New York Dorks: Nintendo at New York Comic Con (UPDATE: Pokémon meetup event info)

by John "ANC" Barnes on

The New York Comic Con starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday, and if you already have a ticket to the sold-out event and read this site then you already know this you’ll probably want to make time to stop by Nintendo’s booth, as today’s press release details quite a few upcoming 3DS and Wii U games that will be playable, as well as competitions to win one of eight 3DS XL systems.

If you don’t have a ticket you’re not completely SOL, however, at least if you like Pokémon or ice sculptures, as just a block away there’s a free no-badge-needed Launch Celebration for the just released Black 2 and White 2. More details await just beyond the jump, or break, or whatever people call it these days- just click the link thingy.

If you think you can beat little kids and ultranerds at Kid Icarus: Uprising‘s Free-For-All multiplayer or New Super Mario Bros. 2‘s Coin Rush mode, you might have a shot at winning a 3DS XL. The NSMB2 competition will take place in the recently released Coin Rush DLC course packs, and the top scorer on each of the four days of the Con will win the system. Simply participating gets you a Gold Mario pin to stick on your lanyard or that hat that looks terrible on you or wherever else you can think to poke. The Kid Icarus competition is a daily tournament where the top 12 scorers from throughout the day will then play 3 rounds against each other, vying for the highest cumulative 3-round score. Everyone who plays gets a Kid Icarus Series 2 AR card pack, the twelve top scorers get pins, the champion and second place get a Core Set of AR cards which contains over 400 of the damn things, and the champion gets the 3DS XL. There’s no mention of system color or whether winners will have a choice, so I hope they enjoy puce and burnt umber.

In addition, there’s a Paper Mario: Sticker Star event where you can collect five special stickers, with the first 400 to do so winning… the opportunity to place a bigger sticker on some big billboard. Also near the entrance to the convention center Nintendo will hold you down and slap stickers all over your body, or something, and invite children to do their best impression of Mario saying his famous catchphrase: “I need an adult! Woohoo!”

For cheapskate Pokémon fans (or “Brokémonies”, as nobody calls them) Nintendo is also running a free Pokémon lounge at SIR Stage37 at 508 W. 37th St just north of the convention proper, and open from noon to eight. There you can download Genesect to your White 2 or Black 2 cartridge if you’d rather not dick with your home router’s wi-fi settings, look at Pokémon ice sculptures (I hope one of them is Magmar,) watch I Fight Dragons perform live, trade and battle, get some Pokémon swag (loot, not swagger), and find another person in public who understands your t-shirt.

Full details on games playable are in the press release in an easy-to-read list. Perhaps most notable is Crashmo, the just-announced sequel to surprise-hit eShop puzzler Pushmo, and which appears to be making its playable public debut at the convention.

***UPDATE***: Nintendo posted on Twitter about a special Pokémon Meetup event happening on Friday which also serves as a way to get on some list for ANOTHER special event on Saturday. More details here.