As promised, please enjoy. Pretty sophisticated, ain’t it?

I was really drawn towards the arcade / CCG games in the arcades I visited in Tokyo. Unfortunately, the language barrier (I must admit that I can’t read a word of Japanese) combined the relatively high cost to start playing one of these games (1000 yen for the starter deck, 200 yen for the arcade card and 200 yen per game, totaling just under 15 dollars or 9 euros for your first game) prevented me from testing them so I just stood and watched.

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On my trip to DiGRA 2007 Conference last week I was able to visit numerous Japanese arcades in Tokyo. I saw some really cool arcade machines: various kinds of music games, networked battlemech action, collectible card / real-time strategy game hybrids (also on sports themes) and those amusement park-type grab yourself a cuddly toy (or a plastic miniature of a foxy teacher - that was a surprise).

Of the music games, i saw Konami’s Bemani line featuring GuitarFreaks V4 (The original Guitar Hero ??), DrumMania V4 and Beatmania and of course Taiko no Tatsujin (of Lost in Translation fame, great also on PS2, allthough you cannot really beat those huge arcade-style taiko drums).
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