Spot the Nintendo Life staffers

Eurogamer Expo 2012 has sadly come to a close, but if you've been following our photo stream you might have gathered that the Nintendo Life team had a rather lovely time indeed. We hosted our own StreetPass Zone and chatted to a lot of people (and lost our voices in the process in Damien's case); Push Square's Sammy Barker stormed through to the semi-finals of a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale tournament; we ate and laughed with friends old and new; we even occasionally played a game. As we recover from four days of fun, here are some of our favourite moments from this year's Eurogamer Expo.

It's all about U

Look at the joy

It wouldn't have been proper to attend the show without getting a little bit of gaming in. Wii U was there in force and proved itself very popular with attendees; you had to wait a couple of hours to get into the Nintendo booth much of the time. ZombiU seemed to be the surprise winner, with the queue for that one game surpassing the rest of the line-up combined.

Several of the team had tested Wii U before at various events, but this was the first time that many of us were able to play together. Tom and Mike comprehensively bested the wonderful Rayman Legends in co-op — after a few struggles for Damien and Tom the previous day, pictured — beating the two demo levels on offer with few errors. Over on Nintendo Land, Tom, Jamie and Mike hooked up with a couple of others to dash around Animal Crossing: Sweet Day's saccharine streets and Luigi's Ghost Mansion, the latter of which ended very badly for our beloved features editor when his ghost was well and truly busted within twenty seconds of play.

Some of the most fun came from a less expected source, however. Tucked away in a hidden alcove was a lone demo unit for Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition. Tom and Mike stepped up, and after a fairly clinical first match discovered the Mushroom Battle mode. To the bemusement of the staff member manning the stand, both grabbed giant mushrooms and proceeded to have, in Tom's words, “a Godzilla battle” between a rotund man and Alex the dinosaur, who each filled close to half of the screen. It's ludicrous, hilarious fun.

Community service

Fun for all

One of the best parts of the Expo was that we got to run our own area on the show floor. The Nintendo Life StreetPass Zone was a huge hit: our comfy sofas were constantly filled with people, whether they were watching developer sessions on the televisions, having a chat or StreetPassing until their thumbs went numb. You couldn't take your eyes off your 3DS for more than a minute without another green light flashing. A couple of us achieved our life goals of completing all the puzzle panels, and we're sure many other visitors managed it too.

We ran some exciting competitions, including Mario Kart 7 races and New Super Mario Bros. 2 Coin Rush challenges for prizes such as eShop credit, Wii games and one adorable plush Link. We also gave attendees the chance to win a Wii U – if you were there and picked up a leaflet or show guide, make sure you scan that QR code and get your entry in as soon as possible.

Most importantly, having a meet up area of our own gave us the perfect opportunity to engage with members of our community. We had some fantastic chats with readers about the site, Nintendo and gaming at large, and it was an absolute pleasure to speak to everybody. A huge thank you to those who were there and came to say hello or played a game with us; it really made our show.

The best and the worst of the Mario Bros.

Auditioning for the next Mario game

The Expo had its fair share of enthusiastic cosplayers representing dozens of gaming franchises. We spotted Pikachus and Toads, Agent 47s and Lara Crofts, Travis Touchdowns and Soras, Minecrafters, some very impressive zombies and plenty of moustachioed plumbers. But, of course, none could compare to the real thing: the true Mario Bros. were living it up around Nintendo's stand, posing with fans and dancing like robots. Look at how happy Daz and Mike were to meet them.

But there's a dark side to this tale. Towards the show's close, a few of us encountered gaming's most famous siblings once more. They were being led back towards their company's stand by their arms, looking as happy as ever, and for a brief moment Mike's inner child lurched out. He extended his arm to high five Luigi, full of hope... only to be left hanging, ignored, abandoned and embarrassed as the plumbers walked straight past. Let this be a lesson to you: never meet your heroes.

Did you make it over to the Eurogamer Expo this year? What were your favourite moments? We'd love to hear about what you played and what you thought of both the show as a whole and the Nintendo Life StreetPass Zone.