GAMEHOTEL DEATHMATCH

The highly entertaining GAMEHOTEL DEATHMACH series is dedicated to testing the game designers' creative power. It stages exhilarating competitions between world-renowned game creators and courageous audience volunteers.

The latest edition of the GAMEHOTEL DEATHMATCH series took place during the GAMEHOTEL 'GAMING INTO LIFE' show. Defending champion Tetsuya Mizuguchi teamed up with Peter Molyneux to compete against Masaya Matsuura and Alex Rigopulos. There was also a highly motivated crew from the audience that represented local ad agencies. Their mission: to design the ultimate Over 80-controller, an interface that would allow gamers to go on gaming even after the age of 80. Peter Molyneux approached the task with zen-like detachment, saying, "I'll almost certainly be dead when 80, I smoke, I drink. And if I'm still alive at the end of Fable 2, that will be real plus."

The contestants were given 3 minutes to come up with a project. Thanks to a live camera on stage the audience could witness the different strategies adopted by the teams while preparing their pitch. With their tongue-in-cheek vision of a controller that automatically stops the game when the player’s heart rate exceeds 90 beats per minute, the Mizuguchi / Molyneux dream team defeated their competitors with an extraordinary display of creativity, and Mizuguchi took home the trophy for the second time in a row.

The GAMEHOTEL JAPAN UNLIMITED event saw a memorable cake modding competition between a Japanese All-Star team, featuring celebrated Japanese creators Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Keita Takahashi, and an Audience All-Star team. Their mission was a tribute to the ongoing, fruitful association of video games, food, and fun that started when the pizza-shaped, pill-eating Pac Man character first popped up on our screens: to decorate delicious cakes with famous video game characters. 

If this brings to mind images of pie-throwing slapstick farce, relax, that's not what it was all about. To keep things under control and moving in the right direction, GAMEHOTEL DEATHMACH collaborated with some of Europe's most creative patissier chefs who provide expert advice and professional tools to the contestants. The teams had five minutes to creatively decorate two huge cakes, made from premium pure Ivory Coast cocoa, with images of game character Carl "CJ" Johnson from Rockstar's GTA San Andreas.

Much to the despair of the chef patissier, the Japanese All-Star team immediately started cutting the cake in pieces. The flat marzipan CJ character was quickly rolled up by a big chocolate katamari. Despite strenuous efforts, and with vocal support from the public, the Audience All Stars could not keep up with such bold originality. Based on criteria such as precision, speed, originality, and, more surprisingly, hygiene and cleanliness of the work place, the chef patissier declared the Japanese team the winner - and the public was invited to join the contestants on stage for a final partaking of the creatively modded cakes.