Game Over just getting started in Sydenham

Craig Bakay | Sep 30, 2020

Imagine you’re a martial arts instructor running a reasonably successful dojo in small town Ontario. Now, imagine there’s a global pandemic that seriously impacts your business.

What do you do?

You open a gaming store, right?

If you’re Sydenham’s Marty Tucker, that’s exactly what you do, and even though it’s only been a couple of weeks, things are looking good.

Two weeks ago, Tucker opened up Game Over, a games and collectables store 4421 George St. in Sydenham. He had been operating the Sydenham Academy of Martial Arts, teaching karate to local students but when Covid-19 hit, his business took a hit as well.

“The dojo is still operating but it’s limited training,” he said. “It’s enough to keep it open but not enough for me to take a salary out of it.”

So, being a self-confessed “huge Star Wars guy, through and through,” the answer seemed obvious: open a game store.

And that’s just what he’s done. Game Over is open every day but Tuesday from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m., except Wednesdays and Sundays when it closes at 4 p.m.

It’s a sci-fi/fantasy smorgasbord of gaming and collectables ranging from video games to Magic: The Gathering, D & D, Pokemon, Blu-rays and DVDs, collectables and even some hockey cards and autographs.

“There’s a little bit of everything,” he said. “we’re just starting and it takes time.”

He said he noticed a potential niche when he heard people complaining about having to go into the city to get this kind of stuff.

“You used to have to travel into town to get D & D supplies or Funko Pops,” he said. “But there is a gaming community in the smaller centres too.”

He said his customers so far have been mostly students (surprise, surprise) but “we do get some adults too.”

He said he plans to hold tournaments and events once things normalize a bit and he hopes to expand into a buy-sell-trade operation as well.

He said he’s ordered a life-size Baby Yoda figure that he plans to raffle off just before Christmas.

“It (the Baby Yoda sculpture) was a pretty penny but then, collecting can get silly.”