Across from the dreaded Mall of America sits a parking lot where the Met Center used to be. Once the home to the beloved Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars), the site now serves as a spill-over lot for mall parking with Minnesota’s hockey needs being served in downtown St. Paul by the Wild. On the evenings of October 17th-20th, however, this usually desolate parking lot was the home of the second coming of Nintendo’s Cube Club, sponsored by Nintendo, Snapple, and Panasonic.
From the outside, the club gave the appearance of a sidewalk sale tent in which shoes might be purchased for rock bottom prices. However, getting within a half block of the Club, one could hear the tunes pumpin’ feel the beat bumpin’.
Upon entry, the security guard opens the door and two lovely ladies offer to check your jacket. Just beyond that, the Snapple girls offer you all the sweet fruit juice your little heart desires. Also available were little Snapple bags containing an e-Reader card, Panasonic promo items, and a free Nintendo DVD, highlighting such games as Metroid Prime, Phantasy Star Online, Mario Party 4, Beach Spikers, and more.
What is that guy doing anyway? Eating his hand?
Mmmm…Snapple…
Beautiful, juice-toting women aside, the Cube Club is about games, and Aaron and I were foaming at the mouth to get our hands on playable versions of Zelda, Metroid Prime, Metroid Fusion, Resident Evil 0, Tony Hawk 4, and much, much more.
The Club was laid out much like an arcade, with dark aisles of zombie-looking folks, hypnotized by the cream of Nintendo’s crop. In the middle of the Club sat a row of Game Boy Advance displays, allowing gamers to try out complete versions of the already released Yoshi’s Island, or the highly anticipated Metroid Prime. Guess which one got the most attention.
While the GBA displays were all well and good, everyone knows what people go to the Cube Clubs to see. While the lines were fairly long, Aaron and I worked out a scheme to shorten our waiting. While one would play, the other camped out at another display, cutting our waits in half.
Enjoy the images below.
I spent a half hour in line to play through this demo. It was well worth it.
Here we see Mrs. Hilden enjoying the fabulous Metroid Prime. Whoever said this game doesn’t feel like Metroid was obviously smoking crack.
Enjoying some Zombie blasting on a train.
So many games, so little time.
Three hours, four sore thumbs, and two-dozen bottles of Snapple later, Lady Hilden and I were ready to hit the road. We grabbed our jackets, one last bottle of Snapple, kissed the juice ladies goodbye, and headed back out into the parking lot, where we snagged these images for you.
The Cube Club was an awesome experience and GameCube owners have more reasons than ever to be excited for the future. Nintendo is obviously beginning to see the potential of marketing to the older gaming set, and with more promotional stunts such as these, they may begin convincing people that Nintendo isn’t just for kids.
