Write-up: Electronic Dojo's Replay Rundown

By Justin Xavier, head writer at ElectronicDojo.co.uk

First and foremost, I pretty much have to chalk Replay Expo 2010 up as the most incredible event I've ever been to - after all where else do you get to see every video game console known to man in one place!

From the Neo-Geo to the Panasonic Gamecube to the Atari 2600 to the 360 and everything in between, if you could name it, it was probably there! It's pretty frequently that we talk about the 'golden gaming era of auld', but a real love letter to the gaming community to actually live it all one more time.

Even more substantial was the fact that so many games were available and avid fans dug through boxes of cartridges to find that one special childhood memory - while others preferred the Pinball/Arcade set-ups throughout the event.

Replay Expo 2010 didn't just limit itself as an exhibition show either; the community was able to enter some pretty intense competitions and get their hands on much newer content including Kirby's Epic Yarn, playing off against the programmers of several old school games and even setting world records! Naturally new school gamers were not forgotten with the likes of Halo Reach and CoD, and of course Electronic Dojo was present to represent the fighting game players. Sega made some noise with a Sonic 4 speed run competition rewarding the fastest time with a copy of every game they release next year while Donkey Kong awarded the highest score with a CUSTOM ARCADE CABINET!

The Venue was no slouch either providing plenty of space to host the madness - two 60" screens were able to host some SUPERB 24 player games including Bomberman on a really cool pick up and play system meticulously designed to make player identification somehow just work; it was a really awesome concept and something more recent games are really lacking...

...and bang in the center of all this, there was your very own ELECTRONIC DOJO area - two tables showcasing Super Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, Blazblue, HDRemix and even a little Marvel vs Capcom 2. Having announced tournaments for SFIV and T6 early on, interest from the casual audience was insane with the 32 player cap being met in under 15 minutes! While quite a few casual players signed up, the better players naturally crawled to the top with several of Manchester's Gamerbase guys placing high as well as some unknown players (Kenny and MonkeyLegs coming to mind). Due to the massive interest and low player cap limitations, our players were unable to enter SSFIV leaving the crown to Manchester's HutchUSA who clutched out an intense match against Jiji (also Manchester based!)

Things being a little quieter on the second day allowed for Electronic Dojo members Azido (though he decided to sign up as 'Mr Reynolds') and Zalarus (who went with 'Hollie' for his own reasons) to take part in the action!

While Azido tore through the winners bracket with ease, Zalarus was knocked to losers early on by Manchester's Goukifafa and instead climbed up the losers bracket. Manchester again had a strong showing with the exceptional all-round player Kaworu making 2nd place both in the winners and losers brackets albeit to a slightly one sided finish against Azido in the Grand Finals. Slim Adey's 'consistency!?' saw him in 4th place in both tournaments for better or worse!

Thanks to the Replay Expo staff's phenomenal production values (and the fact they were stand-up great guys, allowing us to use our lagless equipment throughout!), the finals made it on to their beautiful twin screens and projector - all with the ELECTRONIC DOJO logo appearing in-between the likes of Sega and Nintendo which brought tears to eyes!

Thank you to EVERYONE that supported us by entering and helping out, to the Replay Expo staff for being helpful and understanding all while hosting a brilliant event, to Manchester for generally being awesome...Finally, thanks to (myself?) Lom, Adam, Jason, Simon, Usman, Nayan, Rachel, Steven, Mo and Anthony without whom it could not be possible and most importantly, to Dave Moore for making it all happen and getting us involved! Do it again next year!!! -Electronic Dojo-

You can find many many more pictures on our Facebook page - feel free to add us while you're there!