Nintendo Celebrates Switch In Style With Packed Taipei Game Show Booth

Image: Nintendo Life

Nintendo underlined its omnipresence in the Asian gaming market with a stacked booth at this week’s Taipei Game Show, where crowds of Taiwanese gamers have been piling in to snap photos with an animatronic Kirby and try out tentpole titles like Super Mario Wonder.

While none of the platform holder’s upcoming outings like Princess Peach: Showtime! were on display, the Big N is using the event to flex the sheer breadth of its catalogue.

The booth – one of the biggest in the cavernous, multi-storeyed Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center – sits adjacent to the event’s so-called Board Game Wonderland, where a similarly sizeable Pokémon Trading Card Game area, filled with passionate players, is situated. Mascots adorn the edges of each area of the Nintendo zone, with a particularly buoyant Kirby proving a popular photo spot for many attendees.

A vibrant Super Mario zone hosts last year’s major releases Super Mario Wonder and Super Mario RPG, with a green pipe situated just out to the front.

But, despite the presence of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4, the upcoming sports minigame compilation Umamusume: Pretty Derby attracted the largest crowds; its gacha-leaning smartphone counterpart is one of the top-grossing mobile titles in Asia, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the anime obsessed market in Taiwan has taken a shine to the title, which will launch worldwide later this year.

In addition to showing off its portfolio, Nintendo is also flogging a variety of items at its booth, including an obligatory selection of Switch games and accessories – as well as an uber-cute line of Super Mario plushies.

Altogether, it’s an impressive showing for a system entering its seventh year on the market, and while enthusiast interest is now increasingly fixated on Nintendo’s next piece of hardware, if this is to be the Switch’s final Taipei Game Show, it’s being treated to one helluva send-off.

Do you think this is a last hurrah for the Switch in Taipei? Let us know what you think of the booth in the comments.