Wednesday was a pretty big day, but I’m legally obligated to not share Too many details. Our first stop was Nintendo of Europe’s Frankfurt office and we took a tram all the way there. I got a little over-excited just in the lobby of the office building. I knew they didn’t make any games here, but the idea of being in a ~real Nintendo location~ was enough to make me feel special. Our guest tags even had Mario on them!
Our hosts were very kind and bought us some coffee before we started. I got a frozen coffee and was delightfully surprised to find out that it was basically ice cream. Now I can’t say much of what happened in the middle, but we also ate lunch with our hosts in the office cafeteria. They gave us some really cool swag and then brought us up to a really cool recreational room. This room was huge and had a small exhibit of Nintendo memorabilia as well as a bunch of TVs set up with Switches and other consoles. I played some Puyo and geeked out over the display cases.
This room also has a little shop for employees. It was stocked with basically all the Nintendo products that are currently in the market, as well as some fun other stuff. I found a cute Kirby blanket that looks like it was an old prize for European Club Nintendo members. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to buy anything. However, our hosts were, and one of them was so kind as to buy it herself and let me pay her back. I was so happy I could have just floated away right then and there.
Next up was Crytek, which (naturally) is on the exact other side of the city. I was still in a blissful state from my Nintendo experience. Once again I can’t say too much, but I did get a nice look around where they develop CryEngine and all their games. The wild thing here is that they’re actually a location that hires game developers. It was weird to think that the people touring us might interested in hiring us one day.
On the tram ride back we watched the Pokemon Direct that had aired earlier in the day, all crowded around one cellphone. I think we spent around four hours in the trams alone on Wednesday. Later on we took a long walk to a ramen place, which was a nice opportunity to look at the city as the sun went down. Like the other places I’ve seen so far in Germany, there are curious statues, buildings, and fountains to be seen around every corner. Later in the night we had a smash tournament at the hotel, and I won!
Picture still blurry