It was Fire Emblem Engage launch day and Nintendo Life had boots on the ground in New York City to document the launch of Intelligent Systems’ latest entry in the series, at Nintendo NYC in Rockefeller Center.
Nintendo fans in New York City are spoiled. We have Nintendo’s flagship retail shop, replete with Marios riding flagpoles between the first and second floors, Bowser glowing menacingly at selfie-takers on the ground floor, and vintage hardware displays of Nintendo consoles through the ages. Additionally, it’s a hotbed of guest appearances ranging from the likes of Charles Martinet (the voice of Mario) to Monster Hunter’s Ryozo Tsujimoto.
More recent launch events for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Metroid Dread, Splatoon 3, and Mario Strikers: Battle League saw Nintendo NYC —formerly Nintendo World— pull out all the stops, not only making the game(s) available for sale early (at midnight launches), but typically making the special editions available where most online retailers are sold out.
Nintendo NYC often augments the retail experience with large, themed backdrops for fans to pose for photos on, while offering customers some cool, exclusive swag, like magnets, stickers, or posters that can only be obtained at these launch events. So, color us surprised that Friday morning’s launch ‘event’ featured virtually none of the usual trappings for a Nintendo first-party retail launch.
I arrived on the scene at around 8:15am. Not too ‘late’ but certainly not as early as I’ve arrived for past events, like a Zelda launch. Nintendo NYC doesn’t allow people to camp out in freezing temperatures anymore (thank goodness) so the need to get in line at the crack of dawn or, worse, the night before, isn’t as urgent as it used to be. That said, even with my casual arrival, I was only about 25 back from the front of the line. After a half hour, the line extended a fair distance down the block behind me, but it wasn’t the usual swarm of people I’m accustomed to seeing at a console launch.