CES 2011 – Organizing Games with Level Up Michael Kwan January 9, 2011 Extras The world of video games is changing. You may have noticed in recent years that your living room is no longer simply populated with a single console and a couple of wired controllers. You have drum sets, balance boards, steering wheels, and plastic guitars littered all over the place. There has to be an easier way to organize all this gear. And that’s where the fine folks at Level Up come into the picture. We had the opportunity to meet up with them on the trade show floor at CES 2011, taking a quick stroll through what they do to keep your living room clutter-free while still chocked full of gaming. Game Storage Towers For my part, this line of products really do represent the crowning achievement for Level Up. Standard home entertainment systems aren’t exactly designed to house your Rock Band guitars, leaving you with plastic instruments leaning up against walls. The Level Up Storage Towers fix that. They come in a number of different designs, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs. In general, they are meant to take care of a single console (usually vertically-oriented in the lower-most portion), a whole whack of game cases, and your assortment of controllers. In the case of the Wii Aperture, for instance, you get spots for four Wii Remotes, two nunchuks, and two guitars. Based on my brief hands-on time with these towers, I think I’m partial to the Xbox Zig-Zag tower. Giving you a Z-pattern of sorts, it allows for more open air-flow to the overheating-prone Xbox 360. As expected, you get “soft coated guitar hooks” along with a molded controller dock and ribbed shelves for your games. Game Storage Ottomans Or would you call them ottomen? In any case, you might want a cleaner, sleeker look for your game storage. You don’t want to have your games and controllers out in plain view all the time. That’s understandable and that’s why the storage ottomans from Level Up may be more appropriate. They all look like the standard storage ottomans that you can find in a regular furniture store, but the kicker is that the inside has been designed with gaming in mind. Some models have guitar straps on the inside of the lid portion, for example. They also gladly take on the various game trays for games and accessories. The most interesting of the bunch is probably the Wii Deluxe. That’s because it comes with a special slot in the bottom for the Wii Fit Balance Board. Pretty slick stuff and these gaming ottomans aren’t any more expensive than their non-gaming counterparts. More Gaming and CES Coverage Want to learn about some other video game gear that was featured at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2011 in Las Vegas? Check out our articles on the cool new stuff from our friends at Nyko and at Hyperkin. And don’t forget about all the other CES coverage we have going on with our sister site Futurelooks and its accompanying social media presences. Share This With The World!
