Touching is Good

So the concert could have been better. Either way I set my alarm to wake me up at 7:30am so I could begin the hunt for a DS. I didn't think finding one would be much of an issue on launch day, but I wanted to get an early start to make sure I wasn't let down. Wal-Mart had a surprise in store for me.

I woke up at 7:04am. A full twenty-six minutes before the alarm was set to go off. I was kinda mad, but just layed in my bed till it went off and then I got up. I threw on the pants from the night before and left for the Sulphur Springs Wal-Mart.

I walk in just after 8am and head to the electronics section. I walked around and looked for the DSs and didn't find them. I knew they had them though. I saw one man wheeling a cart covered in music stuff so I let him be, and asked the woman on the ladder facing the phone section. "Are ya'll selling the DS yet?"

She tells me no, that they are holding them for what Wal-Mart apparently calls the "Blitz." The "Blitz" is the day after Thanksgiving when the Holiday shopping season officially starts. I plead my case that today is launch day and that they are supposed to be for sale. She admits she did see commercials hyping Nov 21, and decided to ask the other guy who was the morning electronics manager.

So mike comes over and she asks him and he says he can't sell them yet. I ask if he could maybe go in the back and crack open a case and just sell me one since they have them. Nope, can't do that, have to save them for the Blitz. You see readers, for Wal-Mart to sell something Friday for full price to someone else, is better business than selling it to me for full price on the day it is released. Needless to say I left pissed off an disappointed.

I got home and decided to call other close Wal-Marts before driving to them and getting shot down. Mineola wouldn't sell them, and neither would Mt. Pleasant. I was hoping one of these nearby towns would come through because I didn't want to drive all the way to Longview for something I could get close to home. But I didn't get that lucky.

On my way into Longview I stopped at the first Longview Wal-Mart. Boom, big display and a few for sale. I got my DS but didn't get any games there since they only had Urbz, Spiderman 2, and Madden 2005. None of those interest me at all. So I continued into Longview and waited for Best Buy to open. They had all the goodies on a table at the very front, so I grabbed my copies of Feel the Magic and Mario 64 DS and exited.

Behold the goodness:


Beautiful, just beautiful.

I tried the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo while I waited for Best Buy to open and was left very underwhelmed. The touch screen way to control the game didn't feel very comfortable.

Feel the Magic on the other hand is delicious. It was the first thing I played when I got home, and I played till the battery went red. Then I plugged it in and played some more. I let it charge off for a while and played a while longer last night. Using the touch screen to control a game is addictive and fun as hell. I have only played the initially available mini-games for Mario 64 DS so far but they alone are damn fun. Even small stuff is a whole new experience when playing with a touch screen.

The new Gaming System era has begun and I'm loving it so far.