Ad Disclosure: We were provided with press passes for this event.
We are a family of gamers so it was no surprise that we were delighted to be offered press passes to attend Insomnia – the Gaming Festival – at the NEC, Birmingham. The girls are now old enough to be playing all kinds of games on the multiple platforms we have in the house – PC, Switch, and PS5 – and were keen to try some new games and enjoy everything the event had to offer.
Almost as soon as we entered the event we found the large area dedicated to families, with tables of computers set up to play various kid friendly games including Minecraft & Fortnite, as well as picnic benches with physical games to play. These surrounded a large open floor area with more games for kids to enjoy, and they even had tables set up with colouring sheets and crayons to help entertain young guests.
As well as the games in the Family Gaming area, there was a Retro area with a huge range of consoles and arcade machines where people could play some old classics. James enjoyed showing the girls the consoles and games he used to have as a child – including challenging them to a Mario Kart race – and Lydia absolutely loved Duck Hunt on the NES, she had to be dragged away.
We enjoyed walking around and looking at the various brands and some of the latest controllers – James was drooling over the AimControllers booth and was delighted to get his hands on Nitro Deck from CRKD to see what it was like.
We’ve been using Satisfye grips on our Switches for years, but Lydia especially preferred the Nitro Deck in her smaller hands, and all of us liked the way they felt. Sonic wasn’t the best game for me to test it out on though as it just makes me stress out completely when I play, so I was a bit distracted by that, oops! I did eye up their new NEO S controller too – I currently have an 8BitDo Lite 2 controller that I use with my iPad Pro for gaming on the go, so it did tempt me as an alternative.
James and I have been thinking about getting a 3D printer for some time now so he was really interested to take a look at the Creality 3D Ender 3 V3 SE that Technology Outlet had there on display. He’s had to order a 3D printed part a few times recently from people who print & sell useful things online so it’s getting to the point where he wants to just be able to print them himself!
All four of us really enjoyed exploring the large Indieverse area. There was a decent selection of upcoming Indie games that we could get hands on with, and the girls delightedly collected stamps and stickers as they played their way through the various games.
Lydia’s favourite was definitely Morgan Metal Detective (I loved the look of it too – we both take delight in games like Powerwash Simulator so not a surprise we’d enjoy a metal detecting sim), and both girls enjoyed Rocky Road Racers (which has definite Wreck-it Ralph Candy Crush vibes), Phantom Paws and High School Hills. Lydia has also just informed me, as I type this, that I’m not to forget Fromage Fortress or Barnaby’s Boat, as she had great fun playing both of those too.
We dragged the girls away from the Indie games area to spend some time at the Insomnia Stage in time to watch the extremely hilarious improv comedy show The Dark Room for Kids by comedian John Robertson. The whole audience, including the four of us, were all absolutely in stitches all the way through his interactive text based adventure game.
Lydia was very disappointed she didn’t get picked to join in, despite waving her arm wildly. However, we did queue up afterwards so that she could meet him and have a photo snapped with him, which she was very happy about.
After grabbing a bite to eat and spending some time exploring the festival, shopping in the marketplace, and enjoying the various booths, we also checked out some of the afternoon’s events on the Insomnia stage.
The Cosplay Championship was really entertaining, with some amazing costumes and entertaining little skits as each competitor took the stage. The winning Link cosplay performance by Opal Ink Cosplay was absolutely fantastic – and our favourite too. All of the competitors looked great and I was a little bit in awe at how beautiful some of the cosplays were.
Following the Cosplay Championship was the Just Dance Showdown which was the culmination of people participating in the Just Dance area during the day, bringing the best dancers together on stage to compete against each other in front of some experienced Just Dance judges – who also graced the stage themselves a few times to entertain the audience with their own dancing!
Lydia and I both enjoy Just Dance so we loved this, and the audience got to take part in the judging for the final round, which Lydia especially thought was great as she whipped out her brand new (to her at least!) phone to scan the QR code and put in her vote.
Between all the on stage entertainment and game playing, we had a great time exploring the festival, including checking out the Just Dance area, doing some shopping, and taking a peek at the eSports & LAN areas where people were having a great time going head to head in their favourite games.
The girls spent some of their Christmas money on various fluffy things, and Lydia was over the moon to spot a Princess Peach Cat cosplayer and have a photo snapped with her. We entered competitions, bought some guide dog tombola tickets, and generally enjoyed immersing ourselves in the geekiness of it all. Lydia won an extra large men’s t-shirt which she was delighted with – and promptly wore to bed that night!
There was even more to see and take part in for the adults attending too – and everything too inappropriate for kids was hidden safely away from young eyes – with immersive experiences involving zombies, life sized D&D sessions, and more. It was certainly a great day out for our geeky little family and I’d definitely recommend Insomnia for gamers of all ages.
