ODAIBA |
Location: 4/F of Seaside Mall in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan Report by John Our roving reporter John first reviewed Itchome Shopping Street in Odaiba a year ago. Now he returns to see what's new and how the games have stood up since his last visit. During the Chinese New Year holidays in February 2013, I visited Tokyo with my wife on our leisure trip. On day two, after leaving Toy Sapiens, we continued to our fourth and final pinball location of the day - Odaiba Itchome Shopping Street. This is my 'must-go' pinball location each time I visit Tokyo, since it the single location in the city with the greatest number of pinballs. In addition, my wife can go to her favourite fashion shops while I am playing pinball. We arrived at the Seaside Mall in Odaiba in the evening.
There was a total of ten pinballs and a mini-golf game:
This time, I found two new machines: a Grand Prix (Williams,1976) and Hook (Data East, 1992). I first saw Grand Prix when I was a child and of course my memory of it is quite vague. As for Hook, I had only ever seen one in a YouTube video. Other than these two, I of course played my lovely pinball Big Hit. Unfortunately, the flippers were quite weak and therefore I could not get either a high score or a replay this time. Other than pinballs, I also spent some time playing the video games Donkey Kong, Operation Wolf, and Super Hang-On. These last two were famous games of the late 1980s when I was a secondary school student.
This time, I found that there was a larger number of games than last time I visited in early 2012. The Odaiba Itchome Shopping Street is a definitely fun place for everyone, whether you are a pinball lover or not. We left around 8pm, and then took a onsen bath at the Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari in Odaiba.
Finally, day two of this trip ended at 10:00pm. There hasn't been much change since my last visit in February 2013. Only one new machine - a Satin Doll - has been introduced into this centre during the past eighteen months.
There was a total eleven pinballs, as follows:
All of the machines were kept in conditions ranging from good to average. It is still a paradise for pinball lovers like me, and I stayed there for around two hours. Here is some additional information about Retro Game Centre at Odaiba Itchome Shopping Street:
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