I visited a Taito Game Station (100 YEN per game) in Ueno/Tokyo yesterday afternoon, but there was no one playing ST. So I now have a few questions:
You’ll probably want to message damdai, kuroppi, and nohoho, since they’ve all traveled to Japan and are kind of in-the-know as to where to go, along with which Japanese players speak English in order to help better accomodate you.
Based on this article there are a few places that seem good:
HEY in Akihabara. Only 10yen/play for ST, but there’s only one machine, and it seems to be more of a beat-em-up and schmup place.
Royal in Nakano. 3 H2H setups, 50yen/play, and good competition on Thursdays. The very same place that puts out those Nakano Royal videos.
Gamespot Versus in Nishi-Nippori. East v. West battle on Tuesday all day, and Danisen ranking battles on Saturday. Normal price is 50/play, but on Tuesdays, it’s 50yen/2play, and you play your opponent a 2/3 set. I guess this is a good spot for ST players, since we always see matches of their battles every week on the supersf2turbo YT channel.
Mi-Ka-Do in Takadanobaba 500yen/freeplay on Thursdays starting at 7pm. Normal price is 50yen/play. Lots of strong competition, and Mattsun works there. One of the premiere destinations for ST.
I haven’t heard of an arcade open 24:7.
Now that’s hardcore!
How long will you be in Tokyo? There is a 3 on 3 tournament at Versus on Saturday night (Oct. 27th) that should be worth checking out.
This guide may help you out a bit as well (though it’s not focused on ST).
Everywhere eltrouble said is right on. Kuroppi’s guide is awesome too (go maps!).
When there aren’t gatherings going on at the other places, my favorite was HEY. Hang out there early evening when everyone gets off of work, and you’ll have no shortage of good competition for 10 yen a shot. The arcade is LOADED with good fighters, schmups, music games, driving games…great place.
If you can make it to any of the big events, though, it will be an unforgettable ST experience for you.
All the places I checked out closed at Midnight or 1AM, and in asking Ohayo1234, there aren’t any arcades that stay open 24 hours. However, 7 days a week is applicable to all of the arcades from what I experienced.
So basically stay at the arcade all day and night, hit up the bars, clubs, and karaoke after 12 or 1AM, pass out for about 4 hours in front of Mi-Ka-Do, and then jump in when the doors open? Sounds like an awesome vacation to me.
batting cages instead of sleep!
This one 3s arcade forgot to close. Good owner that guy without this stay open part
Other player’s story about the now gone Shibuya SportsLand, the name of the arcade, think it was. Sleep in the arcade, wakeup play more 3rd Strike! ST could be requested… pop in the board for other games at some arcades just fine, from another story of the hotspot now for 3s, game(spot)versus.
I mean, that thread is a bit old but still very relavent… And honestly, japan isnt that big so if you’re. You might as well stop by the hotspots in the other cities too
Staying in Taito-ku this weekend.
Will check out the Akihabara arcades for sure.
According to the site that Kuroppi linked, I guess I’ll hit up the HEY one the hardest.
Just posting to say thanks.
And now im posting so say that i got bodied hard by a bunch of bisons (vega in this country) at every single arcade in the akihabara area and the big box… sigh
bought a taito card, racked up 0 wins and 34 losses by the end of the day. thats a lot of yen.
double ko’d an A+ level bison (vega) in the arcade as dhalsim after getting bodied by him for >10 runbacks and then he just went afk with the crowd watching us go at it. i bailed and left the card in the machine because i figured they were laughing at me. i was at 0 wins and 34 losses anyway, so why bother keeping it, i thought. yeah its a nice souvenir, but i personally dont care for those material things – the experience was enough for me.
i took rounds off of these top level\pro guys here and there, but overall i just got bodied. hard.
such is life
EDIT - also spent a couple hours playing the 10yen st machine there. there was a bison that me and two japanese guys were taking turns trying to beat. didnt have a chance against him, but some guy ended up beating him a bit later after i left and came back.
100 yen a game x 34 games is quite a bit of change
if you intended to “experience” the brutality of the japanese arcade scene without bleeding your wallet you should go to one of those Wednesday / weekend event where they charge a fixed fee (700 yen?) for freeplay the whole day.
anyway hope you will still have a great time exploring japan in either case
yeah it was a bit of change. im on vacation though and ive got money to spend just like any other tourist. i couldve spent that money buying bus tickets or paying admission to go to temples and shit (which ive done in the past for other places in the area), but i personally prefer giving the money to capcom to let me play against these high level guys in the japanese arcade scene.
partly just to say that i did it – for the nerd points, like a badge of honor.
im not disappointed that i spent the money on all that, really. if i had to choose between spending 3400 yen on a fancy restaurant + a guided tour of tokyo and a bunch of sf4 and st in akihabara and the big box, which has its own historic significance… id prefer the arcades, to be honest.
call me a nerd, i guess…
Best comp, most varied, and most amount of players I played against was at Mikado on a Wednesday night (500yen for the night), followed by the 10yen machine at Hey. This was back in May. Try to hit up Game Versus also if you’re still around for their weekly event. Good luck and have fun.