It's hard to describe the feeling of walking into a Japanese game center. Yes, they're still alive and strong here. Yes, they're filled with nerds perfecting their art of the game. And yes, they're very different from that in the states. I should know, I grew up in game centers.
Despite the strong opposition, I managed to drag the fiancee into a center tonight to check out the scene. We headed into a particularly nerdy one in Sakae, the entertainment district of Nagoya. Part medal games (similar to what you might find in any other gambling area in the states), part new arcade games, with a few random ones in between. Classics that stood out in my mind here were Super Bomberman circa 1992, a couple of tetris games, and then the typical Japanese music games: the pop-n-beat games, DJ remix, Drum Mania, and DDR. (All of which were employed by master players).
As for me, I finally got to play Otomedius, a Konami game that mocks its own Gradius series. Actually quite a bit of fun! Basically, it's a shoot-em-'up with a really modern cartoon worldly setting. Gone is Sci-Fi space theme, in its place are girls with large jubblies! Would like to play this one some more!
But the real highlight of this particular game center was a Simpsons Pinball Party, which is rather rare in Japan. The good part was they had the free replay set at what I could only assume to be the lowest level, 6 million, which I managed to snag. Yatta!
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