Vintage Video Games Tournament and The DS Club

Posted by Skrud at Friday, October 27th 2006 at 12:01am

In case you had any doubts, tonight’s Vintage Video Games Tournament was awesome… even if the only “vintage” games I played were Pong and EA Hockey (a 1991 game virtually indistinguishable from NHL ‘94). I also got defeated in the first round of the tournament in a lopsided match of Pong: I got creamed.

The best part of the night was, by far, the impromptu “DS Circle”. I had my Nintendo DS with me, Harley had his, and after a couple of head-to-head matches of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan we were noticed by some other DS owners. Within minutes there were six of us, sitting in a circle, playing a multiplayer game of MarioKart DS. I think we actually spent the majority of the party playing with our DS’s, with the group’s numbers fluctuating as people left to play actual vintage games and then returning for more multiplayer gaming.

One of the most brilliant things about the Nintendo DS is that most games have single-cartridge multiplayer. Meaning only one person actually has to own the game for an entire group to play it. This was no accident – it’s precisely this feature that lets groups of would-be strangers start socializing and gaming with each other. (It’s also a great way to try out games that you might consider buying).

It was so much fun that we exchanged e-mail addresses and started up a group, the Concordia Nintendo DS Club, so that we could get together again – hopefully on a regular (weekly?) basis – and play some more games together. It’s amazing how the Nintendo DS can be such a powerful social tool. It’s no surprise that it renewed my faith in video games.

I had so much fun playing that I must have looked deranged, with a huge stupid grin on my face, as I launched red shells at Shy Guys and mushroom-boosted my way to victory! (Actually I think was in second place after all that MarioKarting).

We finished off the night with a four-way match of Bust-A-Move.

So if you have a Nintendo DS, and you’d like to meet up with a group of people to some multiplayer games on a (hopefully) regular basis, make sure to sign up to the group.

Tags: events, fun, games, nintendo, school