Today was my last day in New York, and I had already exhausted every arcade worth seeing. I could have taken a bus out to someplace like 8 on the Break, but I didn’t want to risk getting stuck outside town again. Instead, I figured I’d take care of any unfinished business I had.
What you see here is Central Park. A Troll in Central Park made this place look a lot more interesting than it actually is. It’s not that different from the grassy areas in the midwest. Some chick walked up to me and tried to strike up a conversation. I wasn’t in any mood to deal with her.
Now’s a good time to mention that this had been my breakfast for the past week because I was staying near a Burger King. This is an example of capitalism at work. Or maybe just proof that nobody reads the menu.
Words cannot express how badly I wanted this blender-shaped Slurpee cup. The first fill was even free. Sadly, unlike last year’s Shark Week cup, there was no way in hell I was going to fit something like this in my bag. I already had an entire trip’s worth of luggage crammed into a tiny rolling bag.
Next, I had to take care of the pizza thing. Google tells me this is the most “New York” pizza in Manhattan Island. I had a sneaking suspicion that if my opinion were as lukewarm as the last place, I’d be accused of not getting the proper New York-style pizza. This seemed like my best bet for gauging it.
The place seems to have a constant line during lunchtime. After 20 minutes, I was finally able to make an order. First, I got the pepperoni, the most standard of all pizza. It was definitely better than the last place, but not something I’d go out of my way for.
Next, to avoid any “you didn’t get the right type of pizza” arguments, I also tried this unique-looking cheese pizza. I think it was better than the pepperoni, but again, it’s not something I’d brag to my friends about having eaten. I hereby deem New York pizza to be alright but largely overhyped.
EDIT: I originally transcribed a Discord conversation I had with someone from New York afterward, but it seemed unnecessary in retrospect. To summarize: I told him the pizza wasn’t great without telling him where I got it. He told me I just didn’t get the right pizza. I asked him where I should have gone to get a slice of real New York pizza. He suggested Joe’s. I won the argument.
Final conclusion: New York pizza is pretty good, but nothing special.
I had nothing else planned for this day, so I decided I’d pay a second visit to the Nintendo World store to see if my opinion of it were any better than the first time (I stopped by it on the first day but didn’t bother to write about it then). While here, I came across the M&M store and figured I could kill a few minutes.
There, I saw a very shady-looking Blue M&M sneaking aboard an elevator. He entered on the second floor but didn’t come out on the first.
I wandered into Times Square at some point without really meaning to. I didn’t come here for sightseeing major landmarks. The only reason I’d intentionally come to Times Square was to say I had.
This inconspicuous building is here in the Nintendo World Store. I spend most of the rest of the day hanging out in here.
If you go in expecting the stuff dreams are made of, you won’t find it here. It’s basically an Apple Store with random Nintendo products instead of iPods.
When this store initially opened, it was an attempt to bring the Japanese Pokemon Center stores to America. I still remember reading articles about its grand opening. The windows were lined with Pokemon statues, walls upon walls of imported merchandise, and you could even download exclusive Pokemon. I’ve heard that the second floor was still dedicated to Pokemon for a long time, but nowadays, it’s mostly been reduced to this small corner. Oh well.
I nearly bought these Rotom pins, though. If memory serves, the Japanese Pokemon Center stores did a Rotom-themed Halloween event the year before. These must have been left over from it.
Speaking of Pokemon Center stores, here in America, a line of used video game stores called Gamestop can be found at nearly every major intersection. They’ve been hurting in recent years because of the rise of things like Steam, so they’ve converted into a video game merchandise store. Nintendo partnered with them a while back to start having a Pokemon Center section in every store. I haven’t been in a Gamestop in years, so I’m not sure if that’s already happened.
By the way, we do have dedicated Pokemon Center stores in Washington State. And by “stores,” I mean officially licensed vending machines that dispense exclusive plushes and figures.
I managed to find room in my bag to grab a souvenir for a friend. She likes Kirby, so I got her a Waddle Dee plush. Unfortunately, she changed her e-mail before I could send it to her. I still have the means to contact her when I finally decide to ship it out but I haven’t gotten around to it. Shipping things costs like seven bucks.
In glass cases, they had systems from throughout Nintendo’s history, like the obscure TV-GAME 15. I was looking forward to the prototype Nintendo Advanced System that used to be on display here, but I didn’t see it. They must have gotten rid of it at some point. Oh well.
This is something I wasn’t expecting to see. Back when I was young, I had quite a few back issues of Nintendo Power that I found at garage sales on the cheap. One issue had an article about a soldier who brought his Game Boy to the Gulf War. It got caught in an explosion and ended up charred, but it remained mostly functional. I’m amazed they cared enough about it to keep it on display three decades later.
They had a display full of every piece of Zelda merchandise you could imagine. When Phantom Hourglass first came out, there was a mail-in campaign where you could register your game and get a free quill pen stylus (Kirby Canvas Curse had a similar deal for a pink stylus). I was specifically looking for it to see if they’d remembered it. Turns out they knew what they were doing.
The store was full of giant statues like this, for the atmosphere. They didn’t really help with the weird, sterile feeling this store gave off.
Oh right. I happened to be on vacation the same week E3 happened, so today, they had all of the E3 floor demos up to play. I had plenty of free time, so I got to play them for myself. I took lots of pictures, but it feels pointless to show them now that these games are already out. It’s worth noting that the girl running the Fire Emblem Heroes demo was a massive Fire Emblem nerd. It was awkward since she was so enthusiastic about pointing out all of these random Fire Emblem characters that I didn’t recognize. She got particularly excited when some guy rode in on a horse halfway through the level.
Oh yeah, the guy who voices Mario was here signing autographs. I don’t know if this is a regular thing or if he lives here.
There was quite a line for his autograph. After milling around NYC with nothing to do for a few hours, I decided to get in line. I didn’t make it in time to get his autograph, though. It would have been an excellent addition to my trophy shelf…
He did come out at the end and shake hands with everyone still in line, though. I’ll take it.
And so ends my time in New York. After five days, I was honestly sick of this city and never wanted to return. It was big and hot, and the arcades were hit-and-miss. Now the place I went next, THAT was an arcade…
