Nintendo to Demo Upcoming Games at Rochester Hills Best Buy

Each year around this time, die-hard video gamers around the world tune in to technology and gaming blogs for the latest news out of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, an expo showcasing the latest and greatest innovations in video games. 

The exclusive Los Angeles event, which is open only to industry insiders, gives video game companies to offer first looks at the year's most hotly anticipated games.

Nintendo, which unveiled its own upcoming games Tuesday at the expo, is taking the hype machine one step further, bringing its forthcoming games to Best Buy stores this week, including the Rochester Hills location at 2651 S. Rochester Road.

Nintendo representatives will bring four games for its Wii U console to the Rochester Hills Best Buy store from 4-8 p.m. today and  1-5 p.m. Saturday, where they will show off the games and allow attendees to demo the games for about 10-15 minutes apiece.

The games include Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and Mario Kart 8, most of which aren't due in stores until this holiday shopping season.

While much of the global news from this week's expo has focused on two forthcoming video game systems—Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's XBox One—Nintendo is pushing games for its Wii U, which the company released last fall. 
Duane Hinojosa, a home manager at Rochester Hills' Best Buy store, says Nintendo might be on to something by giving its fans such an early look at the games. 

"I think it's going to be huge for Nintendo," he said. "We have a pretty solid Nintendo customer clientele anyway. We even have employees who are huge, huge gamers and they're really excited and looking forward to this, as well."
Hinojosa said he is most looking forward to Mario Kart 8, as a fan of the long-running kart-racing series, and he said allowing gamers to go hands-on with these new titles, rather than simply trusting the opinions of industry insiders and bloggers at the E3 event, is somewhat unprecedented.

"You don't get to see or play these new games unless you're at the E3 event," Hinojosa said.