The Survival of the Japanese Arcade

I live in America, always have. I grew up in arcades, playing the latest games against the neighborhood's best. But something happened on the way to adulthood.

The arcades all vanished.

I always thought that it was a result of home consoles advancing to the point where they were more powerful then their arcade counterparts. In fact, I remember having that thought once in high school, the question of, "what's going to happen when consoles surpass the arcade games?" question. Well since there are no more arcades, I thought I had my answer.

But now I've been to Japan a few times, and while as I understand it, the industry isn't what it used to be, it's still quite healthy. I always thought it was simply because arcades are more of a cultural mainstay (which may partially be responsible), but what I've come to understand is something else, and it's pretty simple.

Online gaming

In the US, online gaming is a massive industry. according to NPD, 62% of American gamers play online, compare that with just 37% of Japanese gamers... and only 8% of those used a game console to do so, compared to 22% in the US.

While I was away, a report came out about the Japanese and their reluctance to go for online gaming

A new survey has come out, polling Japanese gamers on a number of issues. Most notably of the results is that gamers there are still not all that interested in online gaming, instead preferring in-person multiplayer gaming. More than half of those surveyed said that they were wary of online gaming

Then it clicked. Most of the popular Japanese arcade games are, in fact, multiplayer. They play fighting games by the truckload, and almost never against a computer opponent. They have memory cards that store their match record, achievements, and allow them to customize their character. I saw two varieties of competitive Gundam games (one actually featuring cross-arcade deathmatch), hybrid video/collectable card games, hell, they even have arcade MMOs over there. To the Japanese, gaming is still a very "in-person" social experience.

American gamers have instead opted to take it online. Milestones like Quake have paved the way for a massive change in the way games are played in the States. This revolution never took place in Japan, and so for them, gaming is evolving in a different direction.

We spend a lot of time wondering why the online efforts of Japanese console makers haven't really been up to spec, I think the answer lies here. There simply isn't a demand for that sort of thing in their country.

Itemization

I realize it's been ages since I posted anything, but here's the last few months of my life in gaming form:


GTA4: I can watch Bas Rutten on TV in the game I'm watching on my TV!

Kenzan: Note to self: Don't try to play import action/adventure titles with RPG overtones and massive amounts of dialogue.

Wrath of the Lich King Alpha/Beta: What can I say? Blizzard doing more of what Blizzard does best.

Space Invaders Extreme: Space Invaders trying very hard to be Lumines. Tons of fun, but lacks longevity.

Geometry Wars 2: This game is liquid crack for people who grew up playing games in arcades as children. Through cunning use of leaderboards, Bizarre has figured out how to trigger that "itch" to play just "one more game"

Bionic Commando Rearmed: Owch, i forgot how hard old school games were.

Jean D'Arc: Still not done killing the English.

Soul Calibur 4: Wow, just, Wow. The Hori fighting stick is like a vicious animal that I let out of it's cage to tear my online enemies asunder!

Phantasy Star Portable: Wow, they actually made Phantasty Star Universe fun!

Too Human: "Tap, tap" is the new "click, click." I sank an unconscionable number of hours into this flawed gem.

Civilization 4: Nuking Mongolia has never been so much fun! How the fuck did I go my whole life without playing Civ?

Lego Indiana Jones: It's like Lego Star Wars, only without The Force or Lightsabers, but yet I still enjoy it.

Infinite Undiscovery: Umm, I thought I was in the mood for a JRPG, I was mistaken.

Castle Crashers: Classic Capcom/Konmi style beat-em-ups are back again, and as fun as they ever were!

Warhammer Online: WAR is the lovechild of WoW and DAoC, RvR with all of the niceties you expect from a modern MMO

The Force Unleashed: People like to complain because this game isn't anything at all like Jedi Knight. They should be complaining that it's not as good as God of War, since the Apprentice is trying oh, so hard to be Kratos.

Rock Band 2: It's Rock Band, only this time without completely ignoring people who like to play solo!


…and there we are, all caught up!

Testing Out the Blackberry Functionality

Let's see how this works

What The Fuck Are They Thinking?

In the race to find the worst idea in the history of gaming, we have a new contender!

Musou Warriors and Giant Robots

There are two Japanese phenomenon which i am consistently baffled by. The first is the popularity of the Dynasty Wars series. It's a massive scale hack and slash-0-rama that hasn't changed much since its second inception (they are up to 6 now, not counting pseudo-sequels such as Dynasty Warriors 3/4/5 Empires and 3/4/5 Extreme Legends). The confounding thing for me is that DW is entirely about "historical" battles during the Three Kingdoms Era of ancient China. I put historical in quotes because I'm relatively certain that these battles didn't involve Wu leaders invincibly carving a swath through thousands of Su warriors with blinding light pouring out of their weapons just so they could fight similarly powered Su Leaders who weren't even alive at the time of the actual conflict.

An excellent example would be if the latest Canadian gaming rage was a game featuring George Washington cutting down nine hundred British soldiers alongside Abe Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson with the goal of facing Henry VIII in mortal combat.

Yeah, it's a very strange phenomenon.

A few years ago, Koei started making Samurai Warriors games, which are more or less exactly the same as DW, only taking place in Japan's Sengoku Period, and featuring many more katanas.

Because reaching they are always looking for ways to reach new heights of absurdity, they recently produced Warriors Orochi. Which, well, just read this:

Orochi, the Serpent King, created a rift in time and space. By creating a twisted new world and bringing together warriors from the Three Kingdoms era of China and the Warring States period of Japan (more than 1,400 years apart in history), Orochi wished to test the might of the warriors of these two eras.

Yeah, you read that right.

Anyway, the second unusual phenomenon is Gundam. In a country where even the best shows come and go after their season is up, Gundam just keeps on coming. At last count, there were a combined twenty five series and movies. As far as i can tell, Gundam centers around emo kids (in 1979, before emo was even a term!) who pilot giant robots and then whine a lot about war. This series is popular, we're talking huge. just about every major anime store i've been to in Tokyo has an entire floor dedicated to models and figures of these mammoth mecha. But that really doesn't describe how big Gundam is over there, though this might:

Gundam is a popular cultural icon of Japan, it is a 50 billion yen business of Bandai Namco (projected 50 billion yen income of the company and reached a highest number of 54.5 billion yen in 2006).^[11] Not only were stamps published, the Agriculture Minitry was reprimanded for contribution to Japanese wikipedia Gundam related pages, the Japanese Self Defense Forces code-named its developing advance personal combat system as Gundam and the Fire department used Gundam to promote the future of fire fighting developments. A tram station stood a monument of the original Gundam and used the main theme of the first Gundam anime as its departure melody and other businesses like Mitsubishi not only created a test-type simulator for concept cars with a version of Gundam cockpit, it also held recruitment seminars using How to make a Gundam as a demo of what their development process is and based their Lancer Evolution design on Gundam. Isuzu also used a Gundam to model the VX2.

I think you see where this is going:

Dynasty Wars: Gundam

And this is what I've been playing lately. Dynasty Warriors was always a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. A game that I logically know isn't "good," but for some reason, I enjoy tremendously. Every eight months or so, I find myself playing a DW game. I play it religiously for a few days and then, as soon as I tire of the bad English voice acting and brownish color pallet, I shelf it and move on. DW:G is exactly what one would expect from the title. the gameplay from DW, coupled with giant battles from Gundam. This game has serious potential for outlasting its predecessor though, since the colors are vibrant and bright; and the game actually offers a Japanese voice track. Please note that while I'm sure the Japanese track uses the same horrible dialogue as the English, but somehow they just sell it better... I'm also sure that it doesn't hurt that I can't understand Japanese.

As I mentioned, I'm going to be playing this one for a while to come, it seems that ancient China and giant robots are like peanut butter and chocolate.

Back from Japan

Yeah, my plan for frequent updates from the Land of the Rising Sun didn't quite happen as planned, but at least pictures will be forthcoming.

I wanted to talk a little bit about my observations while on my visit.

1. Nintendo has taken over the country. During my last trip to Tokyo, the Sony flag was held high everywhere you went. The first thing you saw in every store was the PS2, the second thing you saw was the PSP... and then if you went upstairs or whatever, you saw everything else. This time, a mere two years later, Nintendo utterly dominates the ground floor of every gaming store, the DS mostly, but the Wii is lingering behind isle two as well. That's not to say that the Japanese don't get excited about other platforms. Armored Core: For Answer --a early nominee for worst title of 2008-- came out while i was there and seemed to get a decent amount of interest from the locals, and they seemed quite stoked about Monster Hunter Portable 2 G's pending release. But all of the massive ads in the world don't make up for the lack of floor space in local stores. In fact, I think there was a marked lack of advertising for Nintendo products... but I'm thinking that they simply didn't need it.

2. PC gaming in Japan is 4/6 porn, 1/6 imported American games (including a massive and beautiful Neverwinter Nights Boxed set that put to shame anything I've ever seen in the States), and 1/6th non-porn Japanese games. The American and NP Japanese games are hidden waaaaay in the back, behind piles and piles of boxes featuring animated ladies in various states of undress being assaulted by plant life. You may be wondering, "you're an adventurous, forward thinking fellow, did you purchase any of this peculiar merchandise?" The answer there is no, and it's not because I had a sudden bout of self consciousness either, it's because these little boxes of fun were running anywhere between 7000 to 10000 Yen ($70-$100) a piece. which is well outside of my "haha, look what ridiculous thing i bought" range.

3. I really, really, like Shaka Shaka Chicken. Probably the best chicken product I've ever had at McDonald's. I smell a hit!

4. The Japanese really, really, like fatty meats. from the Lamb skewers to the pork soba, the meat in japan was almost universally fatty. I started to think it was simply a matter of taste when i tried to get the chicken breast at Moss Burger (clearly on the english menu) only to find out that they had actually discontinued it in favor of a similar product (which was not on the english menu). Assuming chicken was chicken, i went ahead and ordered it, only to find out that it was actually the greasiest, fattiest, nastiest chicken thigh I've ever sunk my teeth into. On second thought, maybe Shaka Shaka Chicken is doomed to failure.

Sorry i'm late

Sorry the updates have been so damn lacking, but my alone time has been much more infrequent then I would have liked, that and I've been shaking off the residual effects of my jet leg. But it’s all good now.

I’m flying solo today down in Akihabara, I’ve been here since 11 and barely cleared two blocks of this mammoth of technological gadgetry. Within just a few short minutes of arriving, I already found what I was looking for, a copy of Phantasy Star Generation 2 for the PS2… and I found it for like $17. My only problem now is finding a way to play it when I get home.

I visited Taito Hey, a nice arcade on the strip. I’m saying “nice” because it had, by far, the best ventilation system I’ve experienced in an arcade so far, barely any smell of smoke to be experienced. This arcade is probably my favorite so far based solely on the fact that they have an entire floor dedicated to shmups, those lovely "massive numbers of little ship thingies attacking you from all angles as you fend them off though the wild use of ridiculous powerups" sort of games. I played probably the best the genre has to offer in Ikuruga, as well as some interesting new ones. One from Konami which basically amounts to Gradius: Miracle Love Umbrella Girl Edition. This game had me flying around a fine beachfront community while killing maniacal blue penguins... then moving on to ancient Egypt... where i was killing mummified maniacal blue penguins.

The next one I tried was a bit more contemporary, flying vertical while blasting random tanks and whatnot. The hook for this game was that you could use some sort of tractor beam to grab your foes and use them as shields, or alternatively, swing them around and use them as giant projectiles… it was fun.

Like all arcades, they certainly had their Fighter Floor, wherein chainsmoking lunatics beat the virtual snot out of one another all day and night. In most of the arcades i've visited so far, the FF has been almost universally located in a basement or sub-basement. this one was on the third floor.. which scored extra bonus points with yours truely.

Ive noticed a few changes since my last trip, KFC has expanded and is fucking everywhere now. I cant walk two feet without seeing the colonel’s ugly mug staring me in the face. There’s also been a massive proliferation of so called “maid bars.” They seem to just be coffee shops… where the waitresses dress as maids. I’m assuming these are popular and that there’s massive competition because I see small girls dressed as maids on every corner handing out flyers with maps to their employers locations.

I haven’t visited one of these cafés yet, but we do plan on hitting up a maid Izukaya called “LittleBSD” very soon. I’ll be sure to report.

Last night we went to the local Big Echo for karaoke, I’m going to say up front that Japan is light years ahead of the US in sing along technology. This room featured wireless mics, touch screen music selection (from wireless tablets), touch screen food and drink ordering, and even a webcam to videotape your performance. The music selection was surprisingly vast (and eccentric, featuring for some reason like 80 Slipknot songs).

It would be criminal of me to mention another word about last night without mentioning the izakaya we went to. Not only did they have my favorite sake, the always tasty Suigei, but some of the most amazing garlic bread I’ve ever had... served on wheat toast. To top it all off, we had some truely great deserts. I enjoyed some sort of ice-cream/oreo/shochu combination, and tom had a massive triamisu-like confection which featured like two full bananas and a half pound of coca crispies... it was a good night.

PS: a recent trip to the other side of Shinjuku turned up a familiar sight...

I'm a bit behind, but I'll try to bring you up to speed...

On Friday, we treked out to Ginza to rediscover our roots, grabbed lunch at the Lion, found the hotel from out last trip, and also visited Tully's, our former favorite morning coffee run. Our real objective in Ginza was to find the Japanese office of the Amnet travel agency to pick up our tickets to Dream.

Once the tickets were safely in hand, we wandered on over to Shibuya for some hardcore exploration... and then it started pouring.

Japan: The Return!

Last night was my first in delightful Shinjuku. We spent just a few short hours exploring before heading back to the room to pass out and let the rigors of our flight slip away.

Within just a few blocks of our hotel, we came across many, many izukayas, two Macdonald's (more on that later), a half a dozen 24 hour convenience stores, Wendy's, KFC(?!), and Gyu Kaku


I learned the following last night:

1. The Japanese really like Kit-Kits. I found this particular confection to be disproportionately represented just about everywhere i went. This phenomenon culminated in the consumption of a Kit-Kat McFlurry... yum.

2. Shaka Shaka Chicken is pretty damn good. it's essentially a chicken cutlet in a bag. mix in your choice of seasoning(hot chili, lemon pepper, or cheese) and boom, you've got a nice snack.



I also took the time to stop in at the local Club Sega, where I found that I can, in fact, hold my own (and lose two out of three rounds) in Virtua Fighter 5 to the local denizens of Tokyo arcades.

More later, as i've just gotten out of bed and am in dire need of coffee... luckily, we saw many, many Prontos on the way here!

DMC and stuff

I've been playing Devil May Cry 4 for about nine hours now, which is substantially more then I played Devil May Cry 3. (note: I started this post a few weeks ago, and have since completed DMC4, which should put into perspective how much more I enjoyed it then its predecessor)

I think part of the problem is that I played DMC3 in the shadow of Ninja Gaiden, which is a vastly superior game in every way that counts. Sure, they both feature highly skilled swordsmen dispatching demons at an alarming rate, but where I feel Ninja Gaiden is actually about killing the aforementioned badass demons in any way possible, DMC3 felt more like a collection of listless denizens of the nether, lining up give you as high a combo as humanly possible, while not putting up much of a fight. Oh yes, and if you should falter at any point while you're endlessly hacking away at the bad guy, you'll get hit and die, pretty much instantly. Ninja Gaiden, on the other hand, offered you a fighting chance. the combat system in that game is easily likened to an elaborate game of chess. both you and your opponent are easily capable of dispatching one another, provided either are careless. Both parties dodging, blocking, and looking for an opening. In comparison, DMC3 just felt like all style, no substance.

Skip ahead a few years and now I'm firing up DMC4 on my 360, the game is utterly gorgeous, the combat feels like a ton of fun and while it's by no means a strategic endevor a-la Ninja Gaiden, it's certainly a tremendous amount of fun as a strict beat-em-up.

I had a great time playing DMC4 despite a few factors:

1. Backtracking: the game's level structure is interesting, you spend the first half of the game going though 10 levels as Nero, the new emo-rific protagonist (honestly, I don't have enough experience with this series to care who the hero is, just so long as he hits things very hard), then you play backwards through those same levels as Dante, the egotistical prick from the first three games. Hell, you even fight the same damn bosses again. No thanks.

2. Cut Scenes: Yes, i realize that complaining about cut scenes in a Japanese game is like complaining about smoke in a Tokyo restaurant (you knew what you were getting when you walked in the door), but dear god, I felt like every thirty seconds the game was taking the wheel and going for a joyride without me. Couple that with the over the top maneuvers your characters perform during said scenes which make the regular gameplay look downright flaccid in comparison.

Better Late The Never: Stranglehold

So yeah,I've been out of the loop for a while, lots of crazy personal stuff including a shiny new job have put this blog on the back burner for a but, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been playing games rather non-stop.

I've recently worked my way through Stranglehold, the video game sequel to the John Woo 'Heroic Bloodshed' classic, Hard Boiled. 'Worked' is a literal term at times, as the game has an oddly schizophrenic difficulty level that threatened to bitchslap my sanity into oblivion, but by that point i was firmly entrenched and wasn't going to give in until Inspector Tequila got his revenge, or got out alive, or whatever it was that he was getting. As you could probably tell, I wasn't particularly enamored by the plot of this one. The thing that really got me engrossed in the life of Chow's gunslinging alcohol-fueled cop was the perfect John Woo-ness of the game. Sure, other games have come along before this one, waving the flag of Woo with reckless abandon (i'm looking at you, Max Payne, F.E.A.R., and even those shitty Matrix games) but this one, for whatever reason, just gets it so right.

In many games featuring Matrix-dubbed 'bullet time,' the slow motion advantage over your opponents is really its own reward. You're expected to use it because it looks cool and it makes the game easier, but that's really the only incentive. Stranglehold takes things a bit further, rewarding you in spades for making use of its various Wootastic moves. You gain style points for killing the bad guys using 'Tequila Time,' (really, why not call it 'woo-time?') more for doing so while diving, more for doing so while sliding down a banister, even more for doing so while rolling on a cart or swinging off a chandelier, and more for offing many baddies in a row while doing so. Style points do a few things for you. First and foremost, they charge the meter for your special moves (Which they decided to unsurprisingly dub, 'Tequila Bombs'), the more stylish the kills, the faster the meter fills. Second, they serve as the game's currency for buying unlockables, of which there are many. If that was somehow not enough incentive for you, the damage taken and dealt are subject to change based on how much style you're exhibiting at any given time.

I'm not sure I would recommend this game for a purchase though, since it's fairly brief and the multiplayer is pretty much forgettable. But for those few sweet hours, Stranglehold takes the Tony Hawk Rule (everything you do looks cool), jacks it to 11, then gives you a cookie every time you do it.