Second in a series of email reprints.
So I made it out to a video game arcade yesterday
[27 Feb 2005], for the first time since I can remember when, not counting the video games in the basement of URI.
There was an event, Dance Dance Revolution vs. the Tsunami, $20 cover charge, all the video games set to free play, all proceeds go to some tsunami charity. The event was actually cancelled, because the owner lost his lease, his wife left him, and his dad died (actually only one of those caused the cancellation of the event, but he's still depressed about all three). I decided to go check out the arcade anyway, because I heard it had a lot of wierd Japanese import games.
The place actually has only one DDR machine (DDR Extreme, the green one). The whole place had less than maybe ten games. Two DrumMania machines, one GuitarFreaks, one "Pop'n'Music", one that I didn't get the name of and didn't see anyone play, but it seemed to have four nubs above head level and four nubs at, um, normal video game control level, and you had to touch the right nub at the right time with the music. And the crown jewel, the "BeatMania IIDX Red", of which there are only two in this country.
Oh and it had a Street Fighter III machine that looked like it had never been turned on. And a huge couch with a huger TV with about a dozen consoles attached to it.
All the games were set to free play, it was $1/game or $20/all you can play all day long, so we had to try them all out. DrumMania was fun, it had five fake drums on it, and you play drums. The songs come without a drum track, so you literally fill in for the drums.
Leile's review was that she'd come by and give them $20/day if they would only have music besides J-pop on the DrumMania machines.
GuitarFreaks was relatively boring, you press one of three buttons at the end of the guitar (the "frets"), and instead of strumming any strings, you pushed a lever up or down. It had wierd guitar noises it added to the music whenever you did this. GuitarFreaks had two "guitars" attached, and a DrumMania game attached, so that you could have one person playing bass,
one on guitar, and one on drums, three people playing the same song.
BeatMania, which everyone was drooling themselves silly over, did not live up to the hype. There are seven buttons (a row of three above a row of four), and a turntable, little lines go down the screen, press the appropriate button at the appropriate time. Every now and then you had to spin the record player. Somehow I was expecting a keyboard (like a piano-type
keyboard) and that you'd be able to play piano after getting good at this game, but no such luck (maybe there's another game out there?).
I never did try the DDR machine, but there are plenty of those at other arcades, and I've got StepMania+pads so I didn't really care to (and the basement of URI has a DDR Extreme machine, same songs, same thing, but only 50 cents at URI).
The arcade itself was in Woonsocket, RI, where we discovered that there is no decent place to eat within the city borders. The place is an old mill town, economically depressed beyond belief. I was actually surprised when the game place was right downtown, next to a hispanic church that was singing all sorts of songs on that Sunday night, I had expected the arcade
to be on the outskirts of beyond the zones at which strip malls live.
The place itself resembled some guy's living room with a bunch of video games. I think he was trying to run it as such. In fact, the website, www.tokyogameaction.com, is talking about turning it into some form of a membership club. That and all the 14-16 year old kids hanging out there were incredibly nice to us.
Arcade itself 10/10 but not staffed by as many cute girls as Tiffanies
[arcade I used to frequent] (actually only the owner really staffs the place)
GuitarFreaks yawn 4/10
DrumMania cool 8/10, maybe 9/10
BeatMania IIDX Red yawn 5/10, extra points for the snazziness and hype, and that the seat you sit on vibrates in time with the music. (so does much of everything else in the room, but the seat is supposed to)
Pop'n'Music looked boring, didn't play it.
There you go. Unsolicited video game arcade reviews. Thought you guys might be interested if you're interested in the Bemani type games.
