Ah yes, San Francisco was one of the few large cities around the US that Nintendo selected to host a Nintendo GameCube Cube Club, and I was lucky enough to attend it. From October 25 to November 5, 2001, Nintendo rolled on its clubs to Boston, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. Saturday, October 27 seemed like the only good day to go because it ran from 11AM to 3PM. So this morning, I got up, and took the hour car ride from my city to San Francisco to finally check out the GameCube before many other people. I arrived at the place early, and stood in line, with about 40 or 50 people ahead of me in line. This guy who worked there came out and had this digital camera thing and was filming us as he announced the usual instructions. I only had to wait around 15 minutes before I could finally get inside. The guys just took my ticket, and dumped it in a wastecan; hopefully all that paper will get recycled, heh. When I got inside, I was totally blown away by the games, and the awesome atmosphere.

The first thing I noticed when going inside the building was the blasting music. The DJ did a pretty decent job at the music selections, as they ranged from pop music to other stuff I didn't bother to remember. All the music fit in well with the club's atmosphere though, and I commend Nintendo for that. They had speakers set up around the room, and I walked by some a few times, and I could feel how loud the music was. Another interesting thing I noticed when walking around the club floor was the neat lights. In the ceiling where these things projecting out lights and images onto the floor. It felt kinda weird when I walked around, and out pops this image of a GameCube on the floor! The flashing lights made the club come to life, and really made it look like a real night club. This was totally cool, and shows how Nintendo has grown up, maybe. With all this going on, it really made playing the GameCube even better, although you could barely hear the game's sounds from the sweet Panasonic HDTV's... I really wish I had an HDTV now...

The playable games that I remember were Super Smash Bros. Melee, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Luigi's Mansion, NBA Courtside 2002 with Kobe Bryant, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Pikmin, Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet, Madden NFL 2002, and Super Monkey Ball. The first game that I actually got a chance to play when I walked in the door was Luigi's Mansion. I didn't have much time to actually get into it, but it looked somewhat interesting. I just started out new, and I got Luigi's vacuum cleaner and swept up a ghost or two. I'll definitely give this game more time when I get it this November. I can say that the transition between CG movie and realtime gameplay are totally smooth. When I tried to open a door, a movie came up of Luigi trying to open it seamlessly, without any interruption. Next, I tried Wave Race: Blue Storm, and I found it pretty hard to control at first (maybe it's been awhile since I played the N64 version), but as time went along, I got the hang of it. When the water had lots of waves in it, I kept bouncing up and down, and it made the whole experience more fun. I tried to even do an old flip I remember from Wave Race 64, but I didn't comeplete it all the way and fell off, hehe. But overall, I think Wave Race is a really cool game, with crystal clear graphics. Now, the game that I spent the MOST time waiting for and actually playing with three other people was of course, Super Smash Bros. That game definitely was worth the time waiting for it. The game is so much more better than the N64 one, and I found the controls a little hard to understand, but it came naturally to me with time. All the times I played, I chose Link as my character, and I did quite well with him, even though it's been months (maybe even a year?) since I laid hands on the N64 version of Smash Bros. I mopped the floor with my other three opponents, as I won the game about 3 or 4 times with Link. His sword-spin jump definitely gives Link much more lift than last year. I didn't get a chance to play the other games, but they definitely looked cool. Rogue Squadron definitely looked beautiful with it's very realistic and smooth graphics when I saw an X-Wing in battle. Another beautiful looking game was Star Fox Adventures. I saw someone fly Fox's Arwing, and believe me, it's totally awesome. Maybe Nintendo will make a game for GameCube much like the one from the N64. Today was great, because all of my midterms were over, and I wanted to relax from all that worrying and studying. Also, seeing all of this makes me want the release of the GameCube to NOW! It's gonna be hard to wait for all this, especially for Smash Bros., because I found it way more addictive than the N64 version.

Ah yes, it makes me feel special to get rewarded to play GameCube games at Nintendo's Cube Club. Well, they had piles of goodies for everyone who walked in the door. The pile of goodies I got were: a GameBoy Advance Sticker, Pikmin tattoo, a Panasonic/GameCube 3D cube puzzle, GameCube promotional pamphlet, GameCube PC Demo Disc (woohoo), and a DC Comic book, which were given to everyone. Lotsa stuff huh? Yup, definitely cool of Nintendo. All in all, this was a totally awesome day, as I got to try out several titles that I really wanted to. Today was also the first day I got to try a GameCube controller. The design of it is pretty good, and I thought the L and R buttons feel much better (you can actually press it down, and the button will go down inside, rather than the older designs). I also found the Z button to be adequate, and I mostly used the A and B buttons on the controller. I really like the feel of the controller in my hands, and checked it out while waiting in line for Smash Bros. Just less than a month away for the release of the GameCube, and I can't wait! In the meantime, if you live near a big city that Nintendo selects for its clubs, I suggest you go! It's definitely worth it, and maybe it can hold you until the release of the GameCube, but today's events made me wish I had mine right now!