Nintendo Booth WonderCon: Shows Nintendo's Poor Grasp of Amiibos, Splatoon Great

Bwa-wahh-wah-wah. Gogh-na-ra-what.

"We can't understand you," someone shouts.

Na-thra-wha. Ga. Sha-rah-ha.

"What?," some yells out.

It's the start of the Amiibo contest at the Nintendo Booth and like Nintendo's recently painful handling of the fourth wave of Amiibo's being released things aren't going right.

At the lovely and sunny WonderCon Convention held at the Anaheim Convention Center, I'm standing around with a bunch of dudes trying to hear a Nintendo rep call out names for the contest. We can't hear him though because his mic and speakers are connected to cheese or some other food product that doesn't conduct sound. We hear inaudible noise, but some claim to hear their names and approach the middle of the booth. They are about to sign their Amiibos into a 3DS....  Are you kidding me? Why not just use a Wii U and display footage from that? Why not show the Amiibo battle with the sound turned up? Why not have one of the Nintendo reps be an entertaining host. He or she could call the names with some fan fare.

A few booths back at the Nerdist booth, they have a Wii U and Smash Bros is being played. Fans are enjoying themselves.

Back at Nintendo booth fans are swarming around the center to hear their names being called while tiny battles are happening on a tiny screen.

The Nintendo booth had a display case of the newest Ammibos, letting fans see the upcoming ones, a nice and simple touch. Their use at play at WonderCon was a poor last minute idea that if seen from an outsider, a parent especially, would make them consider never buying one with how poorly the Amiibos fights were held.

The Nintendo Booth's pacing graces were the Splatoon demo and earned t-shirts. Fans and I got to enjoy four on four battles and we're awarded pins for playing Splatoon. The demo of Splatoon really sold me. It gave me a chance to play Nintendo's take on the shooter with colorful graphics and winning by covering more of the level in my team's ink than the other. This was done gracefully with a well though out-line that wrapped back in fourth on the side of the booth. After a few minutes it was another group of fans turns to test the game.

You could earn a Splatoon t-shirt by playing three demos by Nintendo. Play any of the 3DS games at the booth and you earned youself a nice memento from Nintendo.

When Nintendo puts thought into it's booth it works. When they decide to cobble something together with a  camera locked on a 3DS they fail miserably. If they aren't prepared and have no one at command at the booth than they shouldn't have an Amiibo presentation. It makes their products look unplayable and from anyone looking at the Nintendo booth during the Amiibo battle it looked like garbage.