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I usually visit at least a couple cons each year. One of the cons that has been in my rotation for almost a decade is the Seattle-based anime convention, Sakura-Con. This year was no exception.

I headed down with my buddy as I always do and we took plenty of photos of the cosplayers, many of which were dressed as videogame characters.

Sadly, I’m not sure if I’ll attend anymore, since this year had the worst lines I’ve ever experienced outside of a game-system launch. I made the mistake of not pre-registering, which left me waiting in line for six hours on Friday. I really wish I was exaggerating. Even the pre-registered attendees had to wait three hours. For whatever reason badges are not sent in the mail like other cons (such as PAX). This caused me to miss a rather interesting sounding panel on Chiptune music, much to my dismay.

Despite Friday being a total bust, I still managed to have some good times over the weekend. I always look forward to checking out the Pink Gorilla (formally Pink Godzilla) booth and, to my surprise and delight, they had a mini arcade set up this year. In it were several Japanese arcade machines, mostly from the SHMUP genre.

Wanting to get as far as possible, I saved my quarters for two games specifically. Espgaluda II was the main attraction for me. It’s a series I’ve wanted to try for quite some time and it did not disappoint. I managed to get quite a few levels in (four, I think) before running out of quarters. When I had later acquired more change, I started doing a lot better.

"By the end, I was able to leave my mark in 4th place with the initials: POO"

Sadly, that’s also when the machine started eating my quarters. If it wasn’t for that, I probably wouldn’t even have moved on to Armored Police BATRIDER. The Pink Gorilla staff were good sports, though, and even credited the machine with the lost money. But since they couldn’t bring back my continue point, I just let one of my friends use it.

Speaking of videogames, everything I bought at the con was game related (though I didn’t buy any actual games this time). I ended up leaving the con with two Valkyria Chronicles statues, the Disgaea 3 art book, and RockMan.EXE Official Complete Works.

You can check out the full cosplay gallery here and listen to more about the con on episode #60 of the Barrel Roll podcast.

Tags: 6 hour lines, anime, Armored Police BATRIDER, Conventions, cosplay, Disgaea 3, Espgaluda II, Mega Man Battle Network, Pink Gorilla, RockMan.EXE, Sakura-Con, sakuracon, Valkyria Chronicles

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