It's August, and you know what that means... the AADL-GT Super Smash Double Dash Championship Season Opener! It'll be the centerpiece of a weekend of tournaments that starts off Friday Night, 8/18, with an All-Ages Dance Dance Revolution Tournament from 6-9 PM in the Downtown Library's Multipurpose room. Prizes for Beginning and Advanced players, and all ages, from kids to teens to parents, welcome! We'll then start the GT Season Saturday, 8/19, at Noon in the Multipurpose Room with Team and Single Player Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart Events for grades 6-12! Each event will award $40, $30 or $20 giftcards to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place players or teams. Please note that this event is planned to be broadcast live on CTN, comcast channel 18, so all players must have a signed release form on file. If you've brought one before, you don't need a new one, but all new players must bring a signed form to play!

Also, we've got a Mario Kart Tournament for Kids, Grades 1-5 on Sunday, 8/20, from 1-4 PM including prizes. Post a comment here if you have any questions, or register online for these events. Walk-ins are welcome, but be on time to be sure to get a spot in the tournament. Good luck, everyone, and we'll see you next weekend!

Start practicing for the AADL-GT Super Smash Double Dash Championship Series on Sunday, July 23, from 12-5pm downtown in the multipurpose room. Size up your opponents and get your clan together for some hard core practice playing Super Smash and Mario Kart. Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers in Super Smash, Mario Kart single-player and team events. If nothing else, stop by for some pizza and a little single player Mario Kart. Let the trash talking begin!

AADL-GT: Ann Arbor District Library Game Tournaments

It's been a long, long, off-season, but the wait is almost over. The AADL-GT Super Smash Double Dash Championship Series returns with our PRESEASON EVENT next SUNDAY, July 23rd, from Noon-5 PM at the Downtown Library. Registration is now open! This year, we've got several changes to the system planned, the biggest of which being MORE PRIZES! Each Gamecube Tournament will consist of 4 events: Super Smash Bros Free-For-All, Super Smash Bros. Team Battle, Mario Kart Single-Player Race, and Mario Kart Coop Team Race. The top 3 finishers from each event will take home giftcard prizes: $40 for 1st, $30 for 2nd, and $20 for 3rd. For Team Events, the teams will split that prize (you'll each get your own giftcard). So, if you manage to win all 4 events, you could walk home with $120 just from a single tournament!

As always, winning any single event qualifies you for the Grand Championship in december, where you'll have your shot at winning a DS, an iPod, or (hopefully) a BRAND-NEW NINTENDO WII! Read on for details about the the upcoming season...

Librarian Edith: Edith, courtesy of Amber

For my final post on the blog (I'm going to be a youth/teen librarian in Chelsea), I thought I would just put some funny stuff up for the purpose of entertaining you. Have a great summer! ^_^

The D&D Song
What if the iPod was a Microsoft product...

Mortal Peep Fight
VGCats.. just because

AADL-GT: Ann Arbor District Library Game Tournaments

Its summer.. and the only gaming going on right now is PokeMonday, so here's some filler! GameSpot held a little poll to see what the best games for the NES were. Here's the article with Reader comments on each game. From the responses I've read, some people find the lack of Kid Icarus and River City Ransom disturbing.

10. Ninja Gaiden
9. Duck Hunt
8. Metroid
7. Mega Man 2
6. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
5. Contra
4. Final Fantasy
3. Super Mario Bros.
2. The Legend of Zelda
AND NUMER ONE IS....

Ooooh... Shiny.
Via Joystiq

Presented by the Entertainment Software Association, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (or Exposition), commonly known as E³ or E3, is the world's largest annual trade show for the computer and video games industry and the third largest gaming convention. The expo is open only to game industry professionals, celebrities and journalists who are over eighteen.

The 2006 E³ show focused on the upcoming releases of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii, along with the next wave of games for the Nintendo DS and Xbox 360. Several websites such as the Washington Post noted in retrospect that Nintendo clearly dominated and stole the show. They cite as an example the queues; which were approximately half an hour long to play the PlayStation 3 and up to four hours long to play the Wii.

AADL-GT: Ann Arbor District Library Game Tournaments

The videogame industry is teetering on the precipice of the next console war. With Microsoft's Xbox 360 already established in the market, all eyes are on Sony and Nintendo, and what they'll announce at E3 in just a few short weeks. Sony's PS3 will be powerful and fast, but also embroiled in a disc format war could be disastrous for a product that may launch above $500. Nintendo's console, still codenamed 'revolution', has a radical new controller that offers intuitive play to a larger audience, a possible $199 pricetag, and a downloadable back catalog of 20 years worth of classic games. The all-important holiday season is fast approaching. Who will emerge victorious from the wreckage of the next console war? And, define 'victorious'!

COME SPECULATE WILDLY with a panel of gamers at Malletts Creek Branch on Sunday, from 1-3, featuring AADL-GT Season 1 Champion and Season 2 Runner-up, [gtplayer:143] (Stephen Savage), seasoned GT commentator and Season 2 comeback-story finalist [gtplayer:288] (Daniel Burgener), Lansing-based adult tournament competitor and gaming enthusiast Omokusaki (Zach Lark), and yours truly as your host and resident tattoo-bearing Nintendo Fanboy!

AADL-GT: Ann Arbor District Library Game Tournaments

This Friday April 14, AADL-GT is proud to present the first ever Retro Octathalon, an 8-game tour of videogame history with prizes for high scorers of all ages! We'll start off with qualifying rounds for each age bracket, with kids qualifiers from 1-3 PM, Teen qualifiers from 3-6 PM, and Adult qualifiers from 6-8 PM. Players will cycle through all 8 games, and the top 3 scores in each age bracket will win cool Retro Nintendo prizes from Wizzywig.

From 8-9 PM, the top scorers from each age bracket will face off against each other for a shot at a gamestop giftcard: $40 for first place, $30 for second, and $20 for third. Adult qualifiers and the finals will also be broadcast live on Comcast channel 18, so tune in if you can't make it!

We'll also have all-ages DDR on Saturday, 4/15 from Noon - 3 and all-ages Karaoke Revolution on Saturday, 4/15 from 3-5, plus open play on Monday! Come to the downtown library for some great gaming this weekend, and read on for details...

AADL-GT: Ann Arbor District Library Game Tournaments

OK, so the new branch is open and running well, it's time to get back to AADL-GT! We've got some very cool and very different events coming up in April. First, on Friday, April 14th, the first day of Spring Break, we've got the first ever AADL-GT Retro Octathalon, an olympic-style event featuring 8 vintage (pre-1990) games, and some great prizes for the best overall players. Then, on April 23rd, we'll be having a panel discussion on the State of Gaming, where we will engage in a definitely spirited and possibly civil conversation about where games are now, and where they are going, especially as we teeter on the precipice of the next generation. However, we need to flesh out some details for both of these events, so read on and add your comments.