Nintendo’s E3 booth gave congoers a one way ticket to New Donk City; one of the few places one can explore in the New Super Mario Odyssey set to be released this October. We had to explore the booth since every corner hid something that we missed on the first time we passed by. First, we saw the playable stations which were quickly noted by the long lines. The demos were Super Mario Odyssey, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Splatoon 2, Arms, Pokkén Tournament DX and Fifa 18. Oh yea, they also had a giveaway for a foam Mario Cap. If you wanted to get it, you had to do a stamp rally by playing some of the demos, but to get started, you had to first play the Mario Odyssey demo to obtain a “passport” to stamp. When you had achieved all those steps, you would head over to the “Crazy Cap” line to trade the passport for your prize.

Ok, now let’s talk about the tournaments that Nintendo Treehouse were doing all week long. At the back center of the booth was a big stage where the tournaments would take place, tournaments like Arms, Splatoon 2, and Pokkén Tournament DX. To qualify for them, all you needed to do was play the demo. If you won two matches, you would get to step on stage and play against others that had done the same. The battles were streamed live, and they were commentators which narrated all of the action that was taking place on the big screens.

In the middle of the booth, I mean New Donk City, was the Amiibo showcase where they had the new announced Amiibos on display. This created a crowd of onlookers snapping pictures of miniatures from Breath of the Wild and rabbids dressed as Mario characters. Also around the city layout, one got to see iconic Mario characters such as bullet bill, goombas, chain chomp, and of course Mario on board the Odyssey. Since Mario can use his cap to control different objects in his upcoming adventure, there was a tank with a cap and mustache on it. Also, the staffers were dressed up as Donk city citizens, or Splatoon researchers. Some of the other details were street lamps and benches with shrubs to make it feel like you were walking in a real city. The inner walls of the booth had fake building façade to give it a more authentic look.

Rumors had it if you got close to the Mario statue and closed your eyes, you could hear a voice saying “It’s-a me Mario!!” just like a seashell...actually, that’s a lie. But Charles Martinet did stop by to pose with his alter ego at the booth where fans quickly took notice and lined up for pictures. Shout out to Mr. Martinet. Thanks for being the voice of our beloved Mario and taking time out of your busy day to take pictures with all those fans at E3. By the way, did you notice who the Mayor of New Donk City was? Well it’s none other than Mario’s first love interest, Pauline. Fans will remember her from Donkey Kong. We hear that she is getting some vocals for the game, so that is some great news for all those Pauline fans out.

Well, that is the whole tour of the Nintendo Booth at E3 or should we say New Donk City. Leave it to Nintendo to blow it out of the water when it comes to creativity.