Joypad's #videogamedemocracy caused a stir at Boxpark

Shorditch is becoming the gaming hub of London - finding almost 2-3 gaming events every week now from Nintendo to Sega here is a non sponsored event to mix things up.

I was absolutely impressed with the equipment to put the #videogamedemocracy in to play. You had a large screen at the opposite end of the room (away from the consoles) attached to two sets of buttons which people need to tap continuously to make up numbers to win the vote. The large screen had two games to choose from.

Upon entering I asked how it went and I was just in time for a vote and 20 people ran across the room and button bashed like there lives depended on it. This consisted of perseverance and real passion! I absolutely loved the comradely - no trash talk - all friendly banter - the best part were a lot of the people had just met each there today.

I had a chat with a couple of people at the event some came alone some came in groups - Anders said he came to a previous event and invited friends this time around to come along and they all made circuits around the many consoles to play a bit of everything.

Every 15 minutes the vote began for a new game on different consoles, people were given wristbands after paying entry and were allowed in and out of the tent to smoke, bring food and drinks. The audience were a mix of people who came straight from work in suits and younger with 50/50 ratio of Male and Female.

 Joypad is run by George Swain and Matt Farthing. Their next event will be the Official EGX Rezzed Afterparty at the Pickle Factory.



Like Joypad on Facebook for more calendar events they organise or to book for events :-)

See more of my photos from the Joypad event here.

For more information on events follow my Twitter and Facebook. ~Aisha Anime~

Retztron Back at the Hoxton Pony!

It's been almost 4 months since I attended my last Reztron event - why? That's because they have a new venue for Saturdays so the Thursday events were on hold. Since they returned to the delightful Hoxton Pony in the heart of Shorditch.

I absolutely love their events purely becuase they are dedicated to Sega consoles. This includes: Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast


All the consoles were available to play at our discretion, friendly competition was encouraged for fighting games such as Mortal Kombat, House of the Dead 2 and Virtual Fighter 2. They used various tricks to utilise the space properly including over head projects on the wall and even ceilings which kept the gamers entertained.


Another addition was the Hoxton Pony Thursdays were now being sponsored by restaurants with free food sampling - it was Mexican theme by Killer Tomato. So after some button bashing on Sonic you could indulge in some tacos and cheesy fahitas upstairs by the bar.

From about 8-10 the event was jam packed with people arriving from work for a game of Virtual Tennis and a round of Karaoke. Karaoke included 80's rock to 90's cheesy tunes on the easy to use machine.

See more of my photos here. Follow me on Twitter for more event news.

Be sure to check out the official photos on their facebook page.

More events to be announced on twitter.

Photo by Sergio Hybrid Photography

Yippee Suikoden I and II available on the 4th of February on EU PS Store!

Update: 04/01/15 Suikoden 1 and 2 are avialbale to download from PSN today, both are individual games at £3.99 each in the Uk playable on PS3 and Vita only (currently). Support cult classics such as this being brought to the UK by buying the game :-)

Konami Europe announced at 09.55 today on twitter that #Suikoden I and II will be available on the 4th of February on the EU PS Store! As a fan and playing the original series on PSOne and having seen the Sega Saturn version i am thrilled to play this game again and complete all the endings - since I'm hardcore like that :-p

More information on the legendary series here:

http://aishaanime.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/suikoden-i-ii-releasing-on-vita.html

For more information on the Suikoden Revival Movement who sent numourous petitions to Konami Japan to re-release Suikoden go here:

http://aishaanime.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/suikoden-revival-movement.html

Cosplay: Viki

Series: Suikoden

Cosplayer: Aisha Anime

https://www.facebook.com/aisha.anime.ahmed

Suikoden I & II releasing on Vita in USA

The cult classic JRPG game that hit the Sega Saturn but got noticed on PSone Suikoden 1 &2 has finally been re released in America. After years of petitioning to Konami and the with the help of the Suikoden Revival Movement. 

Game company Konami who have brought out legendary games such as Metal Gear Solid and Yu gi Oh series have always avoided porting Suikoden but never explained why. Today December 9th it has been released on PSN for the vita in USA and hopefully the EU will follow.

Suikoden Series

Originally created by Yoshitaka Murayama, he based it loosely on the classical Chinese novel, Shui Hu Zhuan by Shi Naian. Shui Hu Zhuan pronounced is centered around politics, betrayal and revolution. Mystical crystals known as True Runes are dispersed in the world and whoever posessed one of them is considered "108 Stars of Destiny".


Though the Suikoden games do not follow a sequence of events, some are set in the past in different region and some far ahead in the future. The entire series (except for Tierkreis and Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki) takes place within the same world among continuing and overlapping histories where you even bump into a few characters along your journey. In some cases, several characters appear in multiple installations which is very rare including Jeane the Blacksmith and Viki the ditsy teleporting magician - both integral to the story and team.

These 108 stars possess powers to be used inside and outside battle as Jeane is not always a playable character but makes and upgrades weapons in your castle/headquarters as such. Viki can teleport you to places you have traveled to in the past to save time and can also teleport pots and pans to attack the enemy at random (which sometimes backfires.)

Also by gathering all 108 stars of destiny you can change the threads of fate and unloack a happy ending, will you save one of your loved ones? The politics aspect initially put me off but the art work grabbed me and you get so engrossed with the development of characters it becomes something of a mission to train characters learn joint moves and making the most of different possible conversations and unlocking special scenes.