@ratba:

Planet Zero isn't closed. They just had the Tekken 6 American debut Feb 28th. The hours are:

SUN & MON: 6PM-12AM
TUE-THURS: 3PM-12AM
FRI & SAT: 3PM-1AM

If you went recently and the doors were locked it is because they are prepping for Matsuri. I was at last years and it was decent at best, but this year is more focused on the culture and less on just anime. That's why they are having a car show and a drift contest. They are also trying to expand the gaming aspect on a whole.

ese_incoherent

@ese_incoherent: I thought Planet Zero CLosed. Every time I go there during the day its locked... also check you tube to see how "awseome" Animematsuri was last year...

ratba

@Fierfaerie:

Just wanted to throw in there that the anime and gaming event "Anime Matsuri" that is sponsored by Planet Zero will be on the 21st,22nd, and 23rd of this month at the waterway marriott in The Woodlands Texas. There will be a huge gaming room with Japanese sit-down arcade cabinets and other assorted games. They will be holding a tourny for pretty much all the standard fighting games, including Tekken 6. Anyone in the Houston area should definately stop by. Check out www.animematsuri.com for more info. Plus Masuimi Max is going to be there too. For those of you who know who she is, then you already know.

ese_incoherent

I still feel that the arcade scene *CAN* still thrive, but it depends on a few factors:

1. It helps to have a thriving economy, where the country of residence has a monetary value that is worth a damn.

2. It helps to have an upper management staff that emphasizes to a mid and lower management staff to diversify their arcade settings, and to have a more appropriate size of location. Most arcades that I have visited in the past decade were small in comparison to what the 80s had, and since the 90s, the North American arcades were mostly the oft regurgitated mess that were Street Fighter clones, and ho-hum-a-dime-a-dozen-tired-and-never-true games that most people NEVER gave a damn about.

3. Ticket games are nice, but they are too repetitive and operators need remember that with a more diverse setting, you can cater to "ticket chasers", "claw dogs", casual and hardcore gamers of the many genres that would be available. Unfortunately, there are alot of games that are never released in the United States (sans importing) because most operators are not as willing to take a chance on a new genre, which resulted in part for the arcade scene's current depression. I think alot about some of the games I have played World-wide, and thought "Ya know, it's a shame that my friends back home will never get a chance to try this game out!" Then as I live in the United States, I think "Man, I kinda want to play a game, but damn if the games I wanna play aren't in this country!"

The problem that I see with the arcade scene is that the manufacturers haven't figured out a viable way to make the cabinets more affordable (at least come out with a rent to operator strategy that would work.), the operators need to figure out enough games that would intensify the arcade experience (HINT: One of the things that Arcades did well in the past were the ability to have gamers show off their skills in a public setting. Early days of Pac-Man, anyone?), and more often than not, the arcades could find more employees that don't drool on themselves. I walked into a mom and pop last night, and that's exactly what I saw. Sad, I know.

The smaller block arcades need a place back in the scene, so that more competition would take place. A more appropriate pricing structure is needed to attract the gamers of all ages, and the owners need to figure out that "Channel M" does NOT help their cause, especially when you have the customers (and workers) making fun of the music and graphics on the loops mailed to shops monthly.

While there are good arcade shops still out there, the fact that many of the remaining shops are lackluster-at-best concerns enthusiasts of the arcade hobby.

There was a recovery from the first Arcade crash. It will take the industry's end of rehashing boring genres to bring them out of this one. (1.50 for Podracer? ARE YOU SERIOUS?)

Soldier_CLE

@Kounji: I used to work at that arcade; it was called Wonderpark. In its day it was the best arcade in the area. It didn't close entirely because people stopped coming. The truth is that it closed BECAUSE of Dave and Buster's. Apparently Namco had a exclusive contract to be the only arcade in the mall. When the mall allowed D&B to open, they violated that contract. However, Namco decided to settle for a buy-out and closed Wonderpark. As you said, it's quite sad because D&B is aimed at casual players, and they rarely get new games. In fact, I know from employees there that they have a general policy against fighting games, though every D&B seems to have a Tekken 4 and a Street Fighter Ultracade.

It was very sad because not only was it a great arcade, it was also the test ground for Namco USA's arcade division. Wonderpark saw test versions of Tekken 3, Tekken Tag, Soul Calibur, Mr. Driller, and even games that never got released in the US such as Aqua Rush and Dancing Eyes, which was a 3D Qix-like game where the goal was to remove the clothing of a young lady.

To correct you, Wonderpark actually held the Tekken Tag Nationals tournament, not the Tekken 4 tournament. They even flew in players from Japan and Korea, which was unheard of at the time. They ran tournament regularly for other games, too. I remember for Soul Calibur, with the help of "WCMaxi," a Namco USA employee, they ran an entire month of SC tournaments, with about 20 tournaments in total, and all with great prizes.

I guess I took a bit of a nostalgia detour there. I just have a lot of great memories of arcades and the people that would gather there. It's really sad that the days of the arcade are numbered.

Srayer

*still waiting for Tekken Tag 2* :P

hamsterjohn

@reptile168: Uh, those are pathetic reasons for why the arcade scene is dead.

Jest

Now that games like guitar hero and rock band are available at home, arcades are basically dead. Tekken 6 is NOT a reason for me to rush to an arcade.

reptile168

Shame, I just spent my birthday at Gameworks here in the Dallas area last month with some friends. Fun was had by all and one of my friends who is not a big gamer but loves Tekken; played Tekken 5 for the first time and with in the next week proceeded to finally get herself a PS2 and a stack of games including all the past Tekkens. So by all accounts having Tekken 5 there benefited Namco as it brought in money from a consumer who had been out of the gaming scene. Bring it to the states Namco, you wont be sorry!

icarusprime

I was going to say...there AREN'T any arcades left anymore. No wonder Namco doesn't have a US arcade division...

ThisCharmingMan

I remember when they had a namco arcade at the great mall at milpitas,ca. They used to have a lot of the newer stuff at the time. They even hosted the tekken 4 tourny there. Eventually though they got rid of cause people stopped coming. D&B ( Dave and Busters) now has taken over its place. However d&b is big on a lot of casuals, mind you better than the typical arcade now. There are a few golflands that buy the newest cabinets, but they cater a lot of music games and such. It was the first time I saw para para paradise, so I knew they imported a lot. They prolly would have tekken 6 right now, but of course I haven't been there in a long time.

Consoles are cheap enough now to merit owning one of those before you spend twenty bucks a day in an arcade. American arcades would be better if we got the sit down cabinets like the Japanese do, that way you're more prone to sticking around and dropping in quarters my back starts to kill me after awhile.

Kounji

I've been tracking Tekken 6's progress for a while now and I'm not too enthusiastic about how it looks right now. Look up Tekken 6 combo videos on youtube and you'll see that there's a lot of cheap damage in the upcoming sequel. The worst of it is the wall damage, which is compounded by the fact that you can keep bouncing your opponent off the ground and back into the wall for more wall damage and there's nothing they can do about it. There's also the Bound system, where, when you do a move that has bound properties, your opponent can't do anything for a brief period while they're on the ground. The Rage system multiplies the damage on every attack you dish out, though this is only if your health is low. Still, there are a lot of death combos off of rage. Juggling is still an issue in Tekken 6, as well. In the Tekken series, juggling your opponet will actually keep them from dropping to the ground. Some characters, it takes some skill to juggle with, others have it easy. I'd prefer if juggles were like VF or DOA where the opponent keeps dropping, adding a higher level of skill to juggles. I'm still going to play Tekken 6 when it comes out on PS3, but only at my friend's house. I really don't think it's going to be as innovative as they've claimed. The saving grace might be that it supports updates, so the can fix anything about the games that might be broken. We'll see.

Sylar

erm, not all Friday nights, only the first and last of every month. My bad.

Fierfaerie

As mentioned, they have the game here in vancouver at the Metrotown mall. Great Arcade, modeled after Japanese style arcades. They have all the new Sega games (House of the Dead 4, After Burner Climax), and even Mario Kart GP2 as well.

But I wouldn't bother making the trip unless you are truly hardcore about the game. I haven't played it yet, but visually, it looks like a slight update from Tekken 5 (Wasn't even on an HD screen), and the fighting looks, to me eyes at least to be very similar to Tekken 5.

If you come, come to play the Sega games as well, prepare for slight disappointment, or just not worry about it and appreciate the wealth of beautiful women and scenery up here :)

theALLseeingEYE

There are two good arcades in Houston that I know of:
[www.mashharder.com] (the actual website is down) Planet Zero, the one mentioned here. They import a lot of arcades, and they host Anime Matsuri, which I believe was pretty popular down here. I've only been there once, and I was broke, but I've wanted to go back. It's a cool place for the pretty hardcore, imo.
[www.joystixamusements.com] The other place would be Joystix arcade, which is really more of a dealer and located near Minute Maid park. I went to a private party hosted there, but they are apparently open on Friday nights to the public at 15 bucks a head and free play. This arcade is great because it is a throwback to the old days. They focus mainly on pinball machines, and have a lot of great old school stuff. They also had a Pump it Up arcade, which I have never seen before down here.

Fierfaerie

@PHILOSOPHER541: You're going to the wrong arcades, then. In So Cal at least, if you go to an arcade known for fighting games, it's still 25 cents a play.

darthmole12

arcades are not worth it anymore. a dollar a game doesnt pay. its not the same and it will never be again. i miss those old days *sniffle*

PHILOSOPHER541

Fine... they should be able to bring it out for my console that much quicker then.

Tenth

[/SUICIDE]

YUYU

I'm sure there will be Tekken 6 in California, there's a ton of arcades here that still import arcade games.

NoBullet

GODDAMMIT first they get free health care and now this alright Canada this means WAR!!!!!!!!!

MURDERFACE

So its coming to Canada but not USA??? Man I love my Country!!!!!!

kingme

When do we ever get good arcade games? I think Missouri got 1 or 2 Beatmania IIDX machines. Doubt we'll ever see Ju Beat. Or do these cabinets only end up Cali, Florida, and NY?

Liopleurodon

Other than boardwalks at beach towns I don't think I've seen an arcade in America in the last 3 or 4 years. I know about that BARCADE in Brooklyn, but haven't actually gone. Does it really count if you have to be 21+ to go? I mean, I could go, but a real arcade should be a place for kids to go, too, in my opinion. If kids can't go, it's not really an arcade, it's something else. Like a bar with a nice collection of arcade games, for instance. But not an arcade. Oh, Dave & Busters or whatever those places are called... they sort of have arcades inside of them. I wish standalone arcades where kids & adults conglomerate were as common now as they were in the 80s/early-90s. Those place were fun. And I want to play Tekken 6.

baked ham

if arcade machines were still 25c to play, and they threw in some of my fav old time machines like golden axe, some SF2, those awesome SNK/Neogeo machines, and some Off-Road... I'd quit my job and live there. Probably get divorced... But I'm not shelling out 1 buck to play ridge racer!

Derigor

Well after doing some research appearantly the machine costs $32,000, so its not surprising that a company decided to keep the machine away from a country that is is ever more console-oriented. This will be a day 1 pick up for ps3 though

SolidOni_ds

@Soldier_CLE

I used to work at Cyberstation a while ago. The lower management has no clue but I don't think the company can be held accountable for retarded street crews - not entirely anyway.

In my experience, as much as it sucked, the ticket games paid the bills while Tekken, Soul Callibur, DDR, and King of Fighters would be on display for the real gamers. Also, a lot of racing games would make a good ammount of money.

Even so, you could tell arcades were done when the ticket games started to outsell racing games and when even the hardest of hardcore fighting fans would bitch about a game costing 3 tokens. Over in Japan, games average ~$2/play and people pay it, knowing that it's just the price of admission. I guess they foresaw the demise and accepted higher fees whereas in the US, we just saw higher prices and walked away.

Bloodspoor

I call BS on this. Most arcades in America are own or sub-own by Namco. I'm thinking that high volume arcades will be getting Tekken 6.

DarkMan08

@Soldier_CLE: Little hope. Both the Gameworks and D&B around my parts barely update the arcades. Half the arcades available are selections from a decade ago that no one plays.

Part of the failures can probably be attributed to the drive for a more casual market withn the arcade inustry. Around the late 90s-early 00s, most stables were filled with 10k dollar units with light gun shooters and driving games that appealed mostly to the occasional visitors. Thereby, neglecting the diehards and merely appeasing the casuals, which equals bad investments.

The hope right now is that a few Mom & Pop shops are doing ok, and quite a few are springing up every so often and cater to their patrons. As for kids not growing up with arcades, some still although not quite as money, but how many of us can say we grew up with 10cent cokes and quarter hamburgers.

doctorwily

@Soldier_CLE: What's amusing is most of the arcades in NCI are now unmanned. So the broken games factor is multiplied exponentially. NCI basically pulls it revenue out of theaters and Walmarts instead of the arcade scene. There's a store that I visit to help fix the games and the manager does basically the same thing, except with more hair pulling and less wandering eye. It's hard to take pride in a company when they just spit in gamers' eyes. The arcades are based around bulk rather than quality. Perhaps someone will come around and change that, but not likely. Eventually everything will convert into cybercafes where you pay to play on consoles or PC's.

Wulfgang

Ohh we've got an arcade division. Unless Ashcraft knows something I don't. Should I be expecting a call this morning telling me not to go to work. Ohh please tell me it's true!

Wulfgang

How funny that the game is from Namco, being as I blame them in part for Arcade's demise (Well, Namco Cybertainment, anyway...)

Having worked in a reasonably distant past as an Arcade Attendant for Aladdin's Castle, I remembered working around a crazy manager that had one eye looking one way, while another looking towards another, and "fixing" machines by banging a monkey wrench on the PCBs(!). Other attendants would prey on some of the girls that were on average five years younger, and the District and General Managers would have absolutely no clue as to what gamers wanted. (e.g; Pinballs suck... Dance Dance Revolution would never catch on, gamers don't want to move around too much on an arcade machine... Put in a bunch of 16 bit and ticket redemption games, the kids don't care!)

The Namco Cybertainment execs that would visit the location I used to work at a decade ago (Parmatown -- Parma, Ohio) would refuse to take feedback, and would walk around with a pompous attitude, thinking that because they were in their positions that they were the "know all" source of what gamers want.

What they forgot, however, is what made arcades fun. Instead of remembering that games should either be tried and true or cutting-edge, they went with bulk games that were mediocre at best, and often not worth a token, let alone the three or four that they practically demanded.

Add the stale atmosphere (Anyone who remembers the 80s knew that some arcades showed MTV and NOT "Channel M"), the lack of events (Arcade tournaments weren't the only things done in the late 80s, in comparison to today's occasional tournament here and there.), numerous broken machines that seemingly never had ordered parts or proper repair, the failure to come up with a fair and reasonable pricing structure for the games offered, and the failure to innovate the arcade experience to adapt with the times would result in an often undesirable taste in the arcade affectionado's mouth. The arcade experience in most places as of late just doesn't provide the bang for the buck, even if our dollar is worth yesterday's quarter these days.

Sure there are other arcades here and there, but I choose to target Namco Cybertainment not just from my experiences from working there in the past, but also from noting that they were one of the larger arcade companies out there that muscled alot of "mom and pop" out of business. After they drove them out, the lack of competition made the arcade scene stagnant.

Hopefully, places like GameWorks and Dave and Busters will help keep the scene alive in some way, shape or form, but the outlook is not promising, when you have some games costing roughly two-plus dollars a pop.

Too bad most kids will never know the magic that some of us knew when we entered an arcade with four quarters, and a seemingly endless supply of cutting edge and innovative arcade and pinball games that would keep you mesmerized for a couple of hours with original gameplay and then-intricate strategy.

Soldier_CLE

I am pretty sure chinatown fair in nyc will get they always have japanese games there....even though it smells like musty old man there....

JNYCE

I RTFA and all, but couldn't find the address of the Toronto arcade. Someone help?

jeffx

@aphexacid: No edit, just proofread before posting, perhaps, hmm? :P

What about these imported arcade machines? Do you think Namco will get wind of them and start Tekken them away from whichever arcades they're already in?

...aaaaand, end scene.

aelfin

Oh thank you god. Keep your Tekken, crappy fighter. I'm really going to miss it....NOT.

nxp3

shit i get happy when i find Warzaid in an arcade around here (which i can only think of one actual arcade unless i go down to the shore) i didnt expect to see Tekken 6.

pandafresh

"Right now, the arcade version of Tekken 6 loads of places, like NOT AMERICA and NOT AMERICA."

I feel like there's something missing here.

bigman88zz

@awesomerobot: There would have to be American arcades for these machines to not come to.

So sad, but true. There is a rather poor arcade about a half mile from work. I used to go there a lot but lately it's just stunk. Once they got rid of their Marvel vs. Capcom 2 machine, well I lost interest.

The best arcade I ever went to was back in the Saratoga Mall in Wilton NY which closed around 10 years ago. It was there I first played Super Pac-Man, Defender and my only experience with a real original Space Invaders machine. I miss that place.

The death of the arcade is sad. Time for us to learn woodworking and build our own cabinets, I suppose.

battra92

There would have to be American arcades for these machines to not come to.

awesomerobot

it's very sad how people are not into arcades anymore. You can thank xbox live and the lazy couch-potatoes for that.

ChrisLionheart

I gotta say, I've never been a big fan of Tekken or Virtua Fighter.

I think there should be more Rival Schools, though.

Channing

fuck! i meant arent much differnt. edit button kotaku, PLZ

aphexacid

i just watched a gamplay video on youtube. i dont think anyones missing much. the graphics are much different, and it still plays like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5......

aphexacid

theres a tekken 6? i didnt get that memo

aphexacid

Well, at least there's one reason to go to Houston.

Yeah, my parents live there.

mind in rewind

Hmm... Too bad the console killed the arcade in the US. Over here, its pouring with Tekken 6 machines that you get sick and tired of hearing some people shout in the crowd how good they are and how complicated the new bounce comobos are...

Shijirou

@Putter5: But then the only people you can show off to is your friends and your family! You gotta be awesome at the arcade so strangers tape you, put it on youtube with the title "THIS GUY PWNS AT DDR!- I mean, TEKKEN 6!" Then random people clap and high five you cause you know your way around the dance pad- I mean, arcade stick.

cheesecake000

so Tekken 6 wont be here officially, what a shame.
anyway i'll be playing it on my ps3 this fall. or at least thats what i hope.

Maverick_fox

Oh well, I prefer using the D-pad to joystick anyway. Don't hit me D:
I only go to the arcade to play Silent Scope and get asked to leave when I shout, swear and drool too much. Some people.

AnthraxJunkie

Despite how cool I think arcade games are, who in their right mind would pay $1 per game (or $2 here in Canada)? You can rent a game for a week for the price of a few rounds at the arcade.

Putter5

Hard to be surprised, but if that estimate of it coming home "November at the earliest" is true, it sucks eighty dog dicks.

Grave

@dexterr: eedit, buyers who buy imported machines.

dexterr

Sad but not suprising. The US arcade scene is basically dead.

Slashlen

texas has it and what about other arcade buyer who my imported machines. I'm sure little tokyo will have soon one. I went there and they had tekken 5. I also played Lupin the 3rd shooter game with 2 guncon at the same time. but there are some aszhole there who put there coins on the machine who want to play next while im waiting for my turn behind someone to play next. He dressed as lame emo kid, trust me he wore leather pants and other dumb stuff.

dexterr

a moment of silence for our friend.......

freespeech