Joystiq live-ish at the U. of Illinois SSBB midnight launch

44 Comments by Kyle Orland Mar 9th 2008 11:35AM
Filed under: Retro, Nintendo Wii, Fighting

What started with around five people milling around an Urbana-Champaign, IL Gamestop at 6 p.m. became a throng of about 200 clamoring for the midnight launch of Nintendo's newest fighting extravaganza. But don't take our word for it -- check out our video report from the scene last night.

Tags: breakingnews, champaign, gamestop, illinois, launch, midnight, nintendo, ssbb, urbana, urbana-champaign

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

wait in the car: Mar 9th 2008; 9:42PM

Yeah, my alma mater! Woo-hoo! Chambana FTW!

Brentiger: Mar 9th 2008; 11:42AM

I wish I had a Wii right about now

Secura: Mar 9th 2008; 11:59AM

I could care less.

Billiam247: Mar 9th 2008; 12:02PM

On the other hand, I couldn't care less.

a ham sandwich: Mar 9th 2008; 12:25PM

ill agree with you but only because its in Urbana-Champaign, IL. what the hell? ah yes, that well known, easily-identified-on-a-map urban setting!

Kyle Orland: Mar 9th 2008; 3:44PM

RE: Being in Urbana-Champaign, I happened to be here on unrelated business, saw the crowd at the Gamestop, and knew I had to cover it. It might not be a major city, but the gaming community here is definitely strong.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): Mar 9th 2008; 1:56PM

Actually, it's champaign-urbana. Not the other way around no matter how much the U of I wishes it were so. Urbana might be slightly higher on the food chain if residents weren't always bitching and trying to keep new businesses from opening... just my thoughts on the matter (and yes, I live in Urbana, not Champaign).

But why should you care where this happened? You shouldn't, really. After all, the other gamestop in town sent all their tournament entries to the campus store so you have two stores crowd in one convenient and marketable package.

I was vaguely interested in going, but decided against it once I learned it was going to be in campus and I HATE driving in campus, especially on a sat night.

D_Average: Mar 9th 2008; 11:24PM

This guy is just ooozing w/ coolness.....

Doom3killer: Mar 9th 2008; 12:09PM

i thought it comes out tuesday... ohh well

Jnas: Mar 9th 2008; 12:20PM

rofl at random passer-by.

mr nimblewick: Mar 9th 2008; 12:31PM

I'm guessing you're not going to see many Wii owners comment in this thread. Unless it's to complain about how the game is sold out everywhere. Or they're like me and are waiting for amazon to deliver it.

Cheezeman3000: Mar 9th 2008; 7:26PM

I am like you, my friend. I preordered it last week and it should be here tomorrow. :)

chipotlehero: Mar 9th 2008; 12:34PM

Hahaha, I was there, that's hilarious that out of all the gamestops and shops joystiq goes there. huzzah.

By the way, have you ever smelled 100 nerds in a tiny ass gamestop? You probably don't want to...

ApolloIV: Mar 9th 2008; 12:47PM

LOL leaked footage from Dead Rising2 in that store...

Chris Lawrance: Mar 9th 2008; 1:00PM

I went to undergrad there and spent a bit of time between classes at that gamestop. They are great their and the manager is awesome. They love having people in their just to talk about games. Don't get me wrong they'll ask always ask the standard "what do you want to reserve" but sure enough they are a great group of guys all around.

venturestein: Mar 9th 2008; 1:01PM

I showed up at the Sam's club in Champaign-Urbana around 11:50 PM and was about 10th in line. I was walking out of the store game in hand before 12:15.... and the game only cost $44.

They also had about 20 Wiis, and they were letting people buy 2 since so few people were there.

The moral of this story is to never shop at Gamestop, especially not in a college town

Seattle Yonkers: Mar 9th 2008; 9:03PM

I didn't even know there was a Sam's Club around here.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!): Mar 9th 2008; 1:19PM

cool. i cant wait to get mine. i was all pumped up to get it today but i think im just gonna wait til tomorrow. i reserved it in the town i go to college in which is 30 minutes away so i think ill just save some gas money and pick it up tomorrow between classes. plus i have some homework to get done still and if i buy that...it aint gettin done lol.

SSBB ftw!

also, ive never seen a Gamestop that big! i live in a relatively small college town and ours is like 1/4 the size of that one. oh and that chick working there was smokin hot!

sepaar: Mar 9th 2008; 4:06PM

I am actually at the U of I and I can assure you it's not really that big. The video just makes it seem larger than it really is.

mezzanine: Mar 9th 2008; 1:33PM

I wish a naked woman would have walked in : (

Katy: Mar 9th 2008; 2:44PM

LOL at mezzanine...

Would you even know what to do with one?

mezzanine: Mar 9th 2008; 2:56PM

Stand in a dark corner and gawk at her nervously, of course. If we made eye contact I would wet myself.

Matt B: Mar 9th 2008; 8:18PM

..as would most people in that photo.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): Mar 9th 2008; 1:49PM

Wow, I could have been there....

But who the hell in Joystiq is located in champaign?

Hawc: Mar 9th 2008; 2:25PM

I think the best thing at my store was that they set it up so you got your game in the back...from a desk made entirely of rock band boxes.

ChooChooCharlie: Mar 9th 2008; 3:04PM

That's about how the one here at Purdue looked, 200 people or so.

I would be playing Brawl now too, but I just woke up from an 8 hour marathon.

sepaar: Mar 9th 2008; 4:10PM

I can't believe I missed that. I went there at about 12:20 to scope things out and didn't think there was a whole lot of room in the store and figured I'd just leave. My wii is actually back at home because I have a younger sibling and just wanted to see the game in action a week before I really could.

What a random place to choose to do this though. I guess U of I is a big school, but it just seems like there are bigger places to go for this.

It is definitely a big school for engineering though, I'm in mechanical engineering, so it wasn't surprising to see it so packed.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force): Mar 9th 2008; 5:23PM

True story.

A friend of mine living in Arlington (Virginia) got up this morning, went to the store, asked for a copy and just got it.

No camping, no pre-ordering, no bullshit.

jynxycat: Mar 10th 2008; 5:06AM

He's pretty cool.

Dio: Mar 9th 2008; 6:05PM

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ft/2008/ft080309.gif

Alan: Mar 9th 2008; 6:22PM

SATURDAY NIGHTS ALRIGHT FOR A FIGHT

Joeshie: Mar 9th 2008; 7:50PM

Haha, oh freakin' wow.

I looked at the picture and thought "Damn, that looks alot like the Gamestop I visit on campus" and low and behold, it is the exact Gamestop I visit at UofI.

My friends who went to pick up Brawl last night didn't go there though, since they knew it would be packed.

NATO_Duke: Mar 10th 2008; 10:02AM

See, I'd think you would be clued off by the "Joystiq live-ish at the U. of Illinois SSBB midnight launch" headline first.

Seattle Yonkers: Mar 9th 2008; 8:33PM

Hey! I go to U of I. Definitely wasn't expecting to see our GameStop on Joystiq. I'm there pretty often, but go figure the one weekend I go home, Joystiq comes to campus! Bah.

aerobica: Mar 9th 2008; 10:19PM

Are there only white people in this Urbana town?

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): Mar 10th 2008; 12:02AM

Except for all the black, asians, middle eastern, and native americans, yes....

fucktard...

Seattle Yonkers: Mar 10th 2008; 1:42AM

To echo the above statements, Urbana-Champaign is a fairly diverse campus. Like most places in the US it's predominantly white, and being stuck in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois, I'm surprised at how much diversity there is here,.

shadow93: Mar 9th 2008; 11:05PM

huh... I just pulled into my local GameStop today at like 5:00 grabbed my copy and left... However i have an obsessed friend who was waiting till midnight for it...

kb: Mar 9th 2008; 11:16PM

Hell ya UIUC

Purple Haze: Mar 9th 2008; 11:33PM

I hate everyone in that video.

Geist: Mar 10th 2008; 12:11AM

I will never understand why people do this kind of stuff. I mean, hell, I've been waiting for this game with fevered anticipation since it was announced, but if I could wait two years (or whatever), I could wait half a day.

NATO_Duke: Mar 10th 2008; 10:05AM

Yeah, it isn't my scene either. I have no urge to go grab a game late at night in a crowd of people I don't want to be around. Seems to make more sense to get some sleep and hit the store when its nice and quiet.

Amos: Mar 10th 2008; 2:29AM

The Halo 2 launch at that Gamestop was way bigger. The crowd wrapped from the cubby area in front of the store over to Wright Sttreet down to Jeruslaem Cafe at its peak :P.

shabooty: Mar 10th 2008; 4:32PM

i preordered at gamestop and got it the next day but i had to pull the worker there off the wii to ring my ass up.
i wish i woulda pre-ordered at circuit city though, as i heard they gave out a 10$giftcard if u preordered there.

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