Game arcades are very popular in Japan amongst people of all ages. We decided to check one out and try some of the games. There are many different types of skill-testers, the games we all know are totally rigged! One that I tried was a cabinet filled with different boxes of Poky (chocolate pretzels) which had big plastic loops attached. You had to manoeuvre a hook up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards to pick up the prize. Each turn cost ￥100 and you had a time limit of 60 seconds. It was pretty fun.
Throughout the arcade are video machines (Mortal Kombat and the like) as well as games that require a bit of effort on your part. Jess and Liam jumped onto the dance machine while Jono and I looked on in awe! Two other games in particular caught our attention, or rather the people playing them did! They were incredible. One machine simulated a drum kit with different colour-coded drums as well as a foot base drum. On the screen was a scrolling blur of colour which related to the different drums you had to hit. The next game simulated a type of keyboard (but with not so many keys). There was a scrolling screen on dots which related to the different buttons to press. This guy's fingers were moving a million miles an hour and his eyes never left the screen. Just crazy.
