What is surprising is I was expecting a lot more news coverage on the Mana Bar opening this last weekend. Unfortunately most of the news sites are already too busy with news of God Of War 3 being released, or Final Fantasy 13 or PAX East which is coming up. Well whatever is in the news this is definitely not out there enough so we here at Campus Gamers have collected what we found to spread the news.

Unfortunately Campus Gamers is located in Canada and is too small to send someone out to experience the grand opening of the Mana Bar, but we still found out what is happening.
Today was the second day of the Mana Bar being open. For those who don’t know what the Mana Bar is, it is the world first video-game bar. The concept of drinking and playing games just goes hand-in-hand, but no one has done it before. Some concerns do come up wondering about managing expensive electronic equipment around drunks and will women actually come out to an event like this. Both these are questions that the Mana Bar has been dealing with, along with other questions on how to keep the bar exciting. As the current information collected from their Facebook and Twitter page, they are handling the situation well.
The first day of the bar being open they had an incredible turn out, with an extensive line outside of the venue. The managers of the bar actually brought out free pizza for the crowd to show their appreciation for everyone who came out.

For more information you can visit their website http://www.manabar.com.au/

Come Febuary 2010 Austrilia will be openning it’s first video-game bar. Video game bars are starting to open up all around the world now that video-games are being considered an alternative night-life style. This venue is offering high-end coctial drinks and latest new game releases. The bar is also centered around a focus of social games, like guitar hero tournaments. With big names like Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg & Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw supporting this project they expect geeks to flock in from all sorts of areas to game. With a capacity of 50 people, it is a smaller bar but will comfortably fit a large number of gamers.

For more information visit their website or their facebook fan page

With Tatsunoko vs. Capcom coming around the corner a new Fight Stick has been announced by Mad Catz. Now when I first heard that the next Campcom cross over fighting game was announced for the Wii I was a little scared. Like really the Wii-mote and nunchuck are nice but I could never play a fighting game on them. This latest model from Mad Catz, your Wii-mote slides right in and your ready for wireless play.

Campus Gamers always has Fighting Sticks avaliable at their gaming events because the control and play style with fighting sticks are much more comfortable for fighting games. I actually believe they do make you play better (but we do offer controllers there for people who are not fans of the fighting stick).

The Fighting Stick is priced at $79.99 on the GameShark store, the official Tatsunoko vs. Capcom FightSticks is expected to be available between the middle and end of this month.

As an additional bonus Mad Catz has announced the fighting stick will be backwards compatable. Nothing has been announced with what yet, but it is assumed it will work with you classic Campcom downloads on your Wii.

So it dawned upon me, I really should start a Blog about Campus Gamers. Most people who are a fan of Campus Gamers are curious about how it started and where it came from, so this will be an online log about that. It’s my quest on making this culture happen. As it grows, I hope we get other authors on board and make something huge, but right now – just one step at a time