all the hustle and bustle of our weekdays, sometimes you need a good book. Being in grad school right now, I am kind of strapped for time. I can't imagine reading some Tolkien, while trying to cram a Consumer Behavior textbook into my brain, but I refuse to stop reading for pleasure. Information is like food for me, although if all I keep eating is these meaty textbooks, botulism will surely ensue. So, I picked up a new book from one of my favorite editors at Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft, who decided to explore the arcade ulture that has held the country of Japan captive for the past 25 years or so. Behold, Arcade Mania! *
To me this book was more than just an "average" book for two reasons: first, I grew up on these cabinets. I can remember being in a bowling league when I was like 8, and in between frames I would run over and watch all the teenagers tearing up Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2. And then when I was in High School I worked at a go-kart park, occassionaly spending a night working the arcade, adding free credits to Killer Instinct and Virtua Fighter cabinets to feed my fighting game hunger. Second, I just got back from Japan in May, and I went to alot of arcades while I was there, so much so, that I would stop mid-chapter sometimes exclaiming "Oh! I have been there!" and continue reading as I walked down memory lane, wishing I was at a Street Fighter IV cabinet in a smokey basement in Akihabara.
For anyone living in the U.S. now, they know the sad state of our Arcades, considering anything mom & pop was pushed out of the market by these Gameworks and Dave & Busters years ago and who inevitabley has done a great disservice to the industry, by filling the floors with dedicated cabinets at $2 per play, while removing all the long standing fighting, adventure, and retro-games that we all know and loved. But this is not the case worldwide, because for all the rhythmically charged, robot flying, card based games existing in Japan now, there is still a calling for all types of games. From shooters to Majhong, in Japan, the arcades have evolved with the people and not only does this book feature historical aspects of the multiple genres that inhabit Japan's arcades, but it also explores the people who have helped create, inspire and prolong this cultural phenomenom. My favorite had to be player 4 "the beast", as I recall gathering around a friends computer back in 2004 to witness Justin Long beating the crap out of this guy ("the beast") only to have his super combo parried 15 times and die taking Shinryuken to the face.
Another great part about this book, was to see how much I had missed. I only spent about 5 days in Tokyo, so there are thousands of Arcades left for me to visit, and if I can see half of them, I will die fulfilled. All in all, this book has been a treat and already has me planning out my next arcade fix, half way around the world.
Thanks for reading.
You can purchase this book at Amazon.com here.
It seems that entire genre of family entertainment (mini-golf, arcades, go-karts, etc.) has fallen by the wayside. Parks like that used to be everywhere, the only one that comes to mind is Mountasia...and that has long since seen its glory days.
ReplyDeleteMany of the games I see now are not the classic fighting, racing, and 1st person shooters of yesteryear. It is almost like arcades now are trying to compete with platform games and are loosing their targeted market. I don't want a super-challenging game in an arcade, especially at $2/pop. I want a game that is semi-easy to advance, at least at first.