With Boss Stage Games behind me, there was one other arcade nearby that I had to hit up before I could rest for the day. Like I said last time, I’ve had my eye on Denver’s arcades for years now (if you look through some of my older posts, you can see me mention Denver arcades a few times). This next one is one of the arcades that pushed me into making the trip in the first place.
A small arcade bar on the north side of Denver known only as Akihabara, named after the famous Japanse Akibagahara district. For those who don’t know, Akibagahara is a small area of Tokyo around the Akibagahara Station in Japan. The huge number of electronics shops in that area gave it the nickname “Akihabara Electric Town.”
After an anime called Neon Genesis Evangelion happened, one of the computer stores to the north of the train station decided to start selling figures of a character named Rei. One thing led to another, and soon the entire area around it became flooded with anime stores, maid cafes, video games stores, arcades, and anything else that appealed to that audience. In other words, it’s a shopping haven for otaku.
You could probably guess exactly what sort of arcade this is from the name alone.
The moment you enter, it’s extremely obvious that Akihabara isn’t just a bar using an arcade as a cheap nostalgic gimmick. In Japan, it’s common to advertise new games by hanging posters in arcades. These posters tend to be collectors items that can go for pretty hefty prices on the second-hand market. But here in Akihabara, the arcade’s collection of them is proudly framed on the right wall.
The owner is a huge arcade nerd, and you can tell he built this bar entirely to his tastes. The choice of games, for the most part, all feel very deliberate, with almost no games that feel like they’re only here to pad out the game count. Many of them are the type of games you wouldn’t have heard of unless you’re pretty knowledgeable about Japanese arcade games. (or, at least, a huge fan of CAVE)
The from of the bar was covered in anime posters. It’s bright and clean, complimenting the arcade without stealing attention from the games.
The bartop was covered in even more arcade posters. I’ve been to hundreds of arcades, but this one struck a chord with me in a way that no other arcade I’ve ever seen has. Even someone unfamiliar with arcade games can walk in and tell just how much love was poured into it. There were few compromises made for the general public. The owner wanted his bar to look like this and did it; mainstream be damned.
Of course, any arcade can cover itself with posters. Which kind of games an arcade like this deems worthy of housing?
Let’s start with the right wall. This is where they keep the bigger, more elaborate games that wouldn’t suit a candy cab. Racing games, rhythm games, light gun games. They’re all over here!
Even among these, there are some unusual games mixed in. This is Musical GunGun, a game I haven’t seen since the Round 1 in Philadelphia that I had to leave in a hurry and couldn’t play everything. This game reminds me a bit of Virtua Cop, but with a rhythm game’s timing system. Instead of shooting before the crosshair closes, you have to shoot WHEN the crosshair closes. My only beef with this game is that it was a bit too easy, and the Japanese menus made it hard to tell if there was a harder difficulty.
Kansas City didn’t have it. Las Vegas didn’t have it. The East Coast didn’t have. Chicago had one single-player version. Denver has two double-size Taikomaster machines. Isn’t it weird how Denver has so many machines I rarely see anywhere else? Of course, that’s why I came here in the first place.
So I’ve been slowly playing through all the HotD games at conventions with my friend over the last couple of years. House of the Dead 2 eluded us for the longest time. Finally, they had a Wii running at Metacon and… we couldn’t finish it because we suck and have to credit feed. Finally, we had to meet up at the local Gameworks in Mall of America, bought an hour of playtime, and played through it in the huge sit-down cab. So now I can finally say I’ve played through all the first four HotD games. Now there’s just Scarlet Dawn and… Well, the other one.
Supernova 2! Man, it’s so rare to see DDR at arcade bars, much less any mix that isn’t Extreme. As I’ve said a few times, the western version of Supernova 2 is on the rarer side, especially one that looks like it was upgraded from a past version like this. While I prefer the 4th and 5th mix, Supernova 2 ranks pretty high on my favorites. Shame we don’t have it in the Twin Cities. (Although I do have big news about DDR in the Twin Cities, but I’ll get to that in another post)
Also, check out the old five-key Beatmania off to the side. I wonder if it has some sentimental value to the owner. Or maybe he just got it cheap.
The UFO Catcher feels like it’s mainly here for atmosphere, doesn’t it? The prizes aren’t anything particularly interesting.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the real meat of the arcade: The candy cabs. This is where the arcade shows its unique personality, unlike any I’ve seen before.
First up is Radiant Silvergun, of all things. This game is very well known among shoot-em-up fans for being one of only two arcade shoot-em-ups developed by Treasure. Both of them are regarded as some of the greatest shmups ever made for their beautiful production values and interesting mechanics.
Radiant Silvergun’s main gimmick is that you have seven different weapons you can freely switch between at any time on the fly. For example, one button will fire a straight laser, while another is a wider-spread shot. Pushing multiple buttons at once pulls out the more gimmicky weapons, like a ring of shots that surrounds you and constantly expands and collapses or a melee-range sword that swings by shifting your momentum. This isn’t the first game with a system like this (I think that title goes to Prehistoric Isle), but it’s definitely one of the most well-known.
Of course, if you have heard of this game, it’s probably for the ludicrously expensive Sega Saturn version. The arcade version runs on the STV Sega Titan hardware, which is nearly identical to the Saturn, so it’s the most direct port possible. The only other release of this game was on Xbox Live at one point, which I’m told removes the slowdown in some areas making the game a lot harder. Either way, this game is an indication of things to come in Akihabara.
This is the format a lot of the arcades had. You’d have one pretty obscure title and a more recognizable one next to it. It ended up giving the place some much-needed variety, given the large number of shoot-em-ups and fighting games that were running in the candy cabs (although this image is of Mortal Kombat 3, so it’s not really the best example).
So who was the greatest Japanese arcade shoot-em-up developer? If you ask people, two of the most common answer you’ll get are Treasure and another company called CAVE. While Treasure only had two legendary arcade titles to their name, CAVE had a much more extensive library, releasing new shoot-em-ups nearly every year since 1995 (although they’ve largely shifted to console games in recent years). CAVE’s biggest claim to fame was their extremely difficult bullet hell/danmaku shooters.
This particular one is Muchi Muchi Pork!, a pig-themed bullet hell game with an extremely cute art style. It’s also nowhere near as fanservice-heavy as the marquee would lead you to believe. This game gets pretty crazy with a lot of shit on-screen, but mechanics that take advantage of how much shit’s going on at once. For example, leaving enemy drops on-screen will increase their value, so maximizing your score requires managing when to pick them up while still dodging the nonstop barrage of bullets. There’s also a super attack that requires picking up pig drops to charge, incentivizing the player to move around the field instead of sticking to a safe zone.
While we’re on the subject, I like how much of the original artwork these cabs have. I’m not sure how much of it is actually real and how much is just printed out, but the rare posters make me believe it’s the former. My eyes aren’t sharp enough to stop a fake.
QUICK EDIT: I almost left this photo out completely. They had Super Puzzle Fighter.
Another example of the “Japanese game next to a Western game” setup. Here we have Turtles in Time next to a Japanese Tetris Plus. Tetris Plus isn’t quite as obscure as some of the things they were running here, but if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a version of Tetris where an explorer runs around in the block area, and you have to play Tetris while trying not to murder him with falling blocks. It’s one of the more unique takes on Tetris.
I remember running into this game a few years ago and had no idea what it was. I like to think I’m quite a bit more knowledgeable now, though. Every arcade I visit teaches me new things I didn’t know before, and this arcade got me to do a lot of extra research into Shoot-em-ups. Now I realize how immature I was back then, not being able to recognize one of the most famous danmaku shooters out there.
This game is DoDonPachi DaiOuJou, the third game in the DonPachi series. The first DonPachi game is largely considered to be the game that started the bullet hell genre. It was so successful that it turned CAVE into one of the biggest names in the Shoot-em-up market. I didn’t play it for very long, but I know this version uses a chain system where you get a bonus for mowing down enemies in quick succession.
Here we have the Japanese version of Ghosts and Goblins next to yet another CAVE shooter. A very, very rare one, at that.
This game is Mushihimesama Futari Black Label Another Version (“Bug Princess II” is the localized title). Mushihimesama Futari is a game with quite a few revisions: 1.5, Black Label, and Black Label Another. I won’t get into the exact differences between them, but CAVE fans seem to consider Black Label Another to be the worst version of the four. It was a version made for Asia-region arcades (Japan and the rest of Asia are separate regions, as far as arcade versions go) that tones down the difficulty level in certain areas.
By the way, the game is a standard CAVE shooter where one of the characters flies around on a giant beetle. I remember the screen would get FILLED with bullets sometimes, to the point where you couldn’t even see what was going on anymore. But that’s pretty normal for danmaku shooters, isn’t it?
Last in this row is Mr. Driller, accompanied by Tekken 5. Mr. Driller’s been ported enough that most people know it exists but might not realize it started as an arcade game.
Here we have Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Soul Calibur II. Akihabara has a fighting game room, but I’m not sure how they decide which games go in there and which stay in the main room.
On the left is Super Street Fighter IV.
As soon as I showed that photo of Radiant Silvergun, anyone who knows anything about shmups could have probably guessed they had the game on the right. This is Ikaruga, the other of Treasure’s legendary shoot-em-ups. They had both at Galloping Ghost, but I had to rush through that place because Tom was with me and only gave Ikaruga a brief mention. I’ll elaborate on the game here a bit.
Ikaruga is VERY gimmicky for a shoot-em-up. There are two types of enemies, light and dark, with their own color projectiles. Your ship has both a light and dark mode that dies when hitting the wrong projectile but gains power if you hit an enemy projectile of the same type. Since both projectile types are constantly flying around the screen, the game revolves largely around knowing when to use which mode. Between its strange gameplay and phenomenal graphics presentation, it gained a cult following in the west despite not getting an English release until well into the Gamecube era.
What’s this? Die Hard Arcade? Man, I really love the choice of Western-oriented games here. Owner’s got some serious taste.
Oh man, Puyo Puyo Fever and Monkey Ball! You all know what these games are, right? I don’t have to explain PuyoPuyo, do I? Props on having the original controller for Monkey Ball.
Metal Slug 6 is the very last Metal Slug game released in arcades. Unlike the first five, this one was released on the short-lived Atomiswave hardware instead of the NeoGeo. Which reminds me, they didn’t have a NeoGeo here at all. That’s strange, isn’t it?
I suppose Turtles in Time and Simpsons Arcade are staples of any barcade, even one as Japanese-themed as this one. I don’t think it had four-player mode enabled, though.
The other is DeathSmiles, the last of the CAVE shooters here at Akihabara. This one might be a bit more well-known since it’s one of the few CAVE games to have seen a western home release. Unlike most other CAVE shooters, this one’s a horizontal shooter instead of vertical. As the name suggests, it had a very “Japanese Halloween” ascetic. Of all of the CAVE shooters here, this was the only one that didn’t kick my ass before the end of the second level. I was surprised at how easy it was compared to the others. I’ve heard it ramps way up later.
Dragonball FightersZ, the only candy cab in the store to cost 50 cents instead of a quarter. The reason for that is…
They had a dedicated machine just for this game that they were still getting up and running when I visited. Neat.
Here are two new machines they were still getting set up. On the left is the Sega Megalo 2. Yeah, Japan also had showcase-style machines. This one was released around the same time as the Astro City models. The other is a rare Japanese dedicated NeoGeo machine. I got into a debate with the owner about this one. He says there was one at an arcade in Chicago somewhere, but I sure didn’t see it. If anyone knows if there’s one of these in a public Chicago arcade, let me know. I skimmed through arcades I didn’t get a chance to visit personally and still didn’t see any sign of one. But this does explain the lack of a NeoGeo.
EDIT: I THINK I know which machine he was talking about. There’s a small nickel arcade about an hour west of Chicago that seems to have one. No, it’s not THIS nickel arcade. There are two.
By the way, I looked up which games they have running on this. It’s disappointingly standard stuff like Metal Slug 3 and Magical Drop 3. I was expecting Twinkle Star Sprites, given how much this arcade loves Shoot-em-ups. On the other hand, they’ve also added quite a few new games since I was there. They’ve got goddamn Ninja Baseball Bat Man, Rival Schools, and Pocket Fighter. This place. I swear to god…
Did you think we were done? Hell no. There’s a second room.
Well, there isn’t much to say about this room. It’s entirely dedicated to two-player fighting games set up back-to-back, Japanese style. Games like Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, Darkstalkers, and whatever else you’d imagine would be here. During my visit, they were starting to revamp this room into a console area. The fighting games are still there, just moved further back.
I decided to play some Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. I was starting to get a feel for the single-player mode and how to cheese it when…
…suddenly I find this sniffing my hand. Nobody else seemed to acknowledge this dog was there. Either it’s here often enough that nobody questions it anymore, or it’s a ghost that haunts the arcade.
There you have it. This is Akihabara in Denver. One of the most satisfying arcades I’ve ever been to in my life. Every game felt meticulously chosen to have lots of variety without having any games that feel like they’re just there to take up space. I could sit and play nearly any game here for hours, everything from top-shelf imports like Radiant Silvergun to more standard fare like Crazy Taxi. It even has one of my favorite versions of DDR.
As you know, my highest honor for an arcade is the S-class rating. I’ve only given that honor to three arcades in the past. I don’t give that rating to arcades like this because I feel that the natural chaos of an old arcade with a lineup formed over the course of years makes an arcade truly special. However, I came damn close to throwing out my guidelines completely for this place. Jesus Christ is this a great arcade.
I’ve been to hundreds at this point; objectively speaking, this may be the best. I don’t think I’ll ever see another arcade with such a perfect lineup that keeps finding ways to improve. This is what all modern bar arcades should strive to be! All it would have taken is one Bishibashi, Twinkle Star Sprites, or Point Blank machine to push me over the edge and give it the damn S-class rating, personal standards be damned. Hell, if I had been there after Ninja Baseball Bat Man and Game Tengoku were added, it may have still gotten the S-class.
Well, at the very least, I can give it a personal recommendation. Denver has so many great arcades.
EDIT: I’ve thought about it long and hard over the past two months. This is one of the best arcades I’ve ever been to. Every game in the establishment was carefully chosen. It has a strong, unorthodox theme. It’s full of games you won’t find anywhere else. The staff gave me free soda refills. Love radiates from every inch of the building. I hesitated for a long time because it’s so different than what I normally consider a perfect arcade, but I can’t deny it. This is absolutely an S-class arcade in every sense of the word.
Congratulations Akihabara. I’ve been to over 150 arcades now. You’re the fourth ever to receive my highest honor. If there’s an arcade out there that suits my tastes more, I’d really like to see it.
I mentioned in the last post that I have a passive ability to walk in any direction and stumble upon an arcade. That happened to trigger while I was walking home. I didn’t know Cici’s Pizza still existed.
Back when I lived in Sioux Falls, I didn’t have internet, so I’d often come to eat and mooch off their obscenely fast wi-fi after work. For those who don’t have the pleasure, Cici’s Pizza is a shitty pizza buffet that has shut down most of its locations in recent years. Their food is awful, but I do like their soggy cheese bread. Cici’s Pizza also has a small game room in the back. This isn’t even the first one I’ve visited on this blog.
It’s bigger than I thought it would be, but nothing special. Just some prize machines and Raw Thrills games. The only time I’ve ever found anything worthwhile at a Cici’s Pizza was the first Supernova 2 machine I found during my trip to Kansas City. Kind of hard to believe I went so far out of my way for Supernova 2, but nowadays, I find one sitting in the back of Akihabara, and it’s far from the highlight of the arcade. I sometimes read my old blog post and get surprised at how excited I got to find a machine I’ve seen hundreds of times since. As I said, this trip to Denver was reflective for me.
Gameworks was beautiful for how old and broken down it was. Boss Stage was a small anime store that grew into a major community arcade. Akihabara is a place that reeks of a person’s raw passion. All three of them were great in their way. But I assure you, every arcade I went to in Denver had a different flavor. If you thought Akihabara was nuts, wait until you see what the other arcades have in store. There’s some crazy shit coming up.
