Video Tour of Mi-ka-do

Hey, Pherai here from DenjinArcade.com. Here is a short video tour we recorded of Mi-ka-do while in Tokyo. Enjoy!

GRINDIN' JAPAN: SHIOZAWA CUP & SUPER BATTLE OPERA

[ Image courtesy of Tougeki ]

Yo! Finally back in San Francisco now after a three week grind in Japan. I wish I could have updated iPlayWinner more while I was out there but to be honest it's very difficult to sit in front of a computer when all of Japan is right in front of you!

Regardless, I have a lot of updates and news from the trip which I'll cover in this post, and keep an eye out for some new podcasts with some special guests talking about their experiences in Tokyo as well.

POST-GODS GARDEN

After GodsGarden, there weren't any big events to my knowledge until the following Thursday, which was a 5 on 5 Team Tourney for Street Fighter 4 held at BIG BOX Arcade. I'll cover that in a bit, but after Gods Garden and before the team tourney we spent a fair amount of time in arcades playing.

To be honest, I didn't even play as much as I thought I would. There are so many things to see and do in Japan, I felt a bit guilty some days just sitting in front of an arcade cab playing video games. On the other hand, when I was out and about causing trouble in Tokyo, I also felt a bit guilty for not playing more and trying to level up.

Anyway, this week of playing was a bit different for me and somewhat odd to say the least. The reason it was odd is I was actually playing much better when I first showed up in Japan. Initially I couldn't put my finger on why I wasn't playing as well during week two, but after talking to Magus and Lang a bit, I found I wasn't the only one having this issue. Most of us felt like we were capable of playing much better and really didn't understand where the barrrier was coming from.

After giving it some thought, I think it comes down to being over-exposed to the game and seeing so many new tactics from high level players that you want to implement. I think many are under the assumption that you will just show up to Japan and get automatically better. There is some truth to that, but at the end of the day it takes a while to soak in what you are learning and takes even longer to apply it.

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GRINDIN' JAPAN: BIG BOX ARCADE & GODS GARDEN

So I somehow survived the first week here in Japan and still have another week and a half to go. So far the trip has been insanely fun, playing at a number of different arcades trying to boost my BP on my battle card (12k BP with ~55% win percentage). With that being said, it's a bit difficult to update the blog on a daily basis since there is so much going on!

Anywho, as I mentioned in the last post, BIG BOX arcade is the spot for Street Fighter 4 competition so we have been hitting it up on a daily basis, playing some of the best players in the country such as Daigo, Ojisanboy, Bonchan, AC Revenger, Shiro, Nemo, Nuki, Kanbara and Booya. These are just the big names too -- there are just as many solid unnamed players all trying to get their SF4 fix each day as well.

The arcade located on the 6th or so floor of this shopping complex called BIG BOX that has a mix of different shops and attractions on each floor. This is hands down the nicest and largest arcade I've ever seen with virtually every fighting game known to man available to play. It's not just fighting games either -- they have the Gundam games, some crazy Square-Enix RPG game, music games.. the list goes on and on.

The set up for Street Fighter 4 is really nice: a row of 6 head to head cabs, divided up into the "big boys section" and the, well, "scrubs section". The scrub section still has really solid players but I was able to rack up 5-8 win streaks fairly easily. The "big boys section" is a different story though-- I could get a handful of wins here and there but no serious streaks. This is no surprise considering many of the players are ranked top 50 in the country.

My most memorable match at BIG BOX so far was against Daigo, considering I got him to the last round in a 3/5 match. It seemed close to me but truth be told I think he was in control of the match the whole time and could just go into beast mode when he needed a win. This is how it feels against many of the top players here, where even if you are doing well, they can seemingly clutch out a win anytime they need to.

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THE GRIND IN JAPAN: MI-KA-DO FEAT. RIKIMARU

Most of you who follow this site are probably aware of our never ending quest to travel and level up in Street Fighter 4. First it was LA for Super Battle Opera Qualifiers at Denjin Arcade, then it was EVO in Las Vegas. Now we are taking it to the next level: travelling to Japan to grind it out at arcades such as BIG BOX, attending GODS GARDEN (console SFIV event featuring many top Japanese players) and finishing it off with Super Battle Opera. Thanks to our ridiculously fast internet connection at the Sunroute Hotel, I'll be updating this site roughly on a daily basis giving everyone the scoop on what's going down at the arcades here.

MI-KA-DO

After 10 hour flight and three hours finding our way to our hotel in Shinjuku, Magus1234, ThyAllMighty and myself finally settle in before heading out to Mi Ka Do arcade to meet up with Denjin Arcade players Let Blood Run and Pherai. We spend entirely too much money and time figuring out how the train works but once at Mi-Ka-Do we see other players such as Kim1234, Misterbean and Yuuki. It's nice to run with a squad in a foreign county -- hard to imagine doing this solo!

Strolling in, the main attraction at Mi-Ka-Do seems to be Street Fighter 3: Third Strike with a ton of top players such as Rikimaru, Boss, Momochi, Tokura, Youhei, Pierrot, Ruu, Roah and Veaou. I'm well past my prime in Third Strike so I am obviously out of my league, but it's still dope seeing so many of these players I used to endlessly watch on YouTube back in the day.

Not wanting to embarrass myself on the 3s machines, I make my way over to the Street Fighter 4 cabs and soon realize this is not the place for SF4 competition as I rack up a 9 win streak in no time. I'm surprised to be winning at all, fully expecting to get roasted big time -- I am in Japan after all. Apparently the main arcade in the area for SF4 comp is BIG BOX which is right around the corner, but we decide to check it out another day when we have more time.

After a couple more games, Pherai swings by and asks me to help him interview Rikimaru, a top Chun-Li player.

The remaining events of the night aren't really appropriate to post about on this blog (!!), but I'll be back in the next day or two with more updates!

Update on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 12:29AM by haunts

Pherai from Denjin Arcade is updating http://www.denjinarcade.com/ on a dialy basis as well. Check it out!!

Out of Nowhere: SF2: CE tournament

There have been a lot of fighting game tournaments in the Bay Area over the past few months and it seems like more are announced every couple of days. While most of these tournaments are focusing on the big, mainstream titles like SFIV and HD Remix occasionally something unusual pops up. This past Friday, July 24th, I had the opportunity to attend a small, 16 man, Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition tourney. The setup was a genuine old school CE cab planted right in the middle of a Berkeley resident's front yard. 

Pizza, soda, beer and the usual Street Fighter chat were going around, but the focus was all on that glowing CRT monitor. I had somehow forgotten how good the older games actually looked on their intended displays. The colors were bold and the chunky pixels took me back to the arcades I frequented in elementary and middle school. The controls had a familiar clunkiness and bad spots with one side being favorable to the other. When it came down to the start of the tournament it was more than obvious that some in attendance really knew their championship edition. These weren't just SFIV noobs coming out of the closet to try something old, these were people that practice CE to this day on GGPO and come from Super Turbo to represent older, stronger versions of the cast in all their two or three move glory. Guile and Bison were definitely the top tier here, though I did feel like my CE Vega could have stood a better chance with just a bit more practice.

Results:

1. The Unknown (Ryu)
2. Battosai (Guile)
3. Jarrod (Guile and Dictator)

Overall it was a refreshing break from the usual tournament atmosphere and made me wish all video games could be played on authentic hardware in the cool, summer breeze.

ARCADIA MAGAZINE: STREET FIGHTER 4 TIER LIST, TOP JAPANESE ARCADE GAMES

Thanks to VersusCity and SDTEKKEN.com for posting up a ton of new information from the newest Arcadia Magazine (June 2009).

First off, there is the new Street Fighter 4 tier list from Arcadia which is probably the most reputable tier list in Japan at this point. You will see a lot of tier lists floating around but most of them are composed from random Japanese wikis and what not while this comes straight from the players. This is for the arcade version of the game, so no console characters.

S: Sagat
A: Ryu, Akuma, Zangief
B: M.Bison, Rufus, Balrog, C.Viper, E.Honda
C: Abel, El Fuerte, Dhalsim, Chun-li, Blanka
D: Guile, Ken
E: Vega

Personally I find it interesting to see Bison higher than 'Rog and Viper, although Bison is a real hard match up for Viper. Also, why is Chun-Li and Dhalsim rated so low? Not that it matters (except for maybe Guile and Vega), considering that most of us have seen first hand if you master your character in SF4 you can give anyone serious problems.

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LATEST ARCADE RANKINGS FROM ARCADIA MAGAZINE

TEKKEN 6 still going strong in Japan. Not sure why since most Tekken heads here in NorCal think the game is too broken to be taken seriously and are just holding out for Bloodline Rebellion. Good to see Virtua Fighter 5: R at number 3 anyway.

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GOOTECKS.COM: STREET FIGHTER PODCAST

Gootecks posted a couple new Street Fighter Podcast's over the past week or two. A couple new ones from Dudley player Victoly (Vic Vance), Shogo from Denjin Arcade and Yang player KOFiend. A lot of good information in all of these podcast's so set aside an hour or two..or three.. and have a listen!

Gootecks.com Street Fighter Podcast