I always have to come back to talking about the arcades since it's probably one of my favorite things about living in Japan. Now the thing that tends to blow most peoples minds, which is the whole idea of a sort of members card that tracks stats and progress I've talked about to death. Here is a video of me talking about it so that I don't have to type it all out again if you don't know what I'm on about.
But that's not the only cool thing about these places so here's 3 more really cool things about Japanese Arcades you may not know about
1) Recording and Sharing
Usually if you walk into a big arcade these a big signboard at the front that has all the rules and usually one of those rules is you're not allowed to bring in a camera and take pictures and stuff. However the people who run these places know that gamers like to come in, record their game play if they are particularly good and share it with Nico Nico Douga or YouTube. I noticed about a year ago that a lot of the machines in my nearest arcade started hooking up capture cards to the machine nearest to the aisle which you could plug a USB device in and record to it. Not only this but recently I found that the rhythm game Chunithm has set up these sort of holders for your phone that give you a perfect angle on the screen and controller so that you can record shit and basically upload it there and then. Before all this started people were bringing in cameras and tripods and shit which would clog up the space for people so all of this is a welcome addition
2) Manage your shit from your house
There are certain games such as Gunslinger Stratos or Code of Joker along with others that allow you to manage gun loud outs, decks or profile details from the comfort of your own home so that when you actually get to the arcade you aren't wasting your time in menus and shit and you can just sit down and play the damn game. The one I'm most familiar with is Code of Jokers Agent Lab.
If you try to modify your deck in the arcade you are given a 120 second time limit and after that you start spending your paid credit and if you've ever tried to make a deck for a card game in 2 minutes it's a little tight. However if you login to the above link you can sit, read through all your cards and make decks to your hearts content so that when you go to the arcade and scan your Aime you can just start playing right away.
3) Actual Collectable Shit
I love collecting shit, it's just fun to do and one of the great things about the arcade is that they give you a chance to get your hands on quite a bit of swag. Of course there's the UFO machines which give you prizes but they are actually worth trying for over here unlike the shitty plushies that you get in the UK. However there are games like Sengoku Taisen (or whatever that new one is called) and Kantai Collection which give you actual physical cards to collect and trade which also level up in game as you use them, it's really cool.
My meager but much loved Kantai cards
The best part is that you don't have to go to another shop to buy cards and then bring them to the arcade like it's Yu-Gi-Oh or some shit. After you finish playing a round the machine itself will print a card for you to add to your collection so there's not really any extra effort required for amassing a decent collection of stuff. There do exist specialist shops that allow you to buy the rare cards individually but these are mainly for the most hardcore of collectors rather than just regular players of the game.
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It's a real shame that we don't have these kind of games in the UK because I might not hate the idea of returning home so much if we did. That said if we did put these games into English arcades they'd probably just get abused and become unusable within a week anyway, so maybe it's for the best.
So recently I received an email that was asking me about some of my favorite classic games and the changes in the technology I've been using within gaming over the years. There's plenty I could talk about since gaming in general has come a long long way since the old 8 and 16 bit era but the area where the advancements in tech feel the most noticeable is in the arcade.
Arcades are not too much of a thing in the west, especially not in the UK. As a young lad growing up in Manchester the best I could hope for in the ways of coin op was a few barely functional machines in a local bowling alley on cinema lobby. For quite a while though the only things I played in arcades were fighting games and side scrolling beat 'em ups so for a while my impression of an arcade machine was nothing more than a screen, a stick and a few buttons. This all changed when my mother took me to a place called Sega World that was in London
Sega World was the my first real experience with a proper arcade. It was located in London and was 5 floors of arcade joy that has now been shut down. Last I checked it was replaced with something called Fun Land but if I'm not mistaken that's been shut down too, but I've not been back to England, let alone London, for about 5 years so I might be wrong about that.
Anyway, my young mind could barely handle all the awesome that was in this place and this is where I first discovered the rail shooter. Big machines that didn't have a stick or little buttons to push but huge screens and big guns attached to them which you had to use to shoot enemies. The one that grabbed my attention in particular was The House of The Dead because shooting zombies was way more interesting to me than blasting people in titles like Virtua Cop. I even got my first taste of arcade multiplayer experience on that same day.
Near the end of my time in Sega World that day me and my mother returned to the floor where all the light gun games were located. I was hoping to get one last go on The House of the Dead before we set out but there was someone playing already. Instead of just giving up and walking away like I would do nowadays I just stood there and watched this guy play and I was fascinated by it because he was getting to parts of the game that my young self could have never of dreamed of getting to while on my mothers budget of £1 coins. In that game there are 4 stages, and when he reached stage 3 he notices me and my mother watching, probably assumes we are waiting for a go and then offers the 2nd players gun to me. I excitedly grab a few coins from my mother and start playing with this complete stranger and it all culminated in us finishing the game.
The rush of excitement as the games final boss, Magician, went down was intense and once the credits had finished rolling we shook hands and split ways. I don't remember anything about that guy aside from the gaming experience but he really made my day.
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Fast forward to 2016 and now I'm living in Japan where arcades are pretty common. I have about 4 all within 15 minutes of my apartment building and comparing coin op now to what it was back then it's incredible to think just how far these machines have come.
One thing I was always a fan of was rhythm game and things like touch screens have done a lot for that genre. A few years ago I thought stomping all over a big metal pad was cool but now I'm using touch sensitive keyboards with hand sensors above them in games like Chunithm or just playing with the game screen itself in titles like Syncronica
If rhythm games aren't your thing then fighting games have huge followings and a lot of them can be played online from the arcade itself. Generally speaking internet connectivity has really changed the game centre for the better with people now being able to compare stats or track progress against other players. This also extends to have accounts that are stored on IC cards which means that as you play you can unlock more content for your games. There are new WiFi systems out there like Luma, a startup I was just introduced to. They have a surround home wifi system
that was built for advanced connectivity among the multiple devices
online, with added security that allows any obstacles that might block
your signal and keep you from playing to be removed.
My Cards have seen a lot of use
My favorite use of these cards is for a game known as Code of Joker which sort of plays like Magic the Gathering. An online trading card game exclusive to the arcade, the IC card stores your profile with not only things like your wins and losses but your entire card collection and decks. Stick to cards for a moment, for those who prefer their trading card games in a more physical form there's Kantai Collection and Sengoku Taisen.
Kantai
These games involve either collecting the cards to be scanned by the machine in Kantai or placing them on a table and moving them around in a more RTS style of game play in Sengoku Taisen. If I could go back in time and tell my young self that trading card games would be available in arcades I think my head would have actually exploded.
Just to finish up this post and bring it back to the old House of the Dead comparison, one of my favorite light gun games in modern times is Gunslinger Stratos
While it may look like a sort of space age version of the old rail shooter this game is actually a 3on3 online 3rd person shooter that plays sort of like Unreal Tournament or something. Movement is controlled with the sticks on the backs of the guns and you can change weapons by holding them together and slotting these sort of magnets into each other, it's crazy.
I could talk for HOURS about all the fancy new stuff in the Japanese arcades but then this post would go on for way way too long. It's mental to think just how far the coin op experience has come in such a short amount of time and quite frankly, I'm super glad that I'm living in Japan and am able to experience all these things as they are released.
While I've talked about these kind of games on the blog before, namely Sengoku Taisen my friend who has been living in Japan for about a year and a half has written a post for his website about these games. First you should go check out his post at this link
In that article he talks about Sengoku Taisen, Code of Joker and the until now unmentioned (on this blog) Kantai Collection Arcade. If you want the low down on the latest schoolgirl warship simulator that has become a bit of an arcade sensation since its released then check out his post because I'll be uploading some game play footage from Kantai in the very near future. I still need to sink my teeth into that game a little more before I produce my own thoughts on it but for a brief overview then that's a good place to start.
I've not had much time to click around that website but it looks like a pretty good place to go for information on table top games, so if you're into that then give them a bookmark, seems like a cool place.
