I’m not a huge Anime person these days to be perfectly honest. But it’s always cool when people come together to share in random shit that they like. That’s the spice of life right there.
I decided hella late to come to ACEN this year where I haven’t been in almost a decade. Like every year it’s in Rosemont over at the Hyatt and pretty much in a food desert. So that 7-11 run over by the Westin (where I stayed, about over a mile away.) really had to count. Shoutouts to Mountain Dew.
I got in at around 4:30. I had to go to Workcon before I hopped the Blue Line and made my way over to the Hyatt where I met Alex and Erik and we all got our badge situation together. Then I had to walk all the way to the Westin where all my gear was. My 50 pounds of camera gear. That a carried around all weekend.
ALL.
WEEKEND.
But anyway, I finally got back around 6, and I went downstairs to see my buddies at Tokyo Attack. They’re still kicking ass and bringing the most badass games with them. They’ve come a long way. I got some personal records on Pump and made many a nerd salty at Pokken. I really like the Pokken set up, they should really have at least one more though and run some tournaments on it. That’s just me talking though.
The rest of my time there was spent going to a couple of press junkets like with the guy who did the voice of Scorpion in the latest MK titles. The rest of my time was spent and filming a long video project that you’ll see in a few days (I’ll link it here when it’s done.) Then I entered Pokken where I got Top 16 and the tournament took wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long and started late. But that’s just how it goes.
All and all I wasn’t really blown away with the guests and such this time around. It must be an off year or maybe it’s just me. There wasn’t a ton of new info (they couldn’t talk about a lot of stuff, which I understand). But the guests were cool as hell folk.
Overall, despite having to walk back and forth to the hotel a total of 7 times and having issues finding the panel rooms (the map didn’t help a lot). It was actually a decent time. I saw people I had not seen in years and I have a ton of video footage I’m eager to show in a really unique way.
That all said, will I be back next year.
Yes, but in a different capacity. Stay tuned for that one.