Australian Gamer Game Event :: SupaNova Sydney 2007

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SupaNova Sydney 2007

Jae attends and reports on Day 2 of the SupaNova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney 2007

Goto Day 1 (coverage by Starks) | Goto Day 2 (coverage by Jae)

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The sun was shining, the air was fresh and the GPS in the company car was my best friend getting to Olympic Park. Only 4 weeks old in the city that is Sydney and the roads still look like a never ending maze to me. Traffic was much better today, unlike yesterday where the inner city was a nightmare, taking roughly half an hour from the heart of the city to get my nerd on. Finding the entrance to Supanova was a job on its own. Hardly any signs and the best way to find it was to follow the cosplayers and people wearing nerd specific t-shirts.

In through the doors you are greeted by the Xbox car which seems to house the LCDs and 360�s which played the latest Naruto: Rise of a Ninja game.

BFFs to infinity
Then it became true, during day 1 I had a picture taken with the all awesome Xander Harris (real name Nicholas Brendon, doesn�t sound as cool). Took my copy home but low and behold another copy of it is stuck up on the wall outside the photo studio! My photo was the display photo for Xander�. MY PHOTO!!! It was an honour and the best thing ever. I consider this a sign, that Xander and I are now BFFs. Of course Xander is a fictional character and so are my hopes & dreams.

The day before (with Xander). Not washing right shoulder. Ever.

The only way to really feel the vibe, on the grander scale of things, was to get high. So I did. As you can see there were a few thousand fellow enthusiasts roaming the floors of the Olympic Dome all looking for that perfect figurine/card/gashapon/comic or videogame to complete their collection. Is this what the interwebs look like?

My Superhero So one of the first stalls I pass by had the greatest Fat Momma merchandise. I stopped for a while having flashbacks to the �Who wants to be a Superhero� series by Stan Lee on the Sci Fi channel. The lady behind the stall asks me if I was a fan of Fat Momma and I nodded, then I turned my head a little to the right and almost jumped out of my skin. There stood the embodiment of all that was good hearted in our neighbouring brothers of USA. Fat Momma. Man was she cool! Got me a signed doughnut. Trivia for the fans: Fat Momma told me she originally had Twinkies tied to her belt, but due to infringements & copywrights the producers altered her outfit and replaced the Twinkies with doughnuts.

The Games
This was probably the part that was lacking the most. With the biggest game previews and demos being Guitar Hero III (PS2), Eye of Judgement (PS3), Juiced 2 (X360), Naruto (X360), Simpsons (X360) and Timeshift (X360). Where was the Halo 3 tournament? C�mon Microsoft that would�ve been the biggest event on the floor! (Aside from Xander). Not surprisingly Nintendo had nothing to show that was new, EA brought their MySims whilst EB hosted Super Paper Mario and Wii sports. Wow. I guess a Metroid Prime 3 demo was really too much to ask. Even the Singstar was very out of date (no 90�s, Pop hits or Rock Ballads). But Xander did sing Soft Cell�s Tainted love (with Nicki Clyne from Battlestar Galactica).

Look at me I can sing! (Xander beat Galactic chick twice�. All that good practice from �Once more with feeling� eh Xander?)

Eye of judgement looked to be a great card based game. Positioned cleverly around the Magic the Gathering battle tables, Eye of Judgement looked to be a solid game for card gamers and non-card gamers. This non card gamer just didn�t get it� I gave up after 3 turns as my attention span was lacking.

Juiced up 360s. 4-way races abound.

Timeshift, could this be a sleeper FPS hit?

The most popular videogame at Supanova.

Same old same old. Surpised it wasn�t a Gamecube set up.

The Cosplayer Religion. Worship, act out and have no shame.
I still can�t think of the character I would dress as in a Cosplay competition. Maybe a teletubbie or Ada Wong from the Resident Evil series. Either way I�d look damn good. Which is not something I can for all the cosplayers at Supanova. Have to give them props for standing up on stage and strutting their stuff. Day 1�s turn out was greater in numbers whereas Day 2 had more standout characters.

Day 1
A) The group end of day photo. B) Ryuk from Death note. Love the mask. C) I think they were meant to be solid snake. Either that or a really bad MASH theme. D) One of my faves. Phoenix Wright with Mia and Maya Fey. The Objection! Sign was the icing. E) No cosplay can hide from a Transformer! This Optimus even transformed on stage, classic! F) A few shinigami with Orihime (Bleach). Meh� G) Majiin Boo has been to weight watchers. H) I) & J) It just went from bad, to worse, to just plain wrong. K) Cloud Strife, impressive tool. Nice sword too. L) Guilty gear??? M) Scorpion, Sub Zero and Reptile. Or was one of them Shang Tsung?

Day 2
A) The group end of day photo. B) Awww Cosplayers are getting younger and younger each day. C) A Midna! The head piece looks very detailed. D) Some Espadas (Bleach) nice bone structure. E) Paine from FFX-2, looks paineful to wear�.getit? F) I liked these L�s (Deathnote) especially the girl in the middle holding the phone like how L did. G) Starwars characters with Ewan McGregor in the little red shirt. H) A Final Fantasy 10 final summon was preformed on stage. I) Balthier, Yuna and Seymour. The hair piece for Seymour looked time consuming. J) The cosplayers sitting down, Spidey was actually great on stage doing kicks and cartwheels better than Tobey Maguire. K) Lulu, after checking out her outfit it looked very detailed and well made. But she�s no Xander Harris.

Mascots are so hot right now.
A few guest appearances from the great icons in videogaming and Scifi. One thing I didn�t care to photograph was the Wrestling. Watching grown men fake hit each other is like seeing a plastic surgeon using plastic knives and forks to perform a boob job. Its just disgraceful.

The real reason why Sonic is in Brawl!

Mario, Jae, Sonic and the newest videogame character starring in her very own MMORPG, good friend Vanessa!

Fiona looking her finest. Dunno who the chick is on the right. Bless!

My past experience with game related conventions has been limited to the very disappointing Go3 in Perth, so this was by far a +10 in my books. Oh no I now speak like a Magic the Gathering player�.If I see another Naruto headband wearing kid I think I might just set that person�s head on fire� I walked out of there a happy nerd today. Great stalls done by Madman, King Comics, Tamarket.com.au and even EB games. I have added a few Phoenix Wright badges, a Death note bumper sticker, Bleach Key rings, Pig stickers and an issue of Animavericks to my collection. Not to mention a Photo with my new BFF. Aussie gamers that have some interest in Anime, Cosplay, Comics, Magic or Yaoi (don�t google you�ll regret it) get yourselves a ticket next year. Gamer only? You might want to save your money and read our coverage on Australian gamer.

You know you want to see Xander do the Snoopy Dance at Supanova! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5xVddoGRC0

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