/dev/etc 15 Oct 2007 08:07 pm
A Couple Awesome Days
Jess and I have been all the hell over this city. Let’s see:
- Ueno Park is enormous. It has like 5 or 6 temples in it, and we wandered around and walked along a pretty famous cherry blossom path (though they won’t be in bloom until the Spring, it was still really awesome!).
- Went back to Akihabara for an amazing shopping spree. I played this game “Shmups Skill Test” at an arcade and it is easily my favorite shooter I’ve played in a long time! It’s set up where you have to survive or destroy stuff in typical shooter patterns, and at th eend you get a Big Brain Academy chart showing which areas you could use improvement on. For instance, I got nearly a perfect score for the raw firepower section (press the button as fast as possible for as long as you can; man did my arm ache after that), but I pretty much straight up failed at grabbing powerups during bullet patterns.
- Met Tim Rogers in Nakano and hung out in the mall where Yuji Hori (the Dragon Quest designer) came up with the idea for Dragon Quest. It was awesome, there were staircases that would skip floors, and lots of dead ends, and as you got higher up the prices got more expensive. We had some delicious curry over there at a really small curry bar, like the ones you see in Naruto or whatever. It’s weird, because I really dislike Indian style curry; I cannot get enough curry here, it’s perfectly spiced.
- Went over to Shinjuku and hit up Yodobashi and Bic Camera while Tim was questing for some games, much in the way that I would do this back home, only we were doing this in the part of Tokyo where thousands of people line up when a new game or console comes out. After about seven stores we found most of what we were looking for (in a Japanese equivalent to Blockbuster Video, no less). Shinjuku Station takes about two hours to walk around. Maybe longer.
- From Shinjuku, we walked over to Kabukicho, a district where yakuza hang out in arcades, bars, and pachinko places. We walked up and down the street where a level in the game “Ryu Ga Gotoku” takes place (the game was released in the US as “Yakuza”, and I watched some youtube videos and it’s pretty UNCANNY to see real places in there). Tim took us to an arcade that had the most excellent version of Outrun 2 SP in the world. It was a dual sit down cab shaped like a giant Ferarri; the seats rocked in all directions, the music was LOUD AS HELL, the screen was probably 70″, and for NO REASON AT ALL there were two steering wheels per car. While driving, the game would switch between drivers if one guy screwed up. It’s absolutely the Best Outrun I Ever Had, and according to Tim, this is the only Outrun machine like this left IN THE WORLD.
- That was definitely the longest day we have had in Tokyo. My dogs was seriously barking.
- The next day (Monday) we went out to Mitaka to see the Ghibli museum. Miyazaki designed the whole thing. It was not like a “here’s some history” museum; it was a “this is what Ghibli is” museum. It’s definitely the best museum I’ve ever been to, and it’s the only place where art has brought tears to my eyes. They wouldn’t let us take pictures in there, but we bought the book that has like all the stuff well documented and photographed, but there’s no way to see the zoetropes going and hear that fanciful music again.
on 15 Oct 2007 at 10:45 pm 1.mike! said …
effin’ sweet. oh how i wish i was traveling in your shirt pocket.
question… what is the name of that wicked awesome looking “i’m a scantily clad babe with a sword and i’m going to fight zombies and giant zombie white whales while wearing a cowboy hat” game? and how much in american monies might it cost? and would you have an opportunity to find it?
on 15 Oct 2007 at 11:05 pm 2.mike! said …
om-fug… did you super-potato?
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/japan-adventure/osakas-super-potato-is-a-retro-gaming-mecca-310728.php
on 15 Oct 2007 at 11:30 pm 3.jack said …
Mike, that would be “the oanechan bara x.” Or “Onee Chanbara VorteX ~ Kiketsu o tsugu mono tachi.” A tidbit:
“One big difference between these games and games like Devil May Cry is that the player-character’s weapon becomes progressively covered in blood, causing their attacks to be slower and to inflict less damage, even getting stuck in enemies if it gets too bad. This is represented by a “Blood Meter” near the health bar, showing how “dirty” the weapon is. To prevent this, players must actively clean off their sword to keep the blood meter from filling up.”
Actually, it looks pretty awesome: http://youtube.com/watch?v=92HfnSqW_ts
An ex-disney co-worker of mine told me that the people who dress up like Aladdin and Cinderella in tokyo disney are essentially worshiped like gods. People leave offerings of food and money in front of their houses.
on 16 Oct 2007 at 4:03 am 4.jack said …
HAHH ITS FOUR IN THE MORNING IM SNAKING AROUND BENS HOUS
on 16 Oct 2007 at 8:03 am 5.Ben said …
Sadly! I probably won’t get another chance to go to a game store! Even though I still have a couple things I’d like to pick up! The rest of our trip is pretty much “Tokyo: The Coming Down Edition: Final Fantasy VII.” However the prices are only about 10% better than play asia! In fact, play asia just buys games in akihabara and sells them! So if it’s not on play asia it’s not in akihabara! I really want Shooting Love: Trizeal for the PS2 since it comes with Shooter Skills Test v1 but Tim and I could not find it anywhere! But play asia had it!
Here’s what I DID get, though:
Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Phoenix Wright 3) - DS
Club Nintendo EXCLUSIVE Game and Watch Collection - DS
Rhythm Tengoku - GBA
Kururin Paradise - GBA
Dial Hex, Coloris, and Sound Voyager (bit Generations games that I didn’t have) - GBA
Mountain of Faith (the latest Touhou game) - PC
Tsukiyonisaraba (a game that Tim called “Stranglehold v0.1″) - PS2
Ico - PS2
Melty Blood: Act Cadenza - PS2
Seiken Densetsu 4 (Dawn of Mana) - PS2
ACE: Another Century Episode 3: The Final - PS2
on 16 Oct 2007 at 9:44 am 6.jack said …
ACE episode 3 reportedly has INFERIOR STORY BEWARE.
ICO (J).zip is a great acquisition.
Will you guys be back by the 28th?
on 16 Oct 2007 at 6:43 pm 7.Ben said …
We return on the 21st.
on 16 Oct 2007 at 9:04 pm 8.mike! said …
dang, i thought it was for pstwo… man… i really hope atlus or some crazy bring the japanese games over to americaland for the mikewongs to play company translates it and makes me happy.
on 16 Oct 2007 at 9:39 pm 9.jack said …
Mike, it is on PS2! Just not the newest iteration.
on 17 Oct 2007 at 8:37 am 10.mike! said …
thanks for the heads up! i just got my wiki learns on, and ordered the 2 ps2 versions from playasia that were re-releases of parts 1 and 2 with extra babes and fight modes. if this simple 2000 series made earth defense force possible and that came over… where teh crap is my zombie hunters x?!
on 17 Oct 2007 at 8:47 am 11.Ben said …
EDF was a wonderful failure in the US.
on 17 Oct 2007 at 12:49 pm 12.jack said …
What’s the deal with the 360’s region locking? Japan games won’t happen on US consoles, right?
on 17 Oct 2007 at 12:54 pm 13.jack said …
Also, did your copy of senko no ronde ever sell?
on 17 Oct 2007 at 6:39 pm 14.Ben said …
I never tried to sell it. I played it in an arcade over here, and it’s pretty good!
As for region protection, it’s up to the developer. They can choose to lockout whichever regions they want, as long as they’re willing to allow microsoft to test the game in all regions. Unfortunately, most developers lock that shit out! For example: All versions of Halo 3 work in all Xbox 360s, but most of the SWEET games that don’t come out in the US only work on Japanese consoles.
on 17 Oct 2007 at 6:43 pm 15.Ben said …
And yeah, Oneechanbara vorteX is one of the games that is locked down. If you’re ever curious, just check play asia. Usually the Japanese versions of games are locked, but the asian versions have no region protection.
on 17 Oct 2007 at 6:46 pm 16.Ben said …
Oh, and Seaman 2 just came out for PS2, like, Tuesday. I’m amazed by how much money it costs! Like 9200 yen… so, about 75 dollars. Apparently Final Fantasy games come out for 10000 yen. They’re willing to release PS2 games at whatever price they think they’ll sell for. This is why the Simple 2000 series is so popular! It has a regulated 2000 yen price!
on 17 Oct 2007 at 6:50 pm 17.Ben said …
Also, I will be deep diving a little Akihabara today after all! Please tell me your last minute requests, especially for PS2 and DS games, as they are the most readily available!
on 17 Oct 2007 at 11:47 pm 18.mike! said …
if you get this in time and happen to run across any bit generations titles that you’d recommend and are found at a decent price, i’d be all up ons. it’s a series i’ve long been lusting for but haven’t dived into yet. happy digging!
on 18 Oct 2007 at 6:30 am 19.Ben said …
I did not get it in time, sadly!!! But I’ve seen those all over town!!! Sometimes for 700 yen (about $5.50) and sometimes for 1700 yen (about $15). I’ll pick you up digidrive and orbital if they have them for the cheaper price when I’m in Ueno on Saturday. Tomorrow is Tokyo Disney Sea. ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT.
on 18 Oct 2007 at 7:26 am 20.mike! said …
super sweet! thanks, ben mans. ash and i are super jealous of your flickr stream and are plotting our own trip to steal all the lolita girls and akihabaras.
on 18 Oct 2007 at 12:30 pm 21.jack said …
If there’s a cheap Orbital could I have onetooplease?
What’s tokyo disney sea edition? If you’re just in regular tokyo disney, could you see a puppet show and report?