Monday, July 8, 2013

Feature: Animal Crossing StreetPass Event Coverage


Hot off the heels of it's ground-breaking attendance event last weekend, the UK's biggest streetpass Community - Streetpass Manchester - have already set a date for their 1-year anniversary meetup in the bustling city's market heaven, Piccadilly Gardens.

Closing the gap ever more between the dates of their events, the Streetpass Manchester group has shaved another month from their schedule pushing the time of their events from near tri-monthly affairs to bi-monthly shenanigans.

Their last event designed to celebrate the release of Capcom's sleeper-hit Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U and 3DS saw their attendance numbers bolster. Fans finally had a sure-fire way to hunt with company just by treading on down to a Manchester's original gaming bar - Kyoto Lounge - and it's familiar geek-cave atmospheric feel.

Last weekend's event, however, took the 40+ attendance numbers of the Monster Hunter meet and sky-rocketed the figure well into the triple digits - a feat that become more and more probable as the group's Facebook feed (and Facebook as a whole) was overtaken by update-after-update of people's whimsical, mayoral vacations in their new virtual towns, alongside more and more of the public succumming to the enticement caused by those very same posts.

Occupying the much-loved gaming lounge for a second time, it was clear the bar may have exceeded its viability as a venue from the get-go of the event's 11:30 opening. As I joined the gathering of friendly folk outside the bar dot on the opening time, it was already evident things were going to get a little claustrophobic in a place I've never once been without a seat.

Walking down the double flight of stairs to reach the bar's underground core saw dozens upon dozens of mayor's pile waltz into the venue with no such official suit to be found. If there's one thing that stands out on Animal Crossing: New Leaf is its level of unprofessionalism your villager brings to the role of head honcho of a town.

?Regardless, trudging around the towns of the event attendees made it obvious that just about everyone treasures their town in their own little way. Money pumped into 'Public Works' projects, countless items generously donated to the museums through player-to-player teamwork and pavements carefully laid out to stop the grass from churning under the feet all the eager fruit collectors dashing about the establishments. Everyone at the meet respected each others hard work - top hat and monocle or not!

Early arrivers were the first to grab seats and the first to nab one of the many beautiful Animal Crossing posters on show alongside a single raffle ticket used to close the day off with a bit of rare swag. While the masses crammed into the bar were ready and waiting to show off the last 2 weeks of their hard work on the game, many took to the multiple WiiU consoles on hand to bust it up on Smash Bros. Brawl or mingle with Nintendo Land and its, in-theme, Animal Crossing mini-game.

Understandably, the start of the event consisted of much-needed chit-chat and frantic face-in-screen checking of every 3DS system in the house for the inevitable barrage of Streetpass hits bouncing too and far the dozens of machines - the day was certainly a good one for the King and Queen Miis trapped in the cage during StreetPass Quest - The royal must have appreciated the hordes of people rushing to their aid rather than play-coin purchases happy cats and eager hat collectors.

Despite the focused theme of Animal Crossing, the StreetPass UK members certainly didn't shy away from the opportunity to race through the tracks of Mario Kart 7, suck up ghosts in Luigi's Mansion 2 and beat each other to a pulp in Super Smash Bros (using the villager's inclusion in the sequel as their excuse, of course) it didn't at all end in tears.

While I drifted back and forth between the StreetPass meet and another social gathering going on closer to the city centre, I was pleasantly surprised to see my return being greeted with even more faces than were present when I left. There's no shame in saying that I've never seen Kyoto Lounge so full in my multiple visits to the sleek gaming bar, and I'm positive in my thinking that even the wondrously friendly event organisers never could have expected such a turn-out to follow the previous gathering just a mere 3 months before. The free drink coupons and trivia prizes didn't go unappreciated.

While socialising proved difficult with the lack of room (and air), my time in the bar was certainly a trip worth taking. The streetpass hits filled up the HH Showcase of my Animal Crossing cartridge and rekindled my love of Nintendo's classic all-stars fighting masterpiece. With the next meet set to take place in the brilliant open space of Piccadilly Gardens, it'll no doubt expand on the success of the last, and trade in the WiiU for some good old-fashioned sunshine to celebrate the group's first year together.

For those interested in coming along, just join the Streetpass Manchester Facebook page and ready yourself for the August extravaganza!

Josh Brown attended the event on behalf of Nintendo Feed and kindly provided this report for us. You can view more of his work over at TheGamersHub and you can also give him a follow on Twitter.

Source: http://www.nintendofeed.com/2013/07/feature-animal-crossing-streetpass.html

a star is born oscar nominees oscar nominations 2012 kombucha tea separation of church and state dale earnhardt oscar predictions

No comments:

Post a Comment