I see this place mentioned in every single issue of Arcadia magazine, and I'd like to know more about it. Hopefully Yakumo or GaijinPunch will chime in. What is it exactly? Is this a sort of Namco sponsored theme arcade? They seem to hold various events (with tickets offered in various Arcadia contests) and the mascot appears to be a sort of animatronic cat. Am I correct, or is this some kind of indoor amusement park with live shows and whatnot? It's been around since 1996, or so says the logo.
All Namco arcades I've ever seen are pretty sad efforts geared more towards family entertainment than gamers. Sega arcades are the best followed by Taito. Konami and Namco arcades are pretty sad to be honest. saying that I'm sure there must be one good Namco arcade out there. However the BEST arcades are the welthy indie aracdes. We have one in the city where I work. Looks like a shit hole but they always get the latest stuff including BIG systems such as the new Gundam game that you sit in. Yakumo
Here in the States, we still have a few Namco Cyberstation (and other variants) arcades in some select areas. They're relatively decent...clean and maintained for starters. But Namjatown, from what I'm reading, looks like a completely different concept altogether. Seems to be an arcade, but with a huge emphasis on a Disneyworld-style atmosphere (as evidenced by the pics of the mascot cats) and good food. Is there just one Namjatown in Japan, or are these a franchise concept?
Namja Town is in Ikebukuro near the Toyota Amlux and Sunshine City. Its actually located inside this huge mall called the World Import Mart and it occupies ALL of floors 2 and 3. For the most part its a kiddy amusement park. Its seperated into a bunch of different rooms with different themes (all containing the cat mascot). When you pay to get in, you can either pay 300 yen or 3900 yen. The 300 yen just lets you in the door. If you want to go on an attraction, you gotta pay extra cash for that at the attraction. If you pay the 3900 youre good for the whole place for a full day (except for certain attractions that youll have to cough up more cash for). I only paid the 300 yen since I wanted to kill some time while waiting for Toyota to open ^_^ I went on 3 attractions in the ghost themed section, but im assuming theyre all pretty much the same. You go to the attraction, pay the guy, he shows you a bunch of instructions written in Engrish, then he lets you in a door and you do a self guided walk through (no rides that i recall. if there are any rides, they arent that big since space is limited). The haunted ghost section was pretty hillarious, id recommend that. A lot of the other areas were pretty well decorated, but kinda disappointing -- mostly filled with food for sale. There is indeed an arcade inside (3rd floor i think?), but its pretty small, just a room. If youre looking for arcades, Akihabara is a better place to stop by.
:lol: btw. just remember that i bought some namjatown neko cookies back in '98 at the AOU, but never eat them.
FYI, Namco's standing INTI in Shibuya which seemed like a fucking indoor amusement park, is now something else. They actually had live DJs in that place most of the time.
do you mean the namco station across the mandarke? they have some stationary DJ-equipement since almost 10 years now.
Not any more. It's gone. Well, it's something else. Some type of small event hall. The building was a bit big for a game center to be honest.
