In a Tetris mood tonight? You should probably head to the EMP, then.
As its kickass exhibit called The Art of Video Games winds down, the downtown Seattle museum is hosting a series of late-night tournaments.
Tonight until 8 p.m. is the Mighty Tetris Tournament, while a Mario Kart tourney will be held April 18 and a “Super Sports Night” on May 2.
The tournaments will be conducted on the EMP’s huge Sky Church screen and there will be cash prizes, trivia, food and drink specials as well. You can gain entry by simply paying the museum admission fee.
The Art of Video Games exhibit takes you through the incredibly short yet robust evolution of video games as an art, from the Atari VCS to Myst to the Nintendo Wii.
Organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibit is on a 10-city tour with Seattle as the only West Coast stop. There are 20 kiosks set up, each featuring original consoles (SEGA Master System, N64, PS3, etc.) with four influential games played from that time period grouped into categories: Action, Target, Adventure, Tactics.
At each kiosk, you can learn about the ins and outs of each game with an audio/video spotlight. For example, the 1985 NES station has descriptions of Super Mario Brothers 3 (Action), 1943: The Battle of Midway (Target), The Legend of Zelda (Adventure) and Desert Commander (Tactics).
There are also five era-specific games available for hands-on play: Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flower. Yes, that means you can actually play Super Mario Brothers on the original NES.
There are also some awesome concept sketches from World of Warcraft, Fallout and Starcraft, along with interviews with some of the top figures in the gaming world.
The event runs until May 13. See more photos here.
