As I sit here writing this, I am currently aboard a train, with Barcelona gone from site. Barcelona Games World may continue for another two days, but for me it is over, but at least we made the most of it and now here’s an editorial on all that went down!
The Trip There:
The journey begins with a meet-up in La Herradura, which was proceeded by a bus ride to Malaga, our nearest city. Thankfully the air conditioning worked and that made the full house, bus packed journey a little more bearable.
Making it to Malaga close to two hours later, we were glad we had more than an hour to kill before we had to board our train. Our legs itched for a decent stretch so we walked towards the nearest GAME and made a very important purchase. That purchase was of course SteamWorld Collection, as part of the new eShop Selects range. Living in Europe it would have been a sin not to have brought at least one of the games, especially since both were on display and they looked so great. Still that’s not all I got from GAME though, I also picked up my second Volcanion, thanks to the recent distribution happening all
There was also enough time to have grab a spot of lunch and walk round before we made it to the train station and at last, boarded what would be our ride for the next six hours. Unlike the bus ride over, where we hoped to do a bit of work, but was ultimately unable to, the train ride proved to be very productive. We provided some content to the website, finalized our plan of attack and even found time to do a bit of filming, but then everything went dark before lights suddenly illuminated an underground station. We had made it.
An Evening & a Long Night in Barcelona:
With the Hotel Climent only an 11 minute walk away from the Barcelona Sans train station, we decided to walk, give ourselves a bit of time to take in the sights of the city, as opposed to taking a bus or a taxi. Although the latter may have been better, not that the walk was a nightmare, but it did take longer than 11 minutes due to Mike taking us in every direction but the right one. Still at least he behaved and didn’t spend the hike trying to catch more Pokémon. (Pokémon GO’s appeal must be waning.)
At long last we did eventually find the Hotel Climent and our room was a lot better than we thought it would be, but we didn’t stay there. Mike was hungry, so we just ditched our stuff and set off in pursuit for the nearest Indian. After finding it, we laughed, we drank, we dined and we almost had a heart attack when we saw the price, but what do you expect when you visit a city like Barcelona? London isn’t exactly cheap either. We did however have more than enough to cover it and scurried off back to our room before we made any other unnecessary expenditures and called it a night.
However, when is anything ever straight forward? Just because we went to bed, it didn’t mean we slept. Sure Mike slept soundly, but he can sleep through anything, Ash and I however had it rough as she kept waking up and struggling to drop off, whereas me, slept till about 2 in the morning, only to not be able to go to sleep, making it the second day in the row where I only slept for a total of three hours, but at 7 in the morning there was no time to think about such things. We needed to get ready.
Day 1 of Barcelona Games World:
The plan was wake up at 8 am and get ready, but after being awake for hours on end with nothing really to do, I just couldn’t wait, so I started preparing everything I needed and as they awoke, Mike and Ash did the same. Thankfully being up as early as we were, not only was there enough time to get a decent shower in for each of us, but I actually cleaned up well enough that I no longer resembled a Zombie, and then it was time to go.
Finding the venue was a lot simpler than finding our hotel, all we had to do was walk down one straight road and near a roundabout, shift our gazes to the right and there it was, Barcelona Games World. We had arrived and with plenty of time to spare, we were directed to an office where we could pick up our press passes. Sure we had to suffer through a huge queue, but when it came to our turn at the desk, we scored three passes with ease. Once they were around our necks and their power of radiating through us, it was time to put one foot in front of the other and get the party started!
We were supposed to go straight in and check out the games, but Mike and Ash were a little too eager to explore the hall packed with stalls selling all kinds of memorabilia. This was not by any means the first and last time we patrolled the hall searching for a bargain, we would actually do it four times, because we just couldn’t keep Mike away from the Zelda goodies.
Having spent a little longer in the merchandise expo than we should have, we left that building and entered the game expo arena and there was just so much to see, starting with an interesting line-up of indie titles, such as Forgotten Path and Caveman Warriors. (Two very great titles that could be coming to Nintendo platforms in the coming year!) And then we saw the likes of Nintendo and PlayStation. Sure Nintendo’s booth was a lot smaller than the size of Sony’s, but that doesn’t matter, because Nintendo were supplying the goods, Charles Martinet for one and their ADN event.
For any Nintendo fan who wished to prove themselves as true gamers, the ADN event is a great way of having attendees play a number of Nintendo games, collect stamps and be in with a chance to win one of 10 3DS’s that are to be giving out the three days the event is open to the general public. With the event not taking place on the 6th (aka our first day in attendance,) we figured we’d use the time to try out each of the games and get a head start over everyone who would come the next day. (Yup evil!) Still it wasn’t just all Nintendo gaming, we checked out the Bandai Namco offerings, and Badland Games’ and we even did a bit of VR gaming and that was very different indeed.
Still we also found the time to do a bit of dressing up (Link & Mario,) checked out the amiibo stands, which included all of the amiibo for Breath of the Wild and the new Super Mario amiibo. We checked out the merch expo once more and then we interviewed a few of the guys behind the indie games being presented. With so many games there, some of which are already confirmed to be coming to the Wii U and others that are currently in talks, there are two games that really stood out, Forgotten Path and Caveman Warriors. They both look so great and if Caveman Warriors doesn’t come to platform, it would be very disappointing indeed.
We were at the event for ten hours, but it did not feel that way at all, time just went incredibly fast, but it was closing time so we left with smiles on our faces. We came, we filmed, we played and we interviewed! Day 1 of Barcelona Games World was awesome and as we walked back to our hotel, we turned our thoughts to what Day 2 would bring!
Day 2 of Barcelona Games World:
Day 2 started pretty much the same way as Day 1, didn’t sleep all that much, so I was up and about in the early hours once more, taking care of business and preparing for the next adventure, only to remember we didn’t have to be out the door as early as we was the day before. In fact because Barcelona Games World was now open to all and our press passes meant we wouldn’t have to queue, we instead did some more pc work and had a decent breakfast.
Upon arriving at the venue, there was people everywhere, and the queue to get in was huge, but that was not an issue for us. One flash of our passes and we took the press/professional way in, only to have Mike decide it was time for another shopping spree. For one hour that we could have spent playing games, we walked round and round the merch hall, as Mike and Ash made purchase after purchase, but when we finally made it to the Nintendo section, we laid eyes on the voice of Mario. Mr Charles Martinet was in the house.
We got as close as could while he was currently being interviewed by a Spanish outlet when we were like “we’ve got to get an interview!” So while Mike watched the interview, I slinked away to talk to talk to the nearest person in a Nintendo shirt to find out who I would have to talk to, to get an interview and he pointed me in the right direction. One flash of the pass and a couple of words and the interview was secured for 1pm, exactly one hour away, so as Mike and Ash watched Charles walk off, called elsewhere, I took the moment to inform him of what had happened when he wasn’t paying attention.
Naturally he was happy and high fives were had, but since we had an hour to kill, we began out participating in the ADN event and were able to do two of the games (play Rhythm Paradise Megamix and attend the Fire Emblem Fates academy.) Due to large crowds, there was no time to try a third game, as we had just minutes to wait before it was interview time. We may have meet Charles over at the amiibo wall, but the interview happened over in the press lounge and we discussed a lot of things. Things such as his return to Bit.Trip Runner, Super Mario for the NX and even asked him how come there isn’t a costume of him in Super Mario Maker. Oh and we totally showed him our Super Mario Run issue of The Miketendo Strip!
Charles is a great guy and he really did give us a lot of great content, so if you haven’t seen our interview with him yet, you really should. You don’t know what you’re missing and because he is so great, he signed Mike’s “Miketendo64 @ Barcelona Games World t-shirt,” my Zelda notebook and my Barcelona Games World press pass. Still we couldn’t spend all day with him, everyone else wanted to interview him as well, so we returned to the Nintendo ADN challenge and played the four demos required to get our last four required stamps. I’ll be honest, getting those 6 stamps felt like being a Trainer collecting the 8 Gym badges in a main series Pokémon title that isn’t Sun & Moon.
Upon completion of our great task, the three of us got dressed up for another photo, and then we took a lunch break, while Mike did some on the spot video editing. Afterwards we played some more games, went upstairs and checked out the glorious retro scene, where all kinds of games and consoles could be seen, played and brought. I thought it was a little ironic, a few hours previously I was playing the new NES mini and then I was playing on an actual NES. Still, there was more interviewing to be done and since we couldn’t find Katsuhira Harada anywhere to talk to him about Pokkén Tournament, we settled for more indie interviews!
After that time escaped us and we were leaving. Our time at the event was over, for Day 2 had come to a close and although it would be open, we had an early train the morning after. There would be no coming back, but at least we made the most of the time we did have. Sure we didn’t hunt down cosplayers like we wanted to and get them on film, but we did do interviews, we did play games, both old and new (for example, we played Tri Force Heroes together and that was a first for us,) and we did enjoy everything we were able to do.
Now I can’t say for certain if we’ll be attending Barcelona Games World next year as it is just too early to say, but this was just our first event, there will be more, but this one was a success and that’s where I’m going to have to leave this because I have run out of time.
Till next time folks. It’s never too late to get your GAME on!
