I left the container of my heart in the San Francisco store in Nintendo

I am in a group of adults slowly descending in a white store in bright colors, and the little spectrum of joy that escapes from our mouths with the appearance of walls of smiling squash games. Our tourist guide concludes his tour, and while he was disturbing his recent facts, he helps the crowd. “Do you think you are ready to shop?” My response repeats the words of the former operations director at Nintendo Regi Felis- E3 2007: My body is ready.

The Japanese Games Nintendo opened its first western coast store in San Francisco on Thursday-the second in the United States after the front of the New York City store. While it stores a lot of companies that feature the most famous personalities in the company such as Mario, Peach, Link, Zelda and Way a lot of Pokemon, its website Hint To future events such as those held in other stores.

A few days ago, CNET was treated to take a direct look at all good things and new tools that await fans in San Francisco.

Inside the store

He was appointed at the GEARY and Powell intersection in the Union Square neighborhood in San Francisco, the first thing you notice is the Nintendo characters that line up on the windows of the store, where Mario led the group to the main doors. Upon entering the store, the clean white aesthetic greets you with the Nintendo brand.

“We want (Nintendo San Francisco) to be more than just a store,” said BJ Sadner, regional general manager at Nintendo, the director of the Nintendo store, who led the new site tour. “We want to be an overwhelming experience, we want to overwhelm you in our characters, with our world.”

With this spirit, a colleague of Nintendo store told me many Pikmin statues throughout the store for guests to find. (I returned five, they told me that there are still a few.)

There are the required store stations, the items that you can find only in the San Francisco site, which distinguishes it from its counterpart in New York City-which is the SF mark, the shirts, and the covers that “Nintendo San Francisco” says. These designs have found somewhat dull and somewhat sterile. I was hoping to see more taste in San Francisco. New York City was once a group in Kanji, for example. But at least, you can also find the Nintendo Parade wedding that adorns other souvenirs in San Francisco, including small numbers and exclusive bags. Sadler noted that any products with the Red Nintendo Square logo indicate that they can only be purchased on Nintendo US sites, either in San Francisco or New York (there were no unique signs on SF).

Also on the ground floor, there was a dedicated section for actual gaming equipment, including a region that customers can collect together Nintendo Switch Oled with their choice from Colored-Cons and Docks. (Nintendo representatives were very ridiculous about what was happening, if there was anything, in the store to launch Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5) Nintendo warning Watch, launching the company’s large sudden devices for 2024, waiting to take it home.

The basement is the place where they had “big guns”, if it is possible to speak, or at least the main swords. Like the Nintendo store in New York, there are areas dedicated to Splatoon, Legend of Zelda, as well as Pikmin, Kirby and Pokemon. There was also a giant display to watch shoppers playing games, along with a giant wall of ampebo with more difficult characters like Super Smash Bros and Kingdom Hearts.

A sales colleague has passed through a kiosk where visitors can log in daily to get Nintendo Platinum, which can be used in Nintendo Eshop’s Nintendo Eshop bonuses. “I just moved to a new place, so I was storing animal prevention,” said colleague.

A comfortable mirish forever

Although some time has passed since I went to the New York Store, the poll from friends and Tactok confirmed that a great topic for NY is Pokemon, and it features a Pokemon Center almost the size of life where it has a herds of Pikachu on the shelves.

While Pokemon has a presence in his counterpart in San Francisco (I almost moved away with a Psyduck bag), it seems that there is a greater dedication to more comfortable series such as Crossing Animal Crossing and Pikmin, as well as a generally stained game decor.

The angle of animal crossing was distinguished by a wide range of home commodities, such as the granulated nuclear coffee mill that bears the “Roost” brand, the in -game cafe headed by Brewster the Pigeon, with a matching cup and the plate group. Other kitchen commodities such as a square, a glass jar group and a dead oven caused some screaming from me and another sales partner, who gently pointed to the Caway animal crossing stationery equally with stickers, sticky notes, openings and pens of personal nature.

On the bottom floor of the Zelda legend section, I was taken with the Zelda Fairy collection, especially a large Fu leather portfolio and a fantasy conservative with a throat of the iris. Beautiful accessories in the shape of a container in the shape of a container, which was almost not enough, found its way to my shopping bag, framed the scene.

Under the line, the luxurious enamel and Wadde-Dees pharmaces looked at me from their wheels while a Pikmin blind box and flower buds (successfully) moods might tend to my shoulder.

In terms of price, I was surprised by the pleasure that most of the elements were not terrible and more likely to be priced in the pricing that you will find in the entertainment park. I expected the above coffee mill to be about 70 dollars, but it was priced at $ 40. Likewise, many wallets and bags were the most complex design at $ 35 or less. The Pikmin Blinds were $ 10. But there are still extremist values ​​- an elegant team missile has been marked at $ 120, for example.

Why San Francisco? Why now?

Before 2025, Nintendo had four official stores all over the world: three in Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka) and one in the United States (New York). Now, San Francisco represents its fifth retail site to sell Mirch directly to the fans.

The opening of the San Francisco store comes at a pivotal time for the city’s economy in the city center. Retail vacancies were achieved in San Francisco Standard records Since the outbreak of Covid-19, with the closure of a number of major stores, including the Westfield San Francisco and Messi Center, the former shopping center in the city of Union Square in the city.

When Nintendo announced the official opening plans for the store in May 2024, the London dynasty at the time to publish On X, “We are excited about the future of San Francisco and look forward to welcoming this iconic brand in our city.”

Supervisor Danny Sotter, which represents the San Francisco 3 region, which includes Etihad Square, He said KQED in March, “I started the narration in San Francisco in the transformation … (PBUH) ready to take a chance of San Francisco again, and it is striking how it wasn’t that six months ago.”

Whatever the reputation of the city, the fans’ response was enormous, with the “Warp Pipe Pass” shopping for the opening week that was sold in minutes, and continued on the weekend. The local population overlooks the windows and took pictures as soon as the signs were high. Reddit User Caterpillarfederal43 to publish A picture at San Francisco Subreddit in April 2025 with his dogs, noting that he visits every day to get a chance to use Streetpass (analogous feature to Nintendo 3Ds) with his colleagues from fans.

End credits

San Francisco has a legacy in the culture culture, from the previous walk to the match Game developer conference It was held at the Moscow Center. Now it has a retail site and an event space for one of the world’s largest gaming companies to welcome fans.

Whether you are from Nintendo Superfan with ISABELLL jacket jacket or a tourist looking for a “Gamer-I” souvenir for relatives, San Francisco Nintendo Store looks perfect for spending all rupees and your bells. Just be careful with a harmful pikmin along the way.