I'm on holiday in Canada at the moment and it's around minus 14 degrees outside, the maximum low temperature the UK hit when at the worst point of its 'nightmare' winter. Yet instead of locking themselves indoors, turning the central heating up and waiting it out until the snow thaws, the residents here are out and about, going shopping, driving easily on the roads without any hassle, and seemingly not even noticing it's well beyond freezing. My moans about the weather were met with laughter as I was told that this is mild for February. Does not compute.
I was outside yesterday and was so cold that my legs went beyond numb and I had this weird sensation where every step was an ice cold slap to the thigh. Who are these people, these mutated master beings who can brave the elements so easily, laughing in the face of the world's other mere mortals who shiver like scared turkeys on Christmas Eve? They're Canadians, that's who.
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Anyway, this isn't meant to be a weather report (or whinge). I want to talk about gaming in Canada. We often hear about what's going on in the US or Japan, but rarely in other nations. I've been in Toronto for the past few days now, and took it upon myself to visit a few game shops while to see which games are proving popular. After seeing a copy of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for sale and cursing the Wii for not being region-free, I spoke to a kind shopkeeper behind the counter at EB Games (the North American equivalent of Game or GameStation) and asked him which Nintendo games were selling well.
"Probably Mario & Sonic, eh buddy", he said with his head flapping just like Terence and Philip in South Park. "It's because of the Olympics, eh". Of COURSE. The Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver this Friday, and the telly's been packed with adverts showing off the various Canadian athletes who are bidding to grab gold medals for their home nation. Naturally, as a result of this, copies of Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games are shifting faster than Britain's most famous ex-ski jumper Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards. Okay, maybe faster than that...
Other than this special occasion, I found that the Canadian trends aren't too different from those in the UK. Great but niche games like Tatsunoko Vs Capcom don't seem to be selling well (I couldn't even find a copy of A Boy And His Blob here and it was a pretty big shop), there are loads of rubbish fitness games (even more than in the UK - Golds Gym Cardio Workout anyone?), and games such as Just Dance are selling like hot cakes. Not that they'd be hot for long in this weather.
So compared to Canada, I'd say we were surprisingly similar. Sure there are some games that have been released over there that I'd like (Excitebots please Nintendo!) but it seems that the game games that are big in the UK are also taking off in Canada.
I'm curious to know if any of you have been abroad recently and, if so, whether you checked out the various game shops.
