Wake up, eat, Cube Club, write, sleep….repeat. That’s the plan for this weekend. It’s a little late, but I needed sleep. 2 days of cube love will take the energy right out of you. Here’s my thought from Night #2 of the Cube Club Minneapolis.

The gaming began at 6pm, and I arrived fashionably late at around 6:15. It was packed. I had about 2 hours by myself, before my friend Ben stopped by to get his butt handed to him in Madden 2002. There were people wall to wall, it was a little warm, but it was time to geek out and have some more fun.

There were a couple guys there that I met the night before that basically commandeered a Rogue 2 station for themselves. What made this station different than the others was this GameCube had a memory card in it. I think all of the GameCube’s in the Cube Club had at least the first 3 levels open for people to demo, but these guys in one night had unlocked 7. The Team Nintendo reps came over and we’re like, “Um, even we haven’t seen these levels before.” I stopped by and checked their progress once in a while, and played with them a couple times (they rotated a controller between the 4 of them), but Rogue Leader isn’t a game that I want to blast through in a night. They weren’t acquiring medals, they were just playing to see how far they could get. I just wanted a taste of the later levels but don't want to ruin the full experience. I can’t wait to get this game at home, in surround, and LOUD. Impressions coming shortly…

The crowd was digging everything as expected. People were a little louder, because it was generally an older crowd. The Mall of America kicks out the kids without supervision at around 8pm, so it was mostly 18 and up after that. It was interesting to see what this different demographic was into. Here’s the results of the top 5 most popular games….

1. Super Monkey Ball

2. Super Smash Bros. Melee

3. Luigi’s Mansion

4. Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2

5. NBA Courtside 2

Multiplayer games were generally the most sought after games for the night. It made sense, due to the fact that the crowd was mostly made up of groups of friends who were going out for the evening. There were a lot of girls this night (word), and they were definitely getting their girl-game on. So what games see to be the favorites of the ladies?

1. Super Monkey Ball

2. Pikmin

3. Luigi’s Mansion

4. Super Smash Bros. Melee

5. Star Fox Adventures

There was one girl there that was schooling a couple guys in Smash Bros. Very nice indeed. Overall, Monkey Ball’s Monkey Fight and Monkey Target (the Pilot Wings type level) seemed to win the hearts of the ladies. Pikmin I think is too cute for women to resist, and the maternal instinct kicks in, and it’s all over.

Ben finally got his lazy butt to the Mall, and we had a hard time finding a Madden machine that we could just play 2 player. We finally found a system where two 12-14 year old kids were playing. They told us they would kick our butts. They talked smack to Ben and I for a good 5 minutes while we set up the game. I told them not to be mean to me because I’ve never played a video game before in my life. Before we even made it to the end of the third quarter, Ben was throwing touchdowns like Brett Favre in heat, the kids quit the game, and called me a cheater. Karma can be beautiful.

The Cube Clubs seem to be a complete success. Again, there wasn’t a person in the place that wasn’t having a good time. Well maybe those two kids. Oh well. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be heading back tonight or not, but I will be going back one more time this weekend. It’s kind of hard to resist GameCube love when it’s practically in your own backyard.