"TRADER" - Nishi-Shinjuku

Let's face it, 99% of us just want the cheapest, fastest place to buy games... TRADER won't disappoint. 

Software Titles (Aprx)
XBox 360 - 100 
PSP - 70
PS3  - 70
PS2 - 70 
PS1 - 10
Wii - 70 
GBA - 30 
Hopes 
Second hand and new
Excellent buying prices
4 mins from Shinjuku station
Consoles, pads and connections sold
Arcade Sticks etc. 
Nopes
Standard return on trades
Generally non import
Post 97 only

The Bottom Line
Definitely the place to be buying stuff if you're this side of Akiba. Sure, "Book Off" will have the odd bargain, but TRADER wins hands down on sheer selection and value.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=shinjuku&ie=UTF8&sll=35.688871,139.698117&sspn=0.001139,0.002009&rq=1&ev=p&split=1&radius=0.07&hq=shinjuku&hnear=&ll=35.68891,139.698125&spn=0.001139,0.002009&z=19&layer=c&cbll=35.688944,139.698198&panoid=hdD-ozSa8o1WEYqb3Oraxw&cbp=12,186.93,,0,-2.76

"GAME" Shibuya - Review

Shibuya can be a bit much for the casual gamer, hoards of shoppers, big hair and short skirts.. but you'll have to go a long way to find a better Arcade than "GAME". Just a few mins from Shibuya station, you'll find 6 floors of dedicated old school gaming, including Bomberman, Golden Axe, Tekken, Street Fighter (2, 3rd Strike, 4 and Super 4), DigDug.. The list goes on!Each floor is themed, Rhythm, Medal, Shooter etc.

The Highs
6 floors of gaming
Something for everyone
Battle arena feel
A 50 yener
Casual / pro gamer feel
Gamer interaction
Elevator

The Lows
Pocket money won't cut it
2 machine max

The Bottom Line
.. GO!


2 mins from Shibuya station:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=35.660112,139.699523&spn=0.001155,0.00213&z=19&layer=c&cbll=35.660128,139.699414&panoid=VB8jRCO123UrSiyyV8WQ1A&cbp=12,134.96,,0,-7.36

Welcome to Arcade Heroes

The place for gamers that lost time, dignity and countless coins at the arcade... and then came back for more.

Yoshinori Ono - SF X T Producer

At Captivate last week, Capcom unveiled the first batch of playable characters in Street Fighter X Tekken: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile and Abel from Street Fighter and Kazuya, Nina Williams, King, Marduk and Bob from Tekken. Afterwords, Producer Yoshinori Ono spoke how Street Fighter X Tekken came to be. In his words… 

"When we [Capcom] took that 10 year break between releasing Street Fighter games, I feel that Tekken diligently stoked the fighting game campfire and kept people interested. With Street Fighter IV we tossed kerosene on that fire and got fans really excited about fighting games again. I was having dinner with the Tekken director [Katsuhiro] Harada-san shortly after Street Fighter IV came out and we got talking about how we could keep that campfire burning. We were half-joking when we first conceived this collaboration, but it did seem like a great idea to both of us and pretty soon we were both saying, ‘you go back to your office and I’ll go back to mine… let’s synchronise watches and convince everyone that we should do this’. Long story short, we’ve got our game coming; they have a similar thing going on over there, and we’ll see what happens.

Street Fighter and Tekken have always been different games. Street Fighter is slower paced and a little more deliberate, it’s all about judging the distance between yourself and an opponent and anticipating what they are going to do. It’s not as aggressive as Tekken, which is played at a faster pace, right from the very first punch. 


What we’ve tried to do here is merge the two so that you retain some of the more thoughtful approach that you associate with Street Fighter, while also getting a taste of that more ‘in your face’ Tekken style. We think we’ve found a way to get the best of both and we’ll just continue fine-tuning so that the final result is a perfect marriage and a unique game in its own right.


There was some communication early on and, usually with a collaborative project like this, we would be obliged to buy some Tekken reference materials, but I certainly don’t want to give money to a competitor, so I’ll most likely work out some private deal with Harada-san where we borrow that stuff. I’m not going to tell him exactly why we need it though, that would be showing too much of my hand. But back to the original point, they have no input into our game and we have none into theirs. There are a lot of Tekken characters that are really difficult to get right in this game, but our selection criteria is to pick the most challenging to bring over because it’s more fun for us and I think it will make the game more compelling in the end. One example is Marduk, who is a pretty surprising inclusion. We have some other powerful grapplers in Street Fighter but nobody that moves the way he does. From E3 onwards we’re going to be revealing many more characters and some of them are going to be truly out of left-field.
Sick as Hell Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dspFVy3nOMY

You might be thinking there’s no way we can include certain characters but you could be second-guessing yourself further down the line. The Tekken universe has some supremely weird characters, including animals and even inanimate objects, and that might strike you as contrary to the Street Fighter aesthetic, but then we’ve had a character whose limbs can stretch and people shooting fireballs from their hands, so the addition of an animal wouldn’t be so out of place and it could make the game really interesting. We’re not just throwing a bunch of Tekken characters into Street Fighter and I hope that fans from both sides are going to be attracted to Street Fighter X Tekken. The ideal ending to this story is to have built a common ground, where the best Street Fighter players and the best Tekken players in the world can duke it out. I’d be really happy with that."

Sweded straight from

http://www.capcom-unity.com/snow_infernus/blog/2011/04/14/playstation_blogs_when_street_fighter_met_tekken

Street fighter X Tekken

Pre fight talk

To be honest when I first heard about this (last month) I thought it was some kinda cruel joke.  But after seeing a few off the trailer videos, and the screen shots.. I'm beginning to believe in Mike Ross.. I mean SF x Tekken.

One thing that is clear is that it'll fall much more to the street fighter side, bringing the Tekken 3 dimension to the 2 d one. But hey what did want? Another street fighter alpha screw up?

So I guess the question on everyone's lips is going to be about projectiles. Although existing in Tekken for a limited range of characters (Alisa, Devil Jin, Kuma) projectiles are going to pose a huge problem for the crossover players from Tekken to sf. Sure SF has it's range if characters that rely on close corner fighting, Abel, Rufus, Zangeif. But it's sure going to be fun to see how the programmers have worked around this one.

Despite the compression of the 3d to 2d the biggest hurdle to overcome for the Tekken community will be the use of jumping. Juggling and side stepping in the 2d world can be compensated for, but how often do you see a Tekken player jump towards an opponant, or jump over an attack.

Personally I am pretty hyped for this one. Tekken now is near perfection. Both aesthetically and graphically Tekken Bloodline Rebellion is the crème du la crème. Introducing new characters will always keep the franchise alive and keep the wheels turning, but entering the 2d world is a significant step for the Tekken world. We've been begging for these crossover matches for years, and it's going to be great.

And let's be honest, watching bob and Rufus blob it out, or Kazuya and Ryu go toe to toe is going to be the best. But let's face it.. Chun Li Nina will be where the shit is at!

Next stop Marvel vs. Tekken.. Or is that a little unbalanced? 


Check this link to the official demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLIkTcc2L_w

“MONACO” Nakano - Review

Nakano is a pretty decent town for accommodation and travel. A stone throw away from Shinjuku, based on the Sobu line, a newly opened 'Marui' department store, and a bunch of Noodle restaurants. There must be a few decent Arcades.. Right?

Ups

Various genres – Rhythm, Shoot-em-up, Beat-em-up

Most games at 50 Yen

Spacious for Gamers and Spectators

3 mins from Nakano station

Hiccups

No competitions held

The Base Line

An excellent place for the casual gamer. The real benefit of a game center like this is that its outside Shinjuku, meaning the demographic is much more relaxed, making for a good atmosphere.

Need a place to practice? This is the one!

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Nakano,+Tokyo,+Japan&ie=UTF8&geocode=FQbaIAId2xlTCA&split=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.875,57.630033&hq=&hnear=Nakano,+Tokyo,+Japan&ll=35.704228,139.665939&spn=0.001139,0.002009&z=19&layer=c&cbll=35.704307,139.665954&panoid=bs1FXje_z0yg1wNsAIDNug&cbp=12,151.9,,0,-1.56

"GAME PLAZA" Nishi-Shinjuku - Review

Arcades around Shinjuku are amongst the best in Japan, but go East Side and you'll be hard pushed to find a better place than "Game". Not the most original name, but hey, it does what it says on the tin.

Perks
True school Beat-em-up atmosphere
Almost all games at 50 Yen
About 6 Tekken Booths
Weekly competitions
5 mins from Shinjuku station
Best in the area

Jerks
Tightly packed seating
Smoke choke environment
Small selection beyond Beat-em-ups

The bottom line
Check it out. If you're in the mood for some serious gaming..

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=shinjuku&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.368578,65.830078&ie=UTF8&hq=shinjuku&hnear=&ll=35.688171,139.697654&spn=0.001139,0.002009&z=19&layer=c&cbll=35.688171,139.697654&panoid=JxjNJddFQcF0oLRKILb4-w&cbp=12,286.18,,0,-3.12

100 Yen

To any foreigner out here in Japan one thing becomes very clear from day 1. Arcades are big. And I’m not just talking big business, physically the floor space and popularity of the game center industry is unrivaled anywhere in the world.

Currently in the work is a project documenting the culture as it is now, with interviews with legends such as Daigo and Justin Wong. Following the history of Arcades here in Japan it’s sure to be an interesting watch, and based on the trailer, the direction is looking spot on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRsFUF9TAVs&feature=related

Brad Crawford, the writer stroke director of “100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience” talks about the project:

‘This project began in Summer 2010, I flew out to Japan and spent the entire month of July chasing leads and filming all over the country. I went from Tokyo to Osaka, all the way to Fukuoka on my own dime. However, I was unable to complete all the necessary interviews and capture the entire story.

What I want to do is go back with a small crew and proper equipment to round-out the documentary with interviews from key subjects such as Daigo Umehara, Satoshi Numata and communicate with the Japanese public about gaming and arcades in general. EVO 2011, the worlds biggest fighting game tournament, is taking place for the first time in Japan in the spring of 2011.’

Here’s a clip with an interview with Daigo and Mike Ross

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=halxU0-ncZo&feature=related

And check out the homepage if you get a chance

http://100yenfilm.com/

It’s shaping up to be one hell of a documentary. We’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Mart

Insert coin(s) -Welcome

Ey.

We’re going to be lookin at the arcade game culture here Japan as well as back home, past and present, focusing on competition, training and all round arcade heroes. Expect to hear a bit about Tekken, Street Fighter, Taiko, Mario.. You name it.

We ain’t really goin to be following any kind of format here, but to anyone that lost countless coins, matches, and dignity .. and came back for more .. this place is for you.

Let’s go.