Today marks the day thousands of Pokemon fans kick it into overdrive for the release of the latest Pokemon games, HeartGold & SoulSilver. Nintendo held a event for the 2 games at Toys R Us Time Square Station, setting up a little road to show off and demonstrate the Pokewalker. Sadly, the rain decided to hate Pokemon today and it poured randomly from a drizzle to a heavy shower, limiting the amount of tours.

Rain will not stop the Pokewalk?

But the rain won’t stop this Pokefan! I recorded one tour just for those who couldn’t make it, braving the rain in my poorly equip poncho. Check out the first part of the tour below:

You can check out Part 2 here, as well as a little funny video when the guide tries to catch a Pokemon via the Pokewalker. As the tour finished, a representative from Nintendo asked the group to do it over again, for a official press video. After a few re-takes and joking around, the deed was done and I pretty much finished everything that was worth doing there. I guess the rain cut some of the extra activities planned for the day.

Did I meantion Pikachu was there too?

Before going into Toys R Us with my friends to buy the game, I spotted someone I didn’t expect to see: RawmeatCowboy of GoNintendo fame! It was great to meet him and the rest of the crew again, and was arguably the highlight of this event.

Left to Right: Me, Drzgamer, RMC & Johnathan

With that meeting over and done with, my crew entered the Toys R Us and picked up HeartGold for Johnathan. Next stop, Nintendo World to pick up SoulSilver for me & Drz! Thankfully the rain died down from there on out. A few blocks later, we entered the Nintendo World Store only to be greeting with a huge line! Even if you preordered you still had to wait. While in line the store blasted Pokemon tunes from all the games, even one of my favorites from Pokemon Platinum, the Battle Factory theme.

Not the longest line the store has had, but it was still pretty long!

Buying the game at both stores had swag-worthy benefits: Picking up the game at Toys R Us netted you a bonus DS accessories kit which included a Lugia & Ho-oh Styli, T-shirt,  as well as a gold & silver DS card cases and a awesome microfiber screen cleaner. All of that, and it tops it off with a $5 dollar giftcard! Definately the best out of the 2 places to buy it at. When I picked up SoulSilver at Nintendo World, I got a HeartGold/Soulsilver bookbag and a Lugia & Ho-oh Pokewalker skins. I preordered as well so I get that impressive (but small) Lugia statue. Overall, Toy R Us wins in the extras department, but just getting the game with the bundled Pokewalker is great.

Great haul.

I played a bit of SoulSilver before putting this article up, and boy am I loving it so far. It really is a special treat to see Johto again, and the streamlined interface has polish up the wazoo. This is definately a game to get if you love Pokemon, especially if you played the original Silver & Gold on the gameboy.

Check out my Flickr set of both TRU & NWS (40 Pictures!)