This past weekend (November 11, 2023), I had the pleasure of going to the TORG Gaming Expo in Columbus, Ohio! My brother-in-law found out about the expo and I happened to have the day available that I could go with him!
The expo itself was massive. It was set at the Bricker Building in the Ohio Expo Center, which held 225,000 square feet of Video Games, Comics, Toys, Art, Trading Cards and a whole lot more with over 400 vendors. I only went for the day, but they also had an after party (which from the photos looked amazing!)
We started the day with a perimeter perusal of the venue. There were a ton of retro game collectors who were selling their games and some cool companies and indie devs, etc. I didn’t purchase anything in that area, but my sister and brother-in-law who were there found some really neat things to purchase, including a gift to me of a 3D Printed Retro Rareware Logo and a Banjo-Kazooie Lenticular Art frame (they know me so well…)
There were two things that intrigued me before the convention: They were doing a competitive gaming tournament with a fair amount of retro games, including Goldeneye 007, Smash Ultimate, Space Invaders (PS1), Donkey Kong Jr. and more. The other was that they had invited four voice actors as well as some YouTube influencers as their special guests. They invited the narrator of Runner 2 himself, Charles Martinet, as well as the voice of Peach/Toad, Samantha Kelly, the voice of Bowser, Kenny James, and the voice of Rosalina, Laura Faye Smith.
So, the first thing I did after our perimeter perusal was to head to the tournament area to make sure I was signed up for the day. I went and talked to the staff and found out that the ticket I paid for was not only for one of the games but rather for all the competitive games that day. For every game you would get points based on either your high score or how you placed in the bracket. With that being said, I sat down and played Space Invaders on the PS1. Granted, I had never played this version, but I figured “How different could it be?” Let me tell you, reader, it was different. While the idea is still the same, they added things such as power ups, bosses, and a level system based on planets. I spent 45 minutes on that game and racked up a score that was over 600,000 points before I got my game over.
I went after that and picked up some lunch from a food truck outside the venue which was great. When I went back in, I went back to the tournament area to make sure I was signed in for the Smash Ultimate tournament later that day. As I approached, the guy in charge of the tournament came up to me and asked if I wanted to be in the Goldeneye 007 (N64) tournament. I hadn’t planned on participating, but I decided to join. Through some incredible luck, I happened to win the Goldeneye tournament! After that I signed up for the Smash Tournament and went to wander more.
While I was there, I was able to see my best friend from high school as well as Obiwan362 (my best friend from college and one of my Payday 3 co-hosts) and made a bunch of new friends!
After I wandered a bit, I played in the Smash tournament and lost both of my matches in the double elimination tournament. The players were really good, but I’m going to blame my loss on the fact I played with controllers I’m not used to…. I should have brought my Pro Controller (I played with Joy cons for my first match and a GameCube controller for the second).
After losing, I decided that I wanted to try and get into the Charles Martinet line to meet Mario himself, but as I got up there one of the staff members made me aware that the line was closed as the convention was ending in a half hour and the line was incredibly long (It had been all day). Not letting it get to me, I ended up getting in line to see Kenny James. I went up to him and chatted and he was such a pleasure to chat with.
After meeting Kenny, I hopped to the next line for Samantha Kelly. As much as I love Waluigi when I play games, Peach has always been a main character of mine in Mario Party (and sometimes Kart) games. I went up to Samantha and found out that she ALSO plays the voice of Toad! With this newfound knowledge I slipped into a slight Toad voice myself and had a Toad conversation with Toad herself! This was probably the highlight of the convention for me!
The expo definitely gave me such a boost of serotonin this weekend and I’m so glad I found out about it! Unfortunately, due to other obligations I was unable to go both Saturday AND Sunday as it was a 2-day expo, but I’m hoping to go again next year! Maybe I’ll come home with a tournament championship next time! (I ended up placing 3rd overall!)
