Video Games Live logo

I was privileged to have attended the Video Games Live Concert series in Vancouver. Aside from the hours of great ochestrated music and light show, there were plenty of things going on. They had a costume contest, video game competitions (Guitar Hero, NHL 2k10, Street Fighter 4, and Punch Out), an on-stage Frogger duel, and a few give aways. It was quite the experience and amazing to see the hardcore gamers coming out and dressing up as their favourite game personality. (Although Earthworm Jim did look pretty sweet, I still think the lady dressed up as the orange Pacman ghost should have won.)

Having grown up in the era when home entertainment systems were becoming mainstream, the experience allowed me to reminisce about some of the more memorable games of the past 30 years; namely, Chrono Trigger, Megaman, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gauntlet, and Centipede.

Overall, the one thing that I was most surprised about amoung all of the music, vidoes, and events was their branding. They were able to capture the experience in their brochures/programs, logo, website and advertising by utilizing their colour scheme to set the tone for the whole event. Everything was kept simple and clean and it was targeted directly at the audience that they were hoping to capture. One thing is for sure, I'll never forget their logo; that 8-bit pixelated space invader wearing headphones.

Here's the video for the Costume Content for those curious enough to watch.

And for those of you that remember the awesome music of Chrono Trigger: