Gossip Stone: Are Future Zelda-Themed Nintendo World Events Worth It?

With all the hype that surrounds the releases of Zelda games, as well as other Nintendo games, fans are left wondering whether or not the “exclusive” events at Nintendo World in New York City are in fact worth it. Let me be the first to tell you, but certainly not the last, these events are not worth the wait or effort.

As we here at Zelda Dungeon report on the events that every so often pop up in relation to Zelda releases, a lot of fans want to take advantage of these events. While most of you can’t realistically make it to these Nintendo World exclusive events, those that can make it but don’t are left regretting not attending. From a firsthand experience you can gather that these events are in fact, not worth it. They’re not worth the struggle, the effort, the time, or at times, the stress.

Of course, these “exclusive” deals seem to feature once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and I highly recommend attending some kind of event at least once in your life, what with the cool merchandise you get along with the original deal offered by Nintendo World and with the ability to rub that Hyrule Warriors scarf in your friend’s faces. On top of that, you might even get something that isn’t due to hit the shopping world for a few weeks, which is a nice bonus as well.

It turns out, these events are really not all they are hyped up to be. Take the Hyrule Warriors event, for example. You receive a copy of the game, as well as the “exclusive” scarf advertised online, and maybe get a few other cool things thrown in, like a Link action figure, or a postcard with art from the game on it. That stuff is all fine and good, but eventually the Hyrule Warriors scarf hit the shopping world, and now you can buy equal or greater quality versions of the scarf anywhere on the web.

I can’t fully speak for the Hyrule Warriors event, as I did not attend it, but recently, the week of Thanksgiving to be exact, I attended Nintendo World’s Pokemon: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire release event. A few of the other attendees on line were talking about the Hyrule Warriors event, and as per them, around 8am the morning of (three hours prior to Nintendo World opening), a group of 50 or so people walked through the event line, 20 or so staying on the event line and merging with it. Sure, that’s not a huge deal considering that the event wasn’t limited to a select number of people, but it created a lot of hassle for everyone in line as well as making people who were on the line for hours on end have to wait longer to get their copy of the bundle, thanks to people who probably had a good night’s sleep before cutting the line. What did the management do about it? Nothing, from what I was told. The management didn’t try to stop this instance at all.

Sure, that doesn’t seem that horrible, but if you’ve ever waited on one of these event lines, you’d know the pain of those on the Hyrule Warriors event line.

My personal experience with event problems came from the Pokemon: ORAS event, and is likely comparable to events related to Zelda games as well. I put off buying the game which released on the Friday before (November 21st) to wait in line on November 22nd. I was working that day from 9am to 4pm, so I came home from work only to get prepped for the event. On top of that, I had to switch around my work schedule so I could be off on Monday, so the lack of sleep didn’t destroy my workflow (Which, let me tell you, was an effort and a half). Around 8pm, I left my house and headed over to Manhattan. I reached the event location at about 10:30pm, after stopping to grab a bite to eat and a few drinks for the overnight wait. Everything is fine overnight, and a guy who has been at a few events before decided to organize things to make the manager’s job easier in the morning. He decided to give every person in line a number, stopping at 250 because the “Get a Free copy of OR or AS” was limited to 250 people. My friend and I were numbers 88 and 89 in the line after a few revisions on the numbers. 8am comes around and things are alright, more people start to show up and around 8:30am we hit the 250 person cap. Police officers used metal barricades to section off the sidewalk where we had been waiting as well as the end of the 250 person line. 9am comes around and a group of people start to cut the line. From what I heard at the front of the line, a group of 5 people tried to cut the entire line and be at the front. Around 9:30am, management was outdoors waiting with us and after stopping a few people from cutting, management just stopped trying and let numerous people cut the line. So some of the people who waited 5+ hours in line now were kicked off the line because people wanted to cut. The manager proceeded to give out wristbands for the next 45 minutes, with each persons number on it. More people cut the line after this as well. It gets to be 11am and everyone is excited more so for being able to go home and sleep rather than get the game (At least that was my mindset at that point. It was freezing out!). Management doesn’t open the store. 11:05am. Management still hasn’t opened the store. 11:15am. Word passes down the line that a rich family had paid to get in the store first before everyone else and that was the hold up. 11:30am. Store opens 30 minutes late and people are slowly allowed to go in. At first they were checking for wristbands but it got to the point where the ushers gave up on that and just let random people into the store until they reached the 250 cap. The merchandise we received was a copy of the game for free, (in my case, I picked Omega Ruby so everything I received was Ruby themed) a postcard with Kyogre and Groudon fighting, a Groudon figurine, a Red Cake-Pop, a Groudon cookie, and a keychain of one of the three starters from Hoenn (I chose Treecko). Overall, it was a good amount of merchandise, and I’m glad I received extra stuff for free, but as I said to the friend I had with me, I would NEVER attend some event like this again because of how disorganized and hectic it was. Of course, if a great enough deal comes, then maybe I’ll attend.

As for you fans, I wouldn’t worry a great deal about missing out on these kinds of things. I definitely recommend doing some kind of event at some point in your life, if you’re an avid gamer like myself and so many others. But is the event worth regretting not going to? No, definitely not. The merchandise most of the time can be bought online at a later date, and sometimes can be included with cooler merch. Does it suck that Nintendo pretty much only does United States events at the one Nintendo World in Manhattan? Yes. Is it worth getting upset or stressed out over? Definitely not.

Have you been to a Nintendo World event, Zelda-related or otherwise? Leave you thoughts in the comments below.