A Videogame Junkie's Tour of Nagoya's Arcades

By Adam Miller

I was born in 1984 and there are several things that my generation has in common; firstly, we've all read The Beach by Alex Garland and we all love it. Secondly, we remember watching "Sex in the City" as chances are, you'd see a boob. MC Hammer used to rule the world, the old Dr. Pepper adverts were the best, and Home Alone was hilarious. Fact. But there is one love that ties us together better than anything else: computer games! We grew up watching these things evolve and we continue to pump our hard-earned into these timewasters. And why not? They are bloody good fun! Using this as an excuse, I thought I would take you through some of the best arcades to be found in Nagoya. I know there are plenty, but being refused an entire issue of Japanzine dedicated to arcades, I have had to limit myself.

First on the list is the Sega Park in Fushimi. Nested between the Fushimi Hub and The Elephant's Nest, it's pretty hard to miss. This "game center" is split into three main sections: crane and coin games, arcade games, and a Joy-Joy karaoke upstairs. The crane games are pretty self-explanatory and you can win anything from a cuddly toy to a Golden Eggs keychain (I have a Turkey Ranger one). Behind these are the coin games... I hate to sound condescending here, but what is the point of these? You change your real money for fake money, gamble and lose, or gamble and win more fake money. You can't change it back to real money, just accumulate more fake money! There are no prizes, either - just the prospect of more fake money! But if this is your scene, there are horses to bet on and plenty of slot machines.

The other half of the establishment is filled with actual videogames. A whole area is dedicated to classic games and even the odd naughty one (strip shogi or somesuch madness). There are also football and Gundam card games, fighters and shooters, and even a cool Spiderman 3 pinball machine that's endlessly more fun than the movie it's based on. The real treat, though, is the four-player Daytona USA. Three of my brothers came to visit me recently and we spent more time playing Daytona than we did seeing this amazing country. It really is a fun game that has aged very well.

The last area of the Sega Park is a Joy-Joy karaoke. Obviously prices change depending on the time of your visit, but for a reasonable price you can sing your heart out and get drunk on cocktails. There is also a billiards area, which is really cheap during the daytime on weekdays.

The next stop on my coin-op crawl was to the Costa del Sol in Sakae, near the carcass of St. James' Gate (I shall miss their Guinness). This place is a little dingy, but there are two good reasons to come here: card games and music games. The rhythm-action scene is particularly well catered for, with two guitar games, two drumming games, two DJ games and the pinnacle in ultra-geeky gaming: DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). The place is also loaded with Puri-Kura, crane games and four-player Mario Kart.

I next went to the big game center in Osu Kannon. There is another, smaller arcade in Osu Kannon, but that one's for hardcore beat 'em up fans only! The big 'un has a huge selection of racing games and has Half-Life 2, four-player style! It also has guitar, drumming and DJ games, as well as an amazingly fun game where up to four people hurl plastic balls at a touch-sensitive screen in an attempt to smash bottles, hit dinosaurs, destroy comets, set off fireworks, etc. The place also has a very competitive Street Fighter community and some amazing battles can be witnessed here. They also have a punching-bag game, on which I competed against a five-foot-tall Japanese woman and won! (She came 81st, I came 74th...) This is a really lively arcade and so there are queues for many of the games. I saw one boy playing his DSi while standing in line to play another game!

The last stop of the day was another Sega Park, this one situated in Kanayama, right next door to the big Joy-Joy. This may well be the biggest of the bunch, but don't hold me to that. On the ground floor there are crane games and loads of Puri-Kura. The crane games here are pretty odd: you can win the normal soft toys and models, but curry sauce and two-foot-long sausages are also up as prize... winning a huge sausage from an arcade was too tempting to pass up, but after spending ¥600 and getting nowhere I gave up. Upstairs there are card games of the football, horse racing and Gundam varieties. If Gundam is your thing, you can buy a card and become a pilot! You step into a simulator that acts as the head of a huge robot and fight hordes of bad guys. Be warned: this is not just a game but a lifestyle choice, its RPG qualities meaning you could easily find yourself sneaking in hours at a time to level-up your robot. So approach with caution - it's like World of Warcraft with robots, and given a week you may have lost everything that makes you human.

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