our visit to nintendo us headquarters: 5 cool surprises #nintendoamerica

We visited Nintendo US Headquarters in Seattle, Washington last week.

Nintendo. Headquarters.

Nintendo HQ.

You guys, it was awesome.

Our family was invited by the great people at Nintendo to check out the HQ and to learn about what Nintendo has in store for the upcoming holiday season.

Actually, even though I really, truly enjoyed the experience, I think I may have scored some really huge mom-points with Maddy and Owen. And as they move quickly into their teen years, I will take those points wherever I can get ’em.

Every little thing we learned throughout the adventure is too extensive to lay out here, so I’m sharing five of the coolest surprises we learned.

1. There’s a Trophy Room that’s totally off-limits to visitors and even cameras.

The Trophy Room is kind of in the middle of the first floor of the HQ, across from the gift shop. On the outside is a huge timeline of some of the main characters in Nintendo games and history, like Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Samus.

I took a picture of the wall but then was almost immediately asked to delete it. *SOB! I swear I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to take a picture!*

Once inside, each of the 4 or 5 walls of this open-ceiling room were covered in Nintendo memorabilia. I mean covered.

Some of the cool things we saw in this museum-type room were:

early gaming sets
the first set of playing cards (Did you know that Nintendo began as a card game company 100 years ago?!)
the story of Nintendo evolution
photographs of creators and designers
every, single Nintendo console and some games

It was super cool. I wanted to video it all.

But I couldn’t.

It was like a walk through history–and my childhood. So many memories. It was crazy.

2. There are awesome, new games in time for the holiday season, and we got to play them all on our new Nintendo SWITCH.

The Nintendo SWITCH came out last spring, but honestly, this is the first time I heard about it. Maddy and Owen heard about it from some friends this summer.

This system is essentially one that you can take anywhere. You can play at home, or you can play on the go.

You can play it as a handheld by yourself. You can disconnect the joy-cons (the tiny, little controller/joystick things on the side), and you can play with a friend.

You can even add extra joy-cons to the set and play with more than just one pal–you can actually link up to eight sets together.

Take a look at our unboxing of our new Nintendo SWITCH system:

Check out the Nintendo site for more details and even some videos and specs of this system, but here’s a quick list of our fave new games for this platform:

Owen’s fave? Hands down it’s a tie between Rocket League and Pokemon Tournament.

Check out his happy face when he won Pokemon Tournament!

3. We learned the truth about Mario’s name.

One smart super-fan asked the million-dollar question, and I will now share the answer with you.

Question: If Mario and Luigi are the Mario Bros, does that mean that Mario’s last name and first name are both “Mario”?

Answer: Yes. Pretty much.

So? It’s Mario Mario and Luigi Mario.

Who. Knew?

4. We met (and interviewed!) Kit and Krysta.

FOR REAL.

Take a look at Maddy and Owen interviewing these two Nintendo STAHS:

Kit and Krysta are the hosts of the amazing Nintendo Minute show. They’ve got millions and millions of subscribers, and they are super cool.

Video’s coming, friends. but until then, here’s a glimpse at the crew:

5. We experienced the new and improved Nintendo 2DSXL.

Why do we love the Nintendo 2DSXL?

It’s small and easy to use and transport.
It’s less expensive than most gaming systems.
It has a huge library of games to download and purchase.
You can use games from a number of other systems with it–you can use games from 3DS in 2D. They also play nearly all Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi games.
It comes in multiple colors and designs.
You can play Minecraft together.

Overall, the experience was a total blast. More to come later, especially on Nintendo SWITCH and the games we’re trying and games we love.

A million thanks to the great folks at Nintendo for inviting us to see the latest and greatest and for treating us with smiles and open arms. We are crossing our fingers for a return visit soon–especially so we can bring Cora and Brent!

Have any questions? I’d love to hear them and to see if I can answer them–especially if they’re about Nintendo SWITCH or the Nintendo 2DS XL systems.

Cheers–and happy family game playing!

fyi: I was invited to visit Nintendo America Headquarters and received some Nintendo products to try and write about as part of our partnership. However, as always, the opinions here are all my own, influenced only by my experience as a parent and educator.

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