April 11, 2005 - Every major metropolis in the world has their own "spot". In New York City, it's Times Square and the 42nd street area. In Toronto, you should look no further than Yonge and Dundas for all the action. Tokyo is no different. If you want your fun and entertainment, you got to travel to places like Shibuya, Roppongi and most importantly, Shinjuku. Highlighted by the busiest train station in the entire world (over 2 freakin' million people pass through this station every day), Shinjuku is the Mecca for business and pleasure in the Tokyo area. There are tons of restaurants in the area, and Kabuki-cho is infamous for being the hottest red light district in the city. Not surprisingly, it's also home to one of the most packed and well-known arcades around.

Formerly known as Nishi Sportsland, during the summer the old arcade got a facelift, and is officially part of the Club Sega line of game centers that dot the country. Dubbed Club Sega Nishiguchi Shinjuku (insert 'mouthful' joke here), the arcade itself is a three floor bonanza of games, featuring people from all walks of life, and of course, who dig different games. The main draw to this particular arcade is that it has a reputation of being the breeding ground for some of the top players in the entire city. Due to the sheer size of Shinjuku, countless people flood this arcade every day, so you can expect that the level of competition here far exceeds that of other arcades. Basically, if you can't keep up, don't step up.

Like the Hirose Entertainment Center that we covered a couple of weeks ago, Nishiguchi Shinjuku features a line of UFO Catcher machines for those lovely schoolgirls to try their hand at. Also featured on the main floor is an area dedicated to electronic Mahjong, Pachinko and slot machines. They also have driving and light gun games, such as Time Crisis, Initial D and Outrun 2. The oddest game that you can check out here is definitely the Hajime no Ippo game. Based on the popular manga and anime series, Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting features a real-life dummy target and one boxing glove. So what's the point of the game? To punch the holy hell out of the dummy to score the highest point total, which is based on speed and impact.


Heading to the second floor of the arcade brought about some pretty cool surprises for us. We were lucky enough to check out a tournament in progress for the new Sega card game, Sangokushi Taisen. One of the best things about Japanese arcades is the competition that they breed in just about any game, be it an ancient title like Vampire Savior or a new title like Sangokushi. Even on this sunny Tuesday morning, there was quite a lineup for the game, with eager participants waiting their turn at the machine. We're not too sure about how a game like Sangokushi Taisen can work in a tournament format, but it seemed to be working just fine.