NY Anime Festival 2009 Recap

Last month culminated in two incredible events that we're just starting to recover from. First up we have a quick rundown of the 2009 NY Anime Festival.

Have you ever been to an anime convention before? Well I hadn't and when we arrived at the Javits Center on Sunday morning I immediately knew this was no ordinary event. The NY Anime Festival was filled to the brim with various vendors, artists, gamers, and colorful cosplayers of all shapes and sizes. Although I wasn't able to identify a large number of the characters represented, the attention to detail on some of these costumes were mind blowing and the craftsmanship and time that must have went into them was extremely admirable.

These two are from FFVII

But beyond the crazy amount of anime art, comics, toys, and geek-tastic t-shirts there was also a large quantity of video game content at the show. While perusing the show floor we stopped to check out the offerings of our favorite local game retailer - Video Games New York, and witnessed an incredibly cool looking demo for Sega's upcoming action bonanza "Bayonetta".

This game looked all kinds of over of the top

Situated on the far end of the show floor was the World Cyber Game's (WCG) pavilion. This section was rocking and rolling with tons of various console and PC game competitions running concurrently. When we arrived, players were locked in a heated round of Virtua Fighter 5 (love that game btw) while another group was busy Zerg rushing in an adjacent Star Craft tourney. In addition to all the high stakes competition, there was a plethora of televisions hooked up with various games for the audience to check out - chief among them being Street Fighter 4 and Guitar Hero 5.

I think they're playing Halo 3

But we weren't there just to play games and watch cartoons. There was actually some game industry related panels and presentations happening in the midst of all the noise. The first was titled, "How To Get A Job In Video Games" and was a panel that, appropriately enough, covered breaking into the industry in New York. I was a guest on the panel and it was a lot of fun discussing the emerging New York game development scene with the other professionals. I also had an opportunity to speak with a number of aspiring developers afterwards and their passion for the subject matter was infectious.

After the panel, we stuck around and observed one of the most hilarious, entertaining, and controversial (for a room full of game nerds anyway) presentations we'd seen in a long long while. The talk was titled, "The Ten Best Damn Games Ever Made & The Ten Worst As Well." and was hosted by our friend Matt Hawkins. If you don't already read his blog (Fort90.com) you really should. It's awesome.

Ninth best game of all time: Alpha 3

As Matt went down his list there was chaos, there was uproar, there was incredulous and nervous laughter to be had by all. If you're interested in the list (and who isn't interested in lists?) it's posted in it's entirety over on his site - also be sure to check out the cosplay pics. He was able to take more than me.

So after a long day spent with anime, we were exhausted. The NY Anime Festival was great fun and here's hoping they bring back some additional game content next year!

We're outta here!

In the meantime, keep an eye out for our coverage of the NY Games Conference which will be going up shortly.