When Nintendo invited me to go to a Wii Sports Resort launch party on the 16th of July (which is more like a pre-launch party I suppose), I was excited for lots of reasons. For starters, I've never been to this kind of event before � the experience is pretty exciting in itself. Secondly, I'd get to play Wii Sports Resort early without importing it. Thirdly, it was good to see that Nintendo had some sort of major marketing presence here in Portugal instead of a third rate distributor.

Off I went, together with a good friend of mine, an old N-Europe forum legend known for his epic facial hair, not knowing exactly how it would go down. Thankfully it went great. You'd be hard pressed to choose a better location, right next to Cristo Rei in Almada with a gorgeous view of the beautiful Rio Tejo with Lisbon spreading out right on the other bank of the river.

Later, I took a good swim.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Wii booths that were decorated with b-ball baskets, Kendo practice swords (which I wanted to take home), bows and arrows, small ping-pong tables and other things related to the game's sports. Also present in the booths were the eye-pleasing young women that knew very little about the games they were supposedly teaching how to play. In other words, booth babes (also wanted to take them home). When I saw them, I knew this was going to be a good day.

The next room was also well decorated with free food to stuff my face and one of the greatest achievements of mankind: the open bar. I was hoping to see journalists and celebrities playing drinking games, whoever lost on the Wii would have to drink a shot of something nasty. Alas, if something like that happened I didn't witness it.

So. Freaking. Cozy.

I won't go over Wii Sports Resort impressions in detail, because our full review will be up very soon, but I definitely had a blast. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't experience any sort of calibration problems, except in canoeing and I didn't have to pay much attention to it, which seems like a victory to me considering that loads of different people were picking up the controllers and flailing them around.

The first game I played was Table Tennis, which was great fun and all the effects one can add to the ball thanks to MotionPlus impressed me. Just like in real life I kept hitting the ball out, so I didn't start out well. While I didn't play Cycling, which seems to be the black sheep of the game anyway and I only played the multiplayer modes, I got a great feel of what MotionPlus can do and it certainly left me wanting Wii Sports Resort running on my own Wii fast.

Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods '10 were also there, again showing that 3rd parties can also share the Wii spotlight. Since I already had Grand Slam Tennis and our review by the great Mark Lee is up, not much to talk about, but that didn't stop me from playing quite a bit to test my skills. Of course being the awesome gamer I am, I won every single match. Go me!

Tiger Woods, also reviewed by Mark, which I heard was amazing, lived up to the expectations. I skipped out on last year's iteration, but still, the difference in controls is simply mouth watering even if I didn't have problems with the controls in '08. Only played a bit of Frisbee Golf, but it seemed great even if I didn't exactly do well at it.

There was also a girl showing off the DSi, taking pictures with it and promptly altering them. Rhythm Paradise was also playable, but as you can guess if you've already played the game, it's hard to play in the midst of the noise and confusion. Luckily I could somewhat manage through it from memory as I have the Japanese version. This no doubt wooed the girl, since everyone knows that gaming skills are to women like honey is to bees. Or bears, I don't know.

This is where the magic happened.

Later in the afternoon, the Club Nintendo guests arrived filling up the room a bit more, so I took my cue to take some time off from the games and get some nourishment and relax while enjoying the view and the cool breeze. Seeing an open bar filled with booze (and bartenders that no doubt were Italian mobsters) and journalists talking about Final Fantasy, casual games and the sort was an odd sight. That and the guy dressed up as a Chinese Table Tennis player whose vocabulary consisted of "Ping Pong!" and "Arigato" (which I'm pretty sure is Japanese), another one in a full body bathing suit armed with all sort of beach toys, and and a goth girl.

This is living.

I still checked out the gaming area to see what was going on and the crowd certainly changed a bit, now it wasn't composed only of people with blisters and tendinitis induced by gaming but also by children that brought their parents along (or vice versa) to whom I suppose Wii Sports Resort and the MotionPlus was something completely new. It was certainly a joy to see kids and parents alike having so much fun with the game and since I don't get any money from Nintendo games sold, I can only imagine the joy Iwata must feel.

I had a chance to talk with Nelson Calvinho, Portuguese PR for Nintendo Ibérica and overall nice guy who told me things were going quite well in Portugal in these first few months and that the Wii Fit events that are going on throughout the country are drawing a good crowd. No doubt about it, things have changed around these parts.

At 10 p.m. or so night had settled in, Portuguese celebrities like Bruno Nogueira, Joana Duarte and Triathlon Olympic Medalist Vanessa Fernandes, among others, started trickling in, projectors were showing a Wii Sports Resort trailer and the DSi pictures taken during the day, while the DJs began playing some mighty awesome tunes. Unfortunately everyone was too busy either getting drunk, playing Wii or just trying to be near celebrities to go to the dance floor, which filled me with much sadness. There were attempts to liven up the dance floor but they weren't that successful.

I'm sure if they had played the DK Rap things would be different.

I certainly had a good time, the games were great and seeing all types of people having fun playing was also a sight to behold. A fantastic start for Wii MotionPlus, Wii Sports Resort and Nintendo Ibérica in Portugal no doubt. Be sure to check out our photo gallery as well as Nintendo's with much more photos and taken by people more gifted at photography than me.

A big thank you to Nintendo Ibérica and Nelson Calvinho for inviting me.

Hug.