A Fantastic Day at EGX London 2022 – Nintendo Roundup
After February’s EGX was cancelled due to the remnants of Covid, I finally managed to attend my first gaming conference in about seven years! Now, while I didn’t get to write a live-blog this expo, I do now write for this Nintendo-themed website, and so have decided to do a write up of the Big N’s contributions to the event.
So…
Let’s Go!
While Streetpass is unfortunately past its prime, these types of huge gaming events are still good for other ‘real-life-interacting’ games. And the biggest of these around? Pikmin Bloom… I mean, Pokémon Go!
At the conference, there were multiple iterations of a special EGX 2022 gym, which were fought over across the day. Interestingly, I took over an Instinct gym near to the Wo Long Fallen Dynasty queue between 11:00 and 12:30, which was promptly retaken, only to be taken again by me and Team Mystic. My Salamence then remarkably remained in the Gym until the following day, providing me with 50 coins and suggesting that people swiftly bowed down to the might of Articuno.
There were also lots of lures everywhere, and a few Mega-Raids which I unfortunately forgot to partake in. Strangely, the game thought it was raining for most of the morning, even though the weather was actually clear, so I caught a lot of Water Pokémon. Not the worst thing, but not as much variety as I would have liked.
Can the Real Mario Please Stand Up?
But you’re probably here to read about the stands, right? Instead of a six year old game? Well, that’s the problem. This was a Rezzed expo, which focuses on retro, indie and PC games, instead of AAA releases from the big publishers. In fact, the big releases were pretty much relegated to Sonic Frontiers, CoD, Splatoon 3, and Street Fighter 6.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it meant that I got to play a lot of weirder indie games that I probably wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, but it does make it harder to report on Nintendo. Therefore, I’ll just give a quick shout out to Tracks of Thought, a cute point-and-click adventure where you play as a 2D bug; Roadwarden, a proper text-based adventure which was remarkably gripping; Worldsouls, a somehow even more minimalist Hollow Knight, and The Last Hero of Nostalgia, which appeared to be The Stanley Parable crossed with Dark Souls.
Otherwise, there was the Nintendo Life zone, which was basically a group of Switches, with a bunch of games to have a go at. Unfortunately, I had the majority of them, as they were mostly the big hitters, like Breath of the Wild, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
I did have a go at BotW with my girlfriend, but we were still on the Great Plateau, looking for the Stasis Shrine. I teleported to the nearby Sheikah Tower, to give the next person a vantage point and let them at it. It’s a bit of a weird choice for a demo, considering we were at the only point in the story without access to most of the map, but it’s still a great game.
My brother and his girlfriend also had a go at the new Mario Strikers game, which looked fun and appropriately over the top, and there was Mario Party and Pokkén to play, but it was all laid out with so little fanfare that we moved on.
Child of Nostalgia
Perhaps appropriately, however, Nintendo did have a decent showing in the retro section of the conference. This included N64s, GameCubes, SNESs, multiple NESs and even a Japanese Famicom. I had a go at Super Mario Bros. 3, as well as Ducktales (woo-oo!) on the NES. And it was there that I had my favourite interaction of the entire expo.
A man, who I later found out was called David, clocked the game, and cried out something along the lines of ‘This is my childhood!’ As he seemed a lot more excited than me (and definitely not because I was awful at the game and the CRT was making me feel sick) I let him have a go. I have never seen someone so excited to play an old game.
He kindly explained to me how to pogo jump and unlock chests, and I asked for a quote. It was then that I found out that he had over 500 NES games, but Ducktales had broken in 1999, and so he hasn’t played it since then. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that that was the year I was born, but I did ask him what it felt like to play the game again and he replied that seeing it was like he’d had a baby.
I will no longer accept any other reactions.
The Gauntlet and the Splatfest:
Nintendo also made a showing in two of the tournaments that were going on. First, there was the Splatoon 3 zone, which was a tournament from 12:00 until 16:00, and then open to less competitive folks between 16:00 and 18:00. Unfortunately, the queue closed at 17:30, so I didn’t get to have a go at the new Nintendo paint-em-up, as we lost track of time.
However, Nintendo did show up in The Gauntlet, which was a very dramatic way of describing a retro game challenge. The idea was that you had to try to get high scores on three games, namely Tetris on the SNES, Sonic 3 on the Mega Drive, and Space Invaders on the PS2. It was a good idea, and I enjoyed that the tournament was relatively short (unless you were terrible at Sonic or brilliant at the other two games). However, it could have been signposted slightly better (perhaps with some big posters of the games)?
The results? Well that’s not important. Hmm, you know, that’s the second time I’ve made that joke, so maybe I should hang up my controllers. My girlfriend did well at Tetris, my brother did well at Space Invaders, and his girlfriend did well at Sonic though, so at least I keep good gaming company!
That Peach is Sus and Tom Nook’s Store:
The final two elements of the conference were the cosplay and merchandise appearances. And there was a lot of both. In terms of Nintendo cosplay, there was lots of Mario representation, from a Mario and Wario pair, to another Mario (although it might have been the same one) and a Peach. Which was weird, because the Mario was holding a sign saying ‘This is not Peach’. And I think I saw a glimpse of a shell? Hm…
There was also a lot of Pokémon-themed costumes, including an Ash and who I assume was her daughter as a Pikachu, as well as lots of Pokémon-themed bags and such. And a Pikachu mascot, who was swiftly almost set upon by some kids with swords. Oh, and my brother wore a Super Mario t-shirt, while my girlfriend wore a Snom t-shirt and Pikachu earrings. I couldn’t find my Nintendo clothes, so repped Marvel instead.
Other than Nintendo, there were a lot of Clouds and Sephiroths (they even met at one point), and a very strange grey creature on stilts which I assumed was from Elden Ring but is apparently a Spirit Walker from Dark Crystal? And a few Resident Evil and anime characters, of course.
As for merch, there might have been too much, as they took up a lot of gaming real estate. Saying that, the atmosphere of the merch stands was incredible, and I could quite easily have spent my entire time there.
There were mountains of Funko Pops, walls of posters, and enough Pokémon cards to crash the stock market. I bought a Kingdom Hearts canvas poster, foam Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keyblades (Kingdom Hearts is in Smash Bros. now, so it counts as Nintendo, right?) as well as 50 Pokémon and Yu Gi Oh! cards for £5. These came courtesy for five ‘custom’ booster packs, which I conveniently had to get five of, as there was a £5 minimum for card transactions. And I got some good ones, including a Kyogre!
Finally, there was a lucky dip, where you had seven goes for £5, and had the chance to win a Pokémon-themed frame, prints, postcards, or even a Pokémon terrarium! Unfortunately, I won seven lollies, which were the consolation prize. But my girlfriend won three postcards and an A3 print, so we made our money back easily.
What a day!
In conclusion, EGX 2022 was a fantastic day out, and it was just brilliant to be in that atmosphere of gaming and geekiness again. I shall certainly be going to the next one. And maybe I’ll remember to pick up a press pass this time.
And that’s all! Have you gone to any video game expos? Were you at EGX itself? Let us know in the comments, and thanks for visiting NintendoLink!
