Recent visit to a mall arcade.

[gamevet]

I was shopping at a nearby mall, for those all important Christmas gifts and decided to drop by the arcade. I had'nt been to one in months.


Most of the games up front, were the typical DDR, Drum Mania and such, but in the back of the arcade, they had a bunch of Sega VS. machines, with games like Tekken 4, Capcom VS. SNK 2, Marvel VS. Capcom 2 and several other great arcade fighters. I don't know if many of you have played the VS. machines, from Japan, but I love the concept of those machines. I'm playing a few rounds of Capcom VS. SNK 2 and was handling the computer players with ease. Then along comes an unseen challenger from the other side. I'm doing okay with my Street Fighter lineup of Ryu, Ken and Blanka, but this guy is kicking my ass with this one character from (I believe) King of Fighters. His tornado attacks are almost impossible for me to get past. I've never really played that many SNK fighters and this was one tough character. Needless to say the experience was pretty cool.


I feel more US arcades, need to have units like these Sega VS. cabinets. They are a pretty cool way to challenge a player, without having to bump elbows and shoulders while playing.

[The Ampersand]

I'm pretty lucky as I live pretty close to Arario Arcade which has MvC2, CvS2, 3S, Tekken 4, and DDRMAX2. The manager is awesome, and keeps extremely good care of the machines.

[gamevet]

That's good to hear!

While this arcade had some great titles, in those VS. cabinets, the games up front were looking pretty worn. Drum Mania had one stick missing. Sega's sequel to Top Skater had your skater turning in circles to the left and Star Wars Trilogy took my token.


I about had enough of that arcade, until I played those Japanese games in the back. They had a couple of Psiyko shooters back there also and I played a game of Dragon Blaze(?). What was cool about the VS. arcade cabinets, is that you sat down in front of the game. They had about 5 of them lined up in a row. On the other side of the row, is the exact same game. If another player puts a token in, he can challenge you. You can't see the person your playing against, until you get up and walk around to the other side. It's a great idea and leads to more people wanting to challenge other players. You don't have to listen to trash talk, if you're a young kid you don't have to worry about getting your ass kicked for real and there's no elbows rubbing into eachother. A great idea from Japan, that is not very often featured in arcades of the US.


I'm hoping more of the US arcades pick up on these great Japanese units. It could only help to make the arcades a better place to play, than at home.

[negitoro]

Originally posted by gamevet
I don't know if many of you have played the VS. machines, from Japan, but I love the concept of those machines.

VS cabinets rule all. I can't believe the US is slow on the uptake with these things. It's bad enough squeezing in with people in Asia when they're relatively skinny and what not... but in America, people are not only bigger, I feel there are a disproportionate number of absolute freaks who play with their whole body (effectively body checking you everytime they fireball), guys who spread their elbows all the way out and hold their joystick from the top and guys, etc...