Luke's Pokémon Memories: Nintendo Konga Beach Road Trip
Here are the memories of Luke, a Pokémon fan who attended a promotional event by Nintendo, and got the chance to play Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen before its official release
Between July 24th, 2004 and September 3rd, 2004, Nintendo hosted an event called the Nintendo Konga Beach Road Trip, which travelled to eighteen different locations in the United Kingdom, allowing attendees to play new titles and win prizes. Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen were two of the games present at the event, predating their official release on October 1st, 2004. The tour made its penultimate stop in Bristol, at Woolworths Big W. One of those in attendance was Luke (of Luke Loves Pokémon), along with his little brother and his best friend at the time.
In the summer of 2004, I saw in the UK's Nintendo Official Magazine that a promotional tour event for upcoming games would be coming near my home in Southwest England. I was, and still am, a major fan not just of Pokémon but of Nintendo in general.
Somehow I convinced my mum to take me, my little brother, and my best friend at the time. Around this period, we had a little website called "Pokémon X", and I bought some stickers and wrote our names and website on them and we wore them at the event. I don't think there was anyone there to interview, and we didn't even end up writing anything.
The event was primarily focused on Donkey Konga, as this was an upcoming big release for the GameCube. There was a big inflatable game where players were tied to a bungee cord and had to take big, plastic bananas as far along a wall as possible and attach them with velcro.
There were playable demos of loads of upcoming games including, yes, Pokémon. I played it and also took photos with the big inflatable Charizard and Venusaur. I played the demos but of course, they didn't really change my mind one way or another about the games!
The event was fun and I feel nostalgic when I see those old pictures, but as far as I recall there wasn't anything interesting or unique about what we saw and played there, nor was anyone from development involved that the public could talk to.
We wanted to know if Pokémon still meant a lot to Luke, so we asked him how Pokémon continued to play a part in his life.
I've been a Pokémon fan since it arrived in the UK. I got my copy of Pokémon Blue at my very next birthday and from there was obsessed. I played every generation from there out, with that leading to a love of Nintendo and developing into an interest in Japan.
I moved to Japan in 2018 and immediately started noticing how much Pokémon was around me. There was actual merchandise and promotional material, but also I could see the cultural touchstones that inspired the games or certain monsters.
After that I knew it was time to start the Pokémon Podcast I'd been thinking about for a while. At this point, I'm 400 episodes deep into covering various Pokémon families every week!
It has been almost twenty years since the event, but we hope that Luke, his brother, and his friend all have some happy and fond memories from visiting the event together. Special thanks to Luke for sharing his memory with us, and be sure to check out his podcast here!