With the Holiday season rapidly approaching the battle for shoppers' hearts and minds will be well and truly underway. As a result Nintendo of America has now confirmed that it'll be targeting shoppers directly in an upcoming mall tour to show off major Wii U and 3DS releases.
Perhaps a little disappointing is the news that the tour - running from 23rd November to 20th December - will only take in 16 locations. These will be as follows:
- South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts
- Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois
- Stonebriar Centre in Frisco, Texas
- Cherry Creek Shopping Center in Denver, Colorado
- Memorial City Mall in Houston, Texas
- The Oaks in Thousand Oaks, California
- Dolphin Mall in Miami, Florida
- Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota
- Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Georgia
- Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, New York
- King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
- Scottsdale Fashion Square in Scottsdale, Arizona
- Washington Square in Portland, Oregon
- Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, California
- Westfield Southcenter in Seattle, Washington
- Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Virginia
There'll be a host of past and present games on show, though as families are the target Xenoblade Chronicles X will miss out. In any case, the following games are confirmed.
Wii U
- Super Mario Maker
- Splatoon
- Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
- Yoshi's Woolly World
- Skylanders SuperChargers
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
3DS
- The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
- Yo-Kai Watch
- Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon
- Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
- Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
- Mario Kart 7
As part of the tour each site will also have amiibo on display, an 'interactive space' with giveaways and coupons will be on offer for Nintendo goodies at Toys "R" Us.
So that's the Nintendo of America mall tour line-up. Are any of you planning to head along to check out what's on offer?
Comments 27
We thought about going to one of these last year but didn't.
Has anyone gone? Is it worth a 1.5-2 hour drive?
Mall of America! Boom!
Woodfield Mall hype! It's the second on the list but what day exactly is it stopping at that mall? The press release don't mention the specific date for each location.
Wait--Mario Kart 7, but not Mario Kart 8? That's kinda weird.
One of locations is only 10 minutes from me, but I don't set foot in that mall during the shopmas season, so I likely won't be taking part.
They should play Captain Toad too...such a great game
These events are well worth a journey..often lots of giveaways and fun
Closest one to me is like 4 hours away. Won't be able to make it sadly. Which sucks, cause I love me some mini posters and they tend to give those away at such events.
@Plainsville What's more weird is no sign of Xenoblade X.
The mall in my city is owned by the guy who owns a mall in Las Vegas. Why not love the mall in my town? I love the support for Mario Kart 7, but it should receive more updates and DLC, even though it is an older game.
Man, the location I live like 10 minutes away from was cut off the list. Luckily, I'm going to be in Thousand Oaks at some point while this is going on! The Oak Hype
@dkxcalibur I live near Portland and have gone to some. For me where I just happen to be in the mall and just stop by it is cool but I wouldn't make a effort to go there just for it. Like the article says it is just playable demos of Nintendo games which you can already get (and if you really want to play these demos usually a GameStop would have them). I will say though if you have kids or younger siblings who like Nintendo it can be entertaining to see them play these since it is usually their first time playing. I just wouldn't go for the sole purpose of going there.
Seems a drop in the ocean marketing wise - so few locations in such a massive country and for such a short time. Good for those who can get there, but not really a major national campaign.
Y no mall in North Carolina (Don't wanna drive for a long time)
@Grumblevolcano To be fair it is not the typical game a casual Gamer would expect Nintendo to make. Though I do agree that they should advertise it I don't think showing it at a mall event where families go to try the demos out is going to sell much more copies. (Basically families who go to these things are not the target market for a game like Xenoblade).
I love how Chibi Robo Zip Lash is going to be shown here while Nintendo has given up on this game everywhere and every way possible.
Geez TW don't highlight XCX if it isn't even going to be there. I got all excited and even considered going just for that when it caught my eye.
Wii U - we've owned Splatoon, SSM, Yoshi and SSBU since Day 1, so that leaves Tennis and Superchargers. Santa will be bringing Skylanders, so deal w/ the mall and $5 pay-to-park for Tennis? Probably not.
And I'm really not interested in AC:aF, but a game built on board games and minigames and selling amiibo and amiibo cards that will be out this week, and they arne't even going to show it? Man, how bad can that game be? They could give out 1 amiibo card to each kid - card, not amiibo, the cards are cheap - to promote the game and the cards. I really don't get leaving it off, too much money to be made selling amiibo and cards.
And Skylanders isn't even there game, but that they show?
Of course they always skip Michigan
@dkxcalibur We went last year, about a 45 minute drive, the kids had a day off from school so the mall was fairly empty and I wanted to show them where I used to do all my Christmas shopping as a teenager. We stayed about 30 minutes. The big centerpiece was the big screen set up for 4 player SSBU. They had some fun, and got a couple of SSB buttons for beating level 50 amiibo, but that was about it. I don't think they even got any Streetpass hits on their 3DS which they brought.
The one we went to at the Queens Mall was aobut 20' wide by 60' long, had the big SSBU screen, a big screen for 4 player MK8, and several 3DS stations. That was about it.
Don't think we'll drive again w/ the current game line-up, I would be curious to see AC:aF in action, and XCX on that big screen. I also don't like paying $5 to park. Whether you want to make the drive is up to you, my kids did enjoy themselves, and it got us out of the house for a few hours.
I went last year to play Wii U Smash. I think it was before it was officially released? Can't remember. Either way, it was kinda fun.
This year I'll check out Mario Maker I guess
NoA doesn't really show a lot of love to the US's interior, huh? The closest one to me (Schaumburg) is a 4 hour drive, barring pit stops.
So will each mall have this going the whole time or just a designated day as one travels from mall to mall?
I remember malls.
No tours in any Malls in NJ huh, meh a Mall is one of the last places I would want to be in during the holidays anyway.
Toon Link from Wind Waker HD is up there in the graphic but no mention of that game anywhere. I guess they meant TriForce Heroes Link instead.
@ThomasBW84 This article reminded me that I was at Youmacon in Detroit and there was a Nintendo booth there. They were giving out posters and one of them was for the new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon coming out. The interesting thing is that it had Hoopa on it, so Hoopa will be featured in that new game.
Booooooo!
Ughhhhhhhh why do all these types of events never seem to come to the nation's capital? What kind of capital is this, that the big gaming showcases rarely ever appear here? The last significant one was the Video Game history exhibit and presentations at the Smithsonian a few years ago... Oh well, at least I got to meet and shake hands with Ken Levine of BioShock fame. That's all one can ask for.
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