It was with Pokfever rich in the air on Thursday night that Nintendo hosted their Pokmon Premiere launch event, mere hours ahead of Pokmon Black / White’s UK release. With Game Freak in attendance for all the Pokmaniacs and One Direction to perform for the screaming fans of another nature, Nintendo UK took over 1 Leicester Square, London, for a party filled with enough fun to make a Poliwhirl dizzy.
After a rather long, chilly wait for entry – happily lessened by a nearby arcade and a few pounds worth of Time Crisis 4 – we bustled through the throbbing crowd of media and competition winners lucky enough to have been granted access to this invite-only function. The specially laid out black and white carpets were lined by fans of the X-Factor acts in attendance, all eager to catch a glimpse of their reality TV heroes.
Once inside it became apparent why there had been a delay. The entire venue had been decked out in white and black, just in case you forgot which Pokmon game was coming out, right down to the dancefloor. It was mentioned during the course of the night that staff had been preparing the venue since 2am that morning, and the effort showed. DS consoles were spread around each wall for attendees to break out their battle moves, with the main attraction being a giant DSi console that took up an entire corner of the floor (though sadly it did not seem to be a functional one, more a fancy monitor case…).
To our delight it was a trio of familiar faces that served as the greeting party. No, not the lovely folks at Nintendo…Snivy, Oshawott and Tepig, the starting Pokmon for the new generation! Who knows who they had in those suits – or, as quite rightly pondered by my companion, how they could see, the costumes quality hiding any obvious answers… – but the three were only too happy to high five, hug and pose for photographs with attendees. Later on, they could even be spied showing off some fancy footwork on the dancefloor. Oshawott in particular, it seems, knows how to get down, and proved to be the favourite of the night. Face painting was also available, and there were many children running around with the water Pokmon adorning their cheeks.
Black and white glasses of champagne quaffed, we signed up for the chance to battle Game Freaks Junichi Masuda and investigated the upstairs of the venue. Another – more familiar – character greeted us: Pikachu! Fans could get a Polaroid memento of the evening taken with the rodent wonder, but if you ventured beyond the yellow fellow there was a small gallery of concept art from Pokmon Black / White. Sadly there were no monster drawings, only images of the towns…and there seemed to be a grey area as to whether pictures were allowed of the art or not. At the end of the corridor there was a cinema screening episodes of the Pokmon anim, with sweets and popcorn a-plenty.
Once everybody was settled in, TVs Sam and Mark, our hosts for the evening, presented a quiz. Anybody that wanted to could write their answers down and submit them for the chance to take home one of the limited edition Pokmon Black / White DSi systems. There was notification that Game Freak would be gracing the stage soon, so we snuck in an episode of the anim in the cinema while we waited. The animation has improved, but Ash still hasnt aged!
Pokmon Black / White director Junichi Masuda and art director Ken Sugimori briefly came on stage twenty minutes later. Masuda-san read a statement, in English, thanking fans for their support, before Sugimori-san swiftly exited stage left to make way for Masuda-sans live Pokmon battle against a fan; the number picked out for the contest only being one or two away from my own. Fought with demo teams, the battle was long and hard. The audience reaction seemed to favour Masuda-san, but eventually he was bested at his own game.
Sugimori-san and Masuda-san then generously took seats at a table by the oversized DSi to sign and doodle on dozens of fans games and magazines – and they had to repeat the same autographing act at HMV Oxford Street the next day too, so hopefully Nintendo had plenty of ice ready for their hands!
The signing was nearly cut off early as One Direction were due on stage, but thankfully common sense prevailed and most or all of the queues requests were fulfilled. Sadly there was no time to take photographs with or exchange a few words with the pair unless you were able to wait around afterwards, which unfortunately I could not.
After One Directions performance ended – watched by the likes of JLS and Sophie Ellis-Bextor from the V.I.P. area – things began to wrap up, with the hordes of girls that had been hugging the front of the stage all night charging to queue for signatures from the One Direction boys. There was one more trick up the nights sleeve, however: the results of the quiz. Thirteen people, we were told, had scored full marks and would be competing in a tie-breaker for the prize – and yours truly was one of those called up.
We assembled in the cinema area for the final test, but I was not the victor on this occasion – not due to lack of knowledge, but because the winner was decided according to whoever could put their hand in the air with the correct answer first, and my fellow finalists all had far more energy it seemed!
The show ended as it began – Tepig, Oshawott and Snivy once again burst out for photographs, guided around by Nintendo staff. Attendees were all given copies of the game in a black and white themed gift bag filled with humbugs, t-shirts, disposable cameras, plush toys and Oreos, and waved off on their way into the cold London evening.
Thanks to Nintendo UK and Bell-Pottinger for their organisation of and invitation to the Pokmon Premiere event!
