We had a blast this weekend at Bookmans on Ina... literally. Hard-core gamers came out of the safety of their own recliners to face-off in a one-on-one deathmatch, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 style. We fired up the XBox 360 and let our customers go at it for some cool prizes, like $100 trade credit and the much coveted 1st place trophy.

Hiya kids!

Oh, thank you so much to everybody who came out to our kids' tournament at Bookmans Mesa on Saturday, May 15th, 2010. With a total of 46 participants winning prizes, eating cupcakes and hanging out with ME, Mario, and my brother Luigi!

There were three top winners, James who won 3rd place, Tiffany who won 2nd place, and of course, who can forget Bryce, who won the grand prize trophy and a hundred dollars in Bookmans store credit!

There were more than 100 cupcakes consumed, 50 prize bags given, a ton of trivia hand outs, and of course a lot of Mario Kart Racing for Nintendo Wii! Check out all the great pictures from the event here.

See you all next time,

Mario (& Luigi, too!)

This weekend, Bookmans' Phoenix and Mesa stores kicked off Video Game Challenge Month (that's May!) with the first of the challenges at their stores. Over at our Mesa store, we teamed up with the Devastation team and hosted a Super Street Fighter IV tournament for teens and adults 14 and older. The competition was tough indeed, with a huge tournout! More than 50 matches were played, but only one came away with champion's bragging rights. After the dust cleared, "Juicebox" was our grand prize winner, with "Mr. SNK" and "Flook" coming in a close second and third, respectively. A special thanks to Robb and the Devastation team for helping us out with this event.

Video Games Live: A Guest Blog by Jason Kallelis (Twitter - @silellak)

As a long-time video game fan, I am no stranger to hype. Ask any avid-devourer of media, in any form - be it books, movies, television, music, you name it - hype is both your greatest friend, and your mortal enemy. The day always comes, however, when that hype must end - the day you play, watch, read, or listen to the creation in question, after months or even years of being told how life-changing the experience would be. More often that not, you will leave at least somewhat disappointed. There's a lot to be said for going into something with lowered expectations.

Devastation 2009 kicked off Friday with a line of gamers forming as early as 7 a.m. for registration - that is dedication, people. The line for badge pick-up stretched well into the lobby for most of the morning, with the action picking up on the floor with the matches for Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and the Bookmans-sponsored Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Just a guess, but we think Cal, Bookmans Grant's EEC supervisor, had a good time at E3.

Yes, it was Christmas morning and my brother and I were gnashing at the bit; for weeks the rumor in the house had been that we were getting a Sega Genesis and we were both stoked. Our parents had touted for years the importance of reading books and watching little television, and video games, well…they were the devil!

Since we're cranking out two big video game challenges in May, we thought we'd share our memories of the simple, blocky boxes and graphics of the past: Atari, Commodore 64, Pac-Man, Frogger, and more. Here's Part I of employees' tales of sibling wars, unfortunate liquid spills, and picking up cute girls in the arcade.