Arcades in Japan: Kansai Edition (Osaka, Kyoto)

[gamingjustin]

Or more commonly known here as Game Centers (or Amusement Spaces, Amusement Centers). Huge overhaul, been to quite a few arcades since my original Sept. 13 post. The format goes like so: Name @ location. Usual pricing. Notable game selection and other info. Seemingly arbitrary rating, 1 to 5 stars!

Kyoto:

A-CHO @ Sanjo Station (Keihan). ¥50/credit. Mostly the latest and greatest fighting games but has ESPGaluda II, Mushihimesama Futari 1.5, Ketsui, DDP Daioujou, DDP Daifukkatsu. Also has that relatively recent 3rd person mech shooter Border Break. Place is in great condition, smoke usually isn't too terrible, two floors. Rating: ****

Neyagawashi:

ABC @ Neyagawashi Station (Keihan). ¥50/credit. A hidden gem on the second floor of a pachi/slot establishment. Raiden DX, Gradius II, Darius Gaiden, Mushihimesama, DDP Daifukkatsu, 19XX, Dodonpachi, Strikers 1945 II. Place is horrifically smokey most of the time, and a few of the machines are a bit scummy, or the v-sync flickers, or the stick's a bit loose, but dang there's some great shooters here. It quite active too, with (weekly?) Virtua Fighter 5R and Melty Blood Actress Again tournaments. And hey, there's Border Break. Rating: ***
LINK: http://www19.atwiki.jp/karishooterwiki/pages/1624.html

Osaka area (Umeda, Nipponbashi, Namba):

Amusement SCOT @ Den Den Town, Nipponbashi. Get there via Sakaisuji Line (subway) at either Ebisucho or Nipponbashi station. ¥100/2 plays, but recently ¥50/credit. Guwange, ESPGaluda II, Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 and Black, DDP Daioujou, Ketsui, DDP Daifukkatsu, Varth, Gradius III, Gun and Frontier, R-Type Leo. Lots of not-too-common fighters like Asura Blade and Fighters History Dynamite and other great classics like Daimakaimura. Also has a few IGS beat-em-ups along with Alien vs. Predator and Dinosaurs and Cadillacs. Don't let the first floor full of crane and slot machines fool you, this place is phenomenal. 4 floors, third and fourth are best. Second floor has Otomedius and the obligatory Border Break. Rating: *****

Sega AViON @ Namba. Take the Sakaisuji Line (subway) to Nipponbashi and walk towards Den Den Town. Take a right exactly at the corner where Den Den Town starts (you'll see a Sofmap) and walk straight until you see a main road. Walk left about 50 steps. ¥100/2 plays. Toaplan fans, bring a change of pants because here we have Same! Same! Same!. Practically pissed my pants when I saw it, then almost shit them when I watched a dude get to loop 2 without losing a life. Also has Gradius II, Macross, Strikers 1945 II, ESPGaluda II, Mushihimesama Futari Black, DDP Fukkatsu, Ikaruga, Senko no Ronde DUO. Great selection of new and old fighters; Real Bout Fatal Fury II, Alpha 3, SF III, and a bajillion others. Also Border Break. Rating: *****

Taito Station @ Namba. 100 steps in the opposite direction of AViON, on the same street. ¥100/2 play. Almost died of disappointment. About 5 floors of mahjong and crane games. The top two floors has fighters and shooters, but nothing that hasn't already been mentioned in this thread. A sad waste of space unless you really love mahjong. Rating: ** (because the place is clean and the building's cool-looking and tall)

Monte 50 @ Umeda. Take the JR Loop Line to Osaka Station. Look for a big red and white building with a ferris wheel on top called Hep Five (big shopping mall). On the corner of the nearby KFC, look for a small covered shopping street and you'll spot it. ¥50/credit. Rejoice at the sight of another Toaplan classic: Tatsujin. The dude playing it was so good he almost looked bored. As usual, a shitload of fighters, great selection. 3 floors, top floor has the shooters (this always seems to be the case in multistory arcades...). Standard Cave fare, ESP II, DDP DFK, Ketsui, Mushi Futari 1.5. The building is super cramped so be ready to awkwardly scoot by people a lot. Rating: *****

Namco Tower @ Umeda. Remember that KFC? From that corner facing the main road take a right and you can't miss it. But you might wish you'd never stepped in. I think this arcade has three video games in it. Tekken 6, those big Gundam pods and Border Break. No joke, two floors are basically just crane/slot/weird medal games and the third is the most bizarre and uncomfortable cafeteria area I've ever set foot in. Rating: -0

SEGApolis @ Umeda. Remember Hep Five? Go to the 8th (?) floor. In fact, this might not even be the name of the place but I 100 percent remember it's a SEGA arcade with "-polis" somewhere in the name. This is... I need to dedicate an entire thread to this place if I have time (and go there again to snap pictures). This is an "amusement space" in the greatest sense. The only "normal" games here are the guncon and racing games, of which there are many, and the random Twinbee Yahoo! and Bomberman World cabinets. The rest is funky. There's an actual water ride in here, a Universal Studios-esque hang glider simulator that plays like, uh, Starfox combined with Pilotwings, and a couple of 3D-glasses-required "haunted house" attractions (one of them being "Night of the Werehog" or something, I kid ye not). Come here to be confused and awestruck as there's not much to really play here for the serious arcade goer expecting shooter/fighters. Rating: ???

There are many left to be discovered, for sure. In fact I've been to a few others I didn't mention because a) I forgot the name and b) my discerning eye concluded they were not worth mentioning. Someday I will be sure to check the few others mentioned by people in this thread and related, linked threads. Thanks all, and I'll keep on searching and updating in the future.

[adversity1]

http://wiki.versuscity.net/index.php

http://www19.atwiki.jp/karishooterwiki/

You may also find this thread of use:

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=360.0

As far as I'm concerned, Amusement SCOT is the only arcade worth going to in Osaka.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There is the cool Namco Wonder Tower game center located in Kyoto with a Gamers game shop on the very top floor. You might want to check it out. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[gamingjustin]

Thanks for the info and resources, guys. Had no idea there would be a game shop at the top of the Namco Wonder Tower so I'll probably check that out then, pcefan. And thanks for the links, adversity. Pretty sure it was a post of yours from a while back that had me going off to Kyoto in the first place!

[adversity1]

Good luck man! Let me know if you come out to Tokyo too, always looking for people to shoot with.

BTW, you might check out this arcade in Takatsuki

メディアパーク　リブロス高槻店
大阪府
高槻市高槻町13-5

They hold Senko no Ronde Duo beginner and advanced player tourneys, so it's probably a good place. Might also have some shooters.

[gamingjustin]

Just updated the first post with new places after reading a post linking to this thread; almost forgot about it (so thanks for reminding me). However, looking at the post now, the format is pretty awful. I'll probably make it easier to read next time around.

Also, I am stunned that I have yet to see a single Raizing shooter. Even the "kind of not quite like normal" Cave games like Ibara are forbidden, it seems. SCOT did have Muchi Muchi Pork but recently (like a week ago) swapped it with Guwange. A few of the arcades have Deathsmiles 2, btw but... my eyes can barely comprehend the hideousness! Ah, and I forgot to mention the Taito Station in Namba (or Nipponbashi, man I can never quite distinguish where each area starts and stops) has the first Deathsmiles, which is quite nice.

[adversity1]

Awesome summary man. Would have been cool to hang out with you when I was living in Kansai, since you seem to know your shit.

Taito station in Namba (the very southern tip I believe) had Muchi, Pink Sweets and DSMBL when it first opened. Also Futari 1.5 and DOJ. But the first two, Muchi and Pink Sweets probably didn't do well and were removed I imagine. One big problem with that place is that they had all their shooters on like 5 live settings or something, it was ridiculous. And of course still no newbies jumped on...who did they think they were fooling?

There was supposedly one arcade in Umeda that had Ibara Black Label awhile back, but they swapped it out for DOJ BL which bummed me out when I finally found the place. It's somewhere in Tenjinbashi IIRC, that really long arcade that stretches away from Umeda. There was also apparently one other arcade in Umeda that had normal Ibara, but I never found it.

Incidentally, Nipponbashi is way better for finding superplay DVDs and tapes than Akiba is, since Akiba is just mercilessly picked over.

[nZero]

Oh man, missed this thread. Yeah, Monte 50 and the Nipponbashi area arcades are quite decent. I had no idea there was... well, anything in Neyagawa.

Maybe not so well known, but there are a handful of smaller game centers under the 大阪駅前第4ビル in Umeda. I lived in Moriguchi so I'd always take Keihan to Yodoyabashi and just walk north if I was going to Umeda, and I'd always walk through the underground part of the building. There was one with a Sega logo that had Raiden IV, Futari v1.5, and some variety of Deathsmiles, along with a fairly active set of vs. fighting cabs set up with SFIV, KoF98UM, etc. Another one on the floor above that, heading towards JR Osaka station, had Futari BL, DSMBL, R-Type, Under Defeat, Daifukkatsu 1.5, and a few other shooters along with some other 80's-era games set up last time I was in there. All 100yen/play IIRC though. I remember some others in the same area but mostly just racing cabs and UFO catchers I think.