I love arcades. I always have. I go to Butlins with my family every year and you will find me in the arcades wasting my parents’ (or on more recent occasions my own) hard-earned money trying to win a Princess Anna plushie that I know the machine will not let me have. Fortunately for me, (but not my bank account) Japan was full of arcades, but the best were obviously in Akihabara, a self-proclaimed gamer’s paradise, as it had all the things I could ever dream of.
Most arcades started with claw machines on the first few floors. However, unlike Butlins, they actually housed not only Princess Anna merch but also other things I would actually want to spend my money on such as Morgana and Kizuna AI plushies.
Similarly to other arcades, they are borderline impossible to win but somehow you would always see someone who had won and it was never me. I came close several times but the staff seem to notice and move your prize into a ‘more helpful’ position which really makes it ten times harder and you end up wasting so much more money.
Capsule machines in the arcades were also something I enjoyed. They were scattered around every floor and had a wide range of prizes. Obviously, my first pick were Attack on Titan keyrings because who doesn’t want a chibi Levi on their keys. The only problem is that the odds are rather low. The capsule balls are so large that there are probably only one of each prize in the small machines so the chances of actually getting something you want are smaller than you would imagine. However, the adrenaline rush is still there and you still get a prize at the end of it so who cares if you accidentally spend thousands of yen trying to get a Levi and never succeeding?
Further up, above the claw machines, there were floors filled with rhythm games, a personal favourite of mine. As a child, I played Taiko no Tatsujin on Nintendo DS which has recently been released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The game is basically just a large taiko drum and you have to hit the correct part of the drum (or controller) at the correct time to earn points and keep a combo going.
The Taiko machines were definitely where we spent the most money in the arcades because it’s just so addicting. Depending on where you are the price and number of plays varied and we found the perfect mid-point in Akihabara. What added to the already perfect setup was that we had four songs we constantly played, so with the two songs per 200 yen, we would play two times and feel fulfilled. In fact, we played so often that we actually got blisters on our hands from the drumsticks. We were just that dedicated to perfecting Guren no Yumiya for Levi.
On these floors were also sometimes Mario Kart machines. I thought it was pretty pointless paying for it because I have Mario Kart at home but, according to Matthew, it’s supposedly different. I disagree, the only difference I noticed was coincidentally you could play as Don-chan from Taiko no Tatsujin. However, something I did enjoy about it was the face filter photos which followed your kart around.
On one occasion we stumbled upon the smoking floor which was totally alien to us. It was full of real gambling machines like horse racing and slot machines and I’m not about that life. We made the most of it, though, by playing Poyo Poyo Tetris which I had never heard of. Obviously, I was a natural as I was playing for quite a while before the game decided I was too good and for some reason just ended my game.
All in all, I would rate Akihabara arcades a 4 out of 5 because, although they are the best arcades I’ve ever been to, I really can’t get my head around the idea of smoking indoors? It’s such a health and fire hazard; I just don’t get it. Also unhappy with not achieving plushie Kizuna AI booty as the staff don’t understand that I want it, and so move it to a more difficult position.
The Wandering NPCs 