Nintendo World Store is Officially Open

May 14, 2005, 5:59 am EDT
Total comments: 12

Start planning your pilgrimage.

NINTENDO WORLD NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Nintendo Celebrates First Retail Store Opening with Star-Studded Events in New York City

NEW YORK, May 14, 2005 – Nintendo fans come on down! Nintendo World™, the one-of-a-kind interactive entertainment and retail destination, opens for business today in New York City's famous Rockefeller Plaza.

To celebrate today’s opening, a special appearance by game fan and world skateboarding phenomenon, Ryan Sheckler, kicks-off a day-long block party. Sheckler, who stars in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (THUG 2) for Nintendo GameCube™, will show the crowd his skills as a Nintendo gamer extraordinaire – squaring off against the winner of a tournament featuring Nintendo’s latest hit game, Donkey Konga™ 2. The party also features a videogame tournament, contests and giveaways.

“Today’s opening of Nintendo World is a milestone in our history,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “We know fans from near and far will want to come to New York City to experience a retail destination like none other in the world.”

Nintendo started the grand-opening celebration on Thursday night with a sneak-peek VIP party held in the store. Celebrities from The Sopranos, Robert ller (AJ) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby), Danny Masterson who stars in That 70s Show and Richard Belzer of Law & Order: SVU walked Mario’s blue carpet and gamed late into the night. Going forward, Nintendo World will host other special events for new Nintendo products and Pokémon® fans.

Featuring 10,000 square feet of retail space and two stories of interactive fun for all ages, Nintendo World is open seven days a week. Highlights of the store include:

§ Exclusive Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance SP, Nintendo GameCube and Pokémon merchandise not found at any other store in the world

§ Over 50 interactive stations featuring the hottest Nintendo games

§ An extensive multi-player gaming wall featuring Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS systems

§ A surround sound gaming lounge where consumers can play and feel like they are part of the game – complete with rumble seats!

§ The new home of Pokémon Center featuring the best that Pokémon has to offer – exclusive merchandise, state-of-the art demo stations and an Ultra-Pokedex

§ An extensive Nintendo DS sampling station

§ A complete GameBoy Advance SP “bar” where consumers can grab a barstool and play a variety of games

Pokémon fans who bring their game paks to the Nintendo World opening, will be the first in the U.S. to get a special ticket to access some very rare Pokémon, Lugia and Ho-Oh, in Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen or Emerald. Pokémon fans can also retrieve a special download for Pokémon Dash for Nintendo DS. In addition, the famous Pikachu Volkswagen Beetle will be on-hand along with a Pikachu costume character for photos. Finally, an exclusive collectible Pokémon Trading Card game card will be available.

The store hours are 9AM to 8PM Monday through Thursday; Friday and Saturday from 9AM to 9PM; and Sunday from 11AM to 6PM. The store is located at 10 Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of Rockefeller Center on 48th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

More information on Nintendo World can be found at www.nintendoworldstore.com.

Talkback

joshnickersonMay 14, 2005

I'll be planning my trip to NY in the fall...

NephilimMay 14, 2005

the ladys will love the rumble seats

RennyMay 14, 2005

Of course.

NotSoStuMay 14, 2005

Bwahahahaha.

It's good living 15 minutes away fron Manhattan.

Bartman3010May 14, 2005

Still sounds like theres too much Pokemon stuff.

Wheres the Nintendo action figures?

BlkPaladinMay 14, 2005

I think it will have some of that. But I'm going to New York after work tomorrow, because we are going to see a friend and take him to Star Wars. So next friday I'm going to go to the World Store. I devoted an entire day to it. (And I have about $200.00 of spending cash.. Hopefully I don't get mugged.)

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 14, 2005

Show up early before the doors open yelling "I KNOW YOU HAVE REVOLUTION HERE, SHOW IT TO ME!! &$@#%*!!" then you run around trashing the place looking for it.

"A-HA!! YOU'RE HIDING IT BEHIND THE POKAYMON!"

...

Many pokemon will lose their lives during their defensive response. Casualties will be high.

theratMay 15, 2005

nintendo should change their name to pokemon... its really effin sad.... im thinking of quiting gaming altogether. the store was pretty cool. lots of cool things on display, like painted sps and old school nintendo systems (no virtual boy on hand =o(.... nor was there a power glove....very sad).they revealed nothing new at all. the line to get in the store was around the block. the block party was hosted by two overly dorky guys that u just wanted to punch. the guest star was some loser skateboarding kid who has nothing to do with videogames... the giveaways were nothing special (all i got was a lil water bottle that says nintendo world store ....a dispoasable one). the main game seemed to be donkey konga. most of the merchandise was pokemon. the ONLY good thing was there were many ds's in the area which lead to chatting (wow, did anyone know how laggy picotchat could get with 5 people using it at one time.... im scared to see this thing go online, then all my hopes of fun gaming will be crushed to nothing...it was pretty beat up as it is). hmmmm, all in all, i had a good time, but wasnt great, i guess i was expecting somthing new....other then effin pokemon.... its a good spot to bump into other gamers though... and when nintendo releases a good game or something, the store will become better... wow, am i turning anti nintendo? wtf! someone gimme a power up mushrooM!

theratMay 15, 2005

oh, and if you want pics, i took a bunch... ill post em sumwhere when i get home from work tonight

KnowsNothingMay 15, 2005

It used to be a pokemon store. Just pokemon. You should have gone, because you would have probably killed yourself and we wouldn't have to listen to you complain.

Pictochat may be laggy, but games aren't. I have not once experienced any lag or speed problems when playing with friends, so I'm not worried about going online.

blkdog7May 15, 2005

I was at the event yesterday too. I'm glad I went but was disappointed with the overwhelming amount of Pokemon merchandise.

Want photos? I took plenty, check them out here:

Photos from the event

mantidorMay 15, 2005

If I were in charge of making this Nintendo store, Id probably would fill it with pokemon merchandise all over also because, you know, thats the same as liking money

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