Nintendo’s Street Pass and Conventions Are the Perfect Match

I have had a 3DS for a while now. I got mine back in September 2013 to help me pass the time, since back then I was spending hours every week in doctors’ offices. The fact that I knew Pokemon X was coming out in a few weeks was also a major consideration. I’ve since spent the vast majority of my time playing Pokemon X as well as various Mario games.

And that’s about it.

Yeah, sure, I knew there were other functions and features. But what did I care? I didn’t know anyone else who had a 3DS besides my friend Mike and all we ever did was trade Pokemon a few times. I loved Pokemon because I loved the interconnected nature of the game. The global trading service and Wonder Trade continue to blow me away. That feeling that you’re playing a game with hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world is just amazing.

I didn’t even really know what Street Pass was until a few weeks ago when I attended the Sun Devil Fan Fair here at Arizona State University. Therese and I had set up a booth to do some recruiting for Nerdophiles and we were mostly just hanging out. While we were there I noticed there was a Street Pass club set up in another aisle. I had just by chance happened to bring my 3DS along so I decided to ask them about it and finally get the details once and for all. Someone was nice enough to tell me what it was and how to use it.

By the end of the day I had 33 Miis in my plaza.

Okay, so, maybe that’s not a lot to some people. But I had no idea what this feature even was just hours before. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I’d have turned on Street Pass and carried my 3DS around on campus way more often than I did if I had known just how cool it was to see all the little Miis lined up and that I had the ability to interact with them in games and such.

When Therese, Jane, and I went to WonderCon over the weekend I was super excited to try out Street Pass in an environment where I knew I’d have tons of opportunities to Street Pass people. Conventions of all kinds – comic book conventions, anime conventions, etc. – are a great place to take your 3DS and try to do some quality Street Passing because you’re pretty much surrounded by people are going to be thinking the same thing. The 3DS is the perfect portable companion for events like this. (Sorry, PS Vita, I still love you, too.) Even when you’re not playing as long as you’ve got it on your 3DS is gathering more Miis for you.

By the end of the weekend I had nearly 200 Miis which, actually, is probably pretty low compared to what I could have had. If I had been smart I would have looked up just how Street Pass worked. Instead, I learned by trial and error. I learned by the second day that my 3DS could only hold 10 Miis at a time. I also learned that I needed to interact with those Miis to get puzzle pieces, play some of the mini-games, etc.

I had an awesome time figuring things out.

I also had an awesome time seeing where everyone was from and reading all the greetings people had posted up. Yeah, some of them were inappropriate but the vast majority of them were just nice little messages about being at WonderCon or nerdy catch phrases like the one above. For anyone wondering what mine says, it shouts: “☆NERDOPHILES!☆”

I did accidentally rate Therese as “Okay, I guess…” once, though, so, I’m obviously still getting the hang of this thing. (I figured if I just pressed A rapidly I’d get through things easier… I didn’t realize when you are asked to rate someone and you press A without thinking you’re default answer is that they are just okay! I figured it’d be fantastic!)

Now that I actually know what Street Pass is and I’ve started to learn the ins and outs of the application you better believe I’ll be prepared to gather even more Miis at Phoenix Comicon and SDCC over the summer!

Anyone have any tips or tricks for making the most out of Street Pass? Share them in the comments! I’m definitely interested.