Japan Gaming Guide

Few things go together like beer and video games, so imagine our uncontrollable excitement when we heard about Space Station – a new video game bar in Osaka. Yes that’s right – a video game bar. Beer and games at the same time.

Space Station is kitted out with damn near every major console from the 8-bit days through to current-gen machines. Patrons are free to choose from the wide range of games on offer and get some game time in while relaxing with their beverage of choice.

We managed to sample a range of titles – taking in a bit of Final Fight, Bomberman, Golden Axe and rounded the evening off with some round-robin Mortal Kombat. This place is a drinking gamers dream come true. We’d thoroughly recommend checking it out and what’s more, proprietor Matt has generously offered a 100 yen discount to any readers who mention Japan Gaming Guide.

Who can resist Puyo Puyo?   A selection of consoles at the bar     Consoles at the other end of the bar   Some of the retro boxes on display

Current-gen consoles in the comfy corner, with nice big TV 🙂

Gamer Heaven Enjoying some Mortal Kombat   Beer and Games

If you’re thinking of checking it out, here’s a handy map

Living in Japan can be tough, what with the language barrier and the natural disasters. Thankfully, a-Too in Osaka’s Den Den Town has got the language problem covered. Gamers looking for North American, Asian, and international titles should check out their very well-stocked import shelf. They’ve got all the newest releases, like Duke Nukem Forever (at only ¥3,000) and Mortal Kombat, as well as software for portables and older generation systems. There’s even a helpful sign posted to let buyers know which games and consoles are region locked.

If you’re looking to head over, it’s on the west side of Sakai Suji between Nippombashi and Ebisubashi stations. View a map here.

Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle Royale was released in Japanese arcades in February. The game features four-player simultaneous combat in an open arena and plays a lot like the extremely popular Gundam arcade games recently released. The roster features ten initially selectable combatants, with slots for an additional five more. Player data is saved by purchasing the Bana Passport card, which also allows unlockable characters and costumes.

Gameplay is fast and simple, focused mostly on lining up good shots and moving around the arena effectively. The control setup of five buttons and a joystick leaves little room for attack variety and combos, but makes it easy to jump right in and get fighting. Each character has a long-range and a melee attack, as well as a few special moves executed by pressing multiple buttons. Rounding out the offense is throws and holds, the latter allows other players to damage the held player. Blocking and dodging are the means of defense, with counters possible after a successful block. There are no teams, and victory goes to the players with the highest hit points when a knockout occurs.

The game’s visuals are, like its fighting, pretty simple. Not straying far from the source material, characters and arenas are bright and colorful. Unfortunately, this is contrasted with a general lack of detail and bland backgrounds. The special effects are faithful to the series and pretty much all the trademark attacks are present. A host of visual information is present in the heads-up-display, which can be a distraction. In terms of music and sound, there isn’t anything particularly noteworthy, besides the requisite theme song.

For more information, pictures, and videos, visit the game’s website (Japanese).

The Pokemon Center Osaka is located on the 13th floor the Daimaru Building in Umeda, just next to the newly renovated JR Osaka station. It’s packed full of stuffed animals, Pokemon character school supplies, and even a few boxes of cookies. Conspicuously absent? The video games. Only a few DSiLLs are on display, and they offer the latest Pokemon DS games and movies. There is a wide selection of DS cases, however.

On August 4th, the Pokemon Center Osaka played host to a card game workshop. Players brought in their decks and battled it out with each other and the staff. Attendees were also given the opportunity to sit down for a beginner’s guide to the game. Although the majority of the players were in the under-twelve crowd, there were a few older gamers present to take in the competition and drop their cash on the plethora of merchandise available. Of course, the older players came with DSes in hand, and spent most of their time in the virtual world.

The World Hobby Fair came to Osaka on Sunday. The show features both toys and video-games. We got a few pictures and  videos which we’ll be posting over the next few days. Nintendo 3DS was on display as well as Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Patapon 3.

Here’s a selection of pics from the show:

The PS3 lightning edition has just launched, to the great excitement of Final Fantasy fans. Based on the 250GB PS3 slim, the lightning edition comes with a copy of Final Fantasy XIII and features the main character, Lightning, on the console itself.

Japan is Doomed got their hands on one and published pictures of the console for all of us to admire.

The lightning edition goes for a cool 41600 yen, and won’t be available for long so don’t wait too long if you want one.

Mr Met and Phillie Phanatic are all very well, but did you ever see them perform death defying leaps accross vast chasms, all for the sake of collecting a few rings? No, and that’s why Sega bought Sonic and chums allong to the Toshi Taiko baseball tournament. Ai Ai and Amy Rose joined the blue spiky one in leading the cheerleaders. Go, Sonic go!

Here’s an interesting new free to download indie game. Exelinya Burst is a wild score oriented game with tons of enemies and chaotic graphics. A bit like a Llamasoft game, but a lot harder to die. It’s now been translated into English.

[via EngRish Games]

It’s a mini space-invaders bank. You can actually play it too, it takes Y100 coins. What a great way to encourage saving! It has little controls, and even the bands on the screen to make it look like it’s in colour. This costs a mere $60, wonder how much a full size one would be?

[Read]

Raucous game show Tokyo Friend Park 2 is coming to the Wii this month. The range of crazy events make it perfect mini-game fare and sure enough we’ll be able to enjoy such classics as Wall Crash and Hyper Hockey. Coins earned in the games can be traded for darts to throw at the grand finale prize board.

Like most Japanese game shows, Tokyo Friend Park 2 has celebrity contestants rather than ordinary people, so for fans of the show this is their only chance to hurl themselves onto Velcro walls and play hockey against comedians dressed as fish.

[Read]