Pocket Gamer versus Pocket Gamer: a StreetPass adventure

Pilotwings Resort is a game. Street Fighter IV 3D Edition is a game, Asphalt 3D is a game. Even Face Raiders is a game.

But StreetPass is not a game. It's a feature of Nintendo's new 3DS that lets you automatically exchange game-related information with other 3DS owners.

Except certain trendy cutting-edge academics will tell you that everything is a game, from studying at university to losing weight to accumulating a pension fund.

Being natural gamers, the Pocket Gamer team - or those of them equipped with 3DSs and some free time on Saturday - decided to make a game of seeing how many StreetPass encounters they could accrue in an hour.

Here's how they fared.

There wasn't much point in skulking around my tiny village looking for a StreetPass hit – I doubt anyone living in the area knew about the 3DS, let alone owned one.

So my only hope was to go somewhere crowded, and where better than a near-capacity football ground? Surely at least one punter would be packing Nintendo's latest gizmo.

At half-time I strategically skulked in the bustling concourse, but the punters seemed more interested in filling their faces with pies than their StreetPass Plazas with Miis.

While filing out at full-time with thousands of others I was a little concerned that I hadn't set the system up correctly – after all, it had only arrived half an hour before I left for the match.

But on the way home I realised to my great surprise that I had managed to connect with a fellow 3DS-toting fan, called Dave. I learned that he had been playing Street Fighter 4 3D Edition most recently – clearly a man of taste.

I was impressed with how quickly the 3DS processed this encounter. With people quickly dispersing from the football ground in every direction, it only took a second to make a connection.

I hope that in future matches I can get more friends in my StreetPass Plaza – it’s a little awkward having just my Mii and a single stranger standing there. I need a third person to break the ice.

The fools. Unbeknown to Mike and the others, I had devised a cunning plan to win the competition - one that would net me tens, if not hundreds, of StreetPass victims in under an hour.

Seeing as Cambridge’s launch event was a bit dead, I took the the train to London and started the timer in Highbury, having just visited a friend. I couldn't wait to see all the little Miis' faces when they realised they’d been had.

Just to ensure an extra thousand or two Miis, I also enabled Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition. I even hand-picked my team to include the puppy-loving Frenchman, Abel. Je vais gagner!

My first location was outside the Highbury and Islington tube station. I popped into a pub showing the England game in 3D. Disappointingly, despite all 14 of Highbury’s 3D fans being in the room, none of them appeared to be carrying a 3DS.

Unperturbed, I took the tube to King’s Cross station - one of the busiest transport hubs leading out of London.

The concourse was packed. I walked among the families and off-duty protesters like Assassin’s Creed's Ezio, carefully nudging them aside as I hurried to accumulate thousands upon thousands - maybe millions - of new StreetPass encounters.

And then my time was up. I retired to a quiet corner of the station to count up all the billions of StreetPass people I’d acquired.

Look upon my number, ye mighty, and despair. For it was:

Mark
North Marston, Bucks. Population 693

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the same bustling metropolises as my urbanite colleagues. For them, stumbling across someone with a 3DS in their pocket is a novelty. For me, stumbling across another human being is excitement enough for one day.

Living in the middle of nowhere, with such fertile communal hotspots as a pub, a primary school, a graveyard, and a patch of grass called 'The Community Sports Field', I had no real expectations of finding another person with a 3DS in their pocket.

Still, I persevered and trekked around this sleepy British village regardless.

Much to my amazement, no one had purchased Nintendo’s new system. Not the farmer herding his sheep, not the postman, and not the doddery old lady waiting for the bus, and not the local livestock. My best hope, the local primary school, was shut. And I’d probably be arrested for hanging around the front gates, anyway.

Luckily, all was not lost. Anticipating that some customers might lack the means of racking up chance encounters, Nintendo added in a fail safe: pretty much every StreetPass feature can be unlocked by walking.

Every 100 steps nets you a coin (with a limit of ten coins a day), so some light exercise (1,000 steps is a surprisingly short stroll) can get you through the two StreetPass games, Quest, and Puzzle as well.

It’s a lot harder, though. When I finally arranged a StreetPass meeting with my brother, I found that it’s much faster and easier to race through the Quest and Puzzle modes with a friend than to cough up coins.

You’ll need two coins to buy a puzzle piece or unlock a hero, but only one StreetPass pal to do the same.

But, if you’re in the same situation as me, it’s a nice alternative. Well, 'integrating with society' or 'performing light exercise' is still a pretty grim choice to have to make. I think I’ll just play Pilotwings.

Being the rather competitive person that I am, I thought a little too hard about where I should wander for my hour of StreetPassing.

Living in Manchester city centre, you'd assume that I'd simply venture into the busy shopping area and hope to catch a few signals there - but I had my eye on a much bigger prize.

I jumped on a bus and headed down the road to Fallowfield, the student capital of Manchester. My reasoning was that plenty of bored students would have picked up the latest Nintendo handheld and would be down the pub, doing what students do best.

It was also the perfect excuse to have a drink on the job.

I took a walk down Wilbraham Road first, the main bus route through Fallowfield, and a road that connects to one of the busiest bus routes in Europe.

After a 15-minute stroll, my StreetPass light still wasn't glowing. Time to bring out the big guns.

The Orange Grove was my first port of call. After a relaxing drink in the sun, my 3DS still showed no signs of StreetPassing life.

With half an hour already gone, I was getting desperate. I decided to cut my losses and head over to the Friendship Inn, hoping to perhaps catch someone on the way.

Alas, as I sat down with a second drink there was still no blinking light. With only ten minutes to go, I was beginning to feel like a failure.

I popped into the toilets to relieve myself, with my 3DS in my back pocket. On returning to my seat, I took my handheld out to behold, glory upon glory, A blinking light!

I opened the console up and jumped into the StreetPass Plaza to find the smiling face of Mike, who greeted me with a quick 'Yóka!', and professed that he'd last been using the 3DS camera.

I had StreetP*ssed someone.