I've written about Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven and its predecessor Rhythm Tengoku a couple of times before. I love them, they are my ideal games. Nintendo did not need to do anything fancy to get me excited about the game's long-awaited western release, and yet they were kind enough to invite me to their DJ School event hosted at Scratch DJ Academy last week. You guys are so good to me sometimes.
A decidedly casual affair outside of the hors d'ouevre, most of the people I talked to there were from local community meet-ups and hip-hop discussion groups, a welcome change from the depressingly stereotypical otaku at most of the Nintendo events I've attended. DS kiosks glowed on the dancefloor, surrounded on all sides by turntables, and everyone seemed to be having a good time playing around with both.
Describing the night's activity is kind of futile, though, so here's a video I shot to give you all a better idea of how it went down:
I did feel a little down that I didn't get to compete at the end of the night and show off the vinyl scratching skillz I'd picked up in the previous two hours, but considering I would have dominated in the DS portion of the competition, I also would have felt bad depriving somebody else of the prizes.
All in all, I had a blast. Chatting with real people about a video game they'd mostly never heard of or touched before that night which I'd already completed twice (granted, in another language) provided a fun new persepective, and getting a few pointers on scratching records was sort of a daydream-come-true for me. Add on that this was all to show off and promote what will probably end up being my favorite game of 2009 and DJ School may very well be my favorite game-related event I've attended in years. More like this, please!
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