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Gamer's Night Groove

Maybe it's part of my personality, but I usually spend weekend nights up late, surrounded in pyramids of off-brand soda cans and cursing my Dorito-encrusted controllers. So when I heard about the Gamer's Night Groove, I was a bit intrigued. A gamer's event? At a club? This could be interesting.

The Gamer's Night Grooves have been going on at various locations in New York City since November 2003. This particular event was held at a club called Rare, close to Chelsea Piers near the lower west side of Manhattan. The people in charge intend to make it a monthly event, and hope to expand it to even larger venues in the future.

I stepped in shortly after the event began at 6 PM. The place was entirely quiet, with the bartender looking extremely bored. In the next room was a lounge with a variety of systems set up. Capcom was sponsoring the event, as the big draw was the release of the Megaman Anniversary Collection earlier that week. In addition to the new collection, a few kiosks were set around with other Megaman games. The other primary theme of the night were high art concept games, so a few of the systems

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were devoted to Wipeout XL and P.N.03. I question the decision of these games – there's nothing wrong with Wipeout, but it's pretty far from the fresh sort of game you'd want to have at events like these. And there's absolutely nothing good at all about P.N.03.

The highlight, if anything, was Rez. Played through a projector on the dance floor, the fluorescent glow of the game's neon psychedelic glow was amazing. Since Rez's soundtrack is pretty much its own trance music, the

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fact that they had the music turned off and a regular DJ playing his own dance music was a bit puzzling – especially considering that there was absolutely no one dancing. Decorating the place were a few very interesting paintings by Dave Mauro, which were done with Megaman pixel-style.

There were only a few people when I got there, although people were steadily flowing in. Many of them were girlfriends waiting patiently with their guys, littering the air with questions like "How do I make Megaman jump?" and careening off ledge after ledge. After a few hours, a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament broke out, which was the only real competition during the time I was there.

Since the attendance was pretty low and quarters fairly small, the event seems to be primarily social. If you love to meet, hang out and just generally BS with people about your hobby, you'll find the Gamer's Night Groove to be pretty worthwhile.

Website:

http://game.newyork-tokyo.com/

- Kurt Kalata

(July 14, 2004)


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