Hong Kong and Tokyo November 2011 - Part 11

Hello everyone! We have come to part 11 in this long line of posts from my trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo back in November 2011. Is this never going to end, you ask?
Well, please bear with me for just a little more. We have actually come to one of my favorites, the one I have been looking forward to writing about.
11.11.11 will always be a special date for me. It's on this day that I visited Tokyo Joypolis! I wish I could say that I arrived at 11:11 in the morning, but I think we were at a grocery shop nearby at that time. Dark clouds were gathering above us, and it started raining before we could enter the mall where Joypolis is located. A nice day for some indoor activities!



First of all I must thank gyruss from the DLF forum, who advised me to visit Joypolis. I didn't quite know what to expect before I got there, as I didn't know much about this place. When I look back now, it's one of the best holiday experiences of my life. I hope that doesn't sound sad. Joypolis is just a fantastic place, and every retro gamer deserves a visit!

Here's the picture I took on this rainy morning..

And here's the Google street view, for those of you who want to know where it is located.


View Larger Map


It wasn't really obvious where to enter when we arrived at the building, so my wife and I evidently got into the wrong entrance. We ended up in a neighbouring mall, which also had a little arcade. All the games looked like they were in good condition, but we didn't test any of them. I just took some pictures before we continued looking for Joypolis.

Super Bishi Bashi Champ. I wish I had tested this. I found a random YouTube video, and it looks absolutely great! I just recently learned about this game series on the DLF forum. Why oh why didn't I give it a 100 yen coin?

Nice SEGA Blast City cabinets.

Bakugan

It looks brand new! I should have taken this home with me.

I'm not a hundred percent sure what this is, as I can't read Japanese. Any tips?

Very nice kiddy ride. Only in Japan.

We went trough what looked like an emergency exit, down some stairs, and there we were! Joypolis!

We still didn't really know what to expect. Should we buy tickets? Would it be worth it? Would we stay here for more than a couple of hours? Luckily, we decided to go for it. It's got to be the best decision I made on the entire trip!

OK, now we just got to make sure that we are tall enough to enter.. PASSED!

The doors are opening for us, and the Sega doormat is welcoming us into this magical place.

..and here we were! I was still a bit confused. What was this place? All I could see was a bunch of escalators on the left, some woman who appeared to give away lucky draw tickets and what looked like an entrance to a roller coaster on the right.

We continued into the back of the ground floor, where they had some storage boxes for clothes and valuables. There were also some crazy large cranes letting people pretend that they were going snowboarding (or skating) in a halfpipe. That's enough to make me dizzy, but it was fun to watch.

Further in was a collection of cute games. To be honest (and maybe not so politically correct), they looked like they were targeting girls. At least they were more suitable for little kids than adults. Come to think of it, maybe the whole building is intended for kids? It doesn't matter! I felt right at home!

It's Pac-Man tournament again!

Some sort of dare game from Namco.

I actually played this redemption machine. You're supposed to toss the food in the pan through the yellow hoop. I think it was meatballs. I just managed to get 6, but you need 15 to get a prize.

Let's Go Bus is a... bus simulator for kids!

We stopped in front of this odd game. It's like a combination of LEGO and Tetris. The large screen in the background of the playfield shows the patterns you need to build, and you have to do it before the timer reaches zero. You can see a video of it here. And there you can also look at other Joypolis activities.

Continuing on our round, we saw a bunch of cranes and skill games. Unlike most of the other locations, these had prizes that we actually wanted to win. More about that later. :-)

Just under the stairs leading up to the first floor were Let's Go Island 3D and Elevator Action.

But then we saw something which looked too tempting to pass. Initial D with real cars on hydraulic movement! I had some vague memories of having seen this pictured on the internet, but I never knew where it was. Of course I had to test it. Numerous times!

The feeling is absolutely great! The game is projected on a large screen covering most of your field of view from the driver's seat. You use the steering wheel, pedals and gear shifter from the real car. The only moot point was that we couldn't compete against each other, only against the computer. Really, that's the only thing that could have made this better. That, and maybe if they projected the screen onto the windshield somehow.

I think we came back to this 5-6 times throughout the day, it was that nice. Now I'm just hoping that someone makes the same stuff with Outrun 2. With real Ferraris, of course!

The blue car had some technical issues that day, so we had to fight over who got the yellow one. The white Toyota is an icon from Initial D, but in all fairness it doesn't look that great compared to the two sportier cars.

OK, just one more picture before we continue!

We had already seen After Burner Climax in Akihabara. The first time I saw it was actually on a trip to Greece in 2010. It's a very nice game, but I'm not that into flight simulators.

Joypolis' ground floor also had a mini cinema, showing a 3D movie starring Sonic the Hedgehog. The night of the werehog! It was a nice break from the gaming, and very entertaining.

I actually recorded the whole movie from a TV screen outside the theater, but then when I was uploading it to YouTube I found that someone had a better version online already. So I present to you The night of the werehog!



My wife and I have been enjoying Mario Kart both in the arcades and on the Nintendo Wii. We were thrilled when we found out that a similar Sonic game was coming out, and we've been playing Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing a lot on the XBox 360. Joypolis has the arcade version! I wish I could find it in more locations, because it's really great!

Again, they wouldn't sell me this poster. I want one! If you have a clue where to buy it, please contact me.

We have almost come to the end of the ground floor. What we haven't looked at is the shop near the exit. They sell all kinds of Sonic gear, and also some Joypolis specific goods.

There were stamp stations spread out all over Joypolis. You could pick up a card and collect stamps from Sonic, Amy, Tails and the rest of the gang.

Again, it may be a bit childish and intended for school kids, but I was happy to collect all five stamps. It's a nice memory, far better than any postcard.

As I mentioned, the redemption area had a nice selection of Sonic and Sega related memorabilia. OK, mostly Sonic. It would be nice to also see some of Sega's other characters and franchises, but I understand that Sonic is their main mascot. I'm just saying that I would never have left if they were giving out Shenmue figurines. Most of the stuff was branded with Sonic's 20th anniversary.

Again, I'm a sucker for these plastic bags. They are obviously meant for people who win stuff. And I did win some stuff! It's just that I took some extra bags home with me.
By the way, if you're a Sonic or Sega collector and want one, please leave a message.

I don't exactly remember how it happened, but we participated in a little prize give away and got some tickets. And some of those gave 2 for 1 when purchasing tokens. This was a stroke of luck! I had a go at a redemption game where you could win limited edition Sonic figurines. I later learned that these are only available at Joypolis, and quite rare. The game was a metal hand which tried to lift the prize off a pole. With accurate timing you could place the hand so that it got into a plastic ring holding the prize up. You also had to get the placement really precise, or the hand wouldn't be strong enough.

I did it! I won one of those plastic figurines that you see in the back of this picture! I had to make sure that the box wasn't damaged on the long flight home, so I made another box from thick cardboard to cover it. The box and the figurine are still in perfect condition, and I am one happy winner.

Moving up from the ground floor, we have come to an area with redemption games, where we competed to win various halloween items. My wife won some kind of head band, and I think we also got some pencil erasers.

The third floor had some great games. Here we have Taiko Drum Master (AGAIN!), with Rambo in the background.

One of the great games at Joypolis was their special version of House of the Dead 4. They had closed booths with projection screens both in front and behind of the players. It brought an extra level of realism to the game when you looked back and forth to search for zombies.

The same goes for Let's Go Jungle Special. I absolutely love these shooters from Sega, and so does my wife. There were lots of people lining up before House of the Dead, but we managed to play both games a lot of times before the evening came to an end.

Jumping a bit from game to game.. House of the Dead, Let's Go and Rambo were in the same area, so we're just looking a bit around.

A very nice display piece! Who wouldn't love to have this in their game room? Unfortunately, I've never seen this outside of Joypolis.

Instructions

Game booths for House of the Dead 4.

There weren't many of them, so we had to wait for some minutes before we were let in.

I mentioned that I had recorded the Sonic 3D movie. I also took the chance to record the instructions for Let's Go. They were showing this on a monitor as we were waiting to get it. The movie shows the booths and the gameplay, so it's well worth a watch. Sadly I couldn't get the sound, just the ambient noise from Joypolis.


Those innovative Japanese! I guess we have all grown accustomed to sports games on Wii and Playstation, but Joypolis took it to the next level with this multiplayer running game.

It's a difficult decision. Do I step forward and take a nice picture (and at the same time look like a gaijin pig)? I decided not to, so the pictures of the girls running aren't all that good.

The Hummer game was obviously popular with couples. Four groups competed against each other. I am happy to say that my wife and I were the winners.

Now here's something I wish I had tried. If only I weren't such a chicken! Storm-G is not for the faint of heart. I think I get sick too easily for this. It spins more than a roller coaster. But it looks fantastic! If I could have done two things differently this day, it must be to try this and Bishi Bashi.
I found a random YouTube video, please take a look. If not, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Continuing around on the third floor, we came to an area with jumbo coin pushers. There's more than enough of really fantastic things to do at Joypolis, so we skipped these. But they look nice.

Here's a selection of Sonic tokens. There were two different types with different values. Some were used for the redemption games where we could win halloween prizes, and some were used on the other games.

Again, Sega makes the best posters! I've been looking for this one on eBay for quite some time now, but no luck. If anyone knows where to buy it, please leave me a message!

We went out to eat (curry and rice again) in the neighbor mall, and at the same time visited a famous retro arcade. More about that in the next post.
Anyway, when we returned we came to this Shooting Attraction. To be honest, this was one of the few disappointments Joypolis offered this day. It was a mix between your typical laser shooting game and Area 51, and it was over almost before we had started.

Here's some more rides we didn't test, Wild River and Wild Jungle.

A nice view down on the ground floor entrance area.

What's this? Tetris?

No, it's GIANT Tetris!

Joypolis also had its own restaurant, but we didn't discover that until after we had eaten. Just next to the seating area they had the huge Tetris, but also small redemption pinball games.

There were also some older games in Naomi cabinets. Lupin and Typing of the Dead (remember this one from the Dreamcast?)

..and Puyo Puyo plus Tetris. I love Puyo Puyo, but there's so much else to play here at Joypolis that I rather saved my tokens.

Just next to the Shooting Attraction was this cinema. That was also a bit less impressive than the rest of Joypolis' offerings, but it was nice to sit down and relax for a couple of minutes. Am I getting old? Yes!

Another nice view from the third floor down

Coming down again, of course we had to give Initial D just one more go!

..and one more game before we say goodbye.

As we were leaving through the shop area, we saw signatures from celebrities who had been here before us. Even Michael Jackson! Having seen his arcade collection on auction, this must be right up his alley.

That's it from Joypolis! We stayed here for the whole day, practically until there were no-one left and the place closed. It was a fantastic experience, and one that I wouldn't trade for anything.
I wish that I can go there again sometime, and I recommend it to anyone who is visiting Japan. It's just a great place. As I said, 11.11.11 is a date I will never forget.