Otakon 2006
Ahhh, the Baltimore Inner Harbor- what a great place to be in August with 30,000 other sweaty and stink-ridden otaku- welcome to Otakon 2006!
Arguably this is primarily an anime convention, but the anime and video game sub- culture seem to be inexorably linked. Otakon and other cons of its kind are devoted to Japanese culture first and foremost, so there's a little something for everyone who flies the geek flag.
Upon entering the convention center on Friday morning, there wasn't much to do until noon when the video game room opened; as you can see from the picture there were already 200 people or so waiting before they opened the doors.
Walking through those little arches into a huge warehouse chock full of any game you can imagine was like dying and waking up in geek utopia. There were huge flat screens set up in sets of four to accommodate the Halo/Super Smash Brothers Melee fans among us- periodically the announcer would cut through the din of ringing and stamping with his microphone and bark out instructions for side tournaments, like Mario Kart or Naruto: Clash of the Ninja.
The multiplayer games to be had here were not limited to newer consoles, either. Oh no- you could hook up some nasty four-player Powerstone, or wreck someone in Super Puzzle Fighter. Practically every version of Street Fighter was available for play, and you could even play Hexen on XBOX Live Arcade if the bejeweled on your phone just wasn't doing it for you anymore.
Japanese Arcade fans were also given plenty to do to occupy themselves; there were lines for Dance Dance Revolution out the door- and, frankly, you haven't lived till you've seen someone dressed as Phoenix Wright doing Paranoia on challenge mode. Beatmania made its appearance, and Pop'nMusic was swirling about in wild colors with crazy characters on a couple of TV screens.
Reflexes not quite that of a Jedi Master? Perhaps you should start small with Taiko Drum Master, or Guitar Hero; I even got a picture of the Grim Reaper himself shredding with the Grim Reaper. You'd think he'd wanna branch out a little, but I suppose there's something to say for loving your job. Got a couple of maracas you don't know what to do with? They had a playable copy of Samba De Amigo, my friends. And hey-if you like music games but don't wanna fool with a special controller, don't worry, they got you covered. Rez, Umjammer Lammy, Gitaroo Man, Amplitude, anything you could imagine was right in front of you, begging for you to hit start.
The video game room itself was not the only evidence of video game culture being a huge part of being otaku- probably 40% of the cosplayers here did some form of Final Fantasy costume. Fighting games are also popular; I'm going to be nice and not say anything about how much skin it exposes- but let's say some Ayames are better than others.
Finally, the dealer's room had four booths devoted entirely to Japanese imports. Pink DSes were on sale for the ungodly amount of 230 bucks if you just had to have one. I bought myself a copy of Gitaroo Man for the PSP, and Ouendan for the DS-which incidentally will be Elite Beat Agents in the US next month. Other noteworthy titles included Naruto: Clash of the Ninja 4 for Game Cube for 70 dollars, a couple of Bleach PSP games, and Jump Superstars. They were even selling Free Loader to make playing these games possible without doing illegal things to your consoles- how thoughtful of them, eh?
All in all it was a tiring and exciting trip into the kingdom of geektopia. Remember kids, if you're feeling particularly like an outcast some day, and you think no one understands you, remember this: until you're a man and you're dressing up like Sailor Mercury, you got nothing on these fans. Until next time, Mata ne!
- FoxyGamer
