NEW YORK CITY — After Mission: Miyamoto drew to a close this morning, I made the traditional pilgrimage to Rockefeller Center, where sits the Nintendo World Store.
Formerly the Pokemon Center, this flagship retail location is Nintendo’s only one in the U.S. and the only place to buy some of its rarest and most collectible goodies, like $400 crystal Marios, $280 designer DS Lites, and, uh, the Wii.
Yes, the Nintendo World Store is the one and only store in America where you can walk in any day of the week and buy Nintendo’s console. But it’s also home to several other awesome pieces of merch, like the retro game T-shirts above. Sure, these things are a dime a dozen these days, but these particular shirts celebrate some of the most obscure first-party Nintendo games, like Wild Gunman and Donkey Kong 3.
More sights from Nintendo World Store, below.
At about $100 each are these limited-edition statuettes of Skull Kid and Samus Aran. They each come with a certificate of authenticity imprinted on a plastic credit card. Nice.
If your tastes run even more expensive, how about these $400 crystal whatsits? Each contains the 3-D image of a Nintendo character (Link, Mario, and Peach) engraved on the inside in little air bubbles. Or something. I don’t know how they do it but I know it’s not nearly impressive enough to warrant four of my hard-earned Benjamins.
Designer DS Lites, you say? Only in Japan! But no: These $280 limited-edition portables, by [d.]esign, were “meticulously hand-crafted” and “precisely bezel-cut,” according to the signs.
(Yes, I realize by the way that some of these pictures are actually terrible. I had the camera on the wrong setting most of the time. Sue me.)
Wii gum! Also,* Zelda* playing cards. Who knew?
Yep, that is an actual stack of actual Wiis. Seriously. I’ll sell you one for $400.
Betraying the Nintendo World Store’s origins as a Pokemon Center are racks of Pokeyman toys, although far, far fewer of them than the last time I visited. Nowadays, the space that used to hold a hundred different figures of all 458 of them is mostly retro game shirts. Speaking of which:
This is the best shirt ever. Of course, the biggest size they had was Medium. I am going to have to track this down.
This is not the best jacket ever, but it’s on the list. At $150, this is a limited-edition piece that I’d heard of before and is every bit as impressive in person. But do I want one? I didn’t buy it, so clearly not. I don’t know — would this play in San Francisco?
Of course, the big draw at the Nintendo World Store is all the free gameplay — there are tons of Wii kiosks and a Nintendo DS area downstairs with couch and bar seating for anyone who wants to try new games. Rock Band will probably be a big deal here this summer, although they’ll probably need to replace the drums a lot…
The next time I get the chance, I am going to use the expression “sucks more than a barrel of Kirbys.”
Hey, it’s the Nintendo Advanced Video System, also known as the first prototype of the NES. The Nintendo World Store’s museum is kind of disappointing, except for this. Otherwise, most of the stuff in the glass cases can be purchased at yard sales, on eBay, or right there in the store. They really could use a better museum display.
Double (!) your Wii’s internal storage capacity with this unbelievably huge 512 MB SD card! Just imagine all the fun you’ll have filling it up in a day and realizing you need to buy another.
Okay, clearly I’ve run out of ideas. Thanks for being here with me.