This weekend in search for a little relief from the week full of tragedy caused by the greatest fire disasters in Los Angeles history I went to a brand new gaming convention in held at the downtown convention center. I had bought tickets for it a month in advance so that was one of the reasons I went, otherwise I probably would have just stayed home, but then it was a rare opportunity to meet the legendary players of the old Mortal Kombat era:
From left- Daniel Pesina (the original Johnny Cage as well as most of the ninja characters like Sub Zero and Scorpion) his brother Carlos (original Raiden and fight choreographer for all of the MK games until MK11) and Anthony Marquez (the original Kung Lao and Fujin from MK Mythologies). They were the nicest and the most down to earth people I have the pleasure of talking to, and I even gave each of them a nice litttle gift:
(Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with Anthony but he did get his gift as well, which sadly did not keep a digital copy of, darn). I also came home with these cool autographed photos, one of them you might just recognize:
And as if that wasn’t enough, I also met up with the voice of the new Scorpion, Daisuke Tsuji, who also voiced Jin Sakai in GHOST OF TSUSHIMA
And yes I gave him the gift as well as you can see, and even reunited him with his little brother!
(The signed Ghost of Tsushima art)
Understandably the crowd was pretty sparse considering the dire situation outside but it was a good way for some people to enjoy themselves, including myself, and find little relief from the grim times we are all living through right now. There were rows of free to play classic arcade games, some vendors and artists selling their merchs, which were pretty small considering this was a brand new con but one I’m hoping will soon pick up in the coming years, and there were even a cosplay contest that I actually watched parts of, though I didn’t stay to see the winner (unfortunately I cannot post here as there is a 10 image limit per post so let me continue into the new post…