Mario and Rick Powers

On our way out, we planned our visit to the Nintendo Store on the following day.

Since we had to head to another meeting, we only had about

30 minutes to rip through the store, which isn't accessible to the general public. 

You need to be with an employee of NOA to get in, and then be able to go

to the store.

The only two items they had in early was Mario

Party 4 (which Rick nabbed), and the Platinum GameCube. 

I had to honestly keep reminding myself that I did not need a Platinum so that I wouldn't walk out with one of those either. 

The other items were what I was there for: T-shirts, sweatshirts, pens,

collectibles, and other things of that nature. 

The store employee joked that they didn’t have carts when I began to

make a pile on the counter.

A heap of Nintendo goodness

We knew they read PGC!

Rick went around looking for things as I grabbed. 

“Hey Billy look at this!”  It

was very dangerous.  They had so

much cool crap there it was unbelievable.  It’s

a shame they don’t sell this kind of stuff in the Nintendo Power collectibles

catalog.  Everyone needs a Super

Mario Sunshine beach towel, Bob-omb Candy, and a Nintendo Golf Ball set.  I left the store with a huge grin, a big bag, and a slightly

lighter wallet.

Before we left, I turned around and just soaked in the last

bits of Nintendo goodness I could.  Not

many journalists get to walk through the halls of Nintendo of America, and we

got to see almost all of it.  It was

an absolutely wonderful experience.

The entrance to Nintendo of America

I would like to thank Cory, Thom Leonard, and all the many

people who made this visit possible.  We’d

also like to give a special thanks to all the Team Nintendo members, call center

reps, and everyone else that took the time out to talk with us.