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"I've always wondered what it would be like to feel like a kid again. Now I know." This was one of the first things I said along with, "Sweet!" and, "Oh shi-" upon entering what I believe to be the largest arcade I've ever been in. Off in the distance, I could see a racing section with virtual motorcycles and cars. To my right I could see imported fighting games. Up above, I could see that there were more games upstairs. Hot damn, I was excited. I realize this post isn't my standard review, but it's an account of arcade gaming which is something I rarely get to do. A friend prompted me to give an account of my arcade experience, so I will do so here.

Despite this being the largest arcade I've been in, it was also one of the strangest. I mean, how many arcades that you know of have a bar? Then again, how many arcades do you know of, period? Probably not many unfortunately. Regardless, there was a wide variety of stuff to play. There were common arcade staples like DDR and Time Crisis, but there were some games you rarely see in arcades like a 4 machine-linked Outrun 2 SP Special Deluxe (with 2 driver seats in each vehicle) and imports like Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. The arcade also had a wide array of games for both more casual and more hardcore players. The idea is clearly to appeal to all crowds, but it still seems odd to have something as casual as virtual bowling just a few steps away from something as hardcore as Street Fighter IV. Despite being a big fan of Street Fighter IV and an even bigger fan of Initial D, I have to say the game I was most impressed with was the linked Outrun 2.

The machine has an excellent design for group play. There are 4 "cars" that are all linked together for multiplayer. Each car has two seats, each with a full set of gas and brake pedals, a steering wheel, and a shifter. Sounds pretty beastly, right? It is, and if you're curious as to what it looks like, you can give a quick glance here at Segaarcade.com. The idea is that, when 2 people are in one car, if a person crashes or clears a stage, control will be switched over to the other player. Think of a weird Mario Kart Double Dash where you can't switch out at will... only replace Nintendo characters with Ferrari vehicles... and instead of merely finding it decent, I absolutely loved this game. Each of the cars has some amount of motion included as well, so when you turn your in-game car to the right, your car will tilt a bit accordingly. It's certainly not an accurate motion "simulator", but it does add something. As for the spectator, each of the cars in the machine has a camera to the left of the wheel that will record the faces of the "riders" of each car. It won't distract the player, and it's a fun addition for the spectator. This is truly a very well designed arcade machine. Of course, because of all these neat features, it has to be insanely expensive. I tried to look for prices online, but after a few minutes with no results, I came to the conclusion that I probably don't want to know the price.

Moving away from the driving section, let's talk about the shooters. I'm going to talk about one in particular, since I doubt I'll be seeing it anywhere else, that being The House of the Dead 4: Special. We all know what the House of the Dead is... so what makes a "special edition?" How about having the players strapped in to a roller-coaster-like seat that spins you around so you can shoot at enemies that are pursuing you from behind? Awesome. Otherwise you've got classic shooter gameplay. The hero and heroine step out of JCpenney's and into a zombie apocalypse. Okay, I stole the JCpenney's thing from my friend, Carlos, who I played with, but he's onto something. Seriously, look! Particularly the girl, what's with that scarf? Still, the game was awesome, but it was clearly a "date game." I found out that I have a 68% compatibility with Carlos. Our characters hugged. Maybe the game heard me when I yelled, "I love you, bro!" Yeah, my sincerest apologies to Carlos, I was pretty obnoxious when I played, but it seemed obligatory given the circumstances. At least I don't think I was as obnoxious as the attendant who yelled, "Welcome to CarnEvil!" upon our starting the game. Oh well, it's all in good fun. My only problem with the game was that I had some serious issues throwing grenades. You're supposed to press and hold down a button on the light gun, the idea being the longer you hold it, the farther you throw it. Unfortunately, I would continuously just tap the button because I didn't want to throw the grenade very far. Apparently it wasn't enough to warrant throwing the grenade to just tap the button. Can't we go back to the really old school method of just shooting the grenade on-screen?

These are some good examples of what I like about arcades. For one, there is no home version of House of the Dead 4, but even if there was, you'd never get to play like you would in this scenario. Outrun is an even better example in my opinion. Home versions of the game are still fun, but you can't help but feel a little disappointed when you play the home version after playing that beast in an arcade setting. Even games that don't have super advanced cabinets have a certain feel to them that can't be matched at home. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of Street Fighter competition this time, but I think it just wasn't a night for the SF crowd. I could probably go on forever about this arcade, so I think I'll stop it here. There was a lot of good about this place, but unfortunately there were a few minor problems. One of the SF IV cabinets had a faulty fierce punch. It's bad enough to have any buttons being faulty on a pricey import like SF IV, but fierce punch? That renders Ken unplayable. If only you could disable fierce punch in online matches... There were a few other machines that were out of commission, but such is the nature of an arcade. My biggest problem with the place is that it's a 2-hour drive one-way to get to it. I wish arcades weren't dead and were still around. Oh well, I guess I'll have to accept that people would much prefer playing WoW or other online games. I guess at least with WoW, you don't have to keep putting money into it if you want to keep playing.

Oh... wait...

That's all for now, so until next time, Game Over.