Steph and I ventured through the humidity of NYC to go to Nintendo World for the premiere of Dragon Quest: Sentinels of the Starry Skies on Saturday. And while the event was not as crowded as it usually is for larger games [like Super Mario Galaxy 2] it had a fairly impressive turnout. The first thirty fans in line were able to get their copy signed by series creator Yuji Horii, the first of them being Andres Davila.

Andres initially came to NYC from Houston Texas, and road tripped here via rides from strangers, no less than seven total. Along with getting his copy of SotSS signed, he also got a copy of DQ7 signed as well, his favorite game in the series. Andres also plans to move to NYC after accepting a job at JFK airport.

Nintendo celebrated the event with free blue raspberry ice cream distributed in a Dragon Quest truck. Attendees of the event also received a free t-shirt with the classic Dragon Quest slime and the very appropriate phrase of “Party slime!” on it. Fans were also able to purchase the game early, along with demo stations set up all over Rockefeller Plaza to give the game a try. Sentinels of the Starry Skies, or DQ9 has had phenomenal, record breaking sales in Japan. and it’s no surprise as to why. The game’s major selling point, that we were set up to try at the demo stations, is it’s multi-player mode via WiFi. You can create your own hero and explore dungeons together with friends. Players can explore the world independently of each other too, and if they need help during combat but happen to be far from an ally, they can use the “Call to Arms” feature which will summon their allies to them for assistance. Steph and I had a blast adventuring together in Rockefeller Plaza and were able to take down the first boss of the demo with our custom characters.

Steph and I had a wonderful time, including getting our photo taken with the classic Dragon Quest slimes set up at the photo booth, while hanging out with Francois from DualShockers (who will also be throwing a party in NYC next weekend–Check out our Angels on the Go section for more information.) Sentinels of the Starry Skies will be available this week, be sure to pick up a copy and check back soon for our review of the game!