using the Wii's slide show functions. It's more fun than it sounds, and is pretty hilarious with the cheesy pre-set music the Wii plays over it, trust me.
Anyway, here's us looking like total tools! Enjoy! Firstly, Adam lets his thoughts on Nintendo's latest be known:
Pete seemed to like it:
Ryan (left) and Adam (right):
Me getting some private time alone with my new friend:
This is what we ended up drinking. That and a fair amount of Vodka and mulled wine:
And then some Wii Boxing:
Look at the RAGE in this one!
Looking around on MySpace, I found some comments from a disgruntled PAL gamer who didn't get invited to the celebrations, who was a little bit non-plussed about American gamers getting to play the Wii, and I quote, "before the release date". A little bit strange seeing as the release date was two Saturdays ago.
Oooh, temper! Well guess who's not getting invited to GamesFest 2007!
Finally, a gi-moungously sized THANK YOU to Guyle, originally from Miami, Florida, for being so kind as to get me a Wii on launch day and bring it over here with him. You don't normally see that kind of generosity, do you? And also to Interlink Express for getting it here in time for Gamesfest!
Posted at 1:16 PM
