Posts Filed Under: japanland

Today Oxygen Games released a rather disturbing press release, announcing their new game for the Wii, DS, and personal computer entitled Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward.

In addition to it’s “Endless Mode” as seen above, the warning went on to explain, “Hysteria Hospital may cause your blood pressure to shoot sky high” and “may cause you to become over excited and turn you into a bundle of nerves!”

Luckily they make a cream for that.

Tokyo Game Show 2008 gave me the opportunity to travel to Tokyo for the fourth time, but this was the first trip that afforded me the opportunity to hit up Super Potato, Akihabara’s retro super shop. Want to sit on a throne made of Famicom cartridges? Want to buy a thousand dollar copy of Maximum Carnage? Need a PC Engine Shuttle? Official Super Mario World golf shoes? All can be had at Super Potato!

You can also get a copy of the Virtual Cameraman 2 Mega LD for your Mega Drive compliant Pioneer LaserActive.

Why would you want such a thing?

Because it supports the LaserActive 3-D Goggles for hands-free enjoyment. And you’ve got to dust off the LaserActive at some point. A night in with average Japanese bikini models from 1994 is a perfect excuse!

Frankly, there are hundreds of post-worthy nuggets tucked away inside Super Potato. From the copy of Nice Body — “for professional use only” — for the PC Engine to the Atari 2600 games curiously marked up to $25 a pop (must remember to hock our copies next trip) to the looping Kid Icarus soundtrack, there’s so much to see and do, it’s like a vacation within a vacation.

We’ll just leave with this parting shot of Veigues Tactical Gladiator, the TurboGrafx 16 game with the most deliciously phoned-in box art we’ve ever seen.

Previous rumors aside, Mike figured out a way to swindle Kotaku into flying him out to TGS again this year.  I was informed too late to book my own travel arrangements, so I’m completely depressed holding down the fort here in LA.  To make the best of it, I’ve found some local things that may pacify my yearning to be checked into the Cerulean Tower with the rest of the Kotaku crew.

I visited Waraku on Abbot Kinney Blvd. this afternoon.   Not quite the same as shopping in Ginza or Takeshita-dori in Harajuku, but it is definitely a taste.

Speaking about taste, we have an oddly flavored candy, newly introduced in the States, that would give any bizzaro-candy in Japan a run for its money (who am I kidding?  Japan makes burger shaped chocolate-filled cookies called EveryBurger.)  The item I’m referring to is Ice Breakers Iced Tea Lemon flavored mints.  It’s like mainlining a spoonful of Lipton Iced Tea mix.

And with a couple clicks, I was perusing some homegrown videogame cosplay that will tide me over til I get back out to TGS (or Mike posts some of his pic’s).  This anonymous 4chan’er is creating quite simply a masterpiece with his version of Tyrael.

I’ll be hanging out on Sawtelle Blvd. a lot this week, drowning my sorrows in sake if anyone wants to join me.

Looking back, I question some of my decisions, more specifically my choices whether or not to attend certain events.  Like the time I opted not to fly to Boston for Mike’s 30th birthday, or the time I didn’t join Dave and his closest on his three day bachelor party in Vegas.  I come up with logical excuses, like round trip tickets are over $500 now, or I got mid-terms on Monday, or I need to maintain employment.  Fuck that.  These things were once in a lifetime events.

Well, I just had another one of those moments.  My friends Brian Ashcraft and Jean Snow are throwing a release party for their book, Arcade Mania!, right now as I type this.  ¥500 drinks are being served at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro, and music is being spun by Jason DeGroot (6955), whoever the hell that is*, but that’s not the point.  The people attending will be an eclectic mix of American expatriates, witty designers, and local hipsters who all share an interest in something I myself am passionate about: arcade games.  Luckily after they eat at MOS BURGER or Bape Cafe tomorrow, all nursing mild hangovers, they can hop a train headed to Electric Town and play the new Elevator Action game, Street Fighter IV, or the Castlevania arcade game that uses some sort of motion whip controller.

I’ll probably drive around dirty LA this weekend, apartment hunting.  But all the while I’ll be wishing it was Ebisu, Roppongi, or Shibuya.  Congratulations, Brian and Jean!

*I found out a little more about Jason DeGroot.  He makes chiptune music under the name 6955, and coaxes sound out of Famicom consoles.  He’s also part of the team working on the game, Fez.  Currently residing in Montreal with the rest of the development team, he wasn’t at the Arcade Mania launch party, just prepared a mix.

Something you might not know about Meat Bun co-founder Scott is that he has a gift for pachinko. When we visited Akihabara a few years ago, with the above Evangelion promo was running at a pachinko hotspot — no photos allowed inside — his natural ball bearing aiming skills surfaced. We later had his wrists professionally gauged. Both joints have an average suppleness rating of 9.41, practically unheard of in a caucasian.

Sadly, as it appears that Tokyo Game Show is not in my future plans, I’m even more devastated to learn of the release of 24: The Pachislot, recently promoted by Carlos “Tony Almeda” Barnard and bikini model Aki Hoshino in Tokyo to great effect. There’s a PlayStation 2 version coming, but it just won’t be the same without the blaring sounds, the stench of Marlboros and the intense confusion of a pachinko parlor.

At least there’s shitty art.

Having just seen Keifer and Carlos at Comic-Con — this is about as hard as I nerd out, by the way — makes the inaccessibility of 24: The Pachislot that much harder on my being.

Perhaps the most distressing thing about skipping the annual Tokyo trip this year is that no Japanese commuters will find restful slumber upon our shoulders.

Uwe Boll, this is for you: Tenacious D – Cosmic Shame

JB & KG are swooping down and telling you to STOP in the form of this petition. You will never make a video game related movie that looks as good as the upcoming Onechanbara.

Just like the Simple 2000 budget series video game, it is going to be so bad it’s good. Please face it, Uwe, this concept has been elusive at best your entire “career”, and will never be within your grasp.