GameCity5

Nottingham, 13/10/10 – GameCity, the world’s best-loved videogames festival, today announced the details of its closing event for this year’s festival, with a series of Mario events. The Super Mario (Birthday Tea) Party will take place in the GameCityLounge on Saturday from 10am. The Mario events are part of GameCity5, taking place throughout Nottingham.

To end the festivities with a bang, GameCity will celebrate the world’s favourite plumber turning 25 by inviting fans to join Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom for cake, games, costume competitions, face painting and moustache gatherings (for those unable to grow a moustache in time, GameCity have spares).

Hosting this one of a kind party will be the artist formerly known as Jumpman himself, who will join fans as they each don a moustache and indulge in mountains of cake, play games from Mario’s catalogue, have their faces painted and enjoy general merriment with a gaming legend.

Warping from cake and moustaches to the costume competition, fans are invited to attend the day dressed as any character from the Mario canon and face off against one another for a series of amazing prizes, with 1st place receiving a 25th anniversary edition Wii, and five runner-ups each winning a 25th anniversary edition DSi.

GameCity Director Iain Simons said, “Regardless of medium, there are few characters in the world with the instant recognition and appeal that Mario has garnered. It’s an astounding feat that needs to be celebrated, and cake and moustaches really are the only way to properly enjoy oneself.”

The Super Mario (Birthday Tea) Party is just one part of GameCity5, the yearly festival from GameCity that explores and celebrates videogames culture. For the full details on the festival line-up, go to www.gamecity.org. This event is free to all members of the public.

NOTES TO EDITOR

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*GameCityNights is a series of after-dark monthly events that brings together developers, students and players in a celebration and exploration of videogame culture - with prizes. Every month a brilliant headline speaker will be making their way to Nottingham to share their thoughts, passions and give a unique insight into their work.

GameCity is what a videogame festival should be. 

The Centre for Contemporary Play is a research centre based at Nottingham Trent University which pioneers innovative thinking through new partnerships. Since 2008 it has worked with a variety of leading organisations from the commercial and public sector to deliver major research and inclusion projects. These include the ITAG conference, the GameCity videogame festival and the National Videogame Archive - a unique collaboration with the National Media Museum.

Driven by leading thinking at NTU, the Centre for Contemporary Play continues to create radical and innovative projects in the academic and public engagement space.

Gamecity’s aim is to bring together developers and the public to explore and celebrate videogames and videogames culture, with a particular focus on students. We attract the best speakers in the world, offer up-and-coming artists and developers a platform for their games and create totally unique events.

Some of GameCity’s greatest hits include a world-record breaking zombie gathering, Keita Takahashi designing a children’s playground and Masaya Matsuura, Lorne Lanning, Alexey Pajitnov and Media Molecule having headlined.

We’ve worked alongside some of the most prominent names in gaming, including; Warner Bros, TTGames, Crytek, Activision, Namco Bandai, SCEE, Xbox, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Freestyle Games, David Braben, Media Molecule, Splash Damage, Harmonix, Rare, Denki, Monumental Games, Midway, Zoe Mode, ThatGameCompany, Nana-on-Sha and lots more.

Going way beyond just playing games, GameCity offers other new ways for people to interact with videogame culture. Art exhibitions, director commentaries, playground building, live recreations of videogames, gigs, gong-shows, three World Records, arcade trails, club nights – nothing is off limits for this most radical of videogame festivals.

Don’t just take our word for it, see what others have said after working with us,

GameCity looks poised to become our industry’s ?rst Sundance. A truly unique approach for hosting a game festival that seems long overdue.

Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants

GameCity is unique. Any games festival that can reunite industry legends, lead to a Japanese game developer designing a playground, and evoke religious sentiments in a shopping centre is doing something very right for sure.

Edge Magazine

The year’s most inventively programmed new arts festival

The Times