For its fourth edition, Made In Asia show grows once more to occupy 2 halls and a half of Brussels Expo (17,000sqm). This year, wider aisles allowed a smoother flow of visitors. The stands were once again spread in 5 districts: Shinjuku with shops, Ikebukuro for associations and fanzines, Harajuku for fashion and Kinkakuji for various activities while Akihabara was reserved for video games. Of course, it's in this last section that ones could find Arcade Belgium booth. Although the majority of the 4,000sqm was filled with Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. There were also retro booths like Rastermania shop from Westerlo where visitors could buy joysticks and buttons for arcade cabinets as well as MVS cartridges and BE-Games's stand presenting the history of video games through consoles of all ages. Once again, DDR Belgium pleased the dancing fans with two DanceDanceRevolution Extreme arcade machines.
And last but not least, there was our stand; 64sqm of authentic Japanese arcade games hosted in Naomi Universal cabinets set on freeplay. This time, machines were not placed in line but arranged in a U. On the fourth side was our counter and two Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition cabinets. As for last year, we tried to provide recent titles in relation with the theme of the show: manga. And since we only had 18 cabinets, we had to make difficult choices (Fate or Hokuto no Ken?).
Finally, games chosen for their manga connection were Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble, The Battle of Yu Yu Hakusho, Fate/Unlimited Codes, Melty Blood Actress Again and Super Dragon Ball Z.
Much appreciated by players of all ages were the Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 multiplayer setup (converted from Crazy Taxi cabinets) where two players could compete in heated up races.
Shoot'em up genre was represented by Raiden IV from MOSS, AlfaSystem's Shikigami no Shiro III (with Munchausen unlocked) and the very cute Trouble Witches AC.
Because of their popularity among players, The House of the Dead III and The Maze of the Kings (which was never ported to home consoles) naturally emerged as the lightgun shooters of choice. Metal Slug 6, Tetris The Grand Master 3, Virtua Tennis 3 and The King of Fighters XIII completed this varied offer.
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition tournament
Saturday was the day of the free Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition. We did not expect to have nearly 50 entrants, which made the tournament last longer than expected. Thanks to all participants for their patience. Players reaching the podium won Xbox 360 and PC games, bags, T-shirts and goodies offered by Made In Asia, PlayerOne et Arcade Belgium. Once again, our friends at Player helped us for the tournament management.
Hardware used for the tournament: 2 Sega Naomi Universal Cabinets in versus setup, 2 Taito Type X² systems and 2 official Capcom control panels (fitted with Taito card readers and Sanwa joysticks and buttons).
An unplanned annoying event occurred during the finals: the low evening sun began to reflect in the screen of the second player... Fortunately, Omar and Esash solved the problem.
Winners of the day: 3rd: Dash Prof, 2nd: Almeh and 1st: Ka' Loan. He had announced that he would win the tournament on registration time and... He kept his promise! They leave with bags full of video games, T-shirts and goodies. Congratulations!!!
The King of Fighters XIII tournament
At Made in Asia 3, many visitors asked us for KOF. So The King of Fighters XIII took the place of BlazBlue Continuum Shift for MIA 4. This tournament attracted about thirty players.
Omar won against Esash at a fierce final. AAS-Kujiro finished on third place. Congratulations to all! As for the Street Fighter tournament, prizes have been revised up from last year as each of them won video games (and other stuff).
Cosplay
Made in Asia means cosplay! Kittycricri in her superb Cammy outfit poses with the Arcade Belgium team (SophieKitty shoots the picture).
Ragna the Bloodedge, Noel Vermillion and Jin Kisaragi from BlazBlue.
Playing too much Minecraft can cause impressive side effects.
Sakura & Shaoran from Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE playing Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble.
Video
Games
Very good impression for this fourth edition of Made in Asia that attracted about 21,500 visitors coming from Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Germany. All arcade machines were continually played by happy players and the wider aisles prevented congestion even on Saturday which was the most busy day. Visitors were especially pleased by manga themed games. A big "thank you" to all stand visitors and tourney contestants! See you on March 8-10, 2013 for the next Made in Asia!
Text / pictures: Sophie & Nomax.
All rights reserved.
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