The Mana Bar Opening Night – event coverage
By Bane Williams – Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:43am
Australia’s first videogame bar, Mana Bar, launched last week and games.on.net were invited to check it out.

Mana Bar is the proud creation of three men with a passion… and another who tries not to care. Located in the heart of Brisbane’s nightlife district, Fortitude Valley, owners Yug, Pras, Shay and Yahtzee are attempting to create something that simply doesn’t exist outside of Asian shores – a purely videogame themed bar.

The biggest draw of the Mana Bar is its unique mixture of booze and gaming, with a dash of great music thrown in for good measure. The owners have worked hard to create just the right balance, and each has a unique style. Yug the optimist, Pras the realist, Shay the experienced and Yahtzee providing a healthy dose of pessimism. Like a finely mixed cocktail, the personalities of each combine to produce the perfect blend needed to create the Mana Bar experience.

Speaking of cocktails, Mana Bar has a host of different flavours to suit every gamer’s tastes. From the seriously spicy ‘Breath of Fire’, to the ‘Princess Peach’ which is sweet yet leaves a strangely bitter taste in the mouth afterwards, through to the tangy and aptly named ‘Ocarina of Lime’.

During our visit, we sampled many of these lovely thirst-quenchers while chatting with the lads and discussed the potential popularity of the place, and whether pie is truly better than cake.

games.on.net: Hi there guys, what led you to the decision to launch Mana Bar?

Yug: Well I used to run parties fairly regularly at my house, and they were always very successful. From time to time we would have videogame nights mixed into these parties and I found that the mixture of beer and gaming worked really well. I pushed around the idea for a long time but so many people were excited by the idea that I realised I needed to make it happen.

games.on.net: What has been the biggest hurdle up until now?

Yug: The liquor license, people don’t really realise how much hard work getting one of those is. We’ve had a lot of people come up to us and say “I’d love to open a bar like this in Sydney, Melbourne, etc” not realising the hurdles you have to jump through just to get council approval.

Shay: The liquor license has been really hard to get, but getting liquor companies on board has been fairly hard as well. Some people, like 42 below vodka, just get that idea straight away and give us a tonne of support, but just as many companies struggle with the idea that gaming is not just for 12 year old kids.

games.on.net: For each of you, what is your favourite games or publishers?

Yahtzee: It depends on the mood, but I would say something like Portal or Silent Hill 2

Shay: Jagged Alliance really struck a chord with me. I love that series.

Yug: StarCraft II and anything published by Rockstar.

Pras: Do you remember Populous?

Stepping into the Mana Bar, gamers are immediately assaulted by a sight that would make gaming collectors green with envy. Various paraphernalia adorn the walls; a Hylian Shield, an old Famicon, various BioShock 2 items, even a resin replica (or is it?) of War’s sword from Darksiders.

Large high def screens dripping with gaming delights hang on the walls, begging to be played over a beer or six. “Mana Bar has been very lucky to receive a lot of publisher support” says Yug, and it shows. During the evening, these screens fired up with some great party favourites (Guitar Hero, Street Fighter, and Wii Sports, to name a few), but were also host to a number of unreleased goodies, including Raskulls and Just Cause 2.

To prevent drinkers from hogging their game of choice, each display has a unique set of rules that ensure everybody gets a go. Guitar Hero has a one song rule, before you must pass it over to someone else for a turn. A few games like Raskulls have a ‘winner stays on’ rule, allowing a skilled player to soldier on for multiple turns (at the risk of having everyone who plays ganging up on him/her).

One of the many creative influences of Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation has been the inclusion of themed consoles. Each console has a list of profiles that follow a certain theme, with the Normandy Wii being a prime example. Each of the Miis on this console resemble the characters from Mass Effect 1 and 2.

We’re happy to report that the launch was incredibly successful, with some eager fans arriving as early as 7:30am (the bar opened at midday). Prior to opening, there were well over 100 people waiting to get a sneak peek inside, and the line continued to increase for the remainder of the evening.

Keeping the crowd of gamers from rioting was a mean looking security guard dressed as Ryu, a menacing and creepy Little Sister, and a fully kitted Master Chief. The bar has a 50 person limit, and even when full to bursting point, there’s plenty of space to move around and swing a Wiimote without having to worry about knocking a drink out of someone’s hand.

The triumphant sounds of well fought victories extended into the deep of night, and not a single person left without a smile on his face (except Yahtzee of course, who never smiles). Coupled with the size of queue, all of this said one thing loud and clear – Videogame bars work, at least on their launch night.
For more details on Brisbane’s Mana Bar, as well as upcoming events like Yahtzee’s trivia night, head over to http://www.ManaBar.com.au/ .