My experience at the 2025 Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo

Last month, the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo returned once again to the Anvil Centre in New Westminster on June 14. 

From vendors selling games for older consoles to panels talking about video games created in the last century, the event felt like a time capsule for older generations of games. 

As someone who missed out on the event last year, I never got to properly experience the event — until this year, when I finally experienced the event as an attendee. 

In terms of vendors and products at the convention, while there were some merchandise such as keychains and posters, video games and consoles dominated most of the stalls. 

As weird as it sounds, I saw older generations of games and gaming systems, like the Nintendo DS systems and GameCube consoles for sale, as well as their corresponding classics. I wasn’t even in high school when these were the most recent video gaming advancements to come from Nintendo.

I also found old Pokémon games for the DS as well as the handheld systems. While I didn’t purchase anything, I’d like to get the older Pokémon games such as Platinum to play at some point. 

While I was tempted to buy some bundles for the Nintendo Switch, I realized I’d rather save up for a Nintendo Switch 2. 

Gaming tournaments were also taking place at the event, where it was nice to still see people having fun competing. 

Lastly, I participated in a retro game quiz show segment. Considering most of my gaming knowledge was within the scope of the millennium, I didn’t think I was going to be great at the quiz. However, it was great getting to know more about games from before my time. 

There were four people in the group including me, and the questions were divided into four categories. Somehow, each category planned for the segment was a topic each of us was a borderline expert in. 

One of the categories was about songs played in eight-bit tunes. Thankfully, one of our members happened to know each of the popular songs played in that tune. 

The last category was about Nintendo, and you can probably guess who carried my team for that segment. It even had a Pokémon TCG Pocket question, which I was surprised about being included in the questions since it came out this only year, but I’m not complaining about a free point. 

For those wondering, my group won by a significant lead and I got a gift card for a game store in the New Westminster area. 

Overall, I was happy with my experience at the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo and hope to attend the next time it’s hosted.